10 Things No One Wants To Admit About Bethesda RPGs
3. They're Bad At Speech Checks
While tackling objectives head-on is always something that players can do in roleplaying games, taking a less violent route is also a valid tactic. Alongside sneaking past enemies to get the job done quietly, another option is to turn on the charm and persuade characters to unlock or door or divulge some valuable information.
Normally, succeeding such a speech check depends on the player's charisma stats, with the higher the score meaning the easier it will be to talk yourself out of any sticky situation. Bethesda's approach to this common mechanic, though, has a history of being more complicated than it needed to be.
For example, these checks came in the form of the Speechcraft minigame in Oblivion where players gauged a NPC's reaction using a dialogue wheel. Fallout 4 gave players a percentage chance to succeed based on their stats, and Starfield's system is a guessing game about picking the right dialogue option and hoping for the best.
Although it's admirable that Bethesda are willing to experiment and try something different with their games, the systems that they implement are often less intuitive than what other RPGs have been doing for years.