When it comes to Bethesda titles, there are a few things you can expect. The first is you can expect a grand-scale title full of things to do. After all, they like having big worlds, realms, or, more recently, universes to explore. The second is that you can expect things to not go perfectly at launch and for there to be some hilarious bugs that missed the developers’ gaze. We still remember the backward-flying dragon in Skyrim. Then, naturally, there will be plenty of mods to help improve the games, which is what we’re talking about with Starfield right now.
From the moment the game was announced, and since its reveal of being in a full-on universe to explore, many gamers have been thinking about the kinds of mods they would be able to input into the title. According to Tech4Gamers, the popular modding site Nexus Mods has created over 6500 mods since the game’s launch, and the combined download numbers for them have reached over 33 million.
On the surface, that would seem like a big accomplishment and proof that the game is a hit. After all, the game hasn’t sold or been played by 33 million players, so plenty of people are downloading several mods. But when you dive deeper into things, you realize that they might all be downloading these mods because they absolutely HAVE TO so they can get the best gaming experience.
Starfield did have the typical “bug problem” at launch, but that’s not what brought it down in many people’s eyes. What lowered its standing compared to past games by Bethesda was the fact that it just didn’t feel “alive” compared to the realms of Skyrim, Oblivion, the Wasteland, and so on. Plus, the game lacked many features that many people felt should’ve been standard in the game’s launch.
For example, there are mods to ensure you don’t have a weight limit with the stuff you carry, so you don’t have to keep dropping or passing off the stuff you carry constantly. There are also mods that make seamless space travel versus the stop-and-start process that Bethesda has you go through. Even then, the mods aren’t able to fix everything, like the very lackluster amount of worlds that have nothing on them or the plot, which is mediocre at best.
So, while the game might have a good modding community, it might be better to say that the community is hoping these mods make the game better than Bethesda did.
