Starfield Finally Shows off Gameplay in New Video

During the Xbox & Bethesda Games Showcase, Bethesda talked a lot about their newest IP Starfield, while showing off a few videos. Game Director Todd Howard walked us through many aspects of the game, and finally showed us some gameplay. You can check out the full video from the showcase below, or read on for the key takeaways from today’s gameplay reveal.

Gameplay

Something we can see while exploring a planet is that you can scan various items. It looks as though this will be essential to learning more about the planet or moon you’re on — we can see that the game will track how many unique objects have been scanned in an area, with a percentage shown on the left side. We can also see that the first object scanned says it’s only 13% scanned, so we will possibly need to scan multiples of the same object to get the full picture.

As far as combat, we can see that enemies will have their health bar and level on top of them, so you can gauge how much of a threat each one will be. We will also be able to equip multiple weapons, and have the ability to switch between at least four guns at any time. There are empty slots next to each gun, so this could mean that we will be able to have even more options on guns to switch between, or there will be modifications to them that we can switch between using.

In the last part of the gameplay, the game temporarily turns to a third-person view while flying. This suggests that players can choose whether to play Starfield in first or third-person mode.

New Atlantis

The main central hub in Starfield will be in a base called New Atlantis. This is most likely where you will spend a lot of time in between missions, and where you will pick up most if not all missions in the game.

There are also factions that reside there that you can join. Which faction you choose will likely affect how some missions play out, or which ones you even get — during the gameplay section, the pirates fought are from the Crimson Fleet, who you can choose to join.

Character Customization

There are many aspects of your character that we can see, affecting both your appearance and gameplay experience:

• Appearance – You can customize many aspects of your appearance, from your body shape to your walking style.
• Background – This will give your character three skills to start with — this can range from more pistol damage, to better prices while buying and selling
• Traits – three optional personality traits you can give your character, affecting your gameplay in different ways (mainly by increasing one aspect at the cost of another).

For more details on how you can customize your character’s appearance, you can check out our coverage of the character creation here.

While progressing in the game, you can also teach yourself more Skills through a Skill Tree. Once learned, you can rank the Skills up by using them and completing challenges.

On top of creating a customizable character, you will also be able to build your own outpost. This is a highly customizable area for shelter and resource generation.

Spaceships

Another major thing you will be able to create is your own spaceship. This ship can be completely customized, and you can hire your own crew. We also got confirmation that you will be able to manually fly your spaceship to your destination, while battling enemy spaceships.

With over 100 systems that all have fully explorable planets, and an impressive amount of customization, Starfield is shaping up to be a massive game that will offer every player a unique experience. It’s currently slated to come out some time in 2023, and will be available on Xbox systems and PC.