Cities are a staple in role-playing games, including Starfield and, most notably, its predecessors in the Elder Scrolls franchise. Starfield lays claim to having the largest metropolis in Bethesda’s history - the United Colonies capital, New Atlantis, on the planet Jemison.
In a thread on Reddit, user ShriyanshPandey asked whether or not the scale of Starfield’s cities, which are significantly larger than Bethesda’s other cities, is worth it, considering that the studio had given up some details to accommodate the size of the new metropolis?
The OP also uploaded a picture of three cities side by side - Whiterun, New Atlantis, and Novigrad from Witcher 3.
The OP noted that Whiterun has only 74 NPCs, each with a backstory and a unique appearance schedule in the game. New Atlantis, although larger, has hundreds of non-unique NPCs milling about with no proper schedule and backstories.
User TheGoverness1998 replied that the way Bethesda laid out New Atlantis - and, we can assume, by extension, other cities in Starfield - seriously impacts immersion for them in the game. They suggested that Bethesda should have divided New Atlantis into explorable and non-explorable sections to give players the illusion of a huge and populous metropolis.
User Doomkauf, on the other hand, opined that Bethesda has failed to capitalize on its biggest strength when it developed Starfield - its ability to create huge worlds that “feel alive, exciting, and interesting to explore.”
There’s a general consensus, at least in this Reddit thread, that Starfield has serious issues in exploration and city design. With the new updates looming on the horizon, will Bethesda be able to address these in the most immediate future?