Starfield fan presents significantly enhanced inventory redesign

A Starfield fan composed a well-thought-out redesign of the inventory that significantly enhances the existing user interface of the game, albeit with some reservations. At the conclusion of the five-day early access period for Starfield, their proposal garnered widespread approval from the fan community.

Although Starfield is one of the most highly acclaimed games of the year, the majority of critics quickly pointed out that the space role-playing game still suffers from some shortcomings that have plagued Bethesda titles for many years. A common criticism revolves around the inventory, which closely resembles that of The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim, presenting players with lengthy lists of items to scroll through, lacking sorting options, and lacking additional quality-of-life features apart from the ability to rename weapons and armor.

Recently, Reddit user turbokacperel took the initiative to create a well-received overhaul of the inventory, which would tremendously enhance the existing user interface of Starfield while addressing these concerns. Their redesign eschews long lists of items in favor of a grid-based system that accommodates significantly more information on a single screen. And although this leads to a somewhat busier display, many fans responded positively to this proposal, expressing their willingness to embrace a more visually dynamic screen if it means spending less time scrolling through the inventory. This inherent advantage of grids over lists is acknowledged.

Not everyone agreed with this viewpoint. Some Starfield players pointed out how the overhaul might potentially complicate controller-based navigation, particularly when playing on a television, and they might encounter difficulties in discerning some of the smaller elements in the proposed design. Whether this argument is sufficient to reject the entire underlying premise of the overhaul is a matter of debate, not least because Cyberpunk 2077 had an extremely similar user interface that functioned quite well on consoles, at least in the sense that it did not generate widespread criticism. Several hits from 2023, such as The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom and the remake of Resident Evil 4, also featured grid-based inventories that translated effectively to televisions and controllers.

The debate arising from this redesign idea highlights that the user interfaces of Bethesda games have undoubtedly evolved over the years, yet the studio's ongoing efforts to optimize them remain a somewhat polarizing topic within the ever-expanding fan community. As a result, user interface overhauls are likely to become one of the most popular types of Starfield mods in the long run, as has been the case with most of the company's previous RPGs.

However, it may take a while before the modding community releases detailed inventory redesigns for Bethesda's latest game. While the developer has promised to make Starfield a paradise for modders, the official modding toolkit is still without a release date, which will hinder serious third-party efforts to customize and create content.

Starfield will be released on September 6th for PC and Xbox Series X/S.