One Huge Starfield Tracker’s Alliance Plothole Is Just Plain Lazy

Summary

• Starfield
  ‘s New Game+ mechanic through Unity has a plothole, forcing players to go through story beats that don’t make sense with their prior knowledge.
• During “The Starjacker” mission, players fall for the same con even after going through Unity, with no meaningful ways to use their prior information.
• Bethesda struggles with creating immersive worlds and giving players agency, exemplified by
  Starfield
  ‘s lack of player choice in “The Starjacker” mission.

Starfield’s Unity storyline is an interesting take on a New Game+ mechanic, but it also opens up a major plothole. The Unity is a strange object at the center of the universe built by The Creators. Entering The Unity allows players to be reborn in a new universe as a Starborn. This is the game’s in-universe explanation for allowing players to start a New Game+, retaining some of their knowledge from the first playthrough but losing things like items and relationships.

While an in-universe explanation for New Game+ is a fun twist on a familiar mechanic, one would hope that Bethesda would have taken steps to ensure Starfield’s subsequent playthroughs would adapt somehow. One glaring instance of when this becomes a problem is when players are forced to go through certain story beats that don’t make sense when they supposedly already know what’s going to happen. What’s worse is that, in some instances, players aren’t even allowed to make choices based on their prior knowledge of the universe.

Players Fall For The Same Con Even After Going Through Unity

This Happens During “The Starjacker” Mission

One glaring instance of Starfield’s New Game+ causing issues with immersion is during one of the game’s bounty missions, “The Starjacker.” During the mission, players are tasked with tracking down a criminal, Hannibal Eutropio. In the mission, players track down an informant, Adrastos Dakota, who tells them about an illegal chop shop being run by Hannibal and his associates. Later in the quest, however, it is revealed that Adrastos Dakota is Hannibal using an alias to trick the player into going to the chop shop so he can steal a ship from them.

Players falling for this trick on their first playthrough makes sense, seeing as their character has no idea that Adrastos is actually Hannibal. However, after going through The Unity, the player character should know that they are being fooled. Since most other things about their new universe have stayed the same, it seems highly unlikely that they would, for some reason, think that this new version of Adrastos isn’t also just Hannibal conning them. However, the game doesn’t offer any meaningful ways to use this prior information during the quest.

Starfield Doesn’t Allow Players To Use Their Prior Knowledge Of The Universe

Players In New Game+ Should Remember Their Past Life

During “The Starjacker,” there is a point where players could easily just apprehend who they now know is the real Hannibal, but aren’t given the option. There are no new dialogue choices to tell their bounty-hunting partner, Roach, what they know, and trying to initiate combat against Hannibal is no good either. Players can shoot Hannibal as many times as they like, but he never dies. This means players are forced to watch as “The Starjacker” plays out the same way it did the first time.

Not allowing players to utilize their knowledge from their previous playthrough wouldn’t be an issue with a typical New Game+ mechanic. However, because Starfield tries to justify its New Game+ with an in-universe explanation, it opens itself up to this type of scrutiny. Instances like this cause The Unity to feel less like an actual storytelling device and more like a lazy way for Starfield to get in on the waning popularity of multiverse stories. It was Bethesda’s choice to include this story element in Starfield, but it seems clear they weren’t equipped to see it through.

Starfield’s Plothole Continues A Disappointing Bethesda Trend

Bethesda Has Struggled To Give Players Agency In The Past, Too

Bethesda has earned itself a bit of a negative reputation for its struggles with creating truly immersive worlds. Perhaps one of the best examples of this is how Fallout 3 took away the many complex choices offered in the franchise’s previous installments and replaced it with a largely on-rails story where the player rarely feels like the protagonist in their own story. While they have seemingly taken some steps toward improving the narrative options available to players in the years since, Bethesda still seems more intent on forcing players to experience through certain stories.

“The Starjacker” is a perfect example of a story Bethesda wants only to play out one way and won’t allow the player to have any agency over. Even though the player’s character knows they are being scammed, they are forced to go through the motions. Starfield’s devs seemingly just liked their con man character so much they would sacrifice player immersion to let him escape an infinite number of times.

There are plenty of video game narratives that don’t offer the players any choices, and it isn’t inherently bad. The Last of Us has one of video games’ best narratives and also only has one way to play out. However, The Last of Us doesn’t wrap itself in the veneer of a role-playing game that offers players choice or agency. Players wouldn’t expect so much out of games like Starfield in terms of choice if it wasn’t what they were being promised.