Bethesda’s Starfield has Invisible Walls: Is it still Open-World? | Fans React

Starfield is generating an incredible amount of buzz as its release date approaches, and with that hype comes controversy. Firstly, there was this incident around stealing, illegally selling and leaking content surrounding the upcoming title. And now, players are getting vocal about invisible in-game walls that stop them from exploring an area in Starfield. Doubts are starting to form in their mind about the credibility of the tall claims made by its makers. In this article, we will explain the whole drama that is taking place. So, make sure to read through all of it.

Starfield: The Invisible Walls Controversy

Explaining the Exploration Mechanic

If we look objectively, even the holy grail of open-world games, GTA V, restricts its players from crossing certain boundaries. So, what seems to be the problem with Starfield? Let’s find out about how exploration works in Starfield first.

Just getting around to all this Starfield boundaries stuff from an article that went up on IG which I actually thought was fine (since deleted).

Basically, planets have a different number of landing spots with terrain limits. One planet might have 3 landing spots, whilst…

— Tom Henderson (@_Tom_Henderson_) August 26, 2023

• Players can land on a planet with their spaceship and explore a limited region on it by foot. A single planet will consist of about 3 to 5 such landing spots.
• Every planet will be divided into multiple areas or tiles. A landing spot will be made up of one such tile that the players will be able to scout.
• To access another tile/area, you must use your ship even if the other tile is on the same planet. On reaching the boundary of a tile, you will receive a message stating that you can not proceed further on foot.
• There might also be an in-game system where you could enter the next tile without using the vehicle. Nonetheless, a loading screen between this procedure seems to be inevitable.

• This mechanic was explained by Todd Howards himself several months earlier on the podcast with Lex Fridman.
• He claims that this system was put into place to shield the players from the boredom that comes with exploring an endless barren land with no content.
• We are also sure that this was a necessary step in order to decrease the load on the hardware.

Why are the Fans Unhappy?

Screengrab courtesy of ObsidianAnt via YouTube

• The fans expected a huge, seamless, explorable area on each planet without any barrier or loading screen from Starfield. When they found out that these technical limitations were indeed part of the game, it naturally disappointed them.
• We can not blame the audience wholly for having such lofty expectations. After all, the game was marketed as “Skyrim in Space,” with over a thousand procedurally generated planets for the players to explore.

Screengrab courtesy of ObsidianAnt via YouTube

• There have been plenty of bold claims from its developers about how revolutionary the game will be. Quite normally, they had nothing but praises for their precious creation.
• On the other hand, there is another angle to this story. According to some, the PlayStation users or fanboys fuel most of the criticism around this subject. Supposedly, they are doing this to tarnish the reputation of their competitor.
• While this may sound absurd, this could be possible in this case. As a result, we would recommend you not get overly influenced by this recent incident.

We hope this gives you a clear idea of the invisible walls controversy regarding Starfield. What do you think of the situation after getting to know everything? Let us know in the comments below.

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