A massive Starfield appeared at the end of the Xbox Games Showcase 2023. In an hour-long presentation, Bethesda Studios offered insight into the different gameplay systems within the highly anticipated RPG. In addition, Microsoft revealed a new story trailer for Starfield within the Xbox Games Showcase itself.
Since Starfield is based heavily around space exploration, there’s a huge emphasis on different planets and ships. Ships can be used not only to travel to different planets, but can also be used in dogfights and to board other ships, for piracy or more legal purposes. Planets will be split between procedurally generated wild planets and custom populated planets. There will be a vast cast of characters across multiple factions, including space cowboys, and the settlement of New Atlantis which is home to a group called Constellation. Bethesda claimed that New Atlantis is the biggest city they’ve ever built.
Customisation will be a huge part of Starfield. Bethesda showed off that ships can be customised, outposts can be built on wild planets and weapons can be modded to suit your playstyle. As with other Bethesda games, there will also be character creation, with 40 presets available that can then be adjusted as you see fit. Combat will also play a huge part, and gravity will affect your abilities during fights. A new skill system will be based around skill points to unlock abilities, and special challenges to rank these abilities up. Naturally, these challenges will increase in difficulty as you progress up the ranks.
The full presentation can be viewed here.
Bethesda will also be releasing a special smart watch releasing as part of the Starfield Constellation Edition. It connects with your phone and comes in a special display case based on the cases used by the Apollo space missions. There will also be a Premuim Edition featuring early access to the first story expansion, Shattered Space, and a digital soundtrack and art book.
In addition, Microsoft released a special limited edition controller and headset to tie in with Starfield. These are available today.
Starfield will release on September 6, 2023 for the PC and Xbox Series X.
