Bethesda originally planned to include blood and dismemberment mechanics in Starfield, but had to remove them due to technical limitations.
Former employee Dennis Mejillones, who was a character artist on The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim, Fallout 4 and Starfield, said Kiwi Talkz that Bethesda had to cut this feature because interacting with space suits became too convoluted.
“From a technical perspective, the different suits had a lot of implications,” he said. “A lot of things go into it. You have to cut the helmet a certain way and you have to take it off, where the flesh is, you have the meat caps at the bottom.
“We had systems for all this and it turned into a big rat’s nest. For now, you’ll have to count all the crazy snakes on helmets and stuff like that that we’ve added. Or now you can change your body size has grown significantly.
Some fans lamented that Starfield, Bethesda’s first full single-player RPG in eight years, did not include the blood and dismemberment mechanics that were present in Fallout 4. Mejillones said that these mechanics made more sense in Fallout than in Starfield, however, given their playful humor. “That’s part of the fun,” he said.
Starfield launched in September 2023 and has since reached over 15 million players. “Starfield has a lot of forces working against it, but ultimately the allure of its expansive role-playing quests and respectable combat makes its gravitational pull hard to resist,” IGN said in our 7/10 review.
Last month, another former Bethesda developer revealed his surprise at the massive loads Starfield eventually launched with, particularly in Neon City. Since launch, Bethesda has been working on improving the game, now it is possible to achieve 60 frames per second in performance mode. The Shattered Space expansion was released in September.
Ryan Dinsdale is a freelance reporter for IGN. He will talk about The Witcher all day long.
