Bethesda’s games are always ambitious, but the more recent release of The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion Remastered highlights a key way in which Starfield has regressed. Oblivion Remastered makes some important changes to the 2006 original, but most of its gameplay systems are intact, including that which dictates its NPC behavior. The original Oblivion was the pioneer release for what Bethesda calls Radiant AI, and it was subsequently a staple of the developer’s sandbox RPGs – until it didn’t appear at all in Starfield.

Radiant AI was designed to make Cyrodiil feel like a living place by giving each of the game’s NPCs a schedule. Nearly every character in Oblivion, Skyrim, Fallout 3, and Fallout 4 (and Obsidian Entertainment’s Fallout: New Vegas) wakes up at a specific time, has certain goals they try to accomplish throughout the day, and a set time when they go to bed. Oblivion‘s Radiant AI is fairly basic by today’s standards, and there are even mods to improve it, but its absence is gravely felt in Starfield.

Starfield Isn’t The Same Without NPC Schedules

The Settled Systems Often Feel Lifeless

NPCs in Starfield still have tasks that they try to accomplish, but the lack of a full Radiant AI iteration can be felt throughout the Settled Systems. The easiest place to recognize the lack of true NPC schedules is in the shops, which never close in Starfield. No matter what time you land on a planet or go shopping, merchants are always available to barter. There is, of course, a Starfield mod to rectify this specific issue.

Once you notice it, it’s hard to ignore the fact that very few characters seem to be going about their day with any verisimilitude. NPCs just kind of wander around the major cities, often without a home to return to, nor any activities to participate in each day. Starfield is impressive for the character model density it achieves in locations like New Atlantis and Neon, but all those NPCs end up becoming nothing more than background noise without programmed purpose, no matter how mundane.

It ultimately makes sense that Starfield abandoned a true Radiant AI system. You’re constantly hopping between planets, so it ends up being convenient for the player to have every NPC available to them at all times of day. It’s also another case of Starfield simply being too ambitious for its own good – it likely has hundreds more named NPCs than Oblivion, so giving them all schedules that adhere to the planets’ various day lengths would be a tricky undertaking.

Oblivion Remastered’s NPC Behavior Is One Of Its Best Features

Cyrodiil Feels Like A Place Where People Live

Oblivion is quaint compared to Starfield‘s more than 1,000 planets, but it also feels more tangible because of its Radiant AI. When you go to the bustling Imperial City in the middle of the night, the streets will be empty save for guards on the night shift and the occasional night owl. Just like a real society, most of Cyrodiil’s denizens go to bed at night, and they can be found sleeping in their bed (if you creepily sneak into their bedroom to watch them).

If you’re up too early, you have to wait for a shop to open; if you’re hoping to rent a room at an inn in the middle of the night, you’ll have to wake up the proprietor. There’s a rhythm to Oblivion and Oblivion Remastered‘s in-game society that makes it feel immersive. Quests leverage this too in subtle ways. Sometimes you’ll have to buy a book from a bookstore, but if you get there too late, maybe instead of waiting, you’ll just try to find and steal it after picking the lock.

There’s almost even a big sign that reads, “Check out our NPC schedules,” in the form of the “Paranoia” quest in Skingrad. A Wood Elf named Glarthir thinks his neighbors are conspiring against him, so he asks you to tail them throughout the day. You find each of them emerging from their home in the morning, doing activities like praying in the city cathedral or working in a vineyard outside the city walls, before they return home and go to bed at night.

What’s so important is that you can do this with almost any other character in the game. I wouldn’t recommend it, it would be painfully boring, but it’s a major testament to Oblivion‘s world design that most characters have goals each day, and they actually set out to do them. They’re not just props for the player to interact with on occasion.

Bethesda Keeps Focusing On The Wrong Things

Can The Elder Scrolls 6 Be A Return To Form?

Starfield has a lot of things going for it, but it doesn’t have as tight of a sandbox design as Bethesda’s previous games. Much of this can, again, be attributed to its sheer size, but even the places where Radiant AI could’ve been implemented piecemeal end up feeling more gamified than a game that came out in 2006. There’s an inauthentic quality to Starfield where the further you look away from its quests, the more the illusion breaks down, which is disheartening because the sandbox RPG is Bethesda’s specialty.

It’s a different, but related, issue to why Fallout 4 feels like less of an RPG than Fallout 3 and New Vegas. The voiced protagonist is a major barrier to feeling like I’m participating in a living world. I’m not talking to Fallout 4 characters; the Sole Survivor is. It seems to be an unfortunate trend where Bethesda feels compelled to push the envelope in a style of game that is unique to Bethesda. Obviously, Bethesda shouldn’t be forced to make what is effectively the same game repeatedly, but I’d rather see the studio continue to hone things like the Radiant AI system than abandon it to try something less enthralling.

The great irony is that Starfield attempts to deliver a realistic take on humanity in the 24th century with its NASA-punk aesthetic, but because its NPCs are puddle-deep, the whole thing feels like a theme park. Oblivion Remastered is a nearly 20-year-old game with a new coat of paint, but Cyrodiil still feels more engaging and believable than the Settled Systems.