Judging by the enraged reactions I sometimes get on social media, it seems that people can have a hard time wrapping their head around the fact that us game critics have multiple negative and positive feelings about a game, compartmentalising them in such a way that we can express wariness of frustration about one aspect of a game, then later that same day jump to the game’s defence about something else.
Case in point: I’m not too keen on Starfield's dubious exclusivity deal with AMD, but I will still defend Starfield when I hear the contention that a still from the game’s start screen is an indicator that ‘the team was rushed, overworked, hasty, or didn’t care.’ That’s the charge laid out by Mark Kern on Twitter, and it caused a bit of a hoo-hah.
Even Bethesda’s Head of Publishing Pete Hines got involved in the debate, responding to what I think was actually a sarcastic reply to Grummz defending Starfield:
It all got a bit messy, culminating in games journo Paul Tassi histrionically accusing Kern of using Nazi terminology because he used a big word he didn’t understand, and generally everyone getting a bit worked up. Really, the whole thing comes down to this: what Kern/Grummz said is nonsense.
There’s analysis, then there’s over-analysis, and Grummz’s take here blunders into the latter category. If we put together a list of 1000 random games, do you think we’d find some correlation between minimal (though, honestly, aesthetically fine) start screens and rushed, or ‘uncaring’ development teams? Personally, I just don’t see it.
Just off the top of my head: Elden Ring and just about all FromSoft games have had the most minimal of start screens. Bethesda’s own Skyrim was just a black screen with a fog effect and the Dragonborn logo; it felt appropriately chilly and atmospheric, and was elevated by the now-legendary Skyrim theme. Dusk and Gloomwood dev Dillon Rogers pointed out on Twitter that Alien Isolation had a minimal (and actually quite similar to Starfield) start screen. Mass Effect, Outer Wilds, Homeworld Remastered, the list of sparing start screens goes on. Particularly in space games, a crisp, dark, minimal aesthetic speaks more to the cold, hostile grandeur of space, rather than, as Kern suggests, major problems in the game’s development.
Then there’s the fact that Grummz’s basis for this unflattering statement is a single still screenshot of a main menu that, if Bethesda’s past work is anything to go by, is actually animated. Whether that animation is minimal like Skyrim’s fog-and-logo, or whether it transitions through multiple different shots like Fallout 4’s more elaborate start screen, we’re not getting the full picture from a single screenshot. Absolutely anything can happen on the start screen that we’re not seeing there. Even if Starfield goes for the minimal approach, it will be defined as much by the music as it will by the visuals, and Bethesda has an absolutely stellar track record on the theme music front.
There’s just so much information missing from that screenshot that even assessing the design and UI quality in and of itself is absurd, let alone extrapolating from it a whole bunch of negative conclusions about the game’s development process and the team’s dedication to it. Even if the start screen was shown in its full final form, it would still be ridiculous to hone in on this one tiny detail of the game to make such huge statements about it.
Also, it’s kind of a matter of personal taste, isn’t it? Some people like a minimal start screen, others like a busy one. I look at that Starfield menu, and I think that with an appropriately epic orchestral theme and perhaps some kind of orbity, planet-rotation type animations in there, it works: now take me to the actual game!
Probably more than most, I get the desire to have a say on every little detail of a major game in the buildup to its release, but let’s be reasonable here and not start playing palm-readers or game dev psychologists by over-reading into things and making tenuous, pejorative claims about the developer. And conversely, let’s not counteract those tenuous claims with equally tenuous ones accusing the perpetrator of using Nazi terminology, shall we?
Just chill, everyone. Starfield is nearly upon us and soon all questions will be answered. Will the game be good, bad, or (my bet) an impressive but buggy marvel? Who knows, but one thing that I’m certain of is that however it turns out will have nothing to do with a start screen that one guy has decided means a lot more than it actually does.