Bethesda RPGs tend to ask for a fair amount of time from their players, but stories like the UC Vanguard questline make every decision and moment of their time worthwhile. The company may be known for the fantasy elements in the Elder Scrolls series, but there's plenty that can be said about the dedication and detail that goes into its science fiction stories as well. Starfield merges all kinds of aesthetics and classic sci-fi tales together into a sprawling adventure that has something for everyone. The same can be said of Fallout, which acts almost as the other side of the coin to Starfield and its multi-planetary future.
For every run-down and abandoned vault in Fallout, Starfield has a planet for players to explore with some housing thriving city-states.
Both of these game worlds make good use of futurist architecture and design, but with different and polarizing feelings behind them. Fallout focuses on its uniquely torn world, people, and the surrounding finality, while Starfield hands those same players infinity on a silver platter. Both games also feature a ton of shady dealings, government meddling, and secretive experimentation. Those three things end up making two difficult enemies more similar than fans might think at first glance. Deathclaws and Terrormorphs are forces to be reckoned with, but the Terrormorph's best-kept secret makes all the difference.
June 3 is Going to Be a Big Day for Fallout 76
Fallout 76 reveals big things coming to the multiplayer action-RPG on June 3, including the addition of a long-awaited new feature.
The Terrormorph's Life Cycle is the Only Thing Separating It From Fallout's Deathclaws
The Origin of the Deathclaws
Deathclaws, to put it simply, are at the fault of the United States found in Fallout's lore. Aiming to create super-soldiers that could handle any high-risk missions that would lead to the loss of ordinary troops, the scientists mashed together different animal genes as if they were creating something for Jurassic Park. Also, not unlike the cautionary tale of genetic manipulation, Fallout's Deathclaws broke free after the thermonuclear war that caused the world to end.
Once free, the Deathclaws began to multiply and grow their population. For a time, they were spoken about and treated as dangerous cryptids by survivors. As the years went by, the reptilian beasts' numbers continued to grow, and eventually they were no longer a word-of-mouth myth. Allowing Deathclaws to nest too close to any settlements would spell their demise due to their immense power, but dealing with them in any small number certainly isn't easy. Fallout players typically need some kind of heavy artillery to take them down due to their armor and high HP values, and the game makes it a point to give players a minigun and enough ammo to take down their first Deathclaw for this reason.
Starfield's Terrormorph and Fallout's Deathclaw Similarities and Differences
When players sign up to be part of Starfield's UC Vanguard, they might feel like many of the quests are diplomatic in nature until things take a quiet, unsettling shift. After a surprise encounter, they're flying around and asking about a sample of an alien creature capable of causing horrific hallucinations and tearing man limb from limb. They'll discover that these Terrormorphs suddenly appeared one day and destroyed the UC colony of Londinion, with the potential for another sudden attack.
With this knowledge, the player is once again trying to reach a diplomatic understanding to handle the threat, only to have it interrupted by the very same attack they were working hard to avoid. If players thought the first Terrormorph they dealt with was tough enough, as it tanks all sorts of artillery, then they'll be sweating as they try to protect Starfield's New Atlantis from about three of them at the same time.
Big, startling, ammo-depleting, and able to take more hits than players can dish out easily, Terrormorphs and Deathclaws are in-game threats that tend to offer challenges in high-octane moments. Terrormorphs may be natural predators, as startling as that may be, but the incident behind Londinion was a secret among UC archives.
They may not be experimental, but future attacks could be attributed to the United Colonies for not doing something sooner, just as the Deathclaw infestation of the post-war world in Fallout is the United States' fault in that franchise's lore. Thanks to the fact that Terrormorphs aren't human-induced, though, they have a natural cause that serves as their weakness, and the biggest difference from their Fallout counterparts.
Terrormorphs are caused by a natural reaction to their environment, and can be stopped at the source of their evolution. Starfield's Heatleeches, a small pest known for clinging to ship exhausts to feast off of their heat, can transform into Terrormorphs when left to feed for far too long. Usually, this transformation takes time, but when a plant native to the Heatleeches' planet gets in the mix, the process is accelerated so quickly that Terrormorphs seem to appear overnight.
As frightening as Starfield's Terrormorphs are, as long as the Heatleeches are not allowed to thrive, there are no hallucination-inducing behemoths that can destroy colonies wandering around. Deathclaws, however, have been genetically perfected and even made smarter by scientists in the war-torn world they now thrive in.
Thanks to the Terrormorph's secret, yet easily manageable weakness, Deathclaws remain the most terrifying threat between Starfield and Fallout. Perhaps, though, another key difference between them is that the Deathclaws aren't wholly Bethesda's creation, as they've been in Fallout since its beginning with Interplay Entertainment.
Starfield
-
OpenCritic Reviews
- Top Critic Avg: 85 /100 Critics Rec: 83%
WHERE TO PLAY
- Steam Deck Compatibility
- yes
- Platform(s)
- PC, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S
- OpenCritic Rating
- Mighty
- How Long To Beat
- 20 Hours
- X|S Optimized
- Yes
- File Size Xbox Series
- 101 GB (September 2023)
