Summary
- Starfield's vast amount of detailed gameplay systems is impressive, but one core feature also often feels like its most lackluster.
- Starfield's universe is designed to evoke a sense of loneliness and highlight the magnitude of space.
- Other space games also suffer from this issue, including No Man's Sky and the first Mass Effect, but modding may be able to improve it.
Starfield boasts a breathtaking amount of detailed gameplay systems, but one of its most impressive features has turned out to be pretty dull. In a game with so much to offer, it’s unsurprising that at least one aspect of gameplay is somewhat limited. To its credit, the vast majority of Starfield is fantastic, making it easy to forgive the less-than-perfect features. However, it's still disappointing to see, especially since the feature in question has a history of plaguing sci-fi games.
There are many great things to be said of Starfield’s gameplay features. Outpost building has come a long way since its beginnings in Fallout 4, and Starfield spaceship design feels like a perfect extension of it. The new persuasion system is an excellent improvement from Skyrim and Fallout’s speech checks. However, one feature, in particular, sparked much curiosity and skepticism before launch, and it continues to divide players: planet exploration. It is undoubtedly an impressive aspect of Starfield’s gameplay and plays a significant role in establishing the game’s feel, but it lacks some crucial areas.
Related:
Starfield’s Planets Leave Much To Be Desired
The concerns over Starfield’s 1000 planets feeling empty have unfortunately proven to be true. Skepticism of the staggering number of planets began immediately after the detail was announced, many fearing that many of the worlds would be significantly lacking in content and what was featured would be boring. This has turned out to be the case. Admittedly, the tech behind the procedural generation of activities and locations on Starfield’s planets is impressive and has a ton of potential. However, it does feel lacking at the moment, and it flies in the face of something past Bethesda titles have done so well.
Bethesda has excelled in creating story-rich environments packed with details. Even areas with just a few details, such as a skeleton in a bathtub surrounded by syringes in the Fallout games, do a tremendous job of conveying story, making the world feel lived in and immersive. Environments and levels like this have been in Bethesda’s previous titles and prove how a handcrafted approach can offer narrative value to the gameplay experiences. Starfield still employs this, but not so much on the hundreds of explorable planets, which feels like a missed opportunity to do this on a much larger scale. However, there is a reason why the planets feel empty.
Why Starfield’s Planets Feel Barren
Starfield’s planets are barren and somewhat dull on purpose. As reported by VG247, Bethesda directors Todd Howard and Ashley Cheng noted in an interview that the intention of Starfield’s exploration was to evoke a feeling of smallness in players. The goal of this initiative is to emphasize the magnitude of space, which results in the overall experience of Starfield feeling larger and making the settled areas of the galaxy feel more impactful. Many of the explorable planets were expressly designed to elicit feelings of loneliness. Starfield has undoubtedly achieved this goal, and, to some extent, it works in the game’s favor.
The emptiness of Starfield’s planets helps build a specific sense of immersion. The goal to make players feel small in the vastness of space has been met, which assists in making the game’s space exploration more believable. Moreover, if space exploration of this caliber were possible in the real world, it would probably look quite similar to how it does in Starfield: mostly empty planets with caves of minerals and perhaps the odd encounter of strange new alien fauna.
The loneliness and isolation of Starfield’s planets can also evoke a sense of peace, making surveying for a planet’s resources a somewhat meditative experience. However, this only happens when the feature is at its best, which is unfortunately not very often. It mostly takes the form of a tedious chore that lacks the excitement of a typical Bethesda handcrafted dungeon. It’s unfortunate this issue wasn’t avoided, especially since other games have faced this problem.
Starfield’s Empty Planets Problem Isn’t New To Sci-Fi Games
Starfield’s empty planets bring to mind the exploration feature of some other notable sci-fi games. One of the first to come to mind is No Man’s Sky, which was infamously plagued by the promise of vast space exploration on procedurally generated worlds that ended up feeling void of noteworthy gameplay experiences. It’s worth noting that this issue was solved later with many significant updates. Still, it’s remarkable that No Man’s Sky wasn’t taken as a cautionary tale for Starfield.
Another game that had Starfield’s empty planet issue was the first Mass Effect. This game also aimed to allow players to explore space, but it turned out to be a collection of dull maps with frustrating terrain to traverse to reach one of a handful of repetitive tasks. From this description alone, parallels can be drawn between Mass Effect and Starfield. In the case of Mass Effect, at least players had the Mako to speed up travel from location to location.
How Starfield Could Fix Its Empty Planets
Even though Starfield’s barren planets are a stylistic choice, it’s not the best excuse for shipping lackluster features, and a solution to the problem is more than apparent. Modding plays a considerable role in the longevity of Bethesda’s games, and Starfield seems ripe to be the reintroduction of the Creation Club or some other in-game mod shop. The Creation Club was maligned when it was first introduced, as it essentially forced players to pay for mods that would otherwise be downloaded freely from other places.
However, it deserved praise for allowing modders to receive compensation for their work and especially for helping bring quality mods to consoles. Before Creation Club, Fallout 4 included a mod page for its console release, allowing console owners to participate in the tradition previously exclusive to PC owners. Starfield doesn’t have console mod support yet, but it stands to reason this feature will eventually make its way to the Xbox version of the game. It is also the perfect solution to Starfield’s lackluster planet exploration.
The barren planets are essentially a wide-open playground for modders to create custom content to flesh out the areas of Starfield that are lacking. Many players crave the handcrafted open-world Bethesda experience featured in Skyrim or Fallout 3. It’s a great feeling to explore an area that received considerable attention to detail, unlike Starfield’s procedurally generated dungeons. Supporting modders to provide this experience is a no-brainer, so it seems highly likely that Creation Club will make a return to do just this.
Looking Toward The Future
It’s easy to imagine how Starfield’s problem with empty planets could have been avoided. Yet, it leaves plenty of room for potential expansion with DLCs, content updates, or even user-generated content or mods. As exciting as this potential is, however, it doesn’t make up for the bewildering feeling of monotony while surveying planets and exploring the procedurally generated dungeons. Though, it’s hopeful to consider that this is Bethesda’s first outing with this feature, and many of the gameplay systems the studio employs get better and better with each iteration. So, it’s exciting to imagine where the procedural planet generation feature could go beyond Starfield.
Source: Bethesda Softworks/YouTube, Todd Howard, Ashley Cheng/VG247
