Starfield, the ambitious action game from Bethesda Game Studios, lives up to the developer’s high expectations for an epic RPG. As the Day 1 release on Xbox Game Pass, it not only marks a groundbreaking deal but also a major success for Microsoft, which acquired Bethesda for $7.5 billion two years ago.
With Starfield, Bethesda has taken their perfected RPG formula from the Fallout and Elder Scrolls series and expanded it to a grander scale than ever before. I’ve spent 36 hours playing Starfield on the Xbox Series X and completed over 100 missions, side quests, and tasks, yet I feel like I’ve only scratched the surface of what this game has to offer.
Starfield is one of Bethesda’s finest games and easily one of the best games of the year. And the best part is, it’s available on Xbox Game Pass, Microsoft’s subscription service similar to Netflix, which is accessible on both PC and Xbox consoles. It’s rare for a game of this caliber to be released on Day 1 on Game Pass. Instead of paying $70 to play the game, subscribers can pay $10 a month to enjoy the game on PC, $11 for Xbox Series consoles, or $17 for both versions.
One of the key aspects of Starfield that stands out is its scale. While most open-world games take place in a city or a country, Starfield’s setting spans the entire galaxy with over 1,000 planets to explore. However, not all of these planets are Earth-like with bustling populations. Many of them are empty, while others feature exotic wildlife, unique landscapes, and remnants of civilization.
Prior to venturing into the stars, my character started as a moon miner who stumbled upon something extraordinary. This encounter granted him a peculiar vision of the environment, making him “special” – a recurring theme in Bethesda games like Fallout 3 and Skyrim, where an ordinary individual is chosen to save the world or, in this case, the galaxy. Thus begins the journey of my character as he joins the Constellation team, a group dedicated to unraveling the secrets of the galaxy, and acquires his own spaceship.
The main quest revolves around completing the missions assigned by the Constellation, most of which involve collecting artifacts. However, there is so much more to do. Various factions like the United Colonies Vanguard and the space invaders of the Crimson Fleet offer their own missions, while some missions present themselves naturally through interactions with people. One of my favorite missions came from the megacorp Ryujin Industries, which required a mix of stealth, deception, and hacking, giving me a Cyberpunk 2077 vibe.
Sometimes a trip calls for a night at the club.
Earning experience and leveling up your character is primarily achieved through completing missions, with each level gained unlocking new skills. Skills are divided into categories like technology, warfare, and science, with each category housing over 20 skills. Advanced skills require reaching certain levels within a skill category. Learning a skill can enhance abilities such as gun usage, thievery, or persuasion.
My personal favorite skill was Lure, which allowed me to convince characters in the game to give up important quests without resorting to combat. For example, I used Persuasion on some space pirates to free a hostage simply by convincing them that keeping the hostage would be more trouble than it’s worth.
Read more: Don’t Start Playing Starfield Until You Read These 11 Important Tips
Given Starfield’s space-themed setting, spaceships naturally play a major role. While you start with a default ship in the game, you’re not limited to it. You can purchase new ships from observatories or space stations, although they can be quite expensive. Another option is to steal a ship from pirates, but that may require some effort to track them down.
To obtain the best ship, I completed a space battle mission called The Mantis, which felt like Batman in space. The mission turned out to be more challenging than expected, but the reward of rare armor and a top-notch ship made it worthwhile.
There are times when I didn’t feel like exploring or taking on missions, so I took the opportunity to establish my own presence in space. This could be done on various planets and served as a way to collect raw materials. While I’m not as big a fan of this aspect as I am of the Sims, I can see how others would spend a significant amount of time creating their own factions with unique members.
As is often the case with ambitious games like Starfield, Bethesda titles are notorious for their bugs, and I encountered various glitches throughout my playthrough. The most common issues involved objects and characters floating above the ground, along with instances where enemies and NPCs failed to move or respond. I also experienced a few crashes and encountered a game-breaking bug where a non-playable character wouldn’t complete a conversation, causing the game to stall. Fortunately, I discovered that positioning someone in a specific location before initiating the conversation resolved the issue.
Additionally, I noticed frame rate drops while playing on the Xbox Series X, so it’s worth noting that PC players may encounter similar performance issues depending on their hardware.
Despite these hiccups, I still love Starfield. It has the potential to be Game of the Year and is definitely one of the top reasons to subscribe to Game Pass.
Starfield was released on September 6 for PC and Xbox Series X and S consoles.
