My impressions of Akila City

 I have just returned to the wonderful virtual world of Starfield, and I have to say that I am still greatly enjoying the game. The complaints about Starfield are somewhat valid in some ways but most of it is just to criticize the game to get views on YouTube. That's the honest reason. Some of the YouTube aristocracy have made careers just on criticizing games for either being woke or not aligned with their political beliefs. Some of these commentators are very intelligent people who make great points about how politics is infecting the gaming industry. However, there are many just want to attack the game for not being the next Grand Theft Auto game, which is a very unrealistic expectation. I just looked at the GTA VI trailer and I must say that Starfield looks like a very old game in many ways but Starfield is its own thing and should be respected as being a great achievement. When I played the game, I am not thinking about the Grand Theft Auto series, I am thinking about Mass Effect and other space games that I have played. GTA is its own thing and Starfield is its own thing.

With this perspective in mind, one cannot help to be amazed at the design of Akila City. Unlike the stark divide between rich and poor in New Atlantis, Akila is already a pretty ugly looking city. It is a city in transition from the old days of Solomon Coe's founding the city to the building of the Freestar Collective as an important player in the politics of Starfield. The city has a Wild West vibe to it, yet it is futuristic at the same time. Akila is not a city that is reminiscent of the Citadel in Mass Effect but more of the planet of Tatooine and its cities of Mon Espa and Mos Eisley. 

Akila City really reminds me of Tatooine in many ways and I believe that Bethesda was deliberate in creating the vibes of Akila City. I just decided to take a jaunt through the city, and I must say that it is better designed than New Atlantis. Unlike New Atlantis, Akila City seems to be better designed and has a density to it that is missing in New Atlantis. The lack of huge skyscrapers in Akila makes the city easier to navigate in the game, especially when looking for shops and important attractions. 

Akila City is truly a work of love by the team at Bethesda. I think it should get more attention by the fans of the games instead of all this criticism by them in the game.

Many players like to complain that Starfield does not have diversity in its cities and culture, but Akila City shows that Starfield was designed to have a multitude of styles and cultures in the game. Unlike games like Skyrim, which only hint at different cultures, Starfield fully embraces its settings and shows us in a realistic way in my opinion how mankind would develop amongst the stars. 

Akila City to me is what Bethesda should be attempting to accomplish with their future games. In the Elder Scrolls VI, Bethesda should be trying to stay away from the small villages of Skyrim and give us truly realized cities in the game. Akila City isn't the biggest city in the game, but it was way more interesting than most of the cities in Skyrim. Akila City is divided into the haves and have nots in the city. The Stretch in Akila is showing how the Freestar Collective is all about liberty and freedom but it comes at a price. The descendants of Solomon Coe live in a great mansion in the upper parts of the city while tons of people are living in poverty in the Stretch. While I walked through the virtual streets of the Stretch, I was impressed at how Bethesda could represent poverty and economic inequality. Cyberpunk 2077 was supposed to talk about these things, but the game is not more than beautiful facade that tries to act like it is an important cultural view on the issues of Capitalism and economic inequality. Starfield talks about economic inequality in way that is represented through the design of the game's cities. 

Overall, I was very much impressed with Akila City. People complain about this game, but Starfield is truly something special. It isn't just another Mass Effect or another version of Star Wars. Starfield is its own thing. I think that people should stop trying to criticize this game so much and attempt to enjoy to enjoy it for what it is. I think that the obsession with comparing this game to GTA is an issue that results from how influential the studio, Rockstar is. We need to have more realistic expectations of video games and instead of comparing to video games that budgets in the billions, we need to respect the fact that Bethesda made a great effort with this game.