Starfield’s Direct Showcase Promises A Massive Space Adventure

Starfield has been a mystery to many gamers despite its long development and the fact that it was revealed in 2013 as a trademark. We’ve known it is a sci-fi game about traveling between planets from the creators of Skyrim for some time, but during Microsoft’s Xbox Games Showcase, Bethesda pulled back the curtain in a big way.

Alongside showing plenty of gameplay that covered everything from walking around densely populated cities to exploring unpopulated planets to combat both inside and outside of spaceships, Bethesda also detailed some of the game’s story and impressive customization options.

During the presentation we were told that the story will revolve around an organization named Constellation. This group, which many believe to have died, considers itself the last true galaxy explorers. They are trying to answer humanity’s biggest remaining questions. For some reason they have found some mysterious alien technology and it appears to be connected to your character. Constellation has asked you to investigate the mysterious artifact that spoke to your character. This means you will have to explore space and find answers. You can also do anything you wish along the journey.

New Atlantis in Starfield is an enormously populated city that falls under United Colonies jurisdiction. Other cities exist under the United Colonies umbrella but also outside of that area. The Freestar Collective is a collection of planets and urban areas that are more wild west-like. These locations look more like Fallout than Starfield’s futuristic sci-fi hubs. Bethesda has also revealed that there are still unclaimed systems and planets outside of the boundaries of “civilized space”.

Bethesda says there are over 1,000 planets to explore in Starfield. As you land and scan the planets, random elements will affect their layouts and creatures, so your experience will differ from that of another player on his or her own Starfield Save File.

If you’re more interested in designing your own fun than seeing what’s out in the universe for you, Bethesda showcased its impressive customization options, which start with your player character. Character creation tools are improved from Bethesda’s past efforts, and you can also define your character’s backstory and select optional traits to further personalize your character.

Some unexpected optional traits included picking your religion, which dictates how you interact with certain groups, or electing to have a superfan join your crew who can be an obnoxious but helpful stalker (a clear reference to Oblivion’s Adoring Fan character). It’s possible to choose to send your money back to your parents. They will then become real characters that you can interact with.

As well as customizing your appearance, you can also modify your spaceship, crew members, home planets or outposts, weapons, and more.

In any port, you can buy a spaceship and then customize it and upgrade with new components. Even the individual components can be upgraded and, in some cases reshaped. Bethesda displayed ships with the typical look of a spaceship, as well as ships that looked more like animals or a strange mech. Despite its odd shape, it took off into space.

Starfield’s customization options and building tools are an evolution from the Fallout 4 outpost-building tool. You can now build in a different overhead perspective, and zoom in to make small design adjustments.

Bethesda’s latest trailers made it clear that Starfield will be a huge game. Looking closely at individual elements of the latest footage also showed impressive combat, jetpack maneuverability, and exciting space dogfights, but it’s hard not to zoom out to try and fathom just how massive Starfield will be. Bethesda shared bullet points like how New Atlantis is the biggest city it has ever built and how many planets there are, but I fear we won’t have a true sense of the scale until you enter into space and see how far you can fly. It’s an intimidating universe, but one we’re excited to explore.