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With Starfield, Bethesda has the opportunity to reinvent its gameplay wheel. While it is lauded for world design in its Elder Scrolls games, the more material gameplay elements in these titles often feel lackluster.
Thankfully, the developers have previously shown the tack to take inspiration from other franchises to polish the gameplay to industry standards. The best example is Fallout 4, which quite literally took third-party help from id software to make its gunplay more fun.
With Starfield, on the other hand, Bethesda has a fresh start with a new IP. The backdrop of NASA-punk futurism also introduces the possibility of several new gameplay mechanics.
Be it gravity guns, hi-tech maneuvers, survival on an alien planet, or spaceship customization, there is a great treasury of game mechanics that can benefit Bethesda.
Five third-party game mechanics that would fit the world of Starfield well
1) Starsector - modular ship assembly
Space combat itself sits at the very origin point in all of gaming. Spacewar! was among one of the earliest games overall, made for the vintage PDP-1 computing system in 1961. In the ensuing 50 years, space combat has been invented and reinvented under different contexts and genres.
In Starfield, we can imagine a format not too dissimilar from 3D aerial combat games like the Ace Combat series. However, the selling point in Bethesda games is usually in their customizability.
The best fountain of inspiration Starfield can draw from in this category, strangely enough, comes from a 2D game released in 2013. Starsector is an oft-overlooked hidden gem in roleplaying a retro-futuristic privateer in outer space.
The combat benefits from its intuitive but deep system of build customization. A great deal of the spaceships in Starsector not only have their individual class specialization but numerous modular parts that users can swap out for others. This includes the chassis, the hull, and countless personalized weapon-mounting slots.
Bethesda's upcoming space RPG will undoubtedly be the perfect 3D translator for this mechanic, thanks to their all-but-confirmed innate base-building system.
2) Infamous - karma system
As Todd Howard divulged in the dev diaries, Starfield will refocus on the root of cRPGs, which is the actual roleplaying. The central idea here is furthering player agency and connecting its exercise to meaningful consequences.
Nearly all Bethesda RPGs have had some barebone frameworks for reputation systems. The deepest actualization of these frameworks, though, was only found when Obsidian donned the mantle of the BGS engine and was commissioned to make Fallout: New Vegas. Starfield is Bethesda's best shot at tapping into this underutilized potential.
Infamous and Infamous: Second Son had arguably the most gamified idea of a reputation system. In these games, player action was woven into the binary karma system. However contrived in terms of their binary nature, gamer choices in Infamous crystalized both in terms of narrative differences and gameplay functions.
This was achieved by presenting two completely different skill trees to the player aligned with their karma — an idea Starfield could use.
3) Stalker - independent faction progress
BGS games, especially Skyrim, are famous for their capacity to create exciting emergent gameplay. One of many 'random encounter events' can trigger itself at any point in games like Skyrim, Oblivion, or Fallout 4, changing its outcome by latching on to other gameplay elements.
However, Bethesda's game design philosophy makes an RPG player-centric, including the enemy's level. The direct antithesis to this is the STALKER games, where factions and independent agents like mercenaries will exert their influence over the world whether the user is present there or not.
In Starfield, such a system could up the ante both in terms of immersion and unique situations. With how Bethesda stresses creating a scope for gamers to write their own adventures, this mechanic should fall into line.
4) Prey - recycler breakdown
From the Starfield screenshots leaked in 2020, there is a good possibility that it has a base-building system. This is likely a direct successor to the similar system in Fallout 4 and Fallout 76.
Where there is building and crafting, there are raw materials. Fallout games, in particular, have had raw materials like lead, rounds, primers, and powder that users can gain by dismantling guns.
The space-rock sequel to that, however, runs the risk of being too complicated or making the inventory too cluttered, a recurring issue raised against the crafting system in Fallout: New Vegas. The most intuitive crafting solution to look at here is the recycler in Prey, another Bethesda title.
With recycler, any in-game object can be broken down to a handful of primary elements used to craft almost everything. Starfield particularly needs to heed the quality-of-life implications of a recycler-fabricator gameplay loop, including automatic storage and inventory sorting.
5) Just Cause - grappling hook
Starfield will doubtless have several low-gravity situations, being a game situated in a belt of alien star systems. No-gravity or low gravity movements have often created room for imaginative video game-level designs and setpieces.
The obvious momentum solutions in these scenarios include some form of artificial propulsion or jetpack mock-ups. However, a more fun implementation that could shine in these cases is a grappling hook.
When it comes to grappling hooks with great utility, all Starfield needs to do is take a page out of the Just Cause playbook. Introduced in the first game, the grappling hook became so popular that Avalanche solely focused on giving the grappling hook mechanic upgrades and supplements, one sequel after the other.
Note: This article reflects the author's views.
