Starfield – 4 things I can't wait to do in Bethesda's blockbuster RPG

12 August 2023 , 06:00

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Four things we can't wait to do in Starfield ahead of the game's release (Image: Bethesda)

I think it's fair to say that there will be a lot to do in Bethesda's upcoming RPG, considering the sheer scale of the game's open world.

Starfield will feature over 1000 planets and an as-of-yet-unconfirmed number of moons and space stations, giving players a vast variety of environments to land on and explore. And although Bethesda says only 10% of these planets contain life, the open world is so big that even so, the Xbox-exclusive title features over double the amount of dialogue as Fallout 4.

It certainly got me excited about just how huge this game is, and all the things that might be possible within the world of Starfield. Here are four things I can't wait to do in Starfield, Bethesda's blockbuster RPG, when it launches next month. And don't forget – you can jump in even earlier with Starfield early access. 

Ship building and customisation

Starfield's ship building feature, and the vast customisation options available, is probably the thing I'm looking forward to the most. The Starfield Direct featured an almost 3-minute segment dedicated to ships and ship building, and it was glorious to watch.

I can edit and upgrade my starting ship, The Frontier, to my heart's content in pretty much whichever way I want – including the colour, aesthetics, and optimising it for specific purposes . I can also buy other ships, and amass a collection of entirely unique vessels specced out for a range of mission types if I really want. And yes, I very much do.

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I can't wait to see what absurd and wonderful creations I (and the community) can come up with. If you love the tinkering and creative aspects of games like Fallout 4, or Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, then It's going to be an absolute blast.

Character customisation

Speaking of customisation, there's a reason that your favourite streamers spend hours meticulously creating their characters in other beefy RPGs like Baldur's Gate 3 and Elden Ring – and that's because it's bloody good fun. The process of bringing your own character to life is a sacred pastime, and the experience is only made better with the more customisation options you have. Which is why I'm really looking forward to creating my own character in Starfield.

Almost four minutes of the 45-minute-long Starfield Direct was devoted to character customisation, with Bethesda revealing it has overhauled its capture generation system, and has scanned a wide range of real-life faces from different age groups and ethnicities.

And the result of this overhaul can be seen right at the start of your journey in Starfield, as you flick through approximately 40 personnel records to select the starting point for the appearance of your character. From there, you can then tweak your character in a number of different ways, from their build to their walk style, skin tones, head shape, eye colour, scars, teeth and more.

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But the fun doesn't stop there, oh no. Because once you've decided how your character will look, you then have to decide what type of character you want to be, with a choice of a number of different backgrounds to flesh out your character's backstory. It's not just a throwaway choice either – the backstory you opt for gives you three unique starting skills. For example, if you choose 'Explorer' as your background, you'll get Lasers, Astrodynamics and Surveying skills.

Last but not least, you can then select three traits for your character which range from 'Alien DNA' to 'United Colonies Native', and each one will impact your experience in the game. My favourite trait is 'Hero Worshipped', which earns you the attention of an adoring fan who will show up randomly and annoy you in many ways, but they will also join your ship's crew and give you gifts!

It's all very cool stuff, and I'm very excited to get lost in Starfield's character creation menus.

Side quests

I love a good side quest, and as someone who completed the hell out of Fallout 4 (not to 100% but still), I very much enjoy going on seemingly pointless missions, that very quickly turned into something quite special.

Bethesda's 2015 vault-obsessed RPG contained around 191 quests in the main game, and up to 272 with add-ons; the fact that Starfield could feature more than double this – considering the amount of dialogue is double – there are going to be so many things to do that I may, quite feasibly, get lost in the side quests and not even advance the main story for quite some time. As long as there's genuine variety in these quests, I'm really looking forward to finding the hidden stories that bubble underneath the surface, which can often make or break a game like this.

Exploring the 1000 planets

1000 is a lot of anything, but when planets are involved, that's an awful lot. When I say awful, I, of course, mean brilliant, because a game with that many worlds sounds like a dream come true. And before you start shouting "What about No Man's Sky!?" at me, the way the planets have been designed in Starfield is a bit different.

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Starfield boasts 1,000 planets and the explorable ones are a mixture of procedurally generated environments with manual tinkering

Much like No Man's Sky, the planets in Starfield will feature procedurally generated environments, with the type of environment differing dependent on factors like the star of its system, the atmosphere of the planet and any POIs. But what Starfield does very differently is that – although the environments are generated in this way – the developers have then modified them manually, developing handcrafted content around the generated environments.

Despite Bethesda saying that only 10% of these planets will contain life, I'm still very hopeful (and excited) about the sheer number of planets and environments I'll be able to explore. The possibilities are (almost) endless.

Nathan Bliss