Bethesda Removes Gore and Dismemberment from Starfield

Bethesda had ambitious plans to incorporate gore and dismemberment mechanics into Starfield, but these had to be scrapped due to technical challenges. Dennis Mejillones, a former character artist who worked on The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim, Fallout 4, and Starfield, shared with Kiwi Talkz that the complexity of space suits was the primary obstacle. "There was a lot of implications with the different suits from a technical perspective," he explained. "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."

The intricacies of the suits, including various hoses and the ability to significantly alter body sizes through the character creator, turned the implementation into a "big rat's nest" of technical difficulties. Mejillones noted that while fans of Starfield—Bethesda's first full single-player RPG in eight years—missed the gore and dismemberment seen in Fallout 4, these features fit better with Fallout's "tongue in cheek" humor. "It's part of the fun," he added.

Since its launch in September 2023, Starfield has attracted over 15 million players. IGN's review praised the game's expansive role-playing quests and solid combat, awarding 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."

Recent revelations from another former Bethesda developer highlighted the unexpectedly high number of loading screens, particularly in the city of Neon. However, Bethesda has been actively improving the game, introducing a performance mode that now supports 60fps. The expansion Shattered Space was released in September, further enhancing the Starfield experience.