Diving Into the Starfield

I’m no stranger to Roleplaying Games (RPGs), as a quick preface I’ve been working in the tabletop gaming industry for 23 years as a freelance RPG writer/designer, and I’ve seen my fair share of pen and paper games from BASIC D&D to the latest and greatest 2d20 system games like DUNE from Modiphius. I’ve seen a lot having been involved in the hobby for 43 years. I’ve been playing video games for a long time, ever since I wrote the first ever code into an old ZX-80 that I built as a kid with my dad.

I have seen the evolution of the video game industry from Pong, Combat, and Space Invaders.

I have put way too many hours in Jersey’s Fort Regent as a kid playing the Spyhunter Arcade Machine and Asteroids.

It takes something really impressive to catch my attention, so when I hear about a new GTA, or a sequel to Red Dead, or a Bethesda RPG – it does just that. I listen.

When that new thing is the first brand-new Bethesda IP for 25 years you can bet, I’m there day one too. I’m fond of their games, they changed the way that first/third person RPGs were done back in the day, and I loved Fallout 3, New Vegas (even though that was Obsidian) and I even still like Fallout 4.

Skyrim was a mind-blowing game for me, and I still play it.

I have been following Bethesda and the Elder Scrolls ever since I saw the first one at a computer show way back too, it was something else and broke new ground.

This is what Bethesda are doing again with Starfield. You can meme and joke about the bugs and so forth all day long, but there’s nothing quite like a Bethesda RPG and Starfield is taking this combined catalogue of games, iterating on years of experience, and leveraging the new generation of consoles and PC graphic cards to create something with the potential to be really special.

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What sets Starfield apart from other RPGs, and other space games?

It’s not a space-sim for a start.

It’s a science fiction RPG with a combined set of systems to help the player live-out that space captain fantasy, with a sandbox of opportunity, and a huge range of options to ensure that no two playthroughs of your game, or anyone else’s’ game should feel the same.

It’s massively ambitious and I love it for being just that. Just as I admire Bethesda for the nerve to take on such a huge project and combine these systems into one cohesive whole.

I’ve not played it though, so this isn’t a review, or a preview. This is my own personal opinion regarding the game and what I’ve seen from the two showcases – last year’s one and this year’s bigger Starfield Direct.

IGN’s Ryan McCaffrey has played it though, and he’s got some positive things to say about the game in a couple of videos which are well worth checking out at the end of this writeup.

So, what is Starfield, apart from a current gen Xbox & PC exclusive?

It’s a massive game in scope and play-space, a RPG with a space component woven into the DNA of the game, and one which offers a lot of choice for the player out of the gate.

It’s a single player story-driven experience which has the potential (that word again) to redefine what these kinds of games are, and could shape a whole new breed of space exploration RPG titles to come. Starfield is often compared to No Man’s Sky, and that’s a good and bad thing. It doesn’t have the freedom of flight that No Man’s Sky does, but it does have the sense of wonder and exploration baked in from the outset.

It has a mystery to solve, and a story which we only know the vague inklings of.

Though the golden path is called a tour of the Settled Systems, Starfield will let you wander beyond the path and into a vast open space – literally – 100 systems and 1000+ planets worth of content.

So, let’s break this down a bit shall we.

CHARACTER

You are cast in the role of character, and whilst we haven’t yet seen the full depth of the creator and how you assign points and so forth to the character, we’ve seen how you can pick from various employee roster options. Choose the basic look of the character, which has been crafted from digital scans of real people’s ethnicity, gender, and faces. Then you can change a lot of aspects, your body type, and your walk style as well as other features. It’s a step up from Fallout 4’s morphing in every way, and looks as though it’s going to take up a lot of time to get your starfarer just right.

From here you can assign a Background, which you can think of as a starter package, it’ll give you some assigned Skills and a few other things. We’ve seen a smattering of things, and for those people who want that murder-cook spec-ops fantasy, there’s even a space Chef which comes with a decent array of starting options.

Of course, there’s the like of Bounty Hunter too, so you can don your best Beskar simulation armour (hello modders) and go on the hunt. These aren’t just superficial too, they have in-game impact and consequences – such as the Beast Hunter, which can be leveraged in certain conversations that involve your craft. NPCs (Non-Player Characters) will respond, remember, and comment on the kind of occupation you have.

It’s like throwing a stone into a pond, watch the ripples, and see where they land.

Add to this Traits, which you can pick up to three – these optional extras round-out the character and give you bonuses/and negatives to balance out their effects. Perhaps you’re a hardened Bounty Hunter, but you have Kid’s Stuff (which gives you a pair of adorable parents, and ensures you send them a stipend from your creds) where you can visit the family home.

Perhaps you want to suffer the adoration of your Adoring Fan, which gives you a guy who will follow you, join your crew and generally get on your nerves – as well as give you things. Can you suffer his commentary in the wake of such devotion? Or will he get blasted into stardust the next time you’re planetside?

Up to you.

Want a house, best be able to pay the mortgage – or else?

Are you wanted, in that case, here come the Bounty Hunters from time to time to collect that sweet payday. There’s a lot of options, and we’ve only seen a few and scratched the surface.

Back to Skills, these have been overhauled as well. Each Skill offers something unique to the character as you Rank it up. Doing so is done by completing Skill Challenges baked into each Skill. Again, we’ve not seen solid examples of this, but enough to get a general idea of how it’ll work and I’ve always been a fan of do-thing get better at it kinds of systems.

Character done, it’s time to move on!

GETTING OUT THERE

Almost endless possibility lies beyond the confines of a planet, and for that you’re going to follow the story until you get to meet Constellation (the last group of space explorers) and hook up with them to seek answers in the field of stars. It’s a game which posits the question: What’s Out There? You’re going to get a ship, and we’re not sure what the full layout and size is of the main vessel you get to begin with – but Constellation Starship: Frontier will be your regular home away from home at the start.

Frontier is fully upgradeable, and every weapon/system can be changed and altered by the game’s ship-yards (Star Docks).

It doesn’t end there, because if you invest enough time into the game, the story, the resources and the credits you’ll eventually unlock what Todd calls: an End Game activity. Something to strive for, and something which is a huge draw in the game itself.

SHIP CONSTRUCTION

Not content with just giving you a bunch of random No Man’s Sky style ships, Bethesda have crafted an entire ship constructor into the game. You’ll need to balance power, and other factors as you do this, but essentially you can go as wild as trying to recreate a massive towering skyscraper starship mech (Ala Optimus Prime) or a strange looking Platypus style ship – your imagination, credits, and constraints of the power/weight system are your only limitations.

This isn’t just exterior too; the whole ship can be popped apart and the modular builder allows for a combination of parts which appears dizzying at first. These parts interconnect and provide the layout and interior of the vessel, with crew habitation, weapon display, consoles, research, and more offered from the various options. These aren’t just some basic parts either, we’re talking ship manufacturers so each one will be visually distinct from the other.

Swap out a 2-pilot cockpit for a bridge, get your Babylon 5 or Star Trek on.

Want an offset cockpit, with some a-symmetrical action – it’s going to be possible with the ship builder and I can’t wait to see what creations people come up with.

HOME AWAY FROM HOME

You don’t have to be alone out there either; you’ll hook up with Starfield’s companions through the story and they’ll join you on the ship. They have their own skills and even quest lines, and in the best RPG tradition, you can romance them. They will also offer bonuses to your ships (yes you can have more than 1) and outposts (we’ll get to that later). It’s not just companions you can recruit either, you can pick up all sorts of NPCs from various locations and events (see later example).

TAKE OFF AND LANDING

Going back to my previous point, Starfield is a Sci-Fi RPG, not a full-blown space-sim and as such adopts a Mass Effect cut-scene approach to planet landings and take offs. This is designed to look and feel cinematic to emulate the likes of Star Wars and other Sci-Fi ship launches. There is no on planet flight since you’ll be exploring the location on foot when you land.

SPACE FLIGHT

Once you’re out there in the Black, then you’re able to fly and engage in combat (should you feel the need, or have to). Combat is best described by the devs as a sort-of dance, where you have to balance the various systems using their power allocation in the way that X-Wing and X-Wing vs. Tie Fighter used to do it. It’s also a little bit Wing Commander in that regard. Engage in some combat, get the upper hand and you can even dock with an enemy ship – this lets you take out the crew and claim the vessel as your own.

Don’t worry enough, to be able to mod it etc you have to register it for credits or you’re probably going to have every in-system cop looking for you.

Again, we’re not sure what the full ship ownership system and features are like here, but it looks a lot of fun.

There are also space encounters, in-system planet flights, and of course jumping from system to system via the Grav Drive. Again, you’ll need to upgrade and get better fuel consumption to be able to make the farthest leaps into the most remote systems.

Systems also come with a level range, so expect tough action if you’re too low level when you drop in.

Space flight itself appears to be a mix between realism and arcade, a nice balance for people who just want to enjoy the fantasy and get their Han Solo on.

PLANETS

Since Starfield is on Creation Engine 2 and it’s a significant upgrade from the old Creation Engine, this is a game that’s going to be doing a bunch of things that Bethesda did in the past, only bigger, better, and with more refinement. On approach, the game will craft the planet based on the data that’s been baked into the planetary creation engine running under the hood. This knows a bunch of info such as the biome types, distance from the sun (star) and other factors which can contribute to life (only 10% of planets in Starfield have life on them, and that’s actually a bit more than the established science on the subject).

The planet is then crafted from 1km square-sized tiles which wrap around the world, populate it with various things, and offer resources such as ores which can be mined for use in the ship/outpost systems. Once you scan the planet from orbit you can pick a set location to land (a city or port) or drop the Frontier anywhere on the surface.

You’ll get the landing scene, and then be free to explore.

Landing directly on one of those 1km square tiles, which is going to be different to that of your friend or anyone else playing the game due to the nature of the random creation system. Outside of the ship you’re going to experience that biome (and it might have multiple) which is associated with the planet in question.

This is the procedural layer of planet topography, flora, fauna and mineral/resource creation. Atop this, the game is going to layer in other gameplay opportunities based on numerous factors. This is where the hand-crafted content comes into play. It picks from sensible options based on in-engine rulesets and crafts content for you to explore as you move around the location outside of your ship.

Say, you head North and you’re on a desert biome, with rolling dunes, and impressive crested sharp-craggy mountains comprised of mineral rich sandstone. The engine might decide that there’s an abandoned research outpost just beyond the next dune, and this outpost has a few things inside it. It could be malfunctioning robots, or creatures, perhaps there’s a bit of environmental storytelling to give you a glimpse of the fate of the previous personnel.

What you get will differ from what I get if the system runs as well as it appears to be designed.

You might encounter a crashed pilot, who begs for help to get off the planet, and you can assign them to your outposts or ship(s).

Perhaps a miner has been attacked by a gang of scavengers in his little base, and you can find those space scum and introduce them to many of the game’s arsenal of weapons, or your fists, or both.

According to Bethesda there’s a lot of hand-crafted content, and that’s going to be combined in this new planet/space encounter system to give you unique gameplay per-run of Starfield (per character I should say).

Planets are also looking gorgeous, with their own gravity, and their own day/night cycles – the lighting in the game is different to previous titles – this time it’s Global Illumination and uses the actual sun/star to light the world, combined with the atmospheric filtering from various effects to craft some absolutely incredible vistas.

If it looks as good as it does in the Direct, then I expect to see a lot of shots using the game’s Photo Mode from people who have a really solid eye for composition and presentation.

10% Life is not the End

As previously mentioned, the 10% life across 1000 planets is actually more than the science in that regard, it’s Bethesda butting-up to what’s potentially possible out there if you obey things like biomes and so forth. They didn’t say that the rest of the planets would be devoid of things to do either, they said, barren & rich in resources. This is different to empty. It’s a popular misconception that barren = empty of things to do. The game is working in the background to put together these worlds, so it’s likely it has systems in place to create bespoke content from the handcrafted modules at any time. Perhaps a crashed ship, an old base, or a bunch of other things are waiting out there on even the remote ice-rock devoid of life.

Barren does not equal lacking in content. Only time and gameplay will tell, but you can bet I’ll be testing all this when I dive into the game on September 1st.

BOOST NOT DRIVE

At the moment there’s no plans for, or use of ground vehicles in Starfield. Perhaps a modder or two will add them, but for now we get about doing all that mining, exploring, and scanning flora/fauna using the trusty Bobba Fett style Boost Pack. Perfect again for those Mandalorian Mods! There are skills which improve the Boost Pack too.

CITY LIFE

Those planets claimed by the Settled Systems United Colonies and other factions have their own outposts, and their own cities. Jemison has New Atlantis, and it’s the biggest location that Bethesda has ever created. You can seamlessly leave from the city to the planet too, no loading required. There are NPCs galore here, environmental and in-situ storytelling, as well as quests to discover. There’s a lot of content here, and that’s just one world, one city.

It'd take another writeup just to cover the rest, and the factions.

OUT-THERE OUTPOST

Once you find a planet you like you can drop down the equivalent of a No Man’s Sky base computer. This beacon will let you construct (in first and top-down camera view) an outpost to perform various functions on the world in question. Perhaps it’s a lush planet, and you just want a place to call your own which isn’t flying through the stars, or dragging your credits into the negative due to your Gal Bank mortgage on that expensive star condo. Or a heavy gravity, rich resource world, where you could get some sweet credits for exporting the metals or use them to construct your own projects (remember there’s research and manufacturing too).

Like the ship system, you’re going to need to pay attention to power, consumption, and even defence since it’s likely just like Fallout 4 you’re going to come under attack. It’s possible, as we’ve seen, to hire and manage defensive robots for the outpost.

Hopefully though, Pres.Ton.Gar.V Bot isn’t one of those options.

You can set these outposts to do a variety of things, and again, hire crew and NPCs to work on them, their skills can grant buffs to that outpost. It’s also possible, but we don’t know how yet, to make cargo transfer links between your outposts and transfer goods between them. We’ve seen ships in the Direct taking off and landing, and one of those is in the foreground as the Frontier sits on the landing pad behind it to the right of the main habitation building.

It's also going to be possible to decorate the interiors of these outposts, and again, there’s a huge variety of things to choose from. Interior decorators start your engines!

ARSENAL OVERLOAD

Starfield has an incredible arsenal of weapons, and just from going over the Direct, there’s a whole range of shooting options for anyone. From compact bullpup SMGs, to assault rifles, lever action rifles, rocket launchers, grenade launchers, mini-guns, magnetic acceleration weapons, lasers and much-much more. The game is going almost overboard with this, and I love to see it. The shooting appears to be good, and Ryan McCaffrey did say similar in one of the interviews that it felt really good to play.

ITEMS

Stuff, there’s a lot of stuff in the game, and it’s all highly detailed. Bethesda obsess about details like this, so you can expect to see all the stats and details picked out for your perusal as you, like Jamie (one of the producers) steal your 10,000th sandwich and store it in Outpost Breadworld.

4K 30FPS Series X – 1440p Series S

Uh oh, it’s that hot-button topic which surrounds any particular game from anyone these days, and with such a lot riding on Microsoft/Bethesda’s flagship title it is important to remember why they chose this route. Fidelity, and all that good stuff is the keyword here, that glorious detail comes at a price and that price is what the game’s doing behind the scenes.

It knows the position of every stolen sandwich in the game, and it knows where they are, it knows how they interact with each other and the objects around them. It knows that you picked the fruit from that tree on that planet, it knows where that tree is, and what that creature over there was doing last.

It remembers that you stole 1000 sweet-1-3 rolls and hoarded them in someone’s bedroom on New Atlantis.

IT knows.

It’s processing real-time Global Illumination, and delivering a new animation system in both first and third person. It’s doing a lot of things you can’t even see, things that are stealthed in the code and hidden from the player eye. Things which chew through processing power, and can clog up a GPU unless you’re smart about it. This is what Starfield is doing, and more, because it’s also making all that bespoke content appear for you to play with. From NPCs, to ships (since they’re all made using the ship tools) and places to explore.

It's doing a lot, so to get that Fidelity (not graphics resolution etc) it needs to cap the framerate at 30fps. Though as Todd has said, and people from Digital Foundry agree with, it’s running at a locked 30fps on consoles but sometimes goes above that.

Again, the proof of the pudding and all that, but honestly, I’m OK with it being 4K 30fps considering the scope of the game and how good it looks fidelity and detail wise.

September 6th/1st

It’s coming to Gamepass on Day One, so you don’t even need to buy it. But if you shell out £30 for the Premium upgrade you’ll get the £99.99 version for just that price. That version gives you the game 5 days early and offers a chance to set foot in the stars before anyone else.

Starfield is a huge, sprawling, ambitious and deep title which offers countless hours of game time and more content than any other Bethesda game before it. There are bound to be bugs and glitches, but there’s a lot of Q&A going on according to Xbox and Xbox’s Matt Booty, which should ensure this game is the least buggy of all Bethesda games before it.

Now before you say that’s not a very high bar, we’ve heard that before.

You should be excited for Starfield, because not only is it shaping up to be a great game, it’s shaping up to define a genre and be the first proper decent exclusive that Xbox has had since the OG Halo.

Yes, we know it’s not coming to PlayStation, and neither are a ton of PS games coming to Xbox – this is how the exclusivity game works and Sony knows just how to play it.

That’s a topic for another time, reading the recent sham that’s the FTC case.

I’ll see you out in the stars, captain.

Soon…

Constellation Starship Frontier out!