Starfield Took Inspiration from Red Dead Redemption 2’s Immersion, Director Says

Bethesda Game Studios RPG have a very particular identity, and though different properties transport players to different locations with their own unique experiences, the studio’s DNA is prominent in each of its games. That is, of course, going to be the case in the upcoming Starfield as well, but as BGS’ first new IP in 25 years and as its first ever sci-fi game, did the studio also look at other similar games for inspiration- like Mass Effect and No Man’s Sky, maybe?

Starfield director Todd Howard was recently asked that question in an interview with IGN, and interestingly enough, he said that though there are obvious similarities to point to given Starfield’s sci-fi setting, the game that Bethesda Game Studios looked to more than the aforementioned pair was Rockstar’s 2018 open world Wild West epic Red Dead Redemption 2. According to Howard, similar to Red Dead 2, Starfield focuses on transporting players and fully immersive them in its world, in order to allow them to live out its “science fiction explorer fantasy”.

“Well, clearly, those are the games that are science fiction that I think you might look at [and say], ‘okay, this is science fiction, it’s like that,'” Howard said when asked about Mass Effect and No Man’s Sky. “I think the minute-to-minute [gameplay], obviously on the ground, it has similarities to Elder Scrolls and Fallout and the things that we’ve made and how it feels in your hands, some certain mechanics.

“Believe it or not, it’s the games that put you in a world, that transport you to a place,” he said. “So I think it probably has more of a feeling of like Red Dead 2. Like I’m living the Western fantasy. So in this, you are living this science fiction explorer fantasy. Sometimes that’s being on a barren planet, and nothing is going on, and all that. So for me, it’s the games where I feel I am rooted in the reality of this universe of the game, and everything else kind of disappears.”

Of course, as a systems- and choice-driven RPG, Starfield’s core gameplay loop is going to be not too similar to Red Dead Redemption 2, though Bethesda looking at Rockstar’s game as far as the immersion of its open world is concerned is definitely cause for optimism. It also isn’t the first time a major open world game has taken cues from the Western, with Nintendo having explicitly mentioned it as a source of inspiration for The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom after it was first confirmed to be in development.

Starfield is due out on September 6 for Xbox Series X/S and PC. It will run at 4K/30 FPS on Xbox Series X and at 1440p/30 FPS on Xbox Series S. You can also check out its PC requirements through here.