Bethesda showed off the first Starfield gameplay during Microsoft’s 2022 Xbox and Bethesda Showcase on Sunday, and it already includes shooting, exploration, and lockpicking in space. One thing it didn’t show was the game’s main character speaking. Many players wondered if this meant that the player character would be Bethesda’s usual silent protagonist, or if it might be more like Fallout 4’s voiced protagonist.
On Monday, Bethesda confirmed on Twitter that the player character would not have a voice at all, and that the conversation in the game would be first-person.
This means Fallout 4, which launched in 2015, will end up the exception and not the new rule for Bethesda Game Studios RPGs. Previous to Fallout 4, Bethesda RPGs like The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim and Fallout 3 featured silent main characters. Many fans didn’t like the changed to a voiced character in Fallout 4; it seems Bethesda Game Studios agrees.
Starfield’s Xbox and Bethesda Showcase presentation also included some new information about spaceship customization, interstellar dogfighting, and the game’s thousands of planets that players will be able to explore. Starfield is set to come out in 2023.