Bethesda Is Changing The Way You Pickpocket In Starfield

Stealth-based characters in Bethesda’s space RPG Starfield will have to be a little more careful than they were in the developer’s previous games. Whenever you decide to pickpocket someone, the game will no longer pause like it did in Fallout or Skyrim. Instead, it’ll play out in real time, and you’ll have to stay near them as you’re doing it.

Thanks to a video posted by Reddit user OkPain2022, we’re given a glimpse of how pickpocketing will work. Of course, you’ll still need to approach them by crouching, and after you do that, a prompt will appear, allowing you to steal from them. After that, another menu will appear, showing you what they have and the odds of you successfully stealing said items.

Some fans wondered if the same rule would apply to lock-picking.”I wonder if lock picking will be the same way. It is in dying light and adds a considerable amount of anxiety while trying to lock pick with baddies nearby,” one user said. Others joked about how they no longer have time to do real-world tasks by saying, “No more putting on the kettle while I mull over what to steal huh…”

It’s also worth pointing out that this isn’t the first time Bethesda has made a feature play out in real time. In Fallout 3 and New Vegas, the game would pause whenever you decided to loot something. But in Fallout 4, that was no longer the case. Whenever you looted, everything around you would still be moving as it normally would.

For more Starfield news, be sure to check out our story on how being an Xbox exclusive means it’ll lose millions of PlayStation version sales, and the latest Starfield preorder bonus gives you a nice little snack.