If you've been exploring planets in the future, as told by Starfield, you might have noticed a distinct lack of land vehicles. It seems cars, trucks and SUVs are a thing of the past in Starfield's vision for the stars, but game director Todd Howard says adding vehicles would "change the gameplay."
The interview via Bloomberg's Technology YouTube channel has Starfield game director Todd Howard and Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer answering some hot button questions from fans. While questions range from "Why isn't the game optimized on PC?" (Side note - it is; you may need an upgrade) to the success Starfield is having on Microsoft's Xbox platform, Todd Howard was faced with the question of vehicles - or the lack thereof.
When asked why there are no land vehicles in Starfield, Howard says that it was something they considered, but in the end it would effectively "change the gameplay" a bit too much from their vision.
"Once you do vehicles, it does change the gameplay. So by focusing [on]: 'Once you land in your ship, then you're on foot,' it let us really, for the players, make it an experience where we know how fast they're seeing things."
Howard went on to remind players of the jetpack that you can upgrade throughout your time in Starfield, which can act as a vehicle of sorts, especially if you're finding the standard walking speed a tad slow for your liking.
"In one sense, you have a vehicle - obviously, you have your spaceship and can go around in space. And then, on the surface, you have a jetpack, which you can upgrade. Which is super fun; obviously, planets have different levels of gravity, which makes that unique for many planets."
Starfield had five days of early access for those players who bought the more expensive versions of the galaxy-spanning RPG, though it officially launched yesterday on PC and Xbox. We're working on our review right now, though you can read Jason's initial thoughts in our Starfield review-in-progress.
