Starfield: New First-Person Epic Role-Playing Game by BGS

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At long last, finally there is another first person, single player, epic role playing game available: Starfield.

Bethesda Game Studios (BGS) used to release such games at the rate of about one every 3 or 4 years or so (think Elder Scrolls games [e.g., Skyrim, Oblivion] and Fallout [3 and 4] games). But gosh, it's been like 8 years now since the last one (Fallout 4). I've been itching for a new game. It's finally here.

I know, I know, there are more productive things to do with one's time than spend hundreds and hundreds of hours inside a video game world. But everyone has their guilty pleasures. Myself included. And yes, I've spent more time running around in Tamriel or post apocalyptic Boston/DC/Vegas than I'd usually care to admit. And now it's time to spend hundreds of hours more running around in space. I'm sure I'm not alone in this here on PF.

So this is a thread to post comments, questions, impressions, discussions, player character pics, and whatnot regarding the game.

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I've been playing it in early access for about a week now. So here are my first impressions: It's good. It definitely scratches my itch for a new, massive, single player role playing game. BGS definitely delivered on this one. If you're familiar with Skyrim or Fallout 4, you'll feel right at home with Starfield. Except Starfield is bigger. A lot bigger. I can easily see this game occupying all my free time for months.

There are some differences though, compared to previous BGS games. Most of them are welcome. Some are just differences, neither better or worse.

Stuff

The inventory system and how stuff is stored, and what you can do with all the stuff you collect is different. Starfield is a bit more akin to Skyrim/Oblivion than it is to Fallout 4 regarding what you can do with stuff. In Fallout 4, if you're like me, you loot absolutely anything and everything, throw it into the nearest workshop where all the junk gets scrapped and used for raw materials in crafting. Not so in Starfield. There is no scrapping or breaking down of items. You can sell stuff, but you can't scrap it for raw materials. There is a whole, sophisticated crafting system however. You just need to find the raw materials separately: not from breaking down common items.

Like Skyrim, most of the items you'll find and can interact with are probably not worth your time. Of course pick up all the ammo you see (and most medical stuff). If an item can be used in crafting, the game will tell you when you hover your reticle at it. Other than that, most items you'll only pick up if you plan to sell them. So, like in Skyrim, you'll do a lot of rough arithmetic in your head to calculate the value/mass ratio. If it's high enough, you might pick it up to sell it later. Otherwise, just leave it.

You'll eventually get used to which items are worth picking up. For me, at the place I am in the game (pretty near the beginning), anything with a value/mass ratio of around 300 might be worth carrying around to sell. This number will surely increase later when money isn't as big of an issue. It's not always obvious what's worth picking up. But that's part of the fun figuring this stuff out (yay math!). For example, notepads are pretty good, but notebooks are only 1/10th the value/mass ratio of notepads.

Figure 1. Item example. This toilet paper tube has a value/mass ratio of 300, which isn't bad. Fascinating. It has a higher value/mass ratio than a full roll of toilet paper. In real life, you can use toilet paper tubes are a sort of spindle mechanism, but in Starfield, their only use is to sell them.

One thing to point out is DO NOT SELL your "digipicks". Digipicks are the lockpicks of Starfield. And they are automatically sorted in the same location within your inventory as all the useless stuff that's only good for selling. It's way too easy to accidentally sell your digipicks. And you can't pick a lock without a digipick.

Lockpicking/hacking

Lockpicking and hacking are combined in Starfield. And the associated minigame is different than in previous BGS games. Skyrim and Fallout 4 shared the same lockpicking minigame, and don't get me wrong, I liked that minigame. Starfield's minigame is different, however. And you can apply mathematics to make Starfield's lockpicking minigame easier: not arithmetic sort of math, but rather number theory/combinatorics sort of math. Yay math!

Space battles

You'll die in space battles. At least at first. Space battles can be intimidating until you figure out the controls and a bit frustrating at first. Just don't rage quit. Well, you might want to rage quit sometimes, but hang in there. Once you get things figured out, space battles can be kind of fun.

There are plenty of YouTube videos that will do a better job at space battle tactics that I can give here, but I will leave you with this small tidbit: If you want to maximize your ship's maneuverability, put your ship's throttle somewhere in the middle. I guess the idea is if your ship's throttle is too low, your engines aren't doing anything and you can't turn as fast. If your throttle is too high, you ship will have too much forward momentum and you won't be able to turn as quickly. So, I guess, the sweet spot of turning quickly is with the throttle somewhere in between the two extremes. (I know, there are issues here regarding real-world physics here. But that's video games for ya.)

 

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When creating my character, I had a pretty wide idea of how I wanted my character to be in my first playthrough. It was difficult to decide. Without giving it too much thought, and without any particular reason, I ended up making my character Former German Chancellor Angela Merkel (see Fig. 1).

Figure 1. Former German Chancellor Angela Merkel. (This is my character, Angela Merkel, not to be confused with the actual Former German Chancellor Angela Merkel).

She has the background of "Professor" and has the two traits: Taskmaster and Extrovert.

I wasn't able to get her hair just right, as there are only limited choices. I tried to get the hair color of a strawberry blonde, but when playing the game, it always came out looking dark brown, so this grayish hair color is the closest I could get. Also, her eyes aren't quite right, but it was the best I could do.

Figure 2. Angela Merkel* studying some newly found artifacts.

Figure 3. Angela Merkel on her ship, the Frontier.

Her robot friend, Vasco, always mispronounces here name, using a soft "g" in Angela, rather than a hard "g" as it should be pronounced. I suppose it's kind of endearing though, and Angela Merkel puts up with it pretty well.

Recently, Former German Chancellor Angela Merkel* has been studying stealth skills (see Fig. 4).

*(again, this is my character, Former German Chancellor Angela Merkel, and not the actual Former German Chancellor Angela Merkel.)

Figure 4. Former German Chancellor Angela Merkel practicing her urban, stealthy assassin skills. Look out, she's got a blade. Angela Merkel's comin' to cut you! (I really must reiterate here that this is my character Angela Merkel, and not the actual Former German Chancellor Angela Merkel.) Seriously though, Angela Merkel only uses her lethal approaches as a last resort. She is far more likely to solve problems using diplomacy and commerce.

 

[nuuskur]

I look forward to playing this and Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty (this is also releasing later this month) in winter. Knowing BGS, there may be quite a handful of bugs around launch time, so by that time hopefully some of the big ones have been squashed.

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

This is on my Stream wishlist. With big releases like this I always wait for the first major patch. Can't wait!

 

[BWV]

So the gameplay is basically Fallout FPS + ww2 dogfighting?

 

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So the gameplay is basically Fallout FPS + ww2 dogfighting?

Yeah, a little like that, but significantly improved over Fallout 4. For example, if you approach a ledge or the top of a wall while jumping, your character will automatically climb to the top (this is a welcome improvement).

Gravity is also a big factor in Starfield. On planets/moons with lower gravity, you can jump higher. There's also a new mechanic called a "boost pack" that allows mobility in mid-"air" (as in mid-jump -- there might not be any actual air, depending on your location). In short, movement is a lot more vertical.

Also, while dogfighting is part of the game, you can avoid most of it if you choose to. It just depends on how you want to play it.

 

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Space battles

You'll die in space battles. At least at first. Space battles can be intimidating until you figure out the controls and a bit frustrating at first. Just don't rage quit. Well, you might want to rage quit sometimes, but hang in there. Once you get things figured out, space battles can be kind of fun.

I just found out today that there's an in-game ship simulator that is available to practice space combat, without actually dying. You can also use this simulator to meet challenges in your "piloting" skill. All without risk.

Very early on in the game you are given an activity to "Speak with Commander Tuala about joining the Vanguard." (An "activity" is like a small, miscellaneous quest.) I had ignored this activity until today.

You don't need to actually join the Vanguard to use the simulator, but you do need to at least look into the idea. So go speak to Commander Tuala. He's in the lobby of the MAST building in New Atlantis (the MAST building is the big, huge building in the city, you can't miss it).

After talking with Commander Tuala, you'll be directed to go downstairs and go through an orientation. Do so, and you'll be introduced to the flight simulator as part of the process.

From that point on, you can use the flight simulator whenever you want (well, when you're there in New Atlantis). And to repeat, ships destroyed in the flight simulator count towards piloting skill challenges when you're trying to put points into your piloting skill perk. So if your piloting challenge is to "destroy 5 enemy ships," you can do all that in the simulator and it counts.

And you'll still have access to the flight simulator even if you don't commit to joining the Vanguard.

 

[Borek]

I believe ZZ Top advertised one of their LP as "same three guys, same three beards, probably same three chords" - and after watching some streams I feel like Starfield is "same ideas, same solutions, same schemes - just in space".

Todd does his best to sell trivial ideas as if they were groundbreaking, but despite his efforts, they are not, they are at best "nice to have".

That being said, I have it on my wishlist. So far I am not even trying, I have work to do on my own game (The Case of Andrew D.) and I know myself too well to start playing.

 

[BWV]

I used to be a space pilot, but I took a laser beam to the knee...

 

[pbuk]

I know myself too well to start playing.

This.

And I'm scratching a different itch at the moment with Baldur's Gate 3.