Starfield is one of the most anticipated titles this year and, being 2023, this is saying a lot. We come from a first half of the year full of excellent games – such as The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, Blasphemous 2 and Baldur’s Gate III, to give three examples – and there is still a second half to come with titles like Assassin’s Creed Mirage, Marvel’s Spider -Man 2, Alan Wake 2 and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, among many others.
But among so many sequels – among so many games ending with a number – Starfield stands out, the first new universe created by Bethesda in the last 25 years. And this universe thing is serious. Starfield is a space exploration role-playing game that promises players a vast space to investigate, tons of choices to make, and the chance to ultimately forge your own story. In addition, these promises come from the same studio that signed The Elder Scrolls IV: Skyrim or Fallout 3, so we know what they are capable of – they also published Fallout 4 and Fallout 76, so everything doesn’t always work out for them -, and Starfield tells us invites to be optimistic.
The year is 2330 AD. and the player embodies a fully customizable agent of an organization called Constellation, a kind of NASA from the future dedicated to recovering and studying artifacts lost in space. The action, on the other hand, takes place in a universe devastated by the colonial wars between the United Colonies and the Freestar Collective. At this point, between the two great powers that control known space, the protagonist enters.
Constellation, a priori, has no predefined allies. It is a supraplanetary organization made up of members of the Freestar Collective, the United Colonies, and other factions such as the Stroud-Eklund technology company or the Crimson Fleet pirates. And among all this mess, our protagonist will be able to choose who he allies with and who he rejects and how he wants to face his exploration of the universe.
This calling the protagonist – simply – the main character of the game is not random. Starfield does not have a protagonist as such. It is a role-playing game in which each player can create their own character and can choose from a multitude of different options to configure their own story. In fact, in the style of games like Half-Life 2 or The Legend of Zelda, the protagonist of Starfield will be mute.
Beyond exploring the vast space – the largest world ever created by Bethesda – players will also be able to build their own ships and their own bases and settlements. So apart from exploring the surface of the 1,000 procedurally generated planets, players can also engage in space battles or retreat to a planetary base in a corner of the galaxy to gather resources and explore. The options seem to be almost limitless.
When talking about Starfield, it is usually quickly related to No Man’s Sky. The similarities are unquestionable and range from the very aesthetics of the game and the planets to the systems and even the design of the game and some mechanics. As in the Hello Games title, in Starfield most planets are also procedurally generated, there is a laser tool to mine resources from the land, a viewer to catalog discoveries, and players can create bases on any planet and trade. It is easy to understand the comparison and even more so if you put a game next to the other in, for example, a video.
But Starfield should end up looking more like Baldur’s Gate III than No Man’s Sky in terms of gameplay, story, and characters. New to Bethesda is an RPG, and much of your success will depend on how you manage conversations, character development, and the overall story. This is the differential factor compared to No Man’s Sky – this and many millions of dollars in budget – and it is the point at which Todd Howard’s team cannot fail, especially now, a month after Larian Studios rocked Baldur’s Gate. III the world of role-playing games with the best title of probably the last decade.
The official release date of Starfield is Wednesday, September 6, 2023. Although, if you have purchased any of the special editions of the title, you can start playing in early access from today, September 1. In fact, Starfield is available on Xbox Series X | S and PC from 2 in the morning today.
On the other hand, being a Microsoft game, Starfield will be available on Xbox Game Pass – on console and PC – from September 6.
