Starfield was originally going to be a much gorier game

After nearly a decade since Bethesda's last major RPG release in Fallout 4, it's safe to say that expectations were high for Starfield, and yet at launch, the reception to the game was a bit of a mixed bag.

Since then, Starfield has improved quite a bit with updates and its first DLC, but it's not quite the game the studio had envisioned. At least, it's a lot less bloody. Speaking with Kiwi Talkz, senior artist Dennis Mejillones explained that initially the game was going to be as gory as Fallout 4.

But, both technically and thematically, the gore simply didn't work. Regarding the technical aspect, apparently the gore was simply going to be too difficult to add alongside the intricate space suits and modifiable bodies. "You have to cut the helmet in a certain way, and it's got to come off, and you've got to add meat caps to the bottom where the flesh is," Mejillones said.

"Fallout is very stylised in that regard. It's meant to be. That's part of the tongue-in-cheek humour," he continued, speaking about the tonal shift to Starfield. "For Starfield, it was definitely meant to be more lo-fi and realistic. We were inspired a lot by things like The Expanse and Star Trek, so I think it just didn't fit thematically."

Do you think Starfield should have been a gorier game?