Bethesda had initially planned to incorporate gore and dismemberment mechanics into Starfield, but these features were ultimately removed due to technical challenges. Dennis Mejillones, a former character artist who worked on The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim, Fallout 4, and Starfield, shared with Kiwi Talkz that the complexity of interactions with space suits led to the decision to cut these mechanics. "There was a lot of implications with the different suits from a technical perspective," Mejillones explained. "There's a lot that has to go with it. You have to cut the helmet in a certain way and it's got to come off, you meat caps to the bottom where the flesh is."
He further elaborated on the technical difficulties, stating, "We had systems for all of that and it turned into a big rat's nest. All these things you have to account for now with all these crazy hoses on the helmets and all that kind of stuff that we added. Or now you could change the body size significantly. The character creator had evolved quite a bit."
While some fans expressed disappointment over the absence of gore and dismemberment, features that were present in Fallout 4, Mejillones noted that such mechanics were more fitting for Fallout due to its "tongue in cheek" humor. "It's part of the fun," he remarked.
Starfield, Bethesda's first full single-player role-playing game in eight years, was released in September 2023 and has since attracted over 15 million players. IGN's review praised the game's expansive role-playing quests and solid combat, awarding it a 7/10 score and stating, "Starfield has a lot of forces working against it, but eventually the allure of its expansive roleplaying quests and respectable combat make its gravitational pull difficult to resist."
In recent developments, another former Bethesda developer expressed surprise at the extensive loading times in Starfield, particularly in the city of Neon. Since its launch, Bethesda has made efforts to enhance the game, including the addition of a 60fps performance mode. The expansion, Shattered Space, was released in September.
