Bethesda arrives with two big titles – Starfield and The Elder Scrolls 6. Although we can expect the latter in the upcoming years, Starfield is almost here! And surprisingly, many people point out its striking similarity to the legendary No Man’s Sky.
Starfield’s release date is September 6, 2023 – so it’s a short time before we can enjoy space travel in this new title. The official trailer looks intriguing, the soundtrack by Inon Zur certainly does the job, and Creation Engine 2 ensures stunning graphics. But we often hear this new production appears eerily similar to No Man’s Sky – the fantastic 2016 sci-fi video game from Hello Games. Is it true? And are the creators of the phenomenal Fallout and The Elder Scrolls able to design something new to finally reach the stars?
Development and Creators
Until No Man’s Sky, Hello Games was known for the Joe Danger series, so no one expected this particular studio to undertake such a massive space game project. But in 2016, it came – huge, inspired by 80s sci-fi movies and equipped with a gigantic procedurally generated world. Initially, it didn’t gain extraordinary popularity. But soon, the creators enriched their masterpiece with many updates and extra content to make it grow as one of the flagship titles in the genre.
Starfield is Bethesda’s first new product in over 25 years – no surprise it meets with joyful anticipation. But as Todd Howard (executive producer at Bethesda Game Studios) admits, the developers have been thinking about creating a sci-fi video game since the 90s! Well, the time has come, and soon we will all see a new space-exploration title from the creators of the excellent Fallout series. But unlike NMS, it only provides a single-player campaign and availability on Microsoft platforms. It’s quite a bummer for players dreaming of crossplay fun.
Game Setting
So both video games are all about space exploration and survival. At first sight, they look relatively similar. But we can distinguish some fundamental differences by examining the setting more closely. No Man Sky’s traveling experience provides infinite opportunities for exploring countless planets with diverse biomes and procedurally generated surfaces. But Starfield promises more: detailed, handcrafted globes for the most important planets, each with unique lore, will be there alongside many procedurally generated ones. It sure is a splendid opportunity for more rewarding exploration and making memories.
Gameplay Mechanics
This comparison boils down to one crucial difference – Starfield is a role-playing game, while No Man’s Sky focuses on action, survival, and exploration. The first title enables designing a highly detailed playable character with a backstory, unique traits, and customizable looks. Leveling up, players develop skills and witness how their choices affect relationships with NPCs. In No Man’s Sky, the playable character is more anonymous with no background because the gameplay focuses on exploration and space experience than story immersion.
All these features translate into another vital aspect – combat and weaponry. In Bethesda’s game, players can freely customize their arsenal, improve the weapon’s appearance and affect their stats by choosing specific skills. In Hello Games production, the weapon appearance could use such customizability. Ergo, it’s no surprise that combat in Starfield can also be more interesting than in NMS, especially since, like other Bethesda games, this one features an epic story about legendary conflicts that happened in the past. And they continue affecting an uncertain future. Combat in NMS is more about surviving and encountering occasional obstacles while exploring distant planets, but it doesn’t really impact the overall story.
Graphics and Visual Design
NMS boasts an incredible quantity of planets with procedurally generated surfaces to explore. But compared to Starfield, this game feels a bit repetitive regarding aesthetics. The Bethesda title offers detailed, immersive environments full of life and different textures. The views are breathtaking, and the animations and character models look more realistic. All this makes the 2023 game so tempting to experience and definitely better concerning visual design.
Storytelling and Quest Design
As we already know, Starfield is an RPG, and No Man’s Sky is an example of a survival game with action features. The second title focuses on exploration, reaching the destination, discovering, mining resources, and traveling to the unknown. Quests don’t impact the whole adventure the way they do in Bethesda’s game, where they make an essential gameplay part.
Starfield depicts a complex world after a brutal war between two massive factions – the United Colonies and the Freestar Collective. The current reality is still unpredictable, and lesser organizations exist in one immense network of conflicts. Players get to explore this world, make companions, meet fascinating NPCs, and execute decisions. That sets this game apart from Hello Games’ creation. Every choice or side quest makes a difference, and that’s why adventures in Starfield are so mesmerizing.
Conclusion
So which game is better? Starfield is new, graphically refined, features an immersive RPG experience, and beautifully crafted planets to explore. But it doesn’t feel right to compare these two video games so harshly because they are unrelated.
No Man’s Sky delivers completely different goals, and it never wanted to become anything like Bethesda’s upcoming title. Its creators knew what they wanted to achieve, and in the end, the development process brought massive success. So deciding which game is better ultimately is up to players.
Anyone wanting a story-driven adventure should definitely opt for Starfield, as Bethesda has already proven this is what they do best. But when you’re looking for epic intergalactic exploration on an unimaginable scale where the elaborate plot doesn’t matter all that much – pick No Man’s Sky.