Starfield will get controllable spaceships and ‘over a thousand explorable planets’

Bethesda has shown off the first gameplay of Starfield. The studio claims that the game will have “more than a thousand” planets that are fully exploreable. Players can also build and fly their own spaceship. Starfield is scheduled for 2023.

The trailer lasts fifteen minutes and starts on Kreet, the moon of the planet Anselon. According to Bethesda CEO Todd Howard, players can expect to see that location fairly early in the game. The trailer shows, among other things, how a player explores the rocky moon, scanning the surface for flora, fauna and resources. The player also invades an abandoned building, which is occupied by space pirates from the Crimson Fleet. The trailer also hints at a questline later in the game where players join a group of space explorers, Constellation.

According to Bethesda Starfield gets ‘more than a hundred’ galaxies, with a total of ‘more than a thousand’ planets. According to the studio, those planets are all fully explorable. Some planets are inhabited and have cities, while others will be rich in resources. Players can fly to the planets themselves in their own spaceship, which they can build and customize themselves with different modules that influence, among other things, how the ship performs. It is also possible to hire your own crew and get involved in space battles.

Furthermore, it will be possible to create outposts on planets, which can be used to survive and to gather resources. Players can choose how and where they build those outposts and it is possible to hire staff to keep an outpost running.

The studio also shares details about the character creator. According to the studio, that is “the most flexible” in a Bethesda game to date. Players select a background when creating a character, such as diplomat, combat medic, scout, pilgrim, or professor. Each background brings three different starting skills.

There are also optional traits to choose from, which have unique advantages and disadvantages. For example, players can choose to make their character introverted or extra empathetic, but the trailer also shows options like “alien DNA” or “neon street rat.” The game also gets an ‘extensive crafting system’ and five different skills: physical, social, combat, science and tech. Each skill has different skills and each skill has different levels.

Starfield is scheduled for next year. The game was initially set to release on November 11, but was recently pushed back as the studio wants to take more time to refine the game. The game will be available for Xbox Series X and S consoles, Windows and Xbox Cloud Gaming. Upon release, the game will be immediately playable via Game Pass.