Back in the day, Todd Howard, the big shot behind Bethesda Game Studios, had a definite vision for his games. In an old interview with GameSpy from 2001, he mentioned that with Morrowind, his goal was to keep players immersed in the game.
He believed that constant menus and interface interruptions pulled players out of the experience. More than two decades later, his original vision doesn’t hold true at all with the releases of Skyrim, Fallout 4, and Starfield.
Todd Howard’s Original Vision Was Lost in Time
Morrowind hit the mark pretty well in terms of UI. It had its share of menus, but they were mostly unobtrusive, allowing players to stay in the game world. It felt like Howard and his team were on to something great. But then came Skyrim onwards things started to change. Speaking with GameSpy back in 2001, Howard shared:
With respect to our interface, one thing we wanted to do is never take you out of the game, so all the menus are little windows that pop up. You can rescale them any way you want. So if you want to play the game with a big inventory screen you can, or you can shrink it down so you only see what you want to see.
Skyrim is a fantastic game, no doubt. It’s beloved by millions and is still going strong 13 years later. But if you think about it, it strayed from Howard’s original vision. The game is packed with menus and there is always a menu screen.
It feels like the game pauses every time you want to do something. While the game did many things right, the immersion-breaking menus were a step back from the seamless experience Howard once dreamed of. Unfortunately, Fallout 4 was just as bad in this regard.
Starfield was even worse since its menu design was even more inconsistent and obtrusive. Fans had high hopes, thinking Bethesda would learn from past experiences and Howard’s early principles. But when the game was finally released, it was clear that not much had changed.
Starfield Was Supposed to Be Bethesda’s Magnum Opus
The game has a lot of layers to its gameplay. There’s space exploration, base building, character customization, and more. All these features are cool, but they come with a price – a complex and often clunky UI.
There’s also the constant loading screens, empty planets with nothing interesting to do, way too many fetch quests, uninteresting characters and storylines, and a lot of jank and clunkiness. The game was ultimately disappointing to a lot of fans. The user interface in the game has been one of the main points of criticism.
Players have pointed out how cumbersome it is to perform basic tasks. It seems like Howard’s original idea of keeping players immersed has been completely overshadowed by the need to pack in more features, regardless of how they affect the overall experience. Fans can only hope that future Bethesda titles find a way to balance complexity with immersion, remembering Howard’s original vision of keeping players in the game, not lost in menus.
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