Starfield to be More Like Morrowind Than Fallout 4

Since the announcement of Starfield in June 2018, there have been many alleged leaks online regarding the game's plot and mechanics. Now, following the reveal of a gameplay, we can verify which of them turned out to be true. As noted by youtuber JuiceHead (638 thousand subscribers), a certain 4chan user pretending to be an employee of Bethesda studio (creators of Starfield) already in 2018 revealed, among other things, that the game will feature ship building and the ability to fly them in space.

Morrowind, Earth, implants and NPC outposts

Thus, there are many indications that the informant is reliable. For those interested in the topic, I recommend watching the above material by JuiceHead.

Below I will try to briefly summarize his analysis of the leaks, which appeared over the years (these are not official information, so you should take them with a pinch of salt).

1. NPCs can build their own outposts. There will also be an option to take them over (10:15). The informant claims to have worked directly on this system.
2. The title is supposed to be closer to The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind than Bethesda's recent works and focus on exploration (3:15). Fans of - as the informant put it - "lootershooter" Fallout 4 will have to get used to the gameplay of the studio's older games in order to have fun with Starfield (9:48).
3. Earth's orbit will be available to explore, though it will be littered with with satellites and debris like in the movie WALL-E (7:17). However, he did not reveal whether we will be able to land on the surface of the planet - it will probably be destroyed by some cataclysmic event.
4. In the game we will be able to fly in the planets atmosphere - Todd Howard confirmed that there will be no procedure for landing on them yourself - and use vehicles (9:30).
5. Starfield will feature implants, though they are supposed to be "more biological" than the ones from Cyberpunk 2077 or the Deus Ex series (5:10). Interestingly, implants are mentioned in the description of one of the starting classes shown in the recently revealed gameplay (9:00).
6. The player's crew members will assist the player in flying, repairing the ship, and exploring planets (8:25).
7. Procedurally generated celestial bodies will be relatively empty in many places (8:40).
8. It is possible that crew members may experience symptoms of post-traumatic stress after more intense battles (5:25). This is related to the "Death of an Astronaut" text by Chris Roberts ("the father" of Star Citizen), in which he explains the mechanics of death in his game. The article was supposedly heavily inspired by Todd Howard (lead director and executive producer at Bethesda Game Studios).
9. The informant claims that we will encounter approximately nine intelligent races, although it's not 100% certain (10:50).
10. At some point, the developers also planned that depending on the choice of our character's biography, players will start the story in completely different places (5:40). However, the recently revealed gameplay suggests that we will all set off from a mine, where we will come into contact with an alien artifact.

One of the concept arts of Starfield features a character with an artificial hand. Source: YouTube.

There is something to it...

Todd Howard recently revealed that the flight system was one of the first things the studio worked on in Starfield (the insider revealed in 2018 that he was working on it at the time).

Additionally, the informant announced that the game will feature a silent protagonist and 1000 planets, on which we'll be able to land anywhere, long before the demonstration of gameplay confirmed these revelations.

What's more, before the gameplay recording was revealed, the possibility of building ships was rather not expected by anyone - therefore, there are many indications that the informant was really knew his stuff and with a high probability really works (or worked) on Starfield.

Launch and platforms

Starfield will debut in the first half of next year - no exact release date has been revealed for now - on PC and Xbox Series X/S consoles. The title will be available at launch in Game Pass.

1. Starfield - official website