Starfield thoughts
It's time to talk about Starfield. The internet has had its time for memes, criticism, and hype. But what are our thoughts on this space epic? We're a few weeks away from the big reveal held at the Microsoft/Bethesda summer showcase, so we've had time to look over what was shown and really paint ourselves a picture of what to expect from Bethesda's first new project in nearly 3 decades.
Coming off the high that's been Skyrim for the past 10 years, with a few outings into the Wasteland with 2015's Fallout 4, the expectations have been set for the team up in Maryland. First shown off at E3 2018 with essentially nothing more than a logo and an unnamed planet, we were left for years wondering what's next. Since then, the team at Bethesda and everyone under Zenimax have been acquired by Microsoft, giving them additional backing and funds for the new project. 2021's not E3 but kind if E3 showcase arrived and started off with the first in engine preview of what Starfield could be giving us a November 11th, 2021 release that obviously didn't quite hit with the pandemic and whatever sort of background happenings. That takes us to June 12th, 2022, the end of Xbox's showcase, and we are given a roughly 15 minute presentation with various aspects of Starfield shown. Skill trees, resource gathering, combat, ship customization, and battles were all given their own time. Various locations show established cities with a living world, desolate planet scapes with otherworldly formations to explore.
Combat seemed to be your basic affair gun battles with the quick usage of a jetpack to jump around during a battle the one thing really making it stand out. Thick health bars floating above enemy heads hopefully doesn't mean walling bullet sponges at higher difficulty or if they introduce rare mobs to fight. There wasn't a wide array of weapons or anything super on the Sci fi scale but that doesn't mean there won't be goodies scattered around the galaxy to find. Everybody will acquire their own personal shipt to travel from planet to planet. Although you wont be manually flying planet to planet in real time it seems to be more for visual flare during loads and some combat sequences. The fun part for ships comes with its customization. The system is set up similar to the Kingdom Heart's Gummi ship with a 3D grid-like building system and hundreds of ships parts made by different companies in the solar system. You're able to freely place any part of your ship wherever you like, mix and match brands and parts, and finally topping it off with a fresh coat of paint before you're out to explore the stars.
One of my favorite aspects of the Bethesda RPG, and something I believe they excel at, is the scenery and beautifully crafted vistas. Everybody remembers stepping foot from the sewer in Oblivion to the expansive rolling plains of Cyrodil. With the amount of space the team has to work with now, one can only imagine the sort of wonder they've been creating for Starfield.
Also, did I mention there are 1000 planets? Todd Howard decided to end the presentation with a bombshell that I don't think quite worked the way they had planned. He revealed that "over 1000 planets all for you to explore," while explaining you'd be able to land in cities or anywhere you choose on each. which, to me, sounds terrifying. Skyrim and Fallout, all have had their share of large maps with a few hundred dungeons/buildings to explore, which has been fine and worked out for them, but, after a while they all start to feel same-y with similar layouts and not much distinction between the majority. Jumping to 1000 locations like this that are entire planets and not small secluded locals is honestly something I view as worrying for players. There's been talk of some of the planets being procedurally generated which sounds great, but how far can that system actually go? Having 1000 planets sounds awesome with so much to do and explore, but when a chunk of that time isn't rewarding or met with some sort of reward to keep the player going, you can't help but wonder how far the idea behind "player driven stories" can carry the overall experience.
Overall, my thoughts heading towards release sometime before June of next year. I guess you could say I'm whelmed. The reveal didn't blow me away in the way I was hoping for but it also didn't leave me disappointed and worried about the overall game. There's definitely going to be enough here to keep my attention for a long time. Is it going to reach the critical and fan reception that Skyrim has managed to carve out over the past 10+ years? Or does it even need to? We'll find out when Starfield launches on Xbox and PC platforms in spring 2023.