The closer we get to the release of a game, the more gets revealed. Naturally, that means more people will latch onto it for comments. This has been happening every step of the way for Starfield, which is scheduled for release in just a few weeks. However, the attention following the lead-up to the launch has been mostly positive with fans even creating detailed and complementary content for it. The problem is that sometimes the biggest comments come from the biggest names, and it seems a former Blizzard heavy-hitter is making it known that he doesn’t like the Starfield start screen and Bethesda is responding.
The Starfield Start Screen
You could argue that the average player doesn’t really take note of a game’s UI unless it’s extremely difficult or tedious to navigate. The thing is that Bethesda has a lot of experience with character customization RPG UI and Starfield appears to be in line with that reputation.
Even so, according to Eurogamer, the Starfield start screen has been leaked and one dev had some pretty big words to say about it. Mark Kern, former team lead for World of Warcraft, tweeted a picture of said screen with the accusation that it’s the result of overworked designers or “a team that simply didn’t care.” Pete Hines, Bethesda’s publishing head leaped in to defend the team, stating that “they designed what they wanted… and was one of the first things we settled on.”
The more elements a game has, especially when it comes to character building, the more important UI becomes. If you were to look at Bethesda’s library, you’d come across some pretty notable UI choices. Perhaps the most well-known is the Pip-Boy 3000, which is a staple of the Fallout series serving as the UI device connecting the player to their character. It’s likely that Starfield will incorporate a similar device to convey character information. While the start screen may have a simple and concise design, there’s no telling how it may transform as you play through and new updates are introduced.
Prepare yourselves for the launch of Starfield and the screen that’s going to take you into the game. While Mark Kern and Pete Hines fight over the title screen, the rest of us are mainly concerned with whether the game itself is actually any good.
