While everyone’s eyes are fixated on Baldur’s Gate 3, there is another massive RPG headed our way. Starfield is less than a month away and players are excited to see what Bethesda is cooking for its players. With the game coming to Xbox Game Pass, quite a few players will try it out amidst the anticipation and hype, and I definitely want to give the game a honest try. Here are the top ten things that we want to see from Starfield.
I Hope “It Just Works”
The “it just works” phrase has become a meme among Bethesda fans. The term was used by Bethesda boss Todd Howard ages ago, and for the sake of every gamer that is excited for the game, I really hope it truly works. With Redfall, Fallout 76, and Ghostwire: Tokyo not meeting the expectations of fans, I understand why many fans would be concerned.
But Bethesda has also delivered Hi-Fi Rush, Prey, DOOM, and DOOM Eternal, among other rock-solid titles in recent years. A game free of major bugs and performance issues is at the top of my list when it comes to expectations from Starfield.
Over 1,000 Different Planets That Aren’t Empty
The game will be spread across a hundred different star systems and have over a thousand different planets. That sounds absolutely ridiculous but I really don’t want to go from one empty planet to another. We know how much games love to pad their open-world areas at times and I am hoping that most of these planets will have at least something meaningful to do.
It would be foolish of me to expect all 1,000 planets to be populated and full of content but I am hoping that most of them don’t end up being barren wastelands and players are incentivized to explore every single one of them.
Power Fantasy Done Right
Starfield has a class system that sounds very interesting on paper. I mean, how often do you games that have ‘Chef’ as a playable class? From Combat Medics to Pilgrims, Starfield has some interesting-sounding classes and I hope they are fun to play with. I hope the playable classes bring something new to the table instead of having similar core gameplay with a few minor tweaks with regard to abilities.
I am tired of games that give “+5%” damage as one of your traits instead of giving skill trees or upgrades that allow you to power up in meaningful and fun ways and I hope Starfield delivers on that front. New and interesting skills, branching classes, and letting players tap deeper into the game’s RPG mechanics is something I’m truly hoping for.
Fun Space Flight
Make the space flight enjoyable, please. You spend a massive amount of time in Sea of Thieves, simply traveling and looking at the blue horizons. But the game manages to keep things interesting with NPC ships, other players engaging you, treasure, and other things. Obviously, you can’t expect space to be overly populated but I hope there are things to explore as I travel and distractions that are actually meaningful.
Robust Customization
I am not that worried about this, as Bethesda has already shown what customization features Starfield has for your ships. After playing Tears of the Kingdom, I look at open-world RPGs very differently. Players should be able to customize their base and ships as much as they want and there should be no shackles, limiting players from creating the most cool or obnoxious things mankind has set its eyes on. If I want to make spaceships from iconic sci-fi franchises, I should be allowed to.
No Mundane Side Quests
It had been a long time since I have actually enjoyed doing side quests until I played Baldur’s Gate 3. Larian Studios makes every single NPC fun to talk to and the game world absolutely does not disappoint. I don’t want to kill X enemies or find X items repeatedly. I want quests to be meaningful and the ability to interact with the world in a way that makes me feel a part of a living, breathing universe.
Engaging Combat and AI
MachineGames, id Software and Arkane Studios have helped create engaging first-person combat for Bethesda titles and there is no shortage of talent at the publisher’s disposal. The initial impressions I have of the AI from Bethesda’s showcases are not very positive and I hope things get sorted out by the release of the game.
Choices That Actually Matter
There are far too many games that try to make you feel that choices matter and they ultimately don’t matter as much as you’d like them to. Take Hogwarts Legacy for example, a game that essentially narrows down to two or three endings, and very few choices in the game matter. There should be more than one way to achieve story goals and the RP part needs to return to most modern RPGs.
No Mindless Resource Grind
If I want to lose hours of my life every day mindlessly, I’d go play an MMORPG. If I am playing Starfield, I want to do cool space stuff. Bethesda showcased how there are resources that players need to gather to build new things. I want the grind to be second nature in the game and not something I have to go out of my way and spend hours doing.
I feel that No Many’s Sky’s Expedition Update is a great reference point for how much grinding I am okay with in games. Generous amounts of resources that you can grab as you jump from one planet to another are necessary especially if players end up in one of Starfield’s emptier planets with not much else to do.
Cure That Star Citizen Itch, For a While
I have given up hope that Star Citizen releases before I turn into a fossil but one can hope. While Star Citizen is focused heavily on exploration, Starfield is a full-on RPG but I hope it cures the space exploration itch that Star Citizen promised players years ago. I am thrilled by the idea of being able to explore various planets and see cool new things. Basically, the space game needs to get the “space” part right for it to be a truly enjoyable experience for me.
Starfield has me excited as much as the next person, but I hope Bethesda releases a polished game that works great on all platforms. It is by far my biggest concern about the title so I have my fingers crossed as I go back to Faerun and stay lost in the world of Baldur’s Gate 3 until Starfield releases next month.
Related:
Check out Starfield's Animated Anthology Here
