I already disliked all the references to US history in Fallout 4. To me, cowboys feel misplaced in a science fiction universe. It’s just personal preference though. But the question stands: are large parts of the main story related to the cowboy characters, or does it work mostly without?
Yeah, I think so. I’ve got 40 hours in and only spent pretty much the bare minimum time in Akila which I’m pretty sure is the home base for the cowboys. While there are quests to be done and XP to be gained, I will probably leave Akila for when I start to get tired of other gameplay and want something different.
Starfield, like a lot of sci-fi, compares the early days of space travel to the old west. With that said, at close to 30 hours in my first character, there hasn’t been a single time I’ve engaged with the cowboy stuff. It’s largely attached to one of the two biggest factions, which is a group I haven’t engaged with at any point so far, with one exception being an encounter with one member of that faction as part of a brief, radiant quest.
So yeah, you can completely avoid it! Happy gaming!
Thanks!
Yeah, I would hope someone would some day compare it to similar events from other countries in other parts of the world. But as long as many major game companies are based in the US, that probably won’t happen.
Hard agree honestly - as an Aussie, American exceptionalism tires me. For what it’s worth, there is The Expanse, that compares colonisation of other worlds more to British colonisation (and Roman, for that matter) if that interests you
Great thanks! I have heard good things about that series. Now I want to check it out even more :)
To be fair - there is a tiny bit of space cowboy-ism in The Expanse, tough. But it is very tongue-in-cheek, even in-universe.
Most of the space cowboy stuff is found on the space cowboy planet (where Akila is). The main story has you visit them to get familiar with the big colonies, but you don’t have to stay or do much with it. Other than that, you’ll only sometimes run into space cowboys; they’re the police for the Freestar Collective controlled parts of space.
They put everything and then kitchen sink related to sci-fi in the game, though. If you like sci-fi, you’ll find a slice of the game that appeals to you somewhere.
Yeah, that’s what I liked about Bethesda: most things are optional. Great, thank you for the insight!