Even Starfield fans can't fathom why it won most innovative gameplay in 2023's Steam awards
"Full of stuff to do," sure, "innovative," not so much.
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Starfield won Steam's user-voted "most innovative gameplay award," only there are plenty of fans that don't even understand why.
It's fine if you like Starfield. It's fine if you love the game too! But, I think we can all agree, it was exactly anything revolutionary. Overall, it was the latest iteration of a Bethesda game, and there's nothing wrong with that. For some reason, though, Steam users elected to give Starfield the "most innovative gameplay award," an award with a description that reads "the designers of this game are at the front lines of creative experimentation, bringing a fresh perspective and brain-breaking surprises." Sure, the new take on lock-picking was cool, but not exactly brain-breaking, and not much else was either.
Funnily enough, plenty of fans on the game's own subreddit seem a bit confused about the award too. "The same formula from 12 years ago on the same engine, but replaced hand-crafted areas with procedural generation? Wow, so innovative," wrote one user quite scathingly. "Gone through this whole comments section and literally not a soul has actually gone against the grain and offered something 'innovative' about starfield," wrote another. "I genuinely don’t think there is anything myself."
One user even asked "what kind of parallel universe are we living in?" with another tongue-in-cheekily responding "NG+ 6."
Last year (sorry to remind you all it's 2024 now), Bethesda outlined its plans for Starfield in 2024. For one, starting in February, there are plans to bring updates to the game every six weeks, including "everything from quality-of-life improvements to content and feature updates." There are also plans for "new ways to travel and you’ll now be able to access city maps while exploring the major cities. For those of you who love ship building, we'll also be expanding on ship customization with ship decorations, new ship building options, and more." Maybe one of these updates will let Starfield earn its Steam award.