Starfieldfinally has a release date.Bethesda’s long awaited open world (open galaxy?) RPG is set to launch on September 6, with magical gamer wizard Todd Howard confirming in a new trailer that the company is almost ready to unleash its latest project onto the masses.
Our own Stacey Henley has alreadytouched on how the new footage seems to hint at a smaller narrative in spite of its sprawling setting, focusing on the human parts of traversing space instead of larger than life extraterrestrial threats. I imagine the full experience will be filled with things to do, planets to explore, and people to meet. Even so, a blockbuster with such scale unafraid to focus on the more granular elements of operatic space adventures is so exciting. If it does pursue this, I have hope it can take Bethesda’s archaic formula to new heights while ironing out its very worst habits.
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This game is too big to fail, and will sell millions through hype and anticipation alone whether Bethesda changes a thing. Enough time has passed since the release ofFallout 4and we’re all growing alittle tiredofSkyrimports on new platforms. Several delays and a much longer production cycle has fans hungry for an RPG of this mold, one that presents us with a vast world, hundreds of characters, and an experience where we are destined to become the hero. But instead of the Dragonborn or Wasteland Explorer, we’re just another lingering soul reaching towards the heavens. Starfield’s futuristic aesthetic combined with its grounded atmosphere suggests that we won’t pursue an adventure defined by destiny, but curiosity.
In terms of narrative, the last thing I want is a colossal RPG where we play as a character in a world that revolves around our existence. I don’t want every single major NPC to view me as the saviour of all things and a being so powerful that everyone folds at the mere sight of me. Starfield would be incredible if it was defined as little more than an ambitious explorer with a goal of piercing the furthest stars in pursuit of discovery.
Space is at its best in games when it makes us feel small and overwhelmed by the sheer magnitude of possibilities it presents. Wherever or however Starfield begins, I want the first time we leave the atmosphere to be a scene that opens up a daunting pit in our stomach. There might be a main quest for us to pursue or an eventual goal to achieve, but nothing would be more powerful than to look down at the body where this journey started out and understand what it means to leave it behind.
Bethesda games have forever been defined by instances that present the open world in all its majesty, yet so often this initial freedom boils down to specific quests and vital characters centred around a destiny we cannot avoid. Screw all that stuff. I don’t want to fundamentally change the universe and save all those within it. In fact, I’d much rather save myself and the people this character I’ve created has come to care about.
Emotional investment isn’t always about the weight of expectations on our shoulders or the scale of a certain conflict, and we can only be made to care through excellent writing and characterisation that makes it all worth fighting for. Skyrim and Fallout 4 were both irritatingly clichéd and reliant on tropes in ways that had me eager to ignore the main quests and carve my own path forward.
I fail to see why the driving force behind our actions can’t be seen as compelling, unpredictable, or restrained in the stories they strive to tell. By making them far more intimate and less representative of a past Bethesda has continuously failed to leave behind, Starfield could set a new benchmark for not just the studio, but all Western RPGs.
