Bethesda Removes Gore and Dismemberment from Starfield: Reasons Revealed

Bethesda had ambitious plans to include gore and dismemberment mechanics in Starfield, but these were ultimately scrapped due to technical challenges. Dennis Mejillones, a former character artist who worked on The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim, Fallout 4, and Starfield, explained to Kiwi Talkz that the complexity of space suits in the game made the feature unfeasible. "There was a lot of implications with the different suits from a technical perspective," he noted. "There's a lot that has to go with it. You have to cut the helmet in a certain way and it's got to come off, you have meat caps to the bottom where the flesh is."

Mejillones elaborated that the system became overly complicated, describing it as a "big rat's nest." The addition of various hoses on helmets and the ability to significantly change body sizes through the evolved character creator added to the complexity. "All these things you have to account for now with all these crazy hoses on the helmets and all that kind of stuff that we added. Or now you could change the body size significantly. The character creator had evolved quite a bit," he explained.

While some fans expressed disappointment over the absence of gore and dismemberment mechanics, which were featured in Fallout 4, Mejillones argued that such mechanics were more fitting in Fallout due to its "tongue in cheek" humor. "It's part of the fun," he remarked.

Starfield, Bethesda's first full single-player role-playing game in eight years, was released in September 2023 and has since attracted over 15 million players. IGN's 7/10 review praised the game's "expansive roleplaying quests and respectable combat," noting that "Starfield has a lot of forces working against it, but eventually the allure of its expansive roleplaying quests and respectable combat make its gravitational pull difficult to resist."

Recent revelations from another former Bethesda developer highlighted the unexpected amount of loading screens in Starfield, especially in the city of Neon. Since its launch, Bethesda has been actively working to enhance the game, introducing a 60fps performance mode and releasing the Shattered Space expansion in September.