Despite delays, Starfield is one of the most anticipated upcoming games of this year, and Microsoft had an entire segment dedicated to the RPG following the Xbox Games Showcase today. The full Starfield Direct showcase can be seen above. Todd Howard even has an iconic "you can go there" moment in it while pointing out that a moon seen by the player was actually orbiting the planet, letting players take off on their ship and visit it.
Like other Bethesda RPGs, Starfield can be played in first and third-person modes. The trailer goes through almost every major system the game will offer, including character creation, ship customization, ship combat, player combat, cities players can visit, barren planets they can mine at, the NPCs, animations, and more.
The trailer goes through multiple cities and mining colonies players can visit that are based on various planets like Mars. Of course, there are more "Western" or "Pleasure" focused-cities in the outskirts too, where their lawless nature is the focus. An NPC even scans the player's ship for contraband when coming in from a quantum jump at one point, hinting at different ways to make money.
Compared to the last gameplay reveal, the combat and movement looks much smoother as well. The delay certainly seemed to have helped with ironing out the rough edges.
Character creation was also touched on, where Bethesda had scanned real-life faces from a diverse range of people to create NPCs and options for the player character. Backgrounds and Traits were also shown off again, which play into how the universe reacts to the player. There are also five different skill trees for players to specialize in, with everything from upgrades to physical combat to better stealth and flying around with jetpacks being available.
Boarding was also confirmed, letting players dock and enter other ships to take them down from the inside instead of shooting each other in space combat.
Bethesda had worked with NASA and other organizations to make planets and alien life more life-like. The studio even calls the game's style NASA-punk. For building outposts in these planets, players are able to utilize a free cam-like option to be more creative, and then populate these areas with companions.
At the end of the gameplay showcase, a shot of the player character raising their hand and removing gravity from a room full of enemies is also shown. This may be alluding to a special power system akin to Skyrim's Dragon Shouts, but powered by aliens this time.
Starfield is coming out on PC and Xbox Series X|S on September 6. Xbox Game Pass and PC Game Pass subscribers are also gaining access on day one. You can pre-order the digital Standard and Premium editions of the game now at Xbox.com
The leaked Constellation Collector's Edition, as well as the Starfield-themed Xbox controller and headset were also announced at the show. The physical special edition comes with a unique watch that players receive at the start of the game.
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