Starfield kinda killed positive views of Bethesda. Fallout 76 shortly before that essentially eliminating most of the good will they had.
Beyond the technical failures inherent to those titles, even more so than the average Bethesda title, the writing, the story, the atmospheric story telling were all just… bad. Not a single glimmer of what made Skyrim or their previous titles great could really be found. Fallout 76 felt like the most obvious and pathetic cash grab in game release history, being practically unplayable for the first six months of its life… which for an online game is ridiculous; and Starfield legitimately felt like what a dev team that were fans of Skyrim might produce. It felt like a third-party rip off of Bethesda’s style.
Don’t get me wrong both games have their fans, and honestly the hate is overrated as both games are competent, they’re just not good. They’re just not Bethesda games.
Add onto that the fact it’s been 15 years since a significant elder scrolls title was released; because let’s face it no one remembers Blades, ESO is its own thing entirely, and I had to actually google ‘elder scrolls card game’ to remember wtf Legends was called; and you have a recipe for absolute disappointment. Most of the people that worked on Oblivion and Skyrim are gone from the company. The new batch have not made a popular game in that time besides Fallout 4, which is still viewed by half the fallout fan base as the worst fallout game despite Fallout Tactics existing.
The negative outlook is because we aren’t likely to get more of what we like. Especially given Todd Howard’s obsession with using AI. This is much more likely to be a corpse wearing the skin of a beloved franchise than anything worth playing, all for the low-low price of $80+ USD, if not $100+ USD.
Starfield kinda killed positive views of Bethesda. Fallout 76 shortly before that essentially eliminating most of the good will they had.
Beyond the technical failures inherent to those titles, even more so than the average Bethesda title, the writing, the story, the atmospheric story telling were all just… bad. Not a single glimmer of what made Skyrim or their previous titles great could really be found. Fallout 76 felt like the most obvious and pathetic cash grab in game release history, being practically unplayable for the first six months of its life… which for an online game is ridiculous; and Starfield legitimately felt like what a dev team that were fans of Skyrim might produce. It felt like a third-party rip off of Bethesda’s style.
Don’t get me wrong both games have their fans, and honestly the hate is overrated as both games are competent, they’re just not good. They’re just not Bethesda games.
Add onto that the fact it’s been 15 years since a significant elder scrolls title was released; because let’s face it no one remembers Blades, ESO is its own thing entirely, and I had to actually google ‘elder scrolls card game’ to remember wtf Legends was called; and you have a recipe for absolute disappointment. Most of the people that worked on Oblivion and Skyrim are gone from the company. The new batch have not made a popular game in that time besides Fallout 4, which is still viewed by half the fallout fan base as the worst fallout game despite Fallout Tactics existing.
The negative outlook is because we aren’t likely to get more of what we like. Especially given Todd Howard’s obsession with using AI. This is much more likely to be a corpse wearing the skin of a beloved franchise than anything worth playing, all for the low-low price of $80+ USD, if not $100+ USD.