Starfield’s jail system is like Skyrim’s: Serve your sentence or attempt a jailbreak?
Starfield, Bethesda’s next sci-fi action RPG, will have a jail system akin to Skyrim’s. The long-awaited IP has been termed “Skyrim in space,” and it appears that the developer did incorporate several mechanics known to Skyrim aficionados. Now that Starfield has gone gold and pre-loading has begun, gamers are even more eager to learn more about the space-faring RPG.
Bethesda held a Starfield Q&A session on August 16, perfectly timed to coincide with the spike of excitement induced by the game turning gold. Anyone who is a member of the game’s free Constellation group could join the Bethesda Game Studios Discord chat and ask questions, and Lead Game Designer Emil Pagliarulo and Lead Quest Designer Will Shen disclosed a variety of facts.
Some interesting information regarding Starfield’s judicial system were given, including the fact that it is similar to the one employed in Skyrim. There are laws that must be followed in the game’s Settled Systems, and if the player is found committing a crime, they will have the opportunity to surrender and either be thrown in jail or pay a fine. Of course, individuals who are more confident in their abilities to flee can easily fight arrest and flee. According to Pagliarulo, “The Settled Systems is more like Skyrim than Fallout 4’s Commonwealth in that regard.”
In Bethesda’s high-fantasy RPG, withering away in jail can gradually sap a character’s morale, causing them to lose advancement in several skills. It’s unknown whether this part of Skryim’s prison system made its way into Starfield, or whether there will be ways to sneak out of imprisonment. However, in a game that “explore[s] the themes of crime and punishment in our futuristic universe,” players will most certainly have the option of serving their sentence or attempting a jailbreak.
In Starfield, there is also a Contraband system that makes certain objects unlawful to buy or own. These include harvested organs, though the developers did not specify when or why the player may be transporting such shady cargo. To escape discovery, customised ship modules can be utilised to carry contraband while avoiding notice by patrolling security ships.
Many of those who took part in the Discord Q&A session were enthralled by the possibility of becoming a double agent by joining two competing factions. Players in Starfield will be able to join all sides at once, similar to Skyrim, eventually forcing them to choose between treason and loyalty. Pagliarulo and Shen present the example of a sidequest that tasks players with infiltrating the Crimson Fleet to obtain intelligence for the UC SysDef faction, with the player eventually deciding which side to support. In any case, Bethesda claims that all of the game’s playable factions can be “completed independently,” so players should be kept busy testing out all of their options.
