It’s nomination after nomination for Bethesda’s latest open-world RPG, the space romper Starfield. It had previously won The Golden Joystick’s Xbox Game of the Year award but failed to win the Best RPG award during The Games Awards earlier this month.
Steam has announced that Starfield has been nominated for a new award - Most Innovative Gameplay for its 2023 Steam Awards.
According to its description, the Most Innovative Gameplay award honors designers “at the front lines of creative experimentation,” resulting in games that are “delighted, inspired, and entertained with newness never played before.”
Four other games are nominated for the same category: Remnant II, Your Only Move Is Hustle, Contraband Police, and Shadows of Doubt.
Steam states voting begins on December 21 at 10 AM Pacific time. It will run until January 2 at 10 AM Pacific time as well. Voters get to unlock special chat stickers for every category they vote in.
Andy Chalk of PC Gamer, which gave Starfield a 75% score in its review, described the Starfield nomination for Innovative Gameplay as “a little surprising.”
The PC Gamer review had said that Starfield had more similarities than differences with its predecessors, Skyrim and Fallout 4 than they had expected. However, Starfield pales in greatness compared to the other two.
Chalk also adds that Starfield may have added something of its own to the formula, but the core mechanics remained the same as other Bethesda titles.
In any case, he is surprised that fans did not nominate Starfield for Outstanding Visual Style or, better yet, Game of the Year, even though Steam Awards nominees are decided 100% by gamers rather than industry experts, as with the Golden Joystick and The Game Awards.