Starfield design lead says the space RPG is "in a lot of ways" the "hardest thing Bethesda has ever done" and also "the best game we've ever made"

Starfield design director Emil Pagliarulo knows the sci-fi RPG isn't "everyone's cup of tea", but he still reckons it's one of Bethesda's most ambitious projects as well as its best in a lot of ways.

We sat down with Pagliarulo ahead of Starfield's first story expansion, Shattered Space, and he explained how Bethesda views its new IP in relation to its more established and, let's be real, beloved franchises like The Elder Scrolls and Fallout. He first joked that making Starfield taught him that "fans really, really, really want Elder Scrolls 6", but then he went into a more earnest answer about Starfield's successes.

"I think in a lot of ways, Starfield is the hardest thing Bethesda has ever done," Pagliarulo said. "We pushed ourselves to make something totally different. To just jam into an Xbox the biggest, richest space simulation RPG anyone could imagine. That we pulled it off makes Starfield something of a technical marvel. It's also, in a lot of ways, the best game we've ever made. But for us, most importantly, Starfield has its own unique personality, and now sits right next to Fallout and Elder Scrolls."

It's hard to overstate the anticipation that preceded Starfield's launch last year, but it's safe to say it didn't quite meet the moment for most fans. Reviews from both critics and players have generally been solid, and our own Starfield review gave it 5/5 stars and called it "the best thing Bethesda's done since Oblivion", but in general the collective sentiment is that it just didn't live up to the monumental expectations set by genre-defining RPGs like Skyrim and Oblivion.

Doing little to change that narrative, Starfield's first story expansion, Shattered Space, launched to 42% positive "mixed" reviews on Steam this week.