The long wait is over and Starfield is finally here (for those who pre-ordered the Premium Edition anyway). But the enormously hyped title’s launch has been somewhat deflated by a swathe of middling reviews, with prominent gaming sites like IGN and Gamespot awarding it a 7/10. The consensus seems to be that it’s a fine game, albeit one with a number of glaring flaws.
One common criticism is how the game does open-world space travel. One of the best things about Bethesda Game Studios’ RPGs is the feeling of being in a vast open world, and the promise of expanding that to a fully explorable galaxy was catnip to gamers. But, as many reviewers have noted, the reality is a little underwhelming.
You can indeed fly through space, but you cannot approach a planet, fly through its atmosphere and dock on the surface. Instead, you must approach the planet, choose your landing spot on a menu, and watch a cutscene of your craft landing (and do the opposite to leave). This isn’t a game-breaking issue, but it makes the planets feel like distinct levels rather than part of a cohesive world.
The confusing thing is that seamless space-to-planet travel is something even the famously underpowered Switch can manage. In 2018 Ubisoft released the underrated Starlink: Battle for Atlas, a toys-to-life space shooter notable for the Switch version featuring the Starfox crew.
Despite being aimed at children and technically limited by the creaky Nintendo hardware, Starlink allows you to approach a planet, fly through its atmosphere, and explore its surface without ever breaking player immersion with a loading screen. No Man’s Sky also manages the same trick, and itself got a Switch port in 2022.
We get that Starfield has a lot more going on under the hood than Starlink, but it’s disappointing that a game with an estimated $300-400 million budget, that targets the powerful Xbox Series X|S, and has been worked on by some of the most talented people in the industry can’t do what a half-decade old kid’s game on the Switch can.
Starfield‘s segmented world reminds us of the way Skyrim‘s cities and dungeons were their own separate instances rather than incorporated into the open world. Starfield runs on Bethesda’s Creation Engine 2, a heavily modified version of the Creation Engine that powered Skyrim, Fallout 4, and Fallout 76, so this may be an engine limitation the development team couldn’t get around.
That said, Skyrim modders did manage to create an ‘Open Cities’ mod that allowed for seamless visits to and from towns. without loading screens. It’s early days for the Starfield modding community, but perhaps one day they’ll manage to figure out space travel that manages to equal what’s possible on the mighty Nintendo Switch.
Starfield will be available on Xbox Series X|S and PC on Sep. 6.