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, explained to Kiwi Talkz that the complexity of interactions with space suits led to the decision to cut the feature. "There were 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: "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 that Starfield—Bethesda's first full single-player RPG in eight years—lacked the gore and dismemberment mechanics seen in Fallout 4, Mejillones argued that these elements fit better within Fallout's "tongue in cheek" humor. "It's part of the fun," he remarked.
Starfield was released in September 2023 and has since attracted over 15 million players. IGN's review praised the game's expansive roleplaying quests and solid combat, giving it a 7/10 and 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."
Recently, another former Bethesda developer expressed surprise at the extensive loading times in Starfield, especially in the city of Neon. Since its launch, Bethesda has made efforts to enhance the game, including the introduction of a 60fps performance mode. The expansion Shattered Space was released in September.
