I recently replayed Skyrim all the way through, including both expansions, and really enjoyed it. I couldn’t have been more ready to play Bethesda’s “Skyrim in Space” game, Starfield.
As excited as I was, my partner Kasul was even more excited. Since we both wanted to play the game, but he wanted to play it more, I thought I’d be happy enough watching him play while I went for some other title in my backlog.
The buzz around Baldur’s Gate 3 was hot. If I couldn’t play Starfield for reasons, I’d play BG3 and get my D&D on.
So that’s how it’s been, the past few weeks. Me playing BG3, he playing SF.
We sit back to back at our PCs, so I couldn’t see what was happening the entire time. He did get to a “credits roll” ending last night that we watched together. And, I felt it was pretty underwhelming.
In the game I was playing, I’d just rescued a damned spirit from hell itself, after stealing the grimoire and many of the necessary components for the hell portal from the lady at the “you’re going to hell” store, the Devil’s Fee.
The next few hours were spent making deals with demons, some sexy time with an incubus, dealing with some sibling rivalry, running from rolling balls of burning death, facing off against floating eyes and defeating a devil by the power of interpretive dance. (Really!)
I’d look over my shoulder and see Kasul either exploring an abandoned warehouse or factory floor, talking to someone who would be staring lifelessly straight at him while voiced by someone coached to speak without any emotion, or docking somewhere in a spaceship.
Of all the hours I played, these were the only things I caught him doing.
The big 2001 ending was another NPC just standing there talking pleasantly about what NG+ might entail, and then the credits rolled.
I mean, the whole Starfield experience could have been remade as a text adventure, and nothing would have been lost.
Contrast BG3, where the voice actors and the animators dive deep into the parts. Not every character eats their lines like Astarion, but man oh man I love how every main character is very much their own distinct person. Lae’zal’s total dedication to anything she does, whether it’s worshiping her goddess, finding a new truth to follow, or even pursuing the PC for romance. 100% committed, 100% of the time.
Astarion’s deep, deep emotional damage from centuries of torture, the passion of his revenge, and his naked lust for power… and pretty much anything else. The anger that lies behind every word.
Shadowheart’s quest is one I can absolutely understand; she just is trying to figure out what it is she’s supposed to be doing. She’s always done what is expected of her without really trying to analyze what it is she wants. She has to look into her own past to find a reason to fight and a purpose to her life.
Gale’s civilized veneer hides an ego that absolutely has no room for anyone else. He will do anything for power. Anything. And if someone points out to him how badly that has burned him in the past, his answer is always, “yes, but what if….?” His urge to self-destruction is always barely held back by just how easy it would be for him to just let it happen.
Starfield… every one of the companions I saw Kasul have in the game were pleasant people who explained the plot and stared lifelessly at the camera the whole time.
I dunno. I was so excited for Starfield, and played Baldur’s Gate 3 as my second choice. It’s pretty clear now that I made the right choice.
I’m not yet done BG3. I’m pretty excited to see what the ending to THAT game will be like. I expect something epic, and I doubt I will be disappointed.
