After the success Bethesda enjoyed with SkyrimandFallout 4, the company could have played it safe and moved right along toThe Elder Scrolls 6. Instead, Bethesda has decided to gamble onStarfield, an ambitious open-world sci-fi game and the first original IP from the company in over 25 years. The gamble has paid off.Starfieldis a landmark release that totally absorbs the player, transcending theSkyrim-in-space comparisonsand establishing itself as one of Bethesda’s greatest games.
Starfield’s first hour is a touch slow, but things pick up significantly after players are given the freedom to explore its many galaxies and planets at their leisure. The Bethesda magic kicks in, and the game becomes impossible to put down. Players can play however they want, and the way they play dictates the skills they can unlock. For instance, someone who wants to avoid combat encounters and skip certain objectives will look to persuade as many characters as possible, in turn leveling up their speech skill and making subsequent persuasion attempts more effective. Someone who would rather take a guns-blazing approach toStarfield’s various conflicts can do that instead, earning the right to level up their proficiency with certain types of weapons.
At first,Starfieldcombat is nothing particularly special. It’s almost likeFalloutwithout VATS. But as players level up, unlock new abilities, and expand their arsenal,Starfieldcombat becomes infinitely more exciting. What starts as basic shoot-outs evolves into explosive action sequences with players flying around with their boost packs, blasting enemies in the face with shotguns, and then sliding behind cover to reload and heal for the next fight.
Starfield’s on-foot combatbecomes wildly entertaining if players spend their skill points on the right abilities, and the same applies to ship battles. Depending on the traits one chooses while creating their character, ship combat can be slow and clunky at the beginning of the game. But with the right skill point investments, it can become an absolute thrill, with white-knuckle space battles that have players zipping through asteroid fields and blasting away at enemy ships. There are entire games built around space combat that fail to make it as exciting asStarfield.
Starfield’s space combatis amazing, but some players won’t care to engage with it. Those players can turn down the difficulty during space battles to make quick work of their opponents, and luckily, don’t have to spend much time in their ship at all if they don’t want to.Starfieldmakes a big commitment to player convenience, incorporating game-changing quality-of-life features like the ability to fast-travel basically anywhere from almost anywhere, stripping away many of the restrictions found in Bethesda’s other games. Players can be standing on one planet in one galaxy and immediately fast-travel to a completely different planet lightyears away, without ever having to back-track to the ship.
Another example is how players can immediately jump into their cockpit when boarding their ship, removing the need to walk through it and cutting out the filler. These quality-of-life features are everywhere inStarfieldand while they may not seem like a big deal on paper, they make a massive difference in the long run.
While fast-traveling aroundStarfield’s planets, players will meet a wide variety of individuals, all with their own unique backstories and motivations. Some of these characters can even be recruited and assigned to the ship or outposts that players build. Building up one’s crew is a rewarding experience, as the crew members are fleshed-out characters that feel like real people, making it easy to get attached to them. This is especially true ofStarfield’s companion characters, who come with their own quests and in some cases, the option to romance them.
Starfieldlets players customize their own ship, recruit their own crew, and choose their own sci-fi adventures as they explore its vast worlds. Bethesda wasn’t kidding when it said that there are over 1,000 planets inStarfield,and while it’s true that some of them are barren wastelands, other planets are brimming with interesting plant life and dangerous alien creatures. Players are free to go basically anywhere they can imagine inStarfield, though the near-endless quests ensure that players never have to go anywhere that isn’t interesting or doesn’t have some kind of meaningful content to engage with. Players who want to go off the beaten path and explore all ofStarfield’s procedurally-generated planets are free to do so, but those who would rather stick to the hand-crafted content can do so as well and still be overwhelmed by the sheer amount of things to do in the game.
Starfieldgives players the tools to experience the game their own way. Players can purchase a giant ship and explore the stars with their crew like they’re the captain of theEnterprise, or they can focus on building outposts on isolated planets, all the while collecting valuable resources for crafting. Players can be an intergalactic menace if they want, wreaking havoc on theSettled Systemsand fleeing from authorities with their Grav Drives. Any given quest can be solved in a number of ways, with players able to talk their way out of situations, kill whoever is in their path, or sneak into highly-guarded areas to steal important documents or items. The possibilities are endless, and it’s hard to see how any sci-fi game is ever going to come close to matching the freedomStarfieldgives its players at the scale that it does.
This doesn’t mean thatStarfieldis literally a perfect video game. Like any game, it has flaws, but the flaws aren’t necessarily enough to drag down the experience in any significant way. For example,Starfielddoes suffer from some dated mission design choices, like having players follow NPCs that walk much slower than the player character. Plus, there are some dungeons that look nearly identical to one another, which can break immersion and take some of the wind out ofStarfield’s cosmic sails. But even so, the game is still the most polished Bethesda game at launch to date, and in fact, we didn’t encounter a single game-breaking bug in our time withStarfield. There is still some general jank, frame drops, and the occasional visual/audio glitch, however.
Despite some odd happenings,Starfieldis actually very polished, especially for a Bethesda game, though there is one particularly annoying technical issue that will hopefully be patched out in a future update. After a certain threshold was met, whether that be time played or some other factor, the scanner started to cause a weird hiccup whenever it was used. This stutter didn’t happen earlier in the game, and while it wasn’t hugely detrimental, it was still an annoyance.
Besides potential technical problems, the game’s biggest flaws are most apparent while playing throughStarfield’s main quest. In some ways,Starfield’s main quest line is the best main quest in any Bethesda game, with some truly ingenious missions filled with fun combat encounters, engaging narrative beats, and hugely important decisions that have a dramatic impact on the game world and its characters. In other ways, theStarfieldmain quest can be somewhat of a letdown.
There are a series of very repetitive missions in the main quest line that repeat the same puzzle and enemy encounter every time. The purpose of these missions can’t be discussed without venturing into spoiler territory, but they are quests players will feel compelled to complete, making their repetitiveness all the more disappointing. The story in the main quest is filled with well-written, believable characters and some interesting developments, though mileage will vary when it comes to the ending. Some fans will be blown away by what happens, while others may not be satisfied with the answersStarfieldprovides for the game’s biggest mysteries.
Whether one enjoysStarfield’s main quest lineor not, it’s such a small part of the game that it doesn’t matter too much. Anyone tired of completing its more repetitive missions can ignore the main quest and have an epic space adventure of their own making, traveling from one galaxy to the next, exploring planets, and completing the far more consistently-compelling side quests and faction missions.
In typical Bethesda fashion,Starfieldhas four main factionsfor players to interact with, each with their own dedicated quest lines. Players can find themselves wrapped up with the nefarious space pirates that make up the Crimson Fleet, or they can engage in some corporate espionage with Ryujin Industries. Others still may decide to join the Freestar Rangers and live out their space cowboy fantasies, while some will join up with the militaristic Vanguard.
Out of all the factions inStarfield, theCrimson Fleetquest line was easily the most exciting, with serious stakes and an incredible finale that stands out as one of the game’s greatest moments. But it’s only one great moment in a game full of them. Whether it’s the tenseStar Trek-style ship standoffs or simply taking in the awe-inspiring sight of a massive planet against the black vacuum of space,Starfielddelivers one memorable moment after the next. The issues with the game, while they exist, aren’t important in the grand scheme of things. Players will still find themselves wanting to playStarfieldas much as they possibly can, and daydreaming about it when they’re not playing it.
Like Bethesda’s other games,Starfieldhas enough content to keep players lost in its world for hundreds of hours, but it has even more replay value than expected.Starfieldhas a New Game+ option, giving players the opportunity to continue their adventures in a way that hasn’t been possible in any other Bethesda game.Starfield’s implementation of New Game+ is brilliant and while we can’t share details about how it works, rest assured that it will makeStarfieldeven harder to stop playing thanSkyrim.
Starfielddelivers on everything it promised and then some. It’s the ultimate sci-fi game, giving players an incomprehensibly massive world to explore and letting them play however they want.Starfieldhas what it takes to be anotherSkyrim-level game that’s played religiously for the next decade. It’s utterly engrossing, an absolute must-play, and the best Xbox console exclusive in years.
Starfield
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Starfield is the first new universe in 25 years from Bethesda Game Studios, the award-winning creators of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and Fallout 4. In this next generation role-playing game set amongst the stars, create any character you want and explore with unparalleled freedom as you embark on an epic journey to answer humanity’s greatest mystery.The year is 2330. Humanity has ventured beyond our solar system, settling new planets, and living as a spacefaring people. From humble beginnings as a space miner, you will join Constellation – the last group of space explorers seeking rare artifacts throughout the galaxy – and navigate the vast expanse of the Settled Systems in Bethesda Game Studios’ biggest and most ambitious game.
Starfieldlaunches September 6 for PC and Xbox Series X/S. Game Rant was provided with an Xbox Series X code for this review.
