The Starfield direct has me excited for Bethesda's new ambitious RPG

Engadget

Mon, 12 June 2023, 9:00 am

At Summer Game Fest, Bethesda showed off a deep dive into their next massive RPG, Starfield. Up until now, information about Starfield was extremely limited. However, Bethesda's Starfield direct showed off everything fans could have asked for, and more.

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Video transcript

BRANDON QUINTANA: Ever since getting lost in the world of Nirn in "Elder Scrolls IV-- Oblivion," I have loved me some Bethesda. I've even forgiven them for breaking our hearts with "Fallout 76." It seems as though since "Fallout 76," Bethesda's reputation has been a bit murky.

We know they're capable of big, immersive, and innovative games. But we also know that they, much like most big video game developers these days, are capable of making promises that they can't or simply don't intend on keeping. However, despite that, I've remained cautiously optimistic about the release of "Starfield." And after Bethesda's big "Starfield" direct at summer game fest, I'm now surprisingly, if not foolishly, even more excited about the game's release this September.

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There's one thing you have to admit about "Starfield," it is ambitious. Their direct showed off many new features and updated in-depth character creation system, extremely detailed ship customization that allows you to customize your cruise ship from the inside out, from functional add-ons that affect how far you can travel, and how many people you can have aboard, to even hiring a maintenance crew to keep your ship up and running. But that's just the tip of the iceberg.

"Starfield's" 45-minute direct showed off an almost overwhelming amount of features. However, what left me the most optimistic about "Starfield" after seeing Saturday's direct was that-- to put it plainly-- it looks like such a Bethesda Game.

Bethesda Games have always had a particular charm to them. Whether you're slaying dragons in "Skyrim" or vaporizing radroaches in "Fallout," you always felt like you were playing a Bethesda Game. For me, it felt like that charm was missing from everything that we saw about "Starfield" leading up to this direct.

Now, I feel like that charm is finally back. It's hard to articulate in detail what that charm is exactly. But if I had to put it into words, it's that all of the mechanics in the game don't simply exist to give you more things to do, more guns to shoot, and more ships to fly. They exist so that you can experience a story that unfolds and adapts to a play style and the choices that just feel natural to you.

While in most RPGs, you choose a build with traits that are going to set you up for success in the later stages of the game that you're playing. And success typically means that you're able to take on the powerful enemies that await you in those later stages. It seems in "Starfield," much like most Bethesda-developed games, success just means having a fun and unique experience playing the game.

For example, the customization of your character in "Starfield" goes further than cosmetic choices and stats. Choosing your background starts your character off with an origin story, three basic skills, and even allows you to take on quests that wouldn't be accessible to players without that same background.

You can also choose three character traits that makes your experience "in Starfield" even more unique to your character. To illustrate, the "Starfield" direct highlighted a trait called Serpent's Embrace, which deters otherwise-hostile zealots from attacking you because you share the same religion.

Another trait called Kid Stuff simply just gives you parents that you can visit at their home, given you fork over 2% of your credits to support them. It's stuff like this and, of course, the throwback to oblivion as adoring fan quest, which is referenced in the new hero worship trait that make me excited to immerse myself into the universe that "Starfield" is going to take us to.

Again, that doesn't even begin to scratch the surface on all of the new features showed at the "Starfield" direct. "Starfield" promises new mechanics like space warfare, zero-gravity combat, while also refining and overhauling features already familiar to fans of Bethesda-develop games like, weapon mods and base building which now has a more intuitive top down view.

Whether or not "Starfield" actually delivers on these promises is, of course, yet to be seen. But I, for one, am extremely excited to find out for myself, come September 6.

We'll be at Summer Games fest all week. So be sure to stick around for more coverage at the event. You can do so by following Engadget on all social media platforms and, of course, subscribing to the YouTube channel for more news, reviews, and tech stuff.

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