Bethesda might have just made Xbox great again with Starfield.
When you think of Starfield, you think of greatness. We’re talking about a game that’s nearly a decade in the making. Let’s recap – 2016 was the start of the development, 2018 was when it was officially announced, and now we fast forward to 2023; it’s a relief that it’s now launched, and we finally have lift-off. And to sweeten the pot, it’s available on Xbox Game Pass. What’s there not to love?
Xbox Series X was released just under three years ago, and it had to be said, but the majority of their exclusives have not been able to truly compete with PlayStation 5. This is why it’s imperative that Starfield lived up to the hype. And it’s not an exaggeration to say that this game is very much the last hope in making Xbox great again. That’s a lot of pressure to hand on your shoulders.
Bethesda has a large pedigree of great RPG games: Fallout 3 and beyond, The Elder Scrolls franchise and more. And as expected, after years of anticipation, you can surely add Starfield to the list. This is one of their greatest projects and, without question, one of the greatest games in the modern era.
Starfield takes you to around the year 2310. Freestar Collective and the United Colonies are the two largest factions, and they have entered a conflict that is called the Colony War. Now, fast forward to approximately twenty years after the destructive war and players take on the role of a custom-made silent protagonist character, which is also a soldier for the Constellation – which is a space explorer organisation.
And with the custom character, obviously, players will need to create one that’ll represent them throughout their experience. Starfield has an impressively flexible customisation and players are encouraged to spend as much time as they need to create the perfect look for the character. Body type, skin colour, traits, and background are among the many features for players to address for their character.
Furthermore, additional traits are unlocked, which can benefit or burden their characters. For example, for the ‘Dream Home’ trait, the character will own a luxurious and customisable house on a peaceful planet, but it comes with a 125,000 credit mortgage with Galbank that must be paid weekly.
Starfield is focal on an action RPG gameplay. Players are privileged to be able to switch between first- or third-person mode at any given time while partaking in an abundance of main and side missions. Moreover, most of you realise this, but it has to be said again because it’s insane. There are over a thousand – yes, a thousand available planets to explore, and because this is the case, it’s completely unheard of. Seriously, just imagine what there is to do on such a number of planets.
Starfield provides a data menu for players as it consists of the inventory where to stash the likes of weapons, health aids, resources, food, spacesuits, new items and more. The ‘starmap’ for the map of current locations, checking up on missions, activities, and so on. The ‘ship’ for constructing and customising ships and more, but we will discuss more on that in a moment.
Furthermore, for the skills department, players can gain experience and level up. Their characters have five skill trees: Combat, Science, Tech, Social and Physical. Players will receive one skill point to spend each time they’re levelling up. Each skill will unlock a challenge, and then they have to complete the challenge, and they have to spend a skill point to rank up the skill.
The gunfights are enthralling and will give you the true sensations of being in intense space warfare. And with the great number of weapons to use, how can it not be? Some of you may think otherwise, but Starfield’s combat is decent in the first person but much more satisfying in the third person. I feel more aware of the surroundings in the latter, and the melee isn’t too shabby, either.
As players are in battle, doing other missions, activities, and so on, they’ll need to be cautious of the endurance system that consumes O2 whenever the character is sprinting and increases CO2 when the 02 meter is empty. And if the C02 meter is filled, then the character becomes fatigued. The 02 meter fills up after releasing the sprint trigger.
The good news is that this mechanic is tolerable. The even better news is that as an equaliser, players will be given jet packs to not only reduce how much they run but can be used as another source of travelling – especially though seemingly impassable areas. Jet packs can be used for combat, but situations such as body mass can affect the jet pack’s performance during battles.
Starfield is certainly not short of action. But when players are not in battle, they can do many other things, such as use the scanner system that locates minerals, plants, and creatures. Each unique item that is scanned will progress their survey data of the planet. And completed survey data can be sold for credits. The system also unlocks more features, such as building outposts, and social skills, such as intimidation and diplomacy.
Players can also interact and team up with NPCs that can provide assistance with battles, moving items and more. Players can even have NPCs speak on their behalf. And when it comes to interactions and communications, from time to time, players will certainly stumble across the challenging of persuasion. To explain further, during some missions, when communicating with certain characters, players will have the opportunity to persuade these characters to get what they want.
To successfully persuade a person, players will have to make the right choices. The choices range from kind words to distractions to threats. Players must know that each choice has a difficulty, and the higher the difficulty, the more likely the chance of the choice fails. However, the more points are earned if they succeed. There’s a limited number of choices players can select, but they’ll never fail if their final choice succeeds.
Before we continue, did you know that you can have your character sleep for as long as 24 hours of local time? No, seriously, this is an actual feature. All players have to do is find rooms that have certain beds or chairs or even go to their own ship and give their character the rest they deserve. Players should take advantage of this, because sleeping will give them an additional 10% XP boost and 15% if players are sleeping with a romancing character they’ve married.
Starfield indeed has some cool features, but there are a few bumps, like the fun but obscure lock pick mini-game where players fill in all open slots in every single layer to open the lock. Each key can only be used once, and players must choose a key, rotate it until it aligns with the gaps in the security layer, and slot the key to be able to fill in the gaps.
Remember when I mentioned ‘ship’? At the beginning of Starfield, players are gifted – or “loaned” a ship from fellow explorer Barrett. Players will have total control of the ship, and it’s their core source of travelling to other planets by either piloting the ship themselves, fast travel, jumping, and so on, with the fast travelling obviously being the better alternative on many occasions. Plus, players need to use the landing function when they reach their destination.
Players can commandeer, purchase, or build spaceships. They can also purchase and sell parts and can edit their ships how they please – again, thanks to Starfield’s impeccable customisation.
Another cool thing to know is that the ship has ship systems, and players can select them. Each system needs power, and with the power allocation system, with the left and right buttons, players can select which system gets levels of power. Plus, the ship’s speed can be increased with the left trigger – which is incredibly useful for travelling and combat.
And speaking of combat, players will have to be on the lookout at times when enemy ships are coming for them. The ship itself has weapons, and players will engage in exciting spaceship battles along the way. Also, they can choose to allocate power to weapons instead of the Grav drive. Here’s another thing to tickle your fancy: enemy ships can get looted after they’ve been destroyed.
Now, how do you put this? Well, let’s start by saying that Starfield is an interstellar masterpiece, has all the facilities to restore faith in the Xbox gaming community, and has well and truly risen Xbox from the dead. When it comes to the story, you won’t get the good stuff until later in the game, but the enthralling story, equally engaging side quests, overwhelmingly praiseworthy and immersive features, and much more will give you an outstanding RPG experience.
The visuals might not be too great, but with far too many great things Starfield has to offer, it’s not to be all and end all. Thankfully, almost a decade of hard work didn’t go in vain. Fantastic job, Bethesda.
