Following the reveal that Starfield has gone gold, a Q&A session held on the Starfield Discord channel with the lead designer Emil Pagliarulo and lead quest designer Will Shen have provided some new information about the game. There’s a lot to go over, so instead, I’ve provided a cliff notes version of all the answers provided.
Enjoy!
- Starfield will apply players to purchase housing in various cities in the game. Some will have to be purchased, others will come as rewards via specific quests.
- If you take the Kids Stuff Trait, your parents will be based on you. They didn’t want to spoil how in-depth this would go.
- For those who’ve never played Bethesda Game Studio games, Starfield will allow them to jump in without ever having played a Bethesda title.
- Players can go as deep as they want in regard to their character’s backstory, given the traits they take.
- All players will start off in the game at the same place. What determines what happens to your character prior to that is up to the players, meaning they really want us to use our imagination.
- There is a cargo smuggling system that includes items that can be considered “contraband,” meaning they are illegal no matter where you go. But they can be hidden on your ship via “special modules.
- There is a jail system (YES!) that players can either elect to go to jail or pay bail. So, try not to get caught with illegal stuff or try and fail to run away from the space police.
- Starfield will not utilize a real-time system. Time will only pass while playing the game.
- Players might be able to play through Starfield without killing anyone. There are traits that may help with that, and it could be possible to try and avoid conflict, but you could run into conflict by running away from it.
- Starfield features three in-game religions that have their own beliefs, or you can be an atheist.
- It is possible to play with all the factions, and some factions will have multiple endings.
- Players will be able to recruit up to 20 named characters as members of their crew. These members can also do jobs at outposts that you assign them to.
- While your companions will not be able to level up, they will have perks and skills that can stack with your skills
- While Starfield does feature some mechs, they are not useable as they are in ruins. They’re also outlawed by the armistice that ended the Colony War (that we’ll find out in the game.) It has been hinted there’s an old mech battleground somewhere in the game. I’m going to make it my objective to find it.
Starfield releases on Xbox platforms and PC on September 6th, 2023. If you purchase the Digital Premium Edition, Premium Edition Upgrade, or Constellation Edition, you’ll be able to play the game five days early, on September 1st, 2023.