Bethesda games, by and large, don’t have voiced protagonists. The notable exception is in Fallout 4, where you’d have the ability to pick a dialogue option and have it fully voiced by an actor. Did this make for an objectively better game than the likes of Fallout 3 and Skyrim where the player character was totally silent? No, it just made it different. Sometimes that’s okay.
However, we now know that Bethesda’s upcoming Starfield will be throwing back to Fallout 3 and Skyrim by not having a voiced protagonist. They’ll be the strong, silent type. If that’s sent you into an intergalactic tizzy, there is some good news that’ll hopefully give the news a silver lining.
Oh you didn’t see the Starfield gameplay that was released a couple of days ago during the Xbox and Bethesda Showcase? It’s okay, I got you.
Taking to twitter to answer the burning voice-over question, Bethesda confirmed that "your character does not have a voice." I just told you that, so no surprises. Instead, we’ll have a return to the dialogue box choice that you can pick from, and the NPC you’re in conversation with will reply instantly to that specific line. No more picking a vague option and hoping that your character doesn’t start spouting off. This also means that conversations will remain in the first person, and the classic Bethesda zoom is returning.
The source of many memes and memories, the zoom was spotted by fans during the Starfield gameplay you’ve just watched up above. First popularised in The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, the zoom has become synonymous with Bethesda’s games and for good reason, it’s bloody iconic.
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The showcase also announced that we’ll be seeing in advance of 1000 planets in 100 star systems in Starfield, which is hopefully going to keep fans busy for quite some time. There was also the small matter of the game looking an awful lot like No Man’s Sky at first glance. Starfield will be releasing early 2023 on PC, Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S.