Starfield players mock facial expressions as if characters are on “meth”
BethesdaStarfield has finally launched to critical acclaim from players and critics. The game’s space exploration, combat, and storytelling have been praised, but one area that’s come under fire is Starfield’s facial expressions.
It seemed like the day would never come, but it finally has. Starfield is out now. Bethesda fans and players in general are getting stuck into many hours of sci-fi sightseeing. The game has instantly struck a vein of popularity and even knocked the dominant Baldur’s Gate 3 off its perch.
Just in the game’s early hours, Starfield users have already been taking inspiration from Star Wars by creating fully-fledged Star Destroyers. Not everything is ideal though. Various bugs have seen the likes of players taking off without actually being in their ship. Another commonly discussed issue concerns Starfield’s facial expressions which have been described as “ugly blocky faces.”
Starfield facial expressions is a long-standing Bethesda issue?
Bethesda has been making RPG games for decades now – primarily The Elder Scrolls and Fallout. However, the company’s fervid community claims that the company still can’t do facial animations properly.
In a Reddit post from user IcarusH, they showed a video of an NPC pulling an alarmed face when the user got close to them to pickpocket their goods.
“My character’s eyes look like that sometimes. Like he just did a giant rail of meth and is seeing the other side,” joked one user, whereas another player said: “Crazy how BGS (Bethesda Game Studios) still hasn’t learned to animate faces lmao.”
A few comments were very critical of Bethesda for Starfield’s facial animations. One user thought that “These kinds of issues have been in every game they’ve put out for decades” and another sentiment even compared the game to The Elder Scrolls IV: “Bethesda returning to their Oblivion roots and making ugly blocky faces possible in 2023.”
It’s unlikely this problem will majorly deter players. Especially when Bethesda is going to great lengths to include legendary Easter Eggs from Skyrim.