We've already gone over idea that, indeed, Starfield is likely going to be Skyrim in space. When you give this notion some thought, though, there's something interesting to consider about the concept of an immersive, inventive first-person RPG: why on earth aren't there more of these games on the market?

Don't get us wrong: we don't mean to imply that all the other devs should be jumping onto the Bethesda project pipeline bandwagon. Not at all! Instead, there's a simple, undeniable fact one must keep in mind here: producing a properly engaging first-person game that affords you all the flexibility and immersion of a first-party Bethesda Game Studios title is... complicated. Prohibitively so.

Some would certainly bundle a whole lot of different games into this particular niche, but there are precious few of them. Setting aside Bethesda's entire roster of first-person RPG titles for a bit, we've got:

That's about it, unless we delve deep into the modding scene with titles like Nehrim. Or tangle into the proper mess that is the concept of an immersive sim, as with Deus Ex. Avowed is coming in the future, too, but we'll get to it when the time is right. So, slim pickings, then. But why is that the case, given the popularity of the niche?

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What Are First-Person Role-Playing Games?

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It's important to acknowledge, of course, that there's no shortage of regular role-playing games and, indeed, games with RPG elements on the market right now. Heck, Baldur's Gate 3 is romping around as a serious GOTY competitor, and the years' prior Elden Ring is still a hugely relevant cultural zeitgeist. RPGs are doing phenomenally well at large, it's the first-person aspect of the genre that's usually left behind.

The thing to keep in mind here is that setting players out and about to complete quests in an open-world in third-person is far easier than it is to do the same thing with first-person functionality on top correctly. That's because a proper first-person game needs:

All the games we listed above, as well as virtually all of Bethesda Game Studios' output, pull these things off correctly at the time when they come out, because the devs lean into them from the get-go. There is a bit more to this topic, though, and we believe we've got the formula down pat.

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Making a First-Person RPG is Hard

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As can easily be gleaned from the previous section, building a fantasy world that can be explored from a first-person perspective is hugely difficult, not necessarily due to gameplay mechanics and graphics necessities, but due to having to immerse players into the experience.

Certainly, building proper first-person combat is harder than doing the same in third-person is, and setting up a huge open-world that needs extremely high-fidelity assets because the player might stare at them from a few centimetres away, too, is hard. Getting players to lose themselves and, perhaps, forget that they're playing a video game in moment-to-moment gameplay is what it's all about.

Those who played Morrowind, Oblivion, and virtually any other BGS title on day one will know precisely what we're talking about. It's the interactivity of the world, and the persistence of its physical objects that defines a player's immersion, and pulling that off right is no mean feat.

Immersion is What It's All About

With a proper, full-fledged first-person RPG, virtually everything else about the game needs to work in tandem with and, in fact, in service of immersing the player.

Think back on Skyrim, for example. What's the one feature of this particular BethSoft RPG that's helped it weather the ages? It's not its narrative, that's for sure. It's not even the graphics, necessarily, because goodness knows prettier games have come and gone since its release. Gameplay, then? Bah, no! Skyrim's baseline combat is serviceable at best.

No - it's the immersion factor. The fact is that each and every item is a physical in-game object you can pick up, manipulate, and toss down on the ground. Don't forget: it's also going to stay right where you drop it (for a while), thanks to Bethesda's trademark object persistence features.

The game's ability to pull players into its game world more than makes up for any and all of its objective failings.

There's a Reason Why Bethesda Keeps Using Creation Engine

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This brings us to the inevitable conclusion of this article: for all its faults, Creation Engine (2) is a work of art and a technical wunderkind. In a world where games are heavily locked down and questionably moddable due to leveraging tech like Unreal Engine 5, Creation Engine - GameBryo, if we wanna be cheeky about it - stands in its own corner of the industry.

For all the calls from some members of the community for Bethesda to forego CE, 2Game's editorial team genuinely hopes that this never happens. Or, rather, that Bethesda eventually upgrades CE2 into a new-gen engine ready to tackle new and improved features without sacrificing immersion and object persistence. These bits cannot be underlined hard enough: they're crucial for a proper first-person RPG sandbox.

We Need More First-Person RPGs

Games like Kingdom Come: Deliverance prove well enough that Bethesda Game Studios isn't the only studio that can pull off the things we outlined above. The cost of doing this, however, is jankiness. Deliverance sits firmly in the category of Eurojank experiences. It delivers on the front of immersion, though, with impeccable first-person animations that bug out every so often. Its world is deeply believable and engaging, and its physicalization means that players are more likely to stay engaged for long periods of time.

Why, then, aren't more devs doing this same thing?

It's simple: pulling off a proper, full-fledged and immersive first-person RPG is extremely costly, difficult, and time-consuming. Simply by doing away with any and all immersive sim(alike) features early on, studios can save themselves hundreds of hours' worth of headaches all at once. Yet, there's much to be said about these games' respective longevity and critical acclaim. It's a give-and-a-take, and we cannot fault the devs for believing that there's no point in competing on this front in the first place.

Will that change in the future? We don't really know! We are looking forward to Avowed, though, to see if Obsidian has stepped up its output since the days of The Outer Worlds!

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We’ve already gone over idea that, indeed, Starfield is likely going to be Skyrim in space. When you give this notion some thought, though, there’s something interesting to consider about the concept of an immersive, inventive first-person RPG: why on earth aren’t there more of these games on the market? Don’t get us wrong: we […]