Your Journey Begins Here

A Starfield Ultimate Preview Series – Part 1

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Starfield, the epic space game that promises to take players across the stars to uncover the secrets of the universe. By all accounts the game is massive, and if you’re just starting to wrap your head around what Starfield actually is, then you need some place to start. I can think of no better beginning than understanding how you, the player, is transported into this new world and comes to find yourself at the center of the game’s biggest mystery. 

Starfield is a single player RPG built in the new Creation Engine 2. A lot of what makes Bethesda games great is woven into Starfield from the character creation, to the dialogue interactions, to the overall massive scale and ambition of the project. Starfield is set 300 years into the future, in the year 2330 and while you might think it’s built in a universe far away that’s actually not the case.

The game takes place within the Milky Way Galaxy, in an area that extends outwards 50 light years from our solar system. We know planets like Mars will play a big part in the Starfield experience as the team has revealed it to be home to one of the largest mining operations in the galaxy.

One look at Starfield and it’s clear the game isn’t your typical sci-fi adventure with pristine spaceships, sleek modern amenities, and the futuristic aesthetic we’ve come to know and expect from modern science fiction. In-fact, Starfield’s design is dubbed NASA-punk by the developers, and it’s based largely around the designs of the 60’s and 70s, also known as the era of the “space race”. As an observer things look utilitarian and more realistic, which fits Bethesda’s style established in games like Fallout. That’s not to say there won’t be aspects of the game that feel more modern and futuristic, but a vast majority of what we’ve seen fits this much grittier design philosophy.

Story

To understand Starfield we first need to travel back in time, before our character arrives on the scene, to the year 2310. It’s during this year that the United Colonies and the Freestar Collective, the two largest factions in the game, engaged in what’s known as the Colony War. It was a bloody affair and at this point that’s all we really know, but it’s important context as our character enters the fray, 20 years later. Now, in the year 2330 the two factions enjoy an uneasy peace.

You are the newest member of a group called Constellation. Inspired by famous navigators such as Ferdinand Magellan, Constellation is known as the “last group of space explorers” in the galaxy. Alongside a small posse of like-minded individuals, you’ll take to the stars as you attempt to unravel mysteries that continue to perplex mankind. 

Constellation’s leader is Sarah Morgan, an ex-soldier and adventurer. Amongst its ranks are also Matteo, a theologian that holds a firm belief that intelligent life is out there. There’s also Noel, a gifted scientist and Sarah Morgan’s prodigy, as well as Walter, a successful businessman within the settled systems and the group’s financier. Constellation members also include Vasco, a fully autonomous expeditionary model robot that aids the group whenever and wherever needed. There’s also Sam Coe, a former space cowboy, Vlad the ex-pirate, and Barrett, the rough-around-the-edges explorer that’s always good for a laugh. 

If it’s not clear, this is an eclectic group that shares one thing in common, exploration, and as the newest member you’ll be at the center of Constellations latest adventure. 

What’s that you might ask? Well, little is known of the game’s overarching story, but we do know that Constellation has a keen interest in an alien artifact. We’ve seen it multiple times throughout a number of trailers and as you might expect if some other intelligent being created those artifacts, there’s no finer group to unravel that mystery than Constellation. 

The artifacts themselves resemble gateways, and in fact, we see one used as such during the official story trailer. This might be the penultimate beat to an otherwise long and complex story, but how we get to that point is completely a mystery. There’s also an important connection to a strange mineral the player will have to discover during the course of the game. 

While we’re racing around the galaxy, we can’t forget about the uneasy peace between two space superpowers. Both the United Colonies and the Freespace Collective could play a major role in shaping the main narrative of the story, and they’re not the only group looking to influence the galaxy and as you travel to distant places like Neon and The Key you’ll run into other core players in the universe.

The long and short of it is this; Starfield is still largely a mystery when it comes to the game’s story, and that’s ok because the team has said, on countless occasions, it’s up to the player to determine their Starfield adventure. 

Character Customization

Before ever stepping foot on an alien planet we’ll need to create a character, and by all accounts Starfield is set to have one of the most in-depth character creators in modern gaming.

In typical Bethesda fashion the game will start with some sort of blackout and your character will awaken to a few friendly faces offering you a new lease on life. Enter Argos Extractors or the character creation system.

Players will all start by selecting one of 40 Biometric IDs, and these will act as a foundation for the unique character you will create. There are a number of options that run the full spectrum from young and old, male and female, so on and so forth.

Fun Fact: The developers used the character creator to generate most of the NPCs in the game.

Once you have your preset selected, you’ll move to the body tab and here you’ll first manipulate your character’s stature, dynamically moving between thin, heavy, and muscular until you’re happy with the look. You’ll also get to toggle between two preset body types and two distinct walking styles. It’s all personal preference here as we’re still not remotely done with our character. Finally, on the body tab you’ll chose skin color.

The face tab is where character customization really turns into an RPG fan’s paradise. The sheer number of options are overwhelming and within each category the team has expanded nearly every option since the system was first revealed back in 2022. 

Categories Include: skin tone, head shape, hair, hair color, facial hair, facial hair color, eyes, eye color, nose, ears, cheeks, mouth, teeth, jaw, chin, neck, jewelry, jewelry color, dermaesthetic, complexion, complexion color temp, complexion blemishes, scars, and facial forms.

Within some of those categories you can further customize in a more dynamic way. For example, you can edit the head shape to be squarer, rounder, wider, or thinner. The same can be said for the mouth, which has a surprising amount of customization. This is one category where you see the game’s shape blending system in full effect, which allows you to make micro-adjustments to get the desired look. If you’re someone that normally spends hours creating your character, expect to spend the same, if not more time here when Starfield does release.

What’s really special about character customization are the two systems that will have an immediate impact on gameplay, backgrounds and traits. Backgrounds provide a little backstory on your character, who you are in the world, and what starting skills you enter the game with. You could choose to be a combat medic, skilled in pistol, medicine, and wellness or choose the life of a Diplomat and start off with skills in persuasion, commerce, and wellness.

Your choice here isn’t just about skills, but also opening up new opportunities, such as new dialogue options that only your background is suited for. It’s an important decision, and as far as we know, a permanent one, so you’ll have to think carefully before making a choice.

Traits are another system that impact gameplay, and this one is a little more a la carte. You’ll get to choose up to 3 traits that all have varying impact within the world. One of the traits showcased ahead of launch is called Hero Worshiped and with it comes the attention of an “adoring fan” that follows you around, talks your ear off, and gives you gifts. The fan will also join you on your crew, so you can see there are gameplay implications based on what you pick. Again, we’ll go over these in more detail later on.

With all of these important decisions made it’s time to step off on our great space journey, but we’ve only scratched the surface of what awaits us in the great beyond.

Mod Support

From the first minute of the first reveal, we saw one question over and over again, “will Starfield support mods?”. In a recent interview with Todd Howard, the studio director confirmed that the game will have full mod support and over the past few decades Bethesda has relied on the modding community to enhance and extend the life of games like Skyrim. Obviously, this is welcome news to both the mod community and players, because with a giant space sandbox to explore it opens up a world of possibility for the audience.

What Starfield Isn’t

Mods can solve a number of unique problems, and fill content gaps in the game that the developers either couldn’t or didn’t want to create. With that in mind I think it’s worth pointing out then what Starfield isn’t so new folks checking out the game for the first time really have a clear understanding of what’s in scope, and what’s not. 

First is understanding that Starfield is a true offline single-player game. Just like most other Bethesda games you’ll be playing alone in the universe and with no co-op or massive multiplayer elements to the game, it’s an experience with you squarely at the center.

Another recently dispelled rumor is that Starfield won’t have any sort of ground transportation, so no space rovers or alien mounts. I’ll admit, this one shocked us a bit as it seems strange to force players to navigate over 1000 planets all on foot with just the help of jetpack boosters, but that’s what it is. This is a clear problem that the mod community can solve for, and I’d imagine it’ll happen relatively quick.

Not quite as serious, the game won’t have any sort of traditional fishing. Todd Howard confirmed that fishing with a rod wasn’t part of the game but did leave the door open for some sort of activity that resembles fishing. Again, easily solvable by some creative mods.

Finally I wanted to point out something about aliens in Starfield. According to Howard only 10% of the planets will have alien life. The trailers and video clips we’ve seen leading up to launch paint a much different picture so I think it’ll come as a shock to some folks when they land on planet after planet only to discover a world devoid of life. 

At the end of the day most, if not all community driven problems can and will have a community driven solution, including the possibility of multiplayer functionality, but we are far away from that reality. 

More To Come

This was just a taste of Starfield’s awesome potential, and as you’ve no doubt figured out by now there’s a lot more, we need to unpack including space exploration, crafting, outpost building, and of course, combat. We’ll tackle all of that and more soon so if Starfield is on your radar, stay tuned for our next article in the Starfield: An Ultimate Preview Series.