'They Did What Bethesda Couldn't Afford to,' Skyrim Designer Praises Baldur's Gate 3 Devs
Former Bethesda employee Bruce Nesmith talked about the game design philosophy at Larian Studios and at the developers of Starfield.
Baldur's Gate 3 and Starfield are among the biggest launches of 2023. And although the two games are radically different, that doesn't stop some from comparing them. This was recently attempeted by former Bethesda employee Bruce Nesmith, whom we have quoted on our pages twice in recent days:
- The Elder Scrolls 6 Will Use Skyrim's Progression Mechanics, Says Former Bethesda Dev
- 'We Convinced Ourselves Infallible;' Ex-Bethesda Designer Reveals Reasons for Fallout 76 Condition
According to the developer of such games as The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim or Fallout 4, there is one key element that makes the gaming experience in Baldur's Gate 3 and e.g. Starfield so very different. He means the importance and consequences of the choices made by the player.
Larian Studios is bold
In an interview with the MinnMax channel, Nesmith explained that Larian Studios was not afraid to make player decisions block access to certain game elements and plot threads.
"They [Larian - ed. notes] looked into all the darkest corners, did what Bethesda couldn't afford to do. They came out and said bluntly: 'We don't care that only 1% of players will ever see it. That 1% will be happy and will tell the other 99%, who will be happy that such an option exists at all,' he explained.
It's not the choices versus the length of the game that matters most
For Nesmith, this philosophy is quite different from the way how Starfield or other Bethesda games were designed. After all, the basic principle of Todd Howard's studio is to create titles that provide hundreds of hours of fun. Therefore, developers cannot afford to block content due to player choices that could "cut out 50% of the game.".
"At Bethesda, the games we made were so big that we had to take the approach: 'everyone must be able to do this at some point.' We couldn't block content. And you can see that in our games - we didn't do that. You can become the boss of all guilds, you can befriend all companions, you can go to all places. Nothing is inaccessible.
We created games that people can play for hundreds of hours. If you cut 50% of the game, they won't play for hundreds of hours. Now they can only play for 50 hours."
Bethesda's games have only "three or four very important decisions."
The designer noted that in Baldur's Gate 3 each decision has a huge impact on the gameplay, whereas in Bethesda's games, the choices that are important to the plot are far fewer.
"You have benefit of this [points to Baldur's Gate 3 - Editor's note] - every decision has a big impact. Whereas in Bethesda games very few decisions have such a big impact. (...) We tried to make them really important, but it doesn't change the fact that you can make only three or four very important decisions in the game," Nesmith explained.
The developer, praising Larian's work on BG3, referred to the game's success. He believes, the extremely positive reception of the RPG is due to the fact that the developers tried to transfer to PCs and consoles exactly the same experience that accompanies a tabletop game.
As a result, the Belgian studio managed to deliver a work that - initially treated as an appetizer before Starfield - turned out to be a wonderful and filling dish, after which no other game will taste the same.
