We should really keep going to space, pushing ourselves further and further towards colonizing new planets and expanding the human race. While we currently don’t have the technology to do so, I feel like we’re on the cusp of making that leap. Starfield shows what that could look like for us, a new universe that’s filled with wonder and ready for us to explore. The visual language of this game is “NASA punk”, an aesthetic design where there aren’t screens to touch, instead there’s buttons to push. Bethesda Game Studios have been making games for a long time, but they haven’t made anything like this before. Starfield is fresh, and such a blast to play, there’s so many things to do and see, and all of it is interesting. Starfield is going to be someone’s Fallout 3 or Skyrim, bolstered by future content and modding. Starfield is compelling, enthralling, and has me enamored with its vastness and scale that is a truly stellar adventure.
Set 300 years in the future, humanity has advanced to exploring nearby systems throughout the galaxy, colonizing, and building up new civilizations. You play as a miner on a distant moon who unearths an artifact that only asks more questions, and doesn’t provide any immediate answers. From here begins a giant space mystery for you to solve, and unlike other grand RPGs of this size, there’s no real sense of urgency. Sure there will be moments during the story where things will require expediency, but on the whole, this is a story that unfolds at a pace you designate. It’s at this point you’ll be given the option to create the character of your choosing, give yourself a name, and decide on your looks. It’s a rather detailed system that I was able to get a pretty close representation of myself. Then you pick your background, which gives you three starting skills to propel you in your journey. You can also pick up to three traits, and think of these as Halo skulls. They make things a bit difficult such as having “Alien DNA”, meaning that your health and oxygen is increased, but food items are less effective in healing you. Or you can choose “Adoring Fan”, a nice callback to The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, you know where that one blonde-haired kid follows you everywhere. Finally, type your name and select your pronouns, and off you go.
It’s not long before word gets out about your discovery, and you’re approached by an organization aptly named Constellation. You’re even given a ship to use, with a lot of trust from the outset. Throughout the campaign, you’ll spend a lot of time at New Atlantis, the first major city you encounter, and the home to Constellation at their headquarters, The Lodge. After spending some time with the team, you’ll eventually join them and get to know the people there. You’ll even have them join you on adventures as companions, forging deep and meaningful relationships throughout.
Constellation gives you a watch, and it shows you the name of the planet you’re on, its weather conditions, time of day, and how much oxygen you have. It’s an informative tool that blends so seamlessly into the UI, you often forget it’s there. To keep everything straight is your log, that’s tied to the watch. This will show all your mission types such as: main, faction, miscellaneous, mission, activity, and even completed ones. Some quests happen organically, such as when you overhear people talking at a spaceport or cafe, though most times you pick them up from a board or through an NPC. All variations of quests, from the main ones to activities each hold their own secrets and surprises. While this game isn’t an immersive sim, it has its moments, like the time I was sent to fix circuit breakers. The quest evolved in asking me to do more things, one of which was high up I couldn’t find a straight path to. I actually managed to climb my way there, only to find there was a set of stairs I could have taken. Another quest asked me to delete files of someone’s wrongdoings, but because this isn’t an immersive sim, there was no option to delete all of the good things someone had on their record to hurt them later on. It’s not a large issue, but does show that quests have their limitations. Other quests will have you planet hopping as you uncover new steps, making what seems mundane actually a grand adventure into the unknown.
One activity I pursued in particular has been paying dividends for over 20 hours of my game time. Forgoing specifics, I had picked up a tablet during another quest that contained some information, which led to a new quest added to my log. By following the instructions and landing on the planet and location it said, I infiltrated a highly-fortified base, collecting further logs detailing what was going on there. The further I delved into this base, I had uncovered what I was there for. Once I had cleared the base, accumulated dozens of weapons, and ran myself out of medical supplies, I reached the end. And the reward was like nothing I expected: a legendary set of armor (helmet and suit), as well as an entirely new ship. Not only that, but this spacesuit and ship are stuff of legend and myth. So even now, if I appear in a system where people are dog-fighting, most times the enemy will flee because of the mantle I’ve assumed. And each time I talk to the victims, they are enamored that it is me, and I have options of accepting payments or declining due to my heroic nature. It’s hilarious and amazing each time it happens, and on top of that, I’ve yet to find a ship or armor set that has better stats to use instead. It’s moments like these that make exploration and discovery so rewarding and worthwhile, all from something I stumbled upon accidentally.
In Starfield , you are either on-the-surface or in space, there is no in-between. This will matter and mean things for different people, but I’ve played many space games that allow transitions from surface to space, and many of them do that well. Much like a lot of what Starfield does, is that it streamlines things to cut out any unnecessary travel. One of my favorite features is that once you land, you can exit the ship, you’re not required to walk through the ship first. This is a game that respects your time, and I respect it in return.
Your ship serves as a second home, you can store things in your cargo hold, converse with companions, sleep, craft, or engage in space battles. While you can’t do things like fly through the atmosphere, it’s expected and understandable that you can’t fly through gas giants either. Regardless, you will feel like space captain throughout your journey. You can own multiple ships, and they can be bought or built to serve different purposes. Whether you have a ship build for exploration that goes vast distances, or one that has a huge cargo hold for mining, or perhaps a fighter for finishing battles quickly, the choice is yours. The ship builder is intuitive and a lot of fun to use. Taking a ship you buy, and expanding on it to fit your growing crew is a joy. In the editor, you can pull apart your ship, buy new pieces to slot in, and put together in a new or larger configuration. Lastly, you can also paint it new and exciting colors that fits your personality. It’s a robust system that doesn’t demand you spend any time in it, but you can go deep in getting the most of out of it if you do.
Flying a ship across massive distances, the likes we have yet to experience, will take fuel. Thankfully Bethesda Games Studios implemented a system that is limiting but not discouraging. Fuel is not a resource you need to replenish yourself, it just happens. And it’s a means of limiting how far your ship can go in one jump, which is also based on the size of that ship. You’ll just need to consult your starmap, which has three views: planet, system, and galaxy. You’ll be able to jump based on how far your ship will let you, and unexplored routes may take multiple jumps, whereas charted routes will find the best path. Star systems have level suggestions, but you aren’t limited to landing on them. But know that the opposition you may likely face might be really strong. Starfield ‘s ease of use continues in that you can even fast travel to your next location, which might be multiple systems away. In some instances, you can fast travel from inside a building to another system and planet. It’s impressive, and not limiting like prior games from Bethesda.
Aside from your ship being something of a mobile home, it also can be a vehicle that will have to engage in combat – in fact, you don’t always have to fight. Not unlike X-Wing vs TIE Fighter, you can adjust and divert power in your ship to specific systems to make them more effective, such as engines, shields, weapons, and grav drive. For instance, the less power allocated to the grav drive means it will take longer to spool up and send you on your way. The weapons any given ship will have is up to their captain, but you will have your choice of outfitting it with lasers, ballistics, missiles, and more. It’s a system that takes some getting used to, but it feels good, like you’re in control of what’s going on with your ship at all times. Don’t like the starter ship? Well, you can commandeer any ship you come across, kill its crew, and take it as your own. You’ll be able to amass a fleet of ships for their own need, and even turn around and sell them for a bit of profit.
Planets and moons with Terra firma are both places you can land on. The first thing I do once I land is testing the gravity, it’s always fun to discover that a planet has high gravity, and then feeling like you’re gonna jump into space on a moon with low gravity. Planets cannot be explored fully in the sense that you could walk around them in their entirety, and I’m so thankful for that. Since there are no vehicles to drive or other modes of transportation to make this quicker, it would be a slog. Instead, they are segments of large spaces to explore to discover points of interest and survey the flora, fauna, and resources. The conditions of planet can be harsh, but your spacesuit can always tolerate it. Depending on the planet’s atmosphere, some outposts and buildings may need to depressurize before you’re able to enter, more hospitable planets don’t have such a need. I enjoy going to a celestial body to explore it, and discover its secrets and what makes it special. Everything has a day, night, and weather cycle – to include that bodies close to the sun have shorter days and ones further out have longer days. I was continually surprised at the scale of some cities and planets, and even how my own ship felt in comparison, it’s impressive and humbling.
Later into the game, you get the option to start buildings outposts for yourself and your crew. Outposts will be places you can fast travel to, as well as a home on one of your favorite planets, or a resource collector on another. Gather the resources you collect passively, and sell them for profit, or use them in making your home more inviting. This is something you don’t have to participate in, but doing so will be worth the effort.
There’s a lot of times you’ll be on-foot, and your character will have oxygen. This serves as your stamina, represented by a white bar, and when you start running, your O2 depletes. Once that bar is empty, you’ll start producing dangerous levels of CO2, represented by a red bar. When this accumulates and reaches it maximum, you’ll be stopped as you catch your breath. If you push your exertion after this, you’ll start losing health. The skill tree in Starfield is probably one of the most attractive and exciting ones to exist, because every skill is meaningful, and something you’ll want to attain. Once you buy a skill, it’ll open up a challenge to complete, and once you do, you can attain that next level. However, you can only level up a skill if you have points available. So upgrading skills doesn’t come easy, but they are satisfying, I love how they are all represented by patches you’d have a spacesuit, changing with each new level. There are also magazines that can be picked up that provide permanent boosts, such as reducing fall damage by 5%. When the story is over, you do have the option to start again in New Game+, and for all the skill points you can invest, there’s so many reasons to dip back in for another playthrough.
Combat feels really good, that despite their futuristic nature, feel good to wield as the gunplay is probably the best it’s ever been. Interestingly, Bethesda opted for a more traditional rarity system, with being able to find weapons with legendary (gold) or epic (purple) statistics on it. Weapons can also be crafted or modified at workbenches, allowing you to take a good weapon and maybe remove the long scope in favor of a reflex sight and make more to your liking. For crafting, you must have it in your personal inventory or the cargo ship of your hold in order to use them. There’s a container you can store items at in The Lodge, and while it doesn’t have a weight limit, crafting items cannot be pulled from there, unfortunately.
Dialogue plays a large role in the game, with parts of your characters background able to be a deciding factor in a conversation. Or sometimes you’ll be able to pursue intimidation or persuasion as options. This is a really interesting system in practice. There are pips that go towards persuading someone to do or accept something. Once you fill-up that bar, the persuade is successful. How you fill up that bar is selecting responses that have a weight to them. The lower the weight, the more likely it is to pass, but in order to fill-up the bar you have to take chances in what you say. In a lot of ways, feels like hidden dice rolls making these decision. In addition, your companions can be more than friends, as your bond grows you’ll be given options to flirt, begin a romance, enter a relationship, end that relationship, or even get married. It’s pretty well fleshed out and there can be some really heartwarming or heartbreaking conversations.
The looting is a lot like Fallout 4, you just need to look at containers, and be able to take any or all items from them at a glance.You can take everything that isn’t nailed down. Once you’ve taken too much stuff, you’ll be encumbered. You won’t be able to fast travel, but you can run, though it’ll burn through your stamina fast. So it’s best to sell, or offload the gear to your cargo hold to not take the hit to movement. You’ll be able to join factions, all of them, in fact. There’s no limitations in who or what you join. An early faction is Ryujin, they are essentially the thieves’ guild, but corporation-led espionage – and it’s great. Digipicks are the game’s lock-picking tools, and it’s fun system that uses slots and a little bit of puzzling to unlock. All factions have a bonus to joining, and are worthwhile to get involved with, as they’re a great way to gain easy XP and money.
A lot of the ambient music is a bit familiar to the Fallout games. However, there’s really some epic scores that really stand with being bombastic. They really nail their importance when it comes up. The game also has great stingers for leveling up. The music is such a great compliment to the aesthetics and everything going on visually. In addition to the game’s “NASA punk” aesthetic, there’s little touches like how the docking camera is in black & white, or how every interface is a physical button that characters interact with. It feels relatable without feeling like it’s science fiction, more like science fact.
Starfield has an AMD partnership, and that means only FidelityFX Super Resolution (FSR) is available for supersampling, and includes an alternative with Contrast Adaptive Sharpening (CAS). Both work just fine on NVIDIA GPU’s, as mine handled it well, but I do hope DLSS, DLAA, Reflex, and Frame Generation get added somehow. Though, I did find that the AMD options turned off didn’t have that much of an impact, and the picture was clearer. You won’t find a field of view slider here, and while it would be nice, I didn’t find it to be problematic – especially as someone who is susceptible to motion sickness. Though I suspect these will be one of the first things available as a mod to Starfield. Ultrawide (21:9) resolutions are supported, and look amazing when you’re taking in incredible vistas for both interior and exteriors. I was able to run the game at maximum settings, and was getting anywhere to 60fps (outdoor) to 130fps (indoor) areas. During the review period, I didn’t experience any crashes, technical, or graphical issues – it was all very smooth.
My PC Specs:
– Microsoft Windows 11 Pro
– Intel Core i9 13900K @ 5.8GHz
– ASUS ROG RYUJIN II 360 ARGB AIO Liquid CPU Cooler
– G.SKILL TRIDENT Z5 6000MHZ 64GB (32×2) DDR5 RAM
– ASUS ROG Strix GeForce RTX 4080 16GB GDDR6X
– WD_BLACK SN850X M.2 (4 TB)
– LG UltraGear 34GP950B-G (21:9 Ultrawide @ 3440×1440)
Starfield doesn’t reinvent the RPG genre, but it does make it quite exciting. It’s a game that feels distinct from the studio’s prior work like The Elder Scrolls and Fallout, and this even represents the best of both worlds. Bethesda Game Studios managed to incorporate streamlined systems to make exploring space something fun, and never a chore. There’s just nothing I dislike about it. Starfield is ambitious and magical, capturing the curiosity and vastness of space beautifully, for what feels like a truly next-gen experience.
A Steam code was provided in advance by the publisher for review purposes
