Starfield players reveal “saddest” & “most unrealistic” aspect of humanity’s lore
BethesdaThe futuristic universe of Starfield has many tragic tales to uncover, but players on Reddit feel that the game’s treatment of dogs is its “saddest” and “most unrealistic” part.
Starfield, like Bethesda’s other major franchises, has a ton of lore backing up the game’s events. From the conflict that separates its two major factions to the reasons behind Earth‘s transformation into a barren desert, the sci-fi RPG provides plenty of backstory to set the scene for its narrative.
However, Starfield’s lore isn’t prone to a few inconsistencies that could’ve crept in over the course of its development. Players have pointed out many such details since its release, with a prominent one being the lack of explanation regarding the whereabouts of people from specific backgrounds and ethnicities.
Another lore element that hasn’t been fleshed out entirely is the absence of pet animals like dogs and cats. In fact, no native animals from Earth are present in any human settlements, which leaves room for the assumption that these species perished after the planet’s atmosphere collapsed.
Much to the disappointment of many players, it looks like dogs and cats suffered the same fate. An item description in Starfield even states that Labrador Retrievers are extinct in its universe. This bit of information came as a blow to Reddit user ‘Serafim42,’ who posted their discovery with the caption “This is the saddest thing I’ve found, so far.”
Users in the comments looked to be equally disappointed with one player saying, “The most unrealistic part of Starfield. Nobody would leave their pets behind like that.”
They weren’t alone in refusing the explanation as another user stated, “It’s just worldbuilding inconsistency. I mean, they have fully functional cloning tech (and more besides). There’s no way in hell that they somehow lost all dog and cat DNA.”
Some users also tried to defend the game through a bit of headcanon, “Most likely it wouldn’t have been a choice. Considering how small human settlements are in this universe, evacuation of Earth was probably a government-led effort that had no chance of ever saving everyone so the priority was humans only.”
But these explanations seemed to fall on deaf ears as the majority felt that their absence was due to an oversight by the devs, “Of all poor story writing in Starfield, no humans brought their dogs when fleeing Earth is the poorest.”
Prior Bethesda titles made sure to feature dogs and cats, the Fallout games even have a canine companion named Dogmeat. So, the absence of these animals in Starfield came as a surprise to many players.
It remains to be seen if the devs consider adding them to the game in the future. And there’s always the chance that a mod doing exactly that surfaces after the release of Creation Kit 2.
Until then, check out check out everything we know about the Shattered Space DLC and the best ships to buy.