Bethesda Removes Gore and Dismemberment from Starfield

Bethesda had ambitious plans to incorporate gore and dismemberment mechanics into Starfield, but these were ultimately cut due to technical challenges. Dennis Mejillones, a former character artist who worked on The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim, Fallout 4, and Starfield, explained to Kiwi Talkz that the complexity of interactions with space suits was the main hurdle. "There was a lot of implications with the different suits from a technical perspective," he noted. "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 have meat caps to the bottom where the flesh is."

Mejillones 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 count 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 these mechanics, which were featured in Fallout 4, Mejillones pointed out that such elements fit better within Fallout's "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, launched in September 2023 and has since attracted over 15 million players. IGN's 7/10 review praised the game's expansive roleplaying quests and combat, noting, "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 other news, a former Bethesda developer recently expressed surprise at the extensive loading times in Starfield, especially in the city of Neon. Since its release, Bethesda has been actively improving the game, introducing a 60fps performance mode and launching the Shattered Space expansion in September.