Bethesda’s first new game world in over two decades, Starfield represents the culmination of the studios’ design choices. Depending on how you feel about their other RPGs, this is either a good or bad thing. Having played through several of Bethesda’s recent open world RPGs, I was intrigued about the premise (space exploration!) and whether the studio could provide some of what it said in those early days. Now that I’ve sunk around 40 hours into the game (and nowhere near finished) I can give some thoughts on where things currently stand, as well as what I think does and doesn’t work about Bethesda’s much-hyped new IP.
As with other Bethesda titles, you’re dropped into the game’s universe and almost immediately given a chance to roam the open world…er…worlds, mostly left to your own devices. This is good, since most of the more interesting missions are side quests and faction activities that take you off the beaten path. Players who’ve spent countless hours in Skyrim or wandering the wastelands of Fallout will find the experience mostly the same here, just in space. Find a planet, land on a planet, explore the planet and find locations that may or may not be occupied using your handy scanner. Or don’t, and just aimlessly wander listening to a vaguely synth-y soundtrack.
Invariably you’ll run into an alien life form curious to how you taste, or a faction that doesn’t appreciate the intrusion on an otherwise unoccupied world. The combat feels good. Shooting is mostly what it should be, with the laser weapons feeling weighty and not like you’re making finger guns while shouting “pew pew!” at your opponents. Starfield provides a boost pack which aids in combat as well, allowing you to jet over to opponents quickly, or zip out of the way of an explosion. Coupled with the low gravity of many planets, and it can make for some fun combat encounters.
Space combat is also interesting but can be a bit fiddly at times. You’re focusing on several systems at once, as you’d expect in a realistic dogfight. Balancing shields, three different weapon slots and your overall damage while trying to take out some pirates can be tough when it’s two or three on one. Encounters can easily result in watching your ship float into bits of space debris. Fortunately you can escape by jumping star systems. The trade-off is taking damage before you can leave, and if the ships you’re fighting are strong enough they can easily blow your ship to smithereens before you get the chance.Additional combat and enounter options like the ability to dock and board vessels you disable, are a nice touch to the overall experience. Its almost worth considering space as a separate area of the game entirely, as most of the space-based activities exist only within that area.
Let’s address that xenobiological alien elephant in the spaceship - Starfield is not Skyrim in space. It is not Fallout in space. Really, Starfield feels like an amalgamation of elements from the last several years of space gaming. Some resource gathering here (No Man’s Sky), some missions in relatively small planetary spaces there (Outer Worlds), and so on. Space mining of course being an updated version of Skyrim’s mining (on a planet, you don’t actually mine asteriods like in No Man’s Sky), and base building making an appearance from previous Bethesda titles with the addition of Fallout’s system of connecting settlements to share resources. I’ve barely touched Starfield’s basebuilding, extensive as it is. One can only do so much in 40 hours.
There’s plenty in Starfield that has its own appeal. Forgetting about the main mission of Constellation for a bit (which I’m avoiding discussion of due to spoilers) and you can live your best space smuggler, bounty hunter, space ranger or space pirate life. Most of those have their own factions, adding depth to those options. Of course, when the main faction quests are done that’s another matter but there’s plenty to be done before that point. However, all that back and forth, zipping between planets is less than seamless.
It’s hard to avoid the immersion breaking nature of fast traveling everywhere. Fast travel to orbit, fast travel to the surface. Fast travel to this city, fast travel to that planet, rinse repeat. Load times don’t help matters, as even with an SSD I’ve found myself waiting 30 seconds or so between planets or even moving from one space on a planet to another. I know this is a big, complex game, but it can be jarring to stare at a blank screen when you’re moving from an airlock into a city space.
You’re going to be fast traveling a lot. Especially to offload all the weapons, spacesuits and helmets you’ll loot which are going to weigh you down. Starfield keeps the encumbrance systems of other Bethesda titles and while I appreciate the scientific accuracy of mass over weight (well done, folks), your very human character can only contain so much in their space pantaloons. Even Vasco, your trusty robot companion unlocked in the opening hours, has so many spare robo-hands to carry your entire aresenal’s worth of firearms. This can be adjusted with a skill, but you’re going to be hauling a shop in your pants for a good long while.
What Starfield excels at, and Bethesda titles generally, are the extensive amounts of lore. Books, email, voice recordings…all those little snippets of backstory are there and waiting for you, allowing you to piece together exactly why this laboratory is full of dead scientists, or this space station is full of dead UNC security. (I didn’t say it was “happy”.) The number of skills, leaked online before launch, are equally extensive and require you to perform the actions associated with those skills in-game, adding some depth to the leveling of each one rather than simply allowing you to click a button with each level. Without a level cap, those who want to focus on the “of all trades” in “jack of all trades” can, if they’re willing to grind.
There are bugs, however. The most glaring I’ve found is a glitch that causes the game’s audio to play out of sync 30 seconds after something happens on screen. My PC’s drivers are all updated, and there’s a bunch of articles saying reboots will fix it. They haven’t, and really, who is going to reboot that regularly in a game that already takes a while to load? The usual Bethesda jank is also on full display. Characters who stare at a wall when talking to you? Check. Strange positioning of bodies during the same? Check. Odd animation glitches at random points, including bodies of fallen enemies? What part of “this is a Bethsda game” didn’t you understand?
All of this is…fine. Yes, even with the bugs I just mentioned, jarring as they may be. The game is fine, guys! It’s a fun experience if you’re aware of what you’re signing up for. Some of the issues will eventually be patched out, but it goes on the long, long list of modern releases that appear to have needed a bit more time to iron out some of the more glaring problems. It’s another Bethesda title in a long line of good-enough open world RPGs. Yes, it’s still open world, even if the worlds aren’t necessarily as open as some may have liked. There’s an excellent game underneath the bugs, but maybe wait for a few more patches or a sale before loading it on your PC and going off on your own space odyssey.
Starfield is currently available on Xbox Series X|S and PC.