• Bethesda showcased Starfield in incredible detail during a Starfield Direct event on Sunday evening.
• The game looks to be a deep RPG experience grounded in exploring over 1 000 planets.
• This is a marquee release for Bethesda and Microsoft which have both been beset by controversial game releases in the past.

On Sunday evening Microsoft hosted its Xbox Games Showcase 2023 after which Bethesda gave us a deep look at Starfield.

Over the course of 40-ish minutes, Bethesda showcased a game that looks like everything space fans and RPG players could ask for.

From a story perspective players will join a group of pioneers known as the Constellation which are tracking down an alien MacGuffin. This is great because it sets the tone of the game at exploration rather than domination, although we’re sure that will be a path one could take given past Bethesda games.

The game is said to feature a deep level of exploration with a mix of pre-baked and procedurally generated planets. Players will be able to find resources on all planets, construct outposts to extract those resources and even find missions to complete.

There is dog fighting in space, enemy ship boarding, NPC companions, ship building, the ability to amass a fleet of ships, alliances to be forged, alien life to discover and make extinct if you wish and so much more.

Combat looks fun with a choice of melee and ranged weaponry to add to your arsenal. Most importantly, the combat isn’t what we’re used to from Bethesda. The shooting looks snappy from first and third-person view points. The space combat looks good but combat while in flight can be hit or miss, literally, so we’re curious to see how Bethesda implements this.

During the presentation Bethesda said numerous times that the goal of Starfield was for it to be a massive sandbox where it was giving players the toys and they could go and do whatever they wanted to.

All of this is wrapped up a gorgeous bow. Planets are lit according to how far they are from its Star and its atmosphere. There are said to be over 1 000 planets to be visited in Starfield which is rather impressive. You will be able to view individual planets as well as star systems for information about resources, civilian outposts and missions.

Travelling to these planets is done via your ship which can be customised to your liking or you can defeat an enemy ship and take theirs. There is a Grav Drive that can be used to traverse systems but you will need to upgrade your ship to reach distant galaxies.

While Star Citizen can be fun, the level of realism it offers can also be tedious. Starfield looks to strike a good balance of realism and simplicity which we hope makes it a bit more accessible.

What is perhaps most exciting about Starfield however, is the scope of it all not just at release but the potential the game has for expansions and of course mods from players.

However, we also need to talk about the pack of elephants in the room.

Microsoft has garnered ill-will for the disasterous release of Redfall with revelations suggesting that it was known to be a failure and still released as a confused, broken game. The same could said about Fallout 76 which was an unmitigated disaster at release.

Starfield is also releasing in a period where games have been broken to the point of being unplayable at release and the technical aspirations of Starfield have us wondering what sort of bugs we can expect at launch.

For PC players the specifications for the game follow below.

Minimum requirements:

• OS: Windows 10 version 22H2 (10.0.19045),
• Processor: AMD Ryzen 5 2600X, Intel Core i7-6800K,
• Memory: 16GB RAM,
• Graphics: AMD Radeon RX 5700, NVIDIA GeForce 1070 Ti,
• DirectX: Version 12,
• Network: Broadband Internet connection,
• Storage: 125GB available space,
• Additional Notes: SSD Required.

Recommended requirements:

• OS: Windows 10/11 with updates,
• Processor: AMD Ryzen 5 3600X, Intel i5-10600K,
• Memory: 16GB RAM,
• Graphics: AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080,
• DirectX: Version 12,
• Network: Broadband Internet connection,
• Storage: 125GB available space,
• Additional Notes: SSD Required.

Can Bethesda and Microsoft be trusted? That’s the question that Starfield will have to answer whether it wants to or not.

We won’t have to wait long to find out because Starfield lands on Xbox Series X|S and Windows PC on 6th September.