Starfield Direct did not disappoint, at least in terms of the amount of information it throws at us. At an amazing 45 minutes long, the show covered nearly every aspect of Bethesda’s upcoming space RPG and answered a lot of questions.
(Other than those nine questions, Starfield still remains.)
Although much of the presentation was familiar, we still learned quite a bit about Starfield. We enjoyed seeing new cities, soaking up more information about shipbuilding, and getting a deeper look at combat. We also got a glimpse of what we believe to be one of the gameplay elements of Skyrim. Now it has appeared in space.
Here’s what we learned from Starfield Direct:
Ships can be built however you like
We already saw some of the ship’s construction and customization at last year’s Starfield presentation, but Starfield Direct went from cabin and cockpit swaps to full customization. in short, completion. You can build your ship any way you like, and even make it look like the goofy mech you see above.
We all know what that means. Starfield will build a lot of penis-shaped ships. But if players get tired of building and flying around in metal Spacedons, there are bound to be plenty of creative and awesome ships to look out for. I can’t wait to meet them.
Not Fallout: New Vegas 2, but at least Starfield is part of the Western
Not all cities in Starfield are filled with glittery, futuristic skyscrapers. Further afield are several settlements that operate like pioneer towns. These independent star systems, like Akira City, basically resemble the Old West, with cowboys in their hats, dusty taverns, and outlaws reaching for their guns at the sight of trouble.
See, we’ll probably never get Fallout: New Vegas 2, no matter how much we want it. At least part of Starfield lets you cosplay as a cowboy.
Combat feels good, actually
Prior to today’s Starfield Direct, we’ve only seen a few brief shootouts, but we’ve been watching for much longer. Bethesda’s combat in The Elder Scrolls and Fallout games was never particularly great, but Starfield’s combat…looks pretty good, doesn’t it?
Ted is amazed at how useful Starfield’s jetpack is in combat, and the overall shooting looks much tighter than in Fallout 4. Between ranged weapons, melee, stealth, and special abilities, we’ll see Spacer blast his punks and aliens his bugs. like a great time.
One Starfield developer loves to stock up on sandwiches
During the Starfield Direct, many developers talked about how to play Starfield, but Bethesda producer Jamie Mallory stole the show. He first stated that he built spaceships to resemble animals, then he admitted that he likes to travel the galaxy while stealing and hoarding sandwiches.
Bethesda RPGs are great because you can play them however you want. Stocking up on sandwiches is a smart goal like any other. And that’s a pretty impressive yield! Let’s see if someone can beat it.
We may be able to visit our moon, and maybe even the earth
We know that we can visit our solar system in Starfield, or take a walk around Mars. But it looks like we can also visit our moon (the player is shown walking on “Luna”), and perhaps even roam what looks like a destroyed Earth. I can’t.
The star map shows three dots above the Earth. This shows that you can click on the globe to see options and one of those options can land on the globe. And another Starfield Direct moment (above) shows the world’s attention, like the St. Louis Arch. However, I don’t know why it’s still there when all the other buildings have collapsed. Maybe it’s not St. Louis, but some other planet with similar landmarks? We’ll have to wait and see.
The ‘other’ of Starfield Direct was cosmic magic
Yes, despite calling it “NASA punk” and “based on realism,” Starfield has magic, or at least inexplicable powers. At the end of the show, we saw the space travelers walk into a room full of enemies and fire their weapons. They raised a hand and incapacitated (or instantly incapacitated) everyone in the room, and corpses began to float around.
Perhaps it would be described as psionics or biotics, or maybe it was all a dream (looked like a cutscene after all), but some of Skyrim’s magical powers reached Starfield. It definitely looks like it.
Starfield also has a $300 version that comes with a watch
I don’t know how much I was going to spend on Starfield, but it probably wasn’t three bills. Starfield’s Collector’s Edition comes with his Constellation watch to wear in-game, so you might be thinking about that now. It looks pretty nice and has an equally cool box to store it in, but it’s still a mind-boggling amount of money to spend on a game that no one has played or reviewed yet.
Starfield also takes a page from Diablo 4 and offers five days of early access with the purchase of the digital premium edition. it’s $100. Even playing a few days ahead of everyone else is a big deal.
