Starfield's Cut Violence: Artist Explains Why

Summary

• Starfield's toned-down violence was a deliberate decision, primarily due to technical limitations.
• The style also wouldn't align with Starfield's overall tone, according to Dennis Mejillones, a character artist who worked on both Starfield and Fallout 4 at Bethesda.

Starfield, Bethesda's ambitious space RPG, initially planned for significantly more graphic violence than what ultimately shipped. While Bethesda's first-person shooters are known for their visceral combat, the studio opted for a less gory approach in Starfield. This wasn't a last-minute decision; it was a conscious choice, even if the game's development history suggests otherwise.

Bethesda didn't shy away from violence entirely. Gunfights and melee combat are core gameplay elements, widely praised as an improvement over Fallout 4's combat system. However, the initial vision included more graphic details, which were subsequently scaled back.

Dennis Mejillones, a character artist who contributed to both Starfield and Fallout 4, shed light on this in a recent interview with the Kiwi Talkz podcast. He confirmed that decapitations and other violent animations were initially planned but ultimately scrapped due to technical challenges. The sheer variety of suits and helmets in Starfield made animating such effects realistically—without introducing glitches or unrealistic visuals—extremely difficult. Given Starfield's persistent technical issues, even after several major updates, this decision seems prudent.

Starfield's Restrained Violence: A Technical and Tonal Choice

The technical hurdles weren't the sole reason for the reduced gore. Mejillones also highlighted the tonal differences between Starfield and the Fallout series. Fallout's over-the-top violence often contributes to its humor, a stylistic choice that wouldn't fit Starfield's more grounded, realistic sci-fi setting. While Starfield occasionally nods to Bethesda's more irreverent titles (like the recent Doom-inspired content), it generally maintains a more serious tone. Intense, exaggerated executions, while potentially exciting, could have clashed with this atmosphere and disrupted immersion.

Despite this, some fans continue to call for more realism. Criticisms regarding the game's relatively tame nightclubs, when compared to titles like Cyberpunk 2077 and Mass Effect, highlight this desire. Adding tongue-in-cheek violence might have exacerbated these concerns, making the game feel even less grounded. Ultimately, Bethesda's decision to temper the gore, while deviating from previous trends in their shooters, appears to have been a calculated and arguably sound one.