The new Bethesda RPG, Starfield, has been under a barrage of criticism from its very first day, but this is one thing that gamers thrash the studio hard on: the nightclubs. NikTekOfficial’s latest tweet of one of the in-game clubs in Starfield instantly unleashed a torrent of hilarious yet harsh player responses, all calling it everything from “embarrassing” to “probably what Hell is like.”
The clip that has gone viral shows an utterly sterile, lifeless, and bizarrely awkward club scene with just as bad NPC animations and ambiance as you would expect from a middle school dance instead of a real nightclub. Without wasting any time, gamers just began to ridicule the so-called “party” vibe Bethesda tried so hard to create, with one sarcastically remarking, “This was made by people who never went to a nightclub.” Another chimed in, saying, “I literally watched cartoons on Cartoon Network that had better clubs than that, lol.”
No, this is nothing compared to the criticisms-The comparison was drawn on several occasions with Cyberpunk 2077’s nightlife, with many pointing at how CD Projekt Red actually nailed the aesthetic better. “Cyberpunk did such a better job,” one user said, while another shared a side-by-side comparison rendering Starfield’s effort even more laughable.
The clubs were far from being the shining lights; replies were skewering on the whole of Starfield more outraged than a spoiled kitty-cat: “Disappointing,” “awful,” and even, “Piece of dog shit.” Players began pointing out how much the gameplay felt rusty with another commenting, “Bethesda forgot they could improve on their gameplay from Fallout 4 and Skyrim.” A painful one.
Then again, not all were bashing it. Few tried to defend, one saying, “Nah, I liked it more than any other Bethesda game,” though those defending did concede a few points of contention such as “loadingscreens and facial animations [being] really annoying.”
The entire discussion around Starfield’s clubs continues to point at an even larger failure of the game-floating in-and-out of immersion in certain spots. Bethesda might be renowned for their massive worlds, but moments such as this yank a player right out. “This is where the game died in my eyes,” one player remarked.
Then there’s your run-of-the-mill Bethesda jank. “Every single cave in the game is the same cave,” said one player, which, frankly, coming from Bethesda, makes more sense than it shouldn’t. But in 2023 (sarcasm implied for 2025), you expect, well, more.
Yeah, so maybe Bethesda ought to keep to dungeons and dragons for at least one more launch. Or employ someone who has actually gone to a club before for the next one. At present, Starfield’s nightlife runs more to a “funeral for fun” than an actual “party in space.”
In the end, the tweet and the consequent replies only serve to emphasize how badly even the bigshot developers can stray with spectacular gusto. Will Bethesda ever learn from this is yet to be answered, but what is for sure, however, is that the gaming populace will never let this one die!
