Starfield could have been beheaded, but the helmets prevented him

In an alternate timeline, Starfield could have been a much more violent game than what we actually got.

According to former Bethesda character artist Dennis Mejillones, Starfield was once planned to have much more graphic violence. This included the evergreen, blood-filled death of decapitation.

However, heads literally didn’t roll in Starfield for a number of reasons. The first was due to the technical implications associated with things like different space suits. Speaking on the Kiwi Talkz podcast, Mejillones explained that if Bethesda were to ultimately go down the decapitation route, the developer would have to take into account all the lawsuits and how they would react to the split.

“You know, technically there’s a lot to do with it… If you have to cut the helmet a certain way and it has to come off and you need meat caps for the bottom where the flesh is,” Medjillones said when asked about the lack of blood in the game .

Bethesda did have “systems for all of this,” he continued, but their implementation became “a big rat’s nest of these things” that the team had to take into account. He highlighted the “crazy hoses” of helmets as one such consideration.

Mejillones added that the character creator in Starfield has evolved from the studio’s previous games, with character bodies now being able to have more different shapes and sizes, so that was also an important factor.

Beyond the technical implications, Medjillones also concluded that Starfield had a completely different overall tone compared to other Bethesda games such as the perpetually chaotic Fallout. “Fallout is very stylized in that regard. It’s supposed to be… it’s part of the ironic humor,” he said, commenting on the Fallout 4 Bloody Mayhem perk.

In case you didn’t know, this perk increases the likelihood of enemies exploding into, well, a bloody mess (see video below). This over-the-top gore and theatricality is part of the fun of Fallout, and it came across very well in Amazon’s TV adaptation.

“It’s like in the old anime series like Fist of the North Star – they punch each other and the blood flows forever. There’s just no way anyone can hold that much blood, but you’re like, “Oh, man, this is cool!” It adds style,” Mejilones continued, concluding:

“I think for Starfield it definitely should have been more low-fi and realistic. We were inspired a lot by things like The Expanse and Star Trek and things like that. So I think (excessive gore) just didn’t fit thematically… And then you have the cost, the technical overhead, to make it work, so we thought, “It’s probably better not to put that in this game.” “

So, would you prefer Starfield to have more gore, or do you agree that it should keep a more grounded tone?

In addition to the base game, Bethesda released the Shattered Space expansion for Starfield last year, which added a bit of horror to spice things up.

Bethesda’s Todd Howard previously confirmed there will be at least one more DLC for the space epic after Shattered Space. As for what it could be, fans believe the “Starborn” trademark, filed by Bethesda’s parent company Zenimax back in July, could hold a clue to the second Starfield expansion.