Starfield is a 2023 action role-playing game created by Bethesda Game Studios and published by Bethesda Softworks. In the game, players join a team of space explorers who travel 50 light-years from the Sol System to collect mysterious artifacts. The game includes an open world that covers a large area within the Milky Way galaxy, featuring both real and fictional planetary systems.
Starfield is set in a space-themed environment and marks the first new intellectual property developed by Bethesda in 25 years. Its director, Todd Howard, described the game as "Skyrim in space." Like other Bethesda games, it uses the Creation Engine, which was significantly changed to support the game's procedural generation system. Development began after the release of Fallout 4 in 2015.
Announced in 2018, Starfield faced several delays. It was released for Microsoft Windows and Xbox Series X/S on September 6, 2023. A PlayStation 5 version was released on April 7, 2026. Critics generally praised the game's open world, setting, and soundtrack, but opinions were split on its story and exploration features. The first downloadable content (DLC), titled Shattered Space, was released in September 2024. The second DLC, Terran Armada, was released in April 2026.
Gameplay
Starfield is an action role-playing video game. Players can switch between a first-person view (seeing through the character's eyes) and a third-person view (seeing the character from the outside) at any time. The game takes place in an open world that covers a large area within the Milky Way galaxy, including both real and fictional planetary systems. Players can land on more than 1,000 planets, as well as moons and space stations. Most of the game’s landscapes are automatically created based on the star in a planet’s system, its atmosphere, and the locations the player explores. Some areas are specially designed by the game’s developers. The largest city in the game, New Atlantis, is the biggest fictional city created by Bethesda. As players explore, they meet non-playable characters (NPCs), some of whom can join the player’s team. These NPCs can help in battles, carry items, speak for the player during conflicts, and comment on the player’s choices. Players can assign crew members to their outposts. Each NPC has unique skills and abilities. Some NPCs can be romanced by the player.
At the start of the game, players can customize their character, who does not speak. This includes choosing the character’s body type, appearance, facial features, background, and traits. Choosing a background unlocks three starting skills. As players progress, they gain new traits that can help or challenge them. For example, the Introvert trait increases endurance when traveling alone but decreases it when traveling with a companion. Traits can be removed by completing quests or performing certain actions. As players advance, they earn experience and level up, unlocking abilities in five skill categories: Physical, Social, Combat, Science, and Tech. Each skill can be improved by completing related tasks.
Players can use firearms, explosives, and melee weapons to defeat enemies. Most weapons can be customized with attachments. Adding a telescopic sight improves accuracy, while a suppressor helps players avoid detection. Items can restore health or apply effects during battles. Players can also use jetpacks (called "boost packs") to move quickly in combat or navigate difficult areas. When on a planet or moon, gravity varies based on the body’s size, affecting movement, jump height, and fall damage. Some items, like the drug Aurora, are illegal except in the city of Neon. Carrying these items can lead to fines, imprisonment, or attacks.
Before landing on a planet, players can scan it to see natural resources like iron or lithium. These resources are needed for crafting. Players can build outposts, which serve as homes or bases for gathering resources. Laboratories in outposts help research craftable items and upgrades, sorted into five categories: Pharmacology, Food & Drink, Outpost Development, Equipment, and Weaponry. Workbenches are used to create specific items. Outposts can be built in first-person or isometric (side-view) perspectives.
Players can build, buy, or take control of spaceships. At spaceports on planets or stations, players can trade parts, buy or sell ships, or repair their own. The game allows players to customize spaceships by changing components, rooms, paint, decorations, and weapons. Larger ships have more storage and living space but slower speeds and shorter jump ranges. Weapons must be equipped to defend against enemies in space battles. A "power allocation" system lets players choose which ship systems receive power during battles. For example, players might prioritize weapons over the ship’s "Grav Drive" during combat. Players can board both enemy and friendly spaceships, steal them, destroy them, or interact with their occupants by trading, speaking, or fighting.
Synopsis
Starfield takes place in the Settled Systems, a region of space that stretches about 50 light-years from the Sol System. In the 2050s, humans begin exploring Mars. By the 2150s, a faster-than-light travel method called the "Grav Drive" is created. Around this time, Earth's magnetosphere becomes unstable, making the planet unsuitable for living. Because of this, humans use the Grav Drive to settle other star systems. In 2156, they begin settling Alpha Centauri, leading to the founding of the United Colonies (UC) in 2159, the New Atlantis colony on Alpha Centauri's planet Jemison in 2160, and the designation of New Atlantis as the UC's capital in 2161.
In 2189, the Freestar Collective separates from the United Colonies. Around 2310, the UC and Freestar Collective fight in a war called the Colony War. Other groups include: House Va'ruun, a harmful cult; the Ryujin Corporation, a very powerful company with questionable behavior; Ecliptic, a secretive and unpredictable group of mercenaries; and the Crimson Fleet, a group of space pirates and criminals.
The visual style of the Starfield universe, inspired by real-world technology like that used by NASA, is called "NASApunk" by director Todd Howard.
Twenty years after the Colony War, the UC and Freestar Collective share a tense peace. The player plays as a space miner working for Argos Extractors, who is asked by the mysterious Constellation—a group of famous explorers—to find an Artifact with unusual gravitational effects buried underground. After retrieving the Artifact, the player has a vision that takes them through time and space. They wake up to learn their client is coming to collect the Artifact. After meeting the client and defending the mining site from a Crimson Fleet attack, the player travels to New Atlantis, the UC's capital, to deliver the Artifact to Constellation's Lodge. From there, the player joins Constellation on a mission to find more Artifacts, believing they are one of humanity's greatest mysteries.
During their journey, the player can join groups like the UC Vanguard, a volunteer force that protects UC space, or the Freestar Rangers, who prioritize defending the people of the Freestar Collective.
After meeting other Constellation members and collecting more Artifacts, the player investigates an anomaly linked to an Artifact but much stronger. There, they find an ancient temple and activate it, gaining supernatural abilities. The player then joins Constellation's benefactor, Walter Stroud, to retrieve an Artifact from the city of Neon. After obtaining the Artifact, they are confronted by an unknown entity named "Starborn," who demands the Artifact. Constellation escapes.
Constellation continues their mission to collect Artifacts, now competing with the Starborn. To improve their search for Artifacts, the player helps repair The Eye, Constellation's satellite. During this mission, the player learns that Constellation's Lodge is under attack by the Starborn. The player can choose to defend The Eye or the Lodge. Depending on their choice, one Constellation member dies in the attack. Constellation survivors escape with the Artifacts, surprising the Starborn, "The Hunter," who lets the player leave, promising a future meeting.
Following clues, Constellation tracks down the Hunter, who is meeting with another Starborn, the Emissary, about the player's escape. Under a truce, the player boards a Starborn ship and learns the Starborn are not aliens but humans from a parallel universe. The Emissary is a version of the Constellation member who died in the attack. The Emissary and Hunter reveal that whoever collects all the Artifacts in a universe can reach "the Unity," a gateway to other parallel universes. The Starborn have been competing for Artifacts across many universes.
Excited by the possibility of exploring parallel universes, Constellation members aim to collect remaining Artifacts before the Starborn. The player travels to Earth's Cape Canaveral ruins to retrieve an Artifact, learning about its role in creating the Grav Drive and Earth's magnetosphere destruction. Shortly after, the player must choose to help the Hunter, the Emissary, or refuse both.
No matter their choice, the player collects remaining Artifacts not held by the Starborn and confronts them at a buried temple. After winning, the player reaches the Unity and meets a parallel version of themselves. This version explains that entering the Unity would make the player Starborn, but they would leave their universe forever, entering one without possessions or relationships, allowing them to restart the story in a parallel universe.
After entering the Unity for the first time, the player can either complete the main quest again (with small plot and dialogue changes due to their Starborn status) or skip the quest to focus on collecting Artifacts for another Unity entry. Entering the Unity a second time may lead to different universes, each with changes that affect the main story in various ways.
Development
Starfield is the first new original idea (IP) created by Bethesda Game Studios in more than 25 years. The game’s director, Todd Howard, called it "Skyrim in space." The studio explored space-themed games as early as 1994. They once had the rights to make a game based on the Traveller role-playing system, but they later lost those rights. Their 1994 game, Delta V, was part of this license but was never completed. In the 2000s, Bethesda had the rights to Star Trek and proposed a role-playing game idea, but it was not approved.
Bethesda had wanted to make a science fiction game for a long time and had ideas about how it would play. It took time to develop Starfield’s unique features that would set it apart from other science fiction games. The team focused on a theme called "NASA punk," which uses technology inspired by real NASA space missions, even though the game is set in the future. To create the story, the team wrote a fictional account of events across about 300 years, from the game’s development to its present, to explore the question: "What does it mean for humans to live among the stars?"
The idea for Starfield had been planned for some time before the name was trademarked in 2013. Howard said the name "Starfield" was the only option chosen. Development began after the release of Fallout 4 in November 2015. By mid-2018, the game was in production, had been under development for a while, and was already playable. Starfield is the first game made by Bethesda using the Creation Engine 2.
Marketing and release
At Bethesda's E3 2018 event, Todd Howard showed a short preview of the game. In 2021, during a Microsoft-Bethesda press event, a trailer showing improvements in the Creation Engine 2 was presented. The game was set to release on November 11, 2022, for Microsoft Windows and Xbox Series X/S as a console-only version. The London Symphony Orchestra played the game's title theme, "Starfield Suite," composed by Inon Zur, at a concert in November 2021. The theme was later released as a separate track on streaming platforms in April 2022. In May 2022, Bethesda said the game would be delayed until early 2023. This delay happened at the same time as another game called Redfall from a different studio, Arkane Austin. Howard explained that more time and help from Microsoft engineers would improve the game. On March 8, 2023, Bethesda announced the game would release on September 6, 2023. On June 11, 2023, Bethesda Game Studios showed about 45 minutes of gameplay in a presentation called Starfield Direct, which came after the Xbox Games Showcase. In July 2023, Bethesda released an animated series called Starfield: The Settled Systems. This series follows the daily lives of three characters in different galaxy cities. The game was shown again at Gamescom: Opening Night Live in August 2023, where a live-action commercial and a live piano performance of the game's music were presented. During Gamescom, players could try the game, and Todd Howard and Xbox CEO Phil Spencer gave a special demo to the press. On August 30, 2023, the band Imagine Dragons released a song called "Children of the Sky" to promote the game. A music video for the song was released on September 19, 2023.
The standard version of Starfield is sold with two other editions: the "Premium Edition" and the "Constellation Edition." Buyers of the Premium or Constellation Editions received up to five days of early access before the game launched. All owners received free access to the first downloadable content expansion, Shattered Space, and bonus items. A Premium Edition upgrade with these perks is also available to standard edition owners on Xbox and PC, as well as Xbox Game Pass subscribers. Microsoft released themed accessories to celebrate the game, including an Xbox Wireless Controller and headset, and a console decal for the Xbox Series X. These were released on October 18, 2023. In June 2023, Bethesda announced AMD as the exclusive PC partner for Starfield. AMD gave away 500 limited-edition CPUs and graphics cards styled after the game's Constellation organization. AMD also offers free game codes through Steam with the purchase of select products online.
On April 7, 2026, Bethesda Game Studios will release a free update called "Free Lanes." This update adds new features like interplanetary travel, new dungeons, and locations. A paid story expansion called Terran Armada, which involves fighting a new robotic enemy faction, will also be released on the same day.
On PC, Starfield is available through Steam and the Microsoft Store, with cross-progression between PC and Xbox supported on the Microsoft Store version. The game requires a powerful GPU, and upscaling is important for smooth performance. Before the release, Bethesda partnered with AMD, causing concerns that the game would not support DLSS or XeSS, which are better than FSR. The game launched with AMD's FSR technology (version 2.2) and does not support DLSS or XeSS. It also supports AMD's Contrast Adaptive Sharpening (CAS) and Variable Rate Shading (VRS).
AMD's gaming chief, Frank Azor, said Bethesda could add DLSS if they wanted, and AMD would support them. Xbox Series X and S also support FSR but not DLSS, which is why FSR was chosen. Bethesda did not answer questions about adding DLSS at the time.
Before the game's release, a mod called "DLSS" was added by PureDark. This mod became controversial when the creator added a paywall through Patreon and DRM for access to DLSS 3. Later, another mod by user "LukeFZ" added DLSS 3 support for free.
The PC version initially lacked features common in AAA games, such as HDR support, gamma and contrast controls, field of view adjustments, and anisotropic filtering. The game did not support Intel GPUs at launch, but later updates added support. The game is optimized better for AMD GPUs than for Nvidia or Intel GPUs.
In November 2023, Starfield was updated with DLSS support, a field of view slider, and other quality-of-life features.
On the Xbox Series X, the game runs at 4K resolution with an internal resolution of 1440p using AMD FSR 2 upscaling. On the Xbox Series S, the game runs at 1440p with an internal resolution of 900p. Both versions had a 30 FPS cap at launch but later received an optional 60 FPS mode. The frame cap was to ensure consistency, though some areas caused occasional stutters.
There is no native Xbox One version, but Xbox One users can stream the game using Xbox Cloud Gaming's "Ultimate" tier. As an Xbox Play Anywhere title, save data works between PC and Xbox versions.
Starfield is available on multiple cloud gaming services. Because the game uses a lot of CPU and GPU power, cloud gaming is notable for Starfield. It is available on Microsoft's Xbox Cloud Gaming service for Xbox Game Pass subscribers, with cross-progression between Xbox and PC versions. Xbox Cloud Gaming also allows Xbox One users to play the game since there is no native version for Xbox One. One week after launch, Starfield was added to GeForce Now, letting Steam owners stream the game. GeForce Now runs the game on an Nvidia RTX 4080-equivalent GPU, improving performance over many users' PCs in its "Ultimate" tier.
Reception
Starfield received mostly good reviews from critics, according to Metacritic. 83% of critics recommended the game on OpenCritic.
Leon Hurley from GamesRadar+ praised Starfield for its large and interesting world, creative missions, stable game mechanics, and graphics. He also mentioned some small issues, such as the lack of stealth and pickpocketing skills at the start. Hurley said Starfield is the best game Bethesda has made since The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion and that it offers many opportunities for players who enjoy exploration and freedom. Gene Park from The Washington Post said Starfield is a large project by Bethesda that aims to explore new ideas. Many reviewers noted that the game had fewer bugs at launch compared to previous Bethesda games.
Critics had mixed opinions about the game’s story and characters. IGN praised the worldbuilding and the number of interesting characters who travel with the player, as well as dynamic sidequests that allow role-playing. Digital Trends said the characters were not very developed but praised the sidequests. TechRadar said the main story felt "soulless."
Space exploration in the game also had mixed reactions. PC Gamer said the game "fails to feel like a grand adventure" and criticized the space travel for relying too much on loading screens and fast-travel between planets. Digital Trends said space travel lacked depth and that the 1,000 planets felt repetitive. Destructoid praised the exploration, saying the game’s sandbox world had many surprises and things to discover.
The game’s original score, composed by Inon Zur, was widely praised. Destructoid said the music fit the space theme, while Shacknews called the score "phenomenal" and said players often enjoyed listening to it while exploring.
As of January 2024, the Windows version of Starfield had a "mixed" rating from players on Steam. Shattered Space, the game’s first DLC, had a "mostly negative" rating as of January 2025.
Before the game was released, an image of the main menu was leaked online in August 2023. Some people thought the simple design showed the team didn’t care about their work or was rushed. This comment was criticized by fans, who said the menu design was standard in previous Bethesda games. Pete Hines of Bethesda called the comments "unprofessional" and repeated that the menu design had been used in earlier games.
When the game was released, some streamers disliked an option in the creation menu that let players choose their pronouns. Another controversy involved a player criticizing the game for allowing a male non-player character to flirt with a male player. Elias Toufexis, the voice actor for the character, said the character was portrayed as bisexual.
Players reported many bugs in the game, with some frustrated by how often and severely they occurred. Critics were upset that third-party mods fixed these bugs quickly, while Bethesda’s community manager said delays in patches were due to long certification and localization processes. Pete Hines defended the game, saying Bethesda could make a safer, less risky game if they wanted, but they focus on giving players freedom.
Bethesda faced some criticism for responding to negative Steam reviews. IGN’s Wesley Yin-Poole said it was unusual for a large publisher like Bethesda to engage with reviews, and he speculated it was because Starfield was the lowest-rated Bethesda game on Steam. In December 2023, Starfield’s lead studio design director, Emil Pagliarulo, posted on social media about how some players misunderstand the challenges of game development. He said no one sets out to make a bad game and that players should not assume they know why games are made the way they are.
Starfield had more than 230,000 players at the same time during its first two hours of early access on Steam. On September 6, 2023, Phil Spencer announced that Starfield became Xbox’s most-played next-gen game, with 1 million concurrent players. It also became the most wishlisted Steam game in Xbox and Bethesda’s history. On September 7, Bethesda said Starfield had over 6 million players, making it the studio’s biggest launch. On September 10, Starfield reached its highest number of concurrent players, with over 330,000 players, surpassing Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. By September 19, the game had 10 million players, over 13 million by December 21, and over 15 million by November 19, 2024. It was the 11th best-selling video game in the US in 2023. Four months after launch, Starfield’s player numbers on Steam dropped below those of Bethesda Game Studios’ previous works, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Special Edition and Fallout 4, reaching 11,182 by January 11, 2024.