Can we still trust Bethesda to make good video games?

Bethesda, at its peak, was the pinnacle of single-player RPG development. The Fallout and Elder Scrolls series still provide hundreds of hours of collective fun within each game, and have cemented Bethesda’s place in video game history.

Now, even the most diehard fans are cautiously optimistic – at best – when it comes to new Bethesda titles.

Right now, we know about Starfield, Redfall, and Elder Scrolls 6. The former two have just been delayed to next year with ES 6 still extremely early in development.

Bethesda

A lot has changed since the Bethesda heyday, though. Fallout 4 was pretty good, but a step backwards from previous entries. Fallout 76, though, was an absolute disaster.

With the primary development group behind Elder Scrolls and Fallout off on their own, the story beats have taken a noticeable dip.

The Outer Worlds developers, largely made up of the original Fallout team, has much more of a promise of returning us to the experience we once had playing Fallout 3/New Vegas and Skyrim.

Oddly, it’s Fallout 4 that feels more like a Fallout clone than Outer Worlds.

Developers seem to be falling from grace left and right in recent years. Blizzard, CD Projekt Red, Bioware, and Dice have all been victims of their own success.

Bethesda is now under the Microsoft umbrella, which could be seen as a good thing for their future games.

Maybe, with the backing of Microsoft, Bethesda will be able to let their next games bake a bit longer until their finished – although I have my doubts.

We, as gamers, seem content to give Bethesda another chance after Fallout 76. 

I, for one, don’t expect much from any of the upcoming Bethesda titles, but hope to be completely wrong.