What Kind of Game Will Starfield Be? Trailers Show Several of Those!

Starfield Direct at this year's Xbox Games Showcase made a good impression, undoubtedly much better than the one from last year, where the technical condition of the game was far from what we expected. But my attention was caught by something else that wasn't even shown in the long video presented by Bethesda. I had the opportunity to watch the whole event from a seat in the audience, among Xbox fans, dressed in identical hoodies, making a strange X sign with their hands. The atmosphere resembled a bit the one from an NBA game. Except that during the Starfield presentation, all the enthusiasm and excitement died a little bit.

Most of the time, the presentation looked ordinary but good, peaking somewhere at the "adoring fan" return reveal. But later, around the base building segment, the interest seemed to decrease. People started scrolling social media on their phones and talking to each other. Yes, it's true that the video about Starfield was very long, and in such cases, it's not easy to maintain the audience's interest the whole time. However, this brings up the question: will the game itself, with its sheer size, be able to maintain our interest in it? Will the main plot line not get lost and blurred while discovering the secrets of the next planet? Won't this be one of those games that millions will launch, but only a small percentage of players will finish? Will the new Bethesda production finally let us spread wings and find everything we desire in the gameplay, or will it crush us with a mass of meaningless possibilities?

Several games in one

When I recall Skyrim and Howard's words: "See that mountain? You can climb it." In addition to the size of the map, guilds we could join, houses we could buy, and character builds we could create there, I almost feel overwhelmed by all the announcements about Starfield. We have seen the video, which could just as well be about several separate games stuffed into one. And what's more, each of these things seems quite well conceived and developed – not rushed. You can see it when you build a base in the creator or change something about your ship, when the camera changes its position appropriately, so that manipulating objects is comfortable and clear. The number of available options is also impressive.

It's not a Kerbal Space Program or Space Heaven, but everything indicates that Starfield will allow us to spend a lot of time building and customizing ships and bases. And yet, it's only a small piece of a huge cake. We can be a space pirate or a miner. We can take part in exciting space battles or clash with enemies in zero-gravity on one of the planets. There's a lot we can do while completing the side quests or main storyline objectives. But will we manage to follow the trail of this story? Or we will become another one "lost in space," somewhere between missions?

Single player turned to 11

At this stage, Starfield reminds me of an attempt to combine a classic single-player RPG by Bethesda with an MMO game or a network service, focused on endless gaming. You can see some Skyrim here, as well as Elite Dangerous or Star Citizen. It seems that in September, Bethesda will deliver everything that Chris Roberts promised for his own game, which currently is focused on selling ships for real money. It seems a much sounder idea to invest the money in the smartwatch from the Starfield collector's edition.

But back to the point... such extensive and numerous gameplay mechanics work well in games where the goal is not to complete them, but to turn playing them into a hobby, one of the recurring activities of everyday life. And in this case, the scale seems bigger than before, just to keep our interest in the upcoming DLC with a new story. Bigger than in Ubisoft games! However, while games like Valhalla are based on the size of the map, the number of quests and markers to check off, they’re at the same time limited to a single land and a certain historical setting.

In Starfield, the size of the world seems much more natural because it’s space. The exploration is presented in a good way, and it seems to be extremely attractive. If Bethesda succeeds, we will get the dream game for all single-player fans – a game that you can play like an online service or MMO, but without all the problems of constantly connecting to servers and without the toxicity of other players.

Hopes bigger than doubts

Are there any concerns? Not huge ones. Since the scale of this venture is so large, there’s a considerable risk that not everything will turn out as we expect. We can already see not-so-dynamic conversations, not the best facial appearance of characters, or debatable solutions borrowed from No Man's Sky. There are also doubts about the announced number of planets and locations to visit. It's hard to imagine that after so many visits, it would still be an exciting experience that brings something new. But if the developers really managed to maintain the good proportions, to create a universe that will consume us completely, then other games announced for fall will have to fight hard for our free time.

There was already a game before that combined all these things – an engaging plot, freedom of choosing professions, upgrading ships, fighting in them and wandering around many planets. Privateer and its sequel offered everything that Starfield promises, but on a much smaller scale. I wish Todd Howard's game had an atmosphere to match that game, as well as an engaging storyline and freedom to traverse more constellations. With no network problems and a multiplicity of options to choose from, so that everyone would spend their time in the game the way they dream of. After watching the show – I still have this hope!