Starfield Is Doing One Thing Right, And That's Ditching A Voiced Protagonist
Fallout 4’s voiced protagonist was a massive mistake. Many worried a specific voice for either gender option would twist the intended tone in a way that could never be taken back. They were right. Dialogue options were so unclear in their potential delivery that fans were quick to conjure up a mod that changed things.
It sucked, with Bethesda seemingly hoping to modernise the formula even if it meant removing the emotional intimacy that made Fallout 3 and Skyrim so special. It still feels bizarre, and no disrespect to the performers involved, but Fallout 4 had both permutations of its protagonist react to awakening in a nuclear wasteland with a weird sense of dismissal. They should be losing their fucking minds, not cracking jokes with sentient robots and immediately establishing themselves as overseers of makeshift communities.
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The voice hindered our immersion at every turn, something that could have been alleviated with a player character who knew when to shut their mouths, or at the very least let us move it for them. Fallout 4 was a game that moved the needle in all the wrong ways, even if it remains a decent experience in the Bethesda pantheon all these years later. It was underwhelming, and we’re now hoping for Starfield to both rectify its mistakes and abandon a malaise that the studio has now been hindered by for years.
Starfield will not have a voiced protagonist, with Bethesda weirdly choosing to confirm this in a random tweet instead of mentioning it during the gameplay showcase last week. It’s a big deal, and will be a huge component of the moment-to-moment gameplay as we embark on quests and talk with myriad NPCs
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