Pigs don’t just fly in 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Starfield, thඣey’re capable of interstellar travel. Nearly everywhere you turn, there’s a faction or individual dedicated to upholding the law and doing everything in their power to keep the Settled Systems on the straight and narrow.
Starfield’s planets and technology aren’t that far removed from༒ our own, with groups like The United Colonies doing all it can to replicate the ideas and beliefs our dying world once held, while others have splintered off in search of their own drive. The Freestar Collective works on the fringes with members who wanted to make their own mark on the universe, while Ryujin Industries or even our very own Constellation stay morally grey, leaning towards favoured old-fashioned, power hungry authority. For a futuristic adventure, it’s a shame that so many of its stories are about keeping down the little guy.
Our own Features Editor Tessa Kaur recently wrote about a small questline in 🤡New Atlantis’ undercity where the only way to solve a potential crime was to resort to violence or report t♊he middling thieves to local authorities. Even the third option ha🤡s you passing a persuasion check with the looming threat of incarceration, as if the only way to address a problem in this part of the galaxy where poor business owners are repeatedly abused by power structures is to rely upon those same power structures to uphold the law.
It’s a vicious, pessimistic cycle, and I hate to actively enforce it in a game where my moral decisions should carry far greater impact. You can tackle police work seconds after being arrested, or change your inner beliefs on a dime to net the best rewards, creating a sense of tonal inconsistency that Starf💫ield is never able to allevia🥀te.
Which is strange, because Starfield is often aware of the foundations of capitalism on which its world was built, and how humanity reaching for the stars and colonising planets failed to address an unfair world where the rich stay rich and poor stay poor. Wh🧔en fighting alongside fellow soldiers as a member of the United Colonies I could talk to them about how many of us are treated as negligible cannon fodder by those above us, sent to live in the grime of The Wells for our service, and how individual deci﷽sions result in the death of millions if it means making more money or bettering certain parts of the galaxy.
The same is true of the Freestar Collective. While its members like toꦐ dress up like a bunch of space-faring cowboys, they still abide a regimented system of law where bad guys are brought to justice no matter what, and I hope further into the quest line I’m able to poke and prod at these archaic practices. At the very least, I’d want to question them as a member myself, since it’d be a wonderful piece of RPG storytelling to reinvent a fascist system from within as I become more influential. But so far, Sꦛtarfield doesn’t always allow for these opportunities. I’m a lowly deputy who is talked down to by my superiors and must stay in my lane or face the consequences. Games should be more progressive and ambitious than this in their stories.
You can even become a pirate by infiltrating them from within or joining up with a comical angle of evil. I suppose pirates are meant to murder and pillage, but the beauty of fact💟ions in titles like this should come from choosing to lean all the way into each lifestyle, or make dialogue or gameplay decisions to deconstruct and subvert otherwise predictable stories. I haven’t seen an opportunity for that yet, and even in the main quest it feels like you’re a very lucky person who happens to touch a magical space rock and be swept up in a mystery with an organisation which has both too much time and money on its hands.
I can claim to be a righteous saviour of the Seౠttled Systems with an eagerness to make a difference, but also accept thousands of credits and a luxury penthouse from the government because I did all that was asked of me like a good little pawn. I wish more quests and character motives were about rebelling and changing the systems of Starfield’s world instead of nicely operating within them. I want to change things, not reinforce societal archetypes that ensure those on top remain immovable, while everyone beneath must struggle to make ends meet.
Starfield gives you too many avenues to not only be a gnarly space cop, but also a trusting tool to corporate ambitions and much bigger stakes that understand you will nod your head and go along with whatever happens, because the game is written and designed to placate ꧅this way of thinking. I still have more to see, but I wish it wasn’t afraid to be more rebellious about the power imbalance of law enforcement and corporations outside the monitor logs and emails only a few of us will bother to read.
