The highly-anticipatedXbox & Bethesda showcaserecently took place on June 12th. The show announced a plethora of titles that are set to release in the next 12 months, such asMinecraft LegendsandForza Motorsport, and even featured a surprise appearance from Hideo Kojima, who announced that he is working on a game with Xbox Game Studios. There was also a great range of new gameplay shown off for titles likeHollow Knight: Silksong,Diablo 4, and, of course,Starfield.
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Starfieldis an upcomingaction RPGfrom Bethesda Game Studios, the team behind the iconicElder Scrollsfranchise and modernFalloutreleases. It was made clear when the game was first announced that it would differentiate itself fromElder ScrollsandFalloutby beingset in space, though gamers received little more information outside that. Thankfully, that all changed at the Xbox & Bethesda showcase, where players were treated to an extended look at the upcoming game. There were plenty of features shown, with a few standing out as particularly exciting.
5Space Flight And Combat
The method in which players travel between planets inStarfieldwas a big question mark and a hot topic among the community. Plenty of games with multiple planets to explore simply give players an interactive map to select their destination, withMass EffectandStar Wars: Jedi Fallen Orderbeing two prominent examples.
Starfieldshowed that it’s going a different route, however, by letting players set off in a spaceship and travel between planets themselves. That’s not all, as the trailer also showed off some highly impressive space combat gameplay that could make for some engrossing, cinematic experiences.
4Over 1000 Planets To Explore
At the end of the presentation, Bethesda’s Todd Howard revealed that there are over 1000 planets to explore. This took a lot of people by surprise, who were only expecting around 10-30 plants. Better yet, Todd revealed that planets are fully explorable, rather than just having one small section to land on and explore.
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The incredible amount of planets will presumably give playersthousands of hours of content, as there are still people enjoyingSkyrimtoday who bought it on launch, which has an overall map size that is presumably only a fraction ofStarfield’s. The possibility of exploring over a thousand planets and constantly finding new things is very exciting and could lead to someamazing discoveries that players can share online.
News aboutStarfield’s 1000+ planets has led people to assume that the vast majority of the game will be procedurally generated. This is something that has split opinions, as although procedural generation can provide hundreds or even thousands of hours of enticing content when done right, it almost never compares to handmade maps/stages and can even be a disaster when done wrong. A balance between handmade and procedurally generated planets is what most players are hoping for, giving players a ton of unpredictable places to explore but keeping a few core planets where players can spend most of their time, like the cities and villages inSkyrim.
3The Cities
Speaking of cities, the trailer offered a brief look at a handful of the ones available to explore inStarfield.While there were some complaints about how baron a handful of the landscapes looked, few people complained about the cities shown off in the trailer, which all looked incredibly detailed and densely populated with people and buildings that are hopefully able to be interacted with.
The trailer focused on one city in particular, New Atlantis, which is on Planet Jemison. Todd Howard said that players will get to enter the city early on in the game, where they will be invited to join a group called the Constellation, which is said to consist of the last group of space explorers. Even from just a few seconds of footage, it seems as though New Atlantis will befull of great side quests to complete, characters to build relationships with, andlore to learn.
2Customizability
Todd Howard dove into the character customizability features ofStarfield, which are a major part of any RPG, particularly theElder ScrollsandFalloutfranchises. Along with ahuge range of customizable optionsfor the character’s appearance, the trailer also showed a multitude of background and trait options that look set to allow players to choose from a wide range of playstyles.
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The trailer also showed that players will be able to mod their weapons, build outposts needed for survival and resource generation, and even build a spaceship. The game’s spaceship customizability lets players hire crew members, completely customize the ship’s appearance and layout, and upgrade it with a range of shields, engines, weapons, and more.
1The Story
The trailer also gave players their first look atStarfield’s story. The narrative seems to be centered around the idea of exploring new, never before seen planets and galaxies, which is an exciting concept. Mostsci-fi gamesput players in a universe that the characters all know and understand, so it will be interesting to play a space game where it’s not just the players seeing planets for the first time but the characters too.
The story portion of the trailer was capped off with the tantalizing quote, “whatever lies at the end of this road, it will change humanity forever”.
Starfieldis scheduled to release in early 2023 on PC and Xbox Series X/S.
