I’ve been following progress onStarfieldfor a while, and I’m sure many of you can say the same. It’sBethesda’schance to strut the Microsoft money and a new IP after decades of Elder Scrolls and Fallout, while still keeping those hallmarks that we love about Elder Scrolls and their take on Fallout. Recently, we’ve hearrd that about 90% of Starfield’s planets beingdevoid of life. This left some people concerned, whileothers deem this perfectly normal for a spacefaring game.
As for me, when I heard the news my mind went to a whole other place: Minecraft. Right away it got me thinking about how a largely lifeless galaxy could fix my biggest problem with Mojang’s long-standing classic.
See, I kind of hateMinecraft, despite resource-gathering being exactly the kind of gameplay my brainwaves adore. Most resource-gathering games end up having, to me, a major design issue that prevents me from enjoying them. When I hear words like ‘survival,’ I think of roughing it in the woods with nothing but a shirt on my back and sweat on my brow; I think of hazards like fire or drowning, and I even think of things like needing to eat and sleep.
What Ineverthink of is having to fight endlessly spawning enemies, and yet every single resource game, even frigging Minecraft, insists on crashing my solo survival fantasy with baddies.
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Seriously, the last time I jumped into Minecraft I turned a corner and found myself confronted with about a dozen Zombies (and don’t worry, there were some skeletons too!). I was only playing to get my hands on dye-making materials for a guide I was writing, so I figured I’d change the world settings to creative after that encounter. It didn’t change a thing! Even ‘Creative’ mode didn’t stop a bunch of witches from coming out of nowhere to throw potions at my ass.
You might think I’m making something out of nothing, or spiting a whole genre due to one problem with one game, but bear with me a second here because my issues don’t stop at Minecraft. Ever playThe Forest? You gather twigs, berries, and water, all in an attempt to live on this island full of evil mutated cannibals. I know,I knowthat well publicised premise means I should have been prepared for combat, but I really hated fighting the cannibals in The Forest.
I’d get enough resources to craft a tent, go save my game by taking a snooze, and thenboom, wake up surrounded by cannibals ready to make breakfast of me! I didn’t care that it was part of the premise, I just wanted to look for lizards and build a log cabin! I used to think maybe this meant the genre wasn’t for me after all, but then the developers of The Forest added a cheat code called Vegan Mode, which fundamentally changed the game by despawning every single cannibal. It felt vindicating, because I knew I waasn’t alone, and more players than just myself wished to be immersed in the game’s atmosphere without those icky mutant cannibals ruining their fun.
While I’m not going to say this started a buck in the trend, it did lead to me looking for these bucks.Slime Rancher 2, for instance, is a farming-gathering game at heart, and comes packing a bunch of toggles that let you do things like remove the villainous Tarr from the game.
But let’s get back to the original game in question. When Starfield’s trailers originally mentioned the resource gathering, I didn’t get my hopes up, instead just thinking about Starfield the way I did Fallout. Fun environments with environmental storytelling, and maybe time for loot if it’s off an enemy corpse. I wasn’t letting myself hope that I’d get to mine space rocks without interruption, because for all I knew a sandworm or Martians would show up just to spite me.
So upon hearing these planets would be lifeless, I felt ecstatic. Only enemies on certain planets? Great! They’ll be a change of pace instead of a nuisance! I don’t even think I’ll care about the lack of harmless creatures, as interesting as a space rabbit may sound on paper. It’s still up to the final product to make the gathering fun, but I suddenly find myself excited by it.
What will I use with the resources I plunder from a lifeless planet for? Will I also be able to buy resources, and if so, will this mean some star systems have better or worse resources? My head is suddenly swimming in questions, and that just did not happen when I was sure I’d have to be looking over my shoulder and sleeping with one eye open at my gathering encampments. I’m sure there will be some form of difficulty in the resource gathering, be it adverse weather conditions or limited oxygen supply or both, but all that sounds better than throwing Creepers at me every quarter mile.
NEXT:Starfield Has That Bethesda RPG Jank, And I Couldn’t Be Happier
