Leon has reviewed Starfield for Gamesradar and chatted to Tom about what he thinks of it. The anticipation is high and who else but the visionary creators at Bethesda could venture into the uncharted realms of space and deliver a gaming experience that transcends galaxies? Get ready to embark on a journey that's been years in the making.
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00:00So I've got Leon with me and he's been reviewing Starfield for us.
00:10I'm going to ask you a really hard question.
00:13Can you sum up Starfield in one sentence or as short as possible?
00:16In one sentence, it's the best thing Bethesda's done since Oblivion and that will probably
00:21change depending on what your first Bethesda game was, which for me was Oblivion.
00:26I know that's more like a comedy game on YouTube now, watching all the funny glitches
00:31and dialogue, but when Oblivion came out, the sense of world-building and being there
00:36and exploring, I thought was amazing.
00:39They've built a whole universe.
00:41It feels believable.
00:42There's just so much to do.
00:44So yeah, it's the best thing they've basically done in 20 odd years.
00:48So with that, I was going to ask you how the world is, but it's more a question of how
00:51is the universe?
00:55There's lots of worlds, obviously, because there's loads of different planets, but all
00:57the factions, all the planets, everything sort of feels like it's like lots of games
01:01happening together.
01:02So Jemisin, which is on New Atlanta, is the United Colonies.
01:05It's very kind of Star Trek-y, fighting aliens, which in this case are just like predators.
01:11Akela is kind of Firefly and Space Cowboys.
01:13Neon is where you find Ryuji and it's very much Blade Runner, cyberpunk kind of thing.
01:18You can be a pirate, which is quite like a big sort of heist thing.
01:23There's Cydonia on Mars, which is very much like The Expanse.
01:26It's very much like kind of space is rubbish for normal people.
01:28It's just hard work and horrible.
01:31And depending on where you are and what you're doing, you'll have sort of more kind of run
01:34and gun missions.
01:35There's sort of like heisty things.
01:36There's at one point you're like essentially trying to rob what is kind of a museum and
01:40there's different ways of doing it.
01:42And it does create this feeling of like lots of different kind of games happening at once.
01:45Then you've got things like the crafting and the research where you're running around very
01:48much like No Man's Sky, like scanning planets, harvesting like iron and nickel and different
01:53things to make things.
01:55You can build outposts.
01:56The outpost building and the resource crafting is very much Fallout 4 and Fallout 76.
02:02It's the same kind of interface, the same kind of workbenches.
02:06Ship building is completely new and that's fantastic.
02:07I've lost hours just building ships.
02:10You basically have all these sort of different modules.
02:11You have like hab modules and engine modules and you slot it all together like a kit to
02:16make whatever sort of ship you want.
02:17You've got to like balance things like engines.
02:19You can't have anything take too much power from your reactor or it won't work.
02:23Like I built a massive ship that only flew like four miles an hour because I'd taken
02:29the weight to the absolute limit of what the engines could handle.
02:32So I'd gone into it thinking I'd built like this sort of massive Star Destroyer, Battlestar
02:36Galactica thing and then I hit the engines and it was like 30 miles an hour and I was
02:40kind of like, okay, I'm just going to turn this one around.
02:42So I've got my main ship which I've been, you start off upgrading, you can go straight
02:46to ship building.
02:47It's very complicated.
02:48It takes a bit of learning.
02:49There's a basic option where you can just choose to upgrade and if you select the engines
02:54it'll show you if there's any better engines.
02:56So you can basically just buy some better engines, buy some better reactors, buy some
02:59better guns and that's how you sort of start levelling it up and after I'd done that a
03:03little while I was able to, yeah, get out and build a big ship.
03:07I'm not like building them big because I want anything like huge and powerful.
03:11I just like having like lots of rooms and things to walk around in so I put loads of
03:15windows in.
03:17I've got loads of floors like I can walk around the ship and look out and see the planets
03:20but you can just build an engine with guns on.
03:21I've got a couple of ships that are literally just an engine, a cockpit and some guns and
03:24that's it.
03:25Very much like the Rosie in the Expanse was a gunship, it is literally an engine, a cockpit
03:29and some guns.
03:31My ultimate goal I think is eventually to build almost like kind of a big federation
03:35ship.
03:36Again, not because I want anything powerful but I just want to have lots of rooms and
03:38lots of space and, you know, sort of walk around so you can do anything and that's
03:42been probably my biggest sort of vice in terms of not completing any of the main missions.
03:48Just pottering around building ships, scanning planets because if you complete a planet scan
03:52you can sell it for lots of money.
03:54So in between missions you sort of suddenly go like, oh I've done like 60% of a planet
03:58scan, I might as well finish it off, you know, I'll just check what engines I've got.
04:01Like a day later you've built a whole new ship, it's kind of nightmarish to try and
04:06actually finish anything because there's so much kind of there and so much to do.
04:10It also sounds like from what you were saying about all of the different planets have a
04:14very distinct feel but they also have different specific missions and then you've clearly
04:17fallen into the ship thing.
04:19There's an element of like, there's so much to do here, everybody will find something
04:24that they enjoy, whether it's the ships or the scanning or the whatever it is, combat.
04:29So there's like just, what do you want to play with?
04:30I think that's it.
04:31I think it's whatever you kind of want to do, there is something there for you.
04:35I'm about 80 hours in at the moment, I think it's 80 and a bit hours worth of play and
04:42I've not sort of got bored or like fatigued, because whenever I'm kind of like, okay I'm
04:47done doing the big story missions, there's a moon there I haven't looked at, I'm going
04:51to go and have a quick look at that, you know.
04:52I've done exploring, like I'm going to tune my ship, like oh I found a weird little side
04:56mission, I don't know what it is, I'm going to go and have a look.
04:59So yeah, there's this constant kind of flow and change of things and yeah, whatever you
05:04kind of want to do, you'll probably find it.
05:07You can just go in all guns blazing, you can sort of kill everyone.
05:09I've done a lot of persuasion, which is like a speech craft, so I can talk my way into
05:14and out of almost every situation.
05:16Yeah, I've done a lot of ship building, I've done lots of research and crafting, so if
05:20I find like a gun I like, I'll put on like better barrels, better sort of muzzles, I'll
05:25add like different magazines, I'll tune the guns to what I like.
05:29The same with spacesuits, I can add like different shielding or pockets to let you carry more.
05:34But you don't have to do it, you can literally just pick up stuff off the ground and you'll
05:37probably do just as well.
05:38So yeah, whatever you kind of want to get out of it, you'll probably sort of find that
05:42game there and if you do at any point be like, maybe I've played enough of this for a while,
05:47you'll find something else in the game to do and carry on kind of that way.
05:52You've mentioned it a bit there, but how is kind of the, obviously there's a lot to do,
05:56but there is a main crux, there is a main story, how is that?
05:59Well there's like several, like I say you have the faction missions, so yeah.
06:04Constellation is meant to be like the main mission, it's to do with sort of exploring,
06:10there's like a mystery out in space and you're trying to uncover what it is, so that's like
06:14the main mission in kind of like air quotes.
06:17The UC vanguards are the United Colonies, they're like I say, they're sort of almost
06:20like the Federation.
06:22With them you are, yeah you're doing kind of starship troopers, like kind of trying
06:26to deal with these sort of alien predator monster things, they're just like, the aliens
06:31in the game are all just like monsters, they're just like big space cows or like praying mantis
06:34and things like that and there's a nasty one they're trying to deal with.
06:38They also, you can join the pirates undercover and the pirates are basically looking for
06:43a lost pirate treasure essentially and that's kind of like quite sort of lots of robberies
06:49and heists and things like that.
06:51And yeah, Ryujin is kind of corporate espionage, so you're like trying to steal things from
06:56offices or plant evidence, that sort of thing and so they all have their own kind of distinct
07:01stories and their own kind of vibes, yeah heists and sneaking and all sorts of stuff.
07:07There's one mission on a ship where you basically just talk to people for like an hour because
07:09you're trying to uncover some embezzlement and you're trying to get some dirt on someone
07:13because if you can get dirt on them you can get, you can lever them into helping you,
07:18so you're just wandering around essentially like a cocktail party, just sort of chatting
07:21to people.
07:22Yeah, there's a heist where you can do one of about four different things to steal the
07:27thing you're there to steal.
07:28I went back and like reloaded the save because I wanted to see which, you know, which is
07:32like the best and there isn't a best version, it's like which one you like the most essentially.
07:37That's nice, that seems, again, the variety in this seems absolutely insane.
07:41It's just because of the games they've made before have such a long endgame to a certain
07:46extent with the games that have come before with the Bolivian and Skyrim where people
07:49just keep playing them over and over.
07:52Do you think this might have that kind of longevity in that people will be playing this
07:56in 10 years?
07:57I think so, yeah, because there are, let's say the main sort of faction of story missions
08:02are big, they're ongoing, they're quite long, like in a good way there's a lot to do there.
08:08There's loads of weird random things to find, there's lots of different ways to do everything
08:13like I'm being nice at the moment but I think, you know, you can be nasty, you can kill everyone,
08:19you could, yeah, you can stealth, it's got a bit more, because of the way you can sort
08:22of kit out your skills and abilities, there is a little bit more of, you know, you could
08:27talk your way through things, you can use tech, you can use gadgets and, you know, so
08:31there's a little bit more of that so you could replay it with different kind of role playing
08:35kind of intents.
08:37And then there's like procedural stuff, not procedural but there's like randomly generated
08:40stuff, like if you go to just a random planet that doesn't really have much on it, you will
08:45find some abandoned bases, you'll find some caves, there'll be enemies, there'll be loot,
08:49and there's kind of like an ongoing kind of amount of that and I haven't, I've not done
08:54a huge amount of them yet but some of the bounty missions and things where you have
08:59to deliver, you know, 5,000 iron to Jemisin, things like that, I think they just, they
09:04will just sort of keep going and you'll set up an outpost to mine iron and it'll ship
09:07off and you'll tick that off or, you know, there'll always be get expanded at planet
09:11Y, so that kind of stuff goes on forever but I think just the core game alone is, you know,
09:16hundreds of hours of kind of like, A, just completing it the first time but then also
09:20go back and be like, I want to, you know, I want to be big on guns, I want to be big
09:24on stealth, I want to play it like this, I want to play it like that.
09:28I haven't got to the outer reaches of kind of ship building yet but I know that I've
09:33seen a few warnings where like, you know, if you build a ship past a certain size you
09:36just can't land on planets so, you know, I think, you know, there's that sort of level
09:41of, you know, you could just, you know, build ships and just kind of do all that.
09:45As long as you're okay with them going 10 miles an hour.
09:47Well, if you get the engines right and balance all the reactors and stuff then you get like
09:51a good turn of speed but yeah, like, I pushed the absolute limits of what I had and it was
09:55a very slow ship.
09:56It still sounds like fun though, it sounds great.
09:59Yeah, yeah, no, it is, yeah, like, it's the sort of, yeah, the potential is kind of unlimited
10:04really.
10:05So, are there any negatives with it?
10:06I know that Bethesda have had a bit of a ropey innings with some of the gunplay in their
10:10previous games but how is it in this?
10:12Yeah, the gunplay is good, Fallout, the gunplay in Fallout has always been a bit of a kind
10:18of like, not controversial, but people have strong opinions on Fallout's gunplay because
10:23it can feel a bit rattly and lightweight.
10:24This, it feels nice, the guns feel good, it's got quite a lot of impact to it, there's a
10:28lot of variety between sort of ballistic weapons and laser weapons and particle beams, mag
10:34arrays are their new thing, which is like, the sort of the magazine and the barrel is
10:38like one whole thing, so you'll have like a mag rifle that has like, essentially like
10:4320 tiny little barrels and it can almost like fire them all at once, magnetically, they're
10:48really good fun.
10:49Like all the guns are like, you find something, oh this is cool, this is fun, everything has
10:51a lot of like punch to it, so there's a lot of like, you know, you find something, you
10:56like it, you use it until like the numbers are no longer sort of valid, like you've got
11:00other guns that do more damage but you end up with one you like, that you stick with
11:03until the last possible moment.
11:05There's a few weird things where skills are kind of, almost feel like some skills are
11:12completely locked off, where, so in the past, say for example stealth, you could sort of
11:17sneak around and you'd be bad at it but you could still get away with it without putting
11:20points into stealth, stealth points, a stealth skill would make you better.
11:25This feels a bit like kind of stealth doesn't work at all until you put any points into
11:30it and you unlock a stealth meter and then, you know, that sort of progresses.
11:34You can't lock, I don't think, I can't pick any pockets because I haven't unlocked that
11:38as a skill yet.
11:39So that's kind of interesting in that, yeah, there are some things you used to be able
11:44to do badly and would spend points on to get better at, you just can't do until you've
11:49unlocked the base level and the way you do skills is different now where you, if you
11:55earn a skill point, you can either unlock a new skill or upgrade an existing one.
12:01So there's a real kind of like weight to your choices now, you know, do you unlock loads
12:06of things and kind of be sort of not great at a lot of things or do you drill into getting
12:13better at some things?
12:14Like I've put a few repeat points into, say, ballistic weapons because I've found, you
12:18know, use a lot of ballistic guns so I've been levelling up the weapons damage but it
12:21means I'm not getting a new skill because I've put, say, three points into ballistics
12:26instead of three new skills.
12:29Ship building as well, you can't fly certain ships and you can't use certain components
12:33until you've levelled up your sort of ship building skills but again, you know, you can
12:36just steal a ship in space and get new ships that way so, you know, you take what you want
12:42and, you know, go after the things that appeal to you.
12:45If you put it all into ballistics you could just go steal the ship, I don't need to have
12:48the points in building it.
12:51Building ships is just so much fun.
12:53It sounds so good just coming across them on the planet or like boarding them in space,
12:57it's just, oh my god, well that sounds really promising so bearing all that in mind, the
13:01positives and a few tiny negatives, what score are you going to give it out of five?
13:06It's five stars for me, I think it's, you know, it's the best thing Bethesda have done
13:09in years and it's one of the best games I've played in years.
13:13I love big open world sort of things where avoiding the main mission is the main mission
13:20and this is just absolutely one of the best examples of that kind of game ever, like just
13:26pick a direction, walk off in it, see what you find and, you know, you'll be doing something
13:30all night, all weekend, like it's exceptional.
13:33Wow, it sounds like kind of game of the year contender as well and we've got a few of them
13:38already so this could be interesting.
13:40It's out in early access on the 1st of September and it's out properly on the 6th of September
13:45on Xbox Games Pass, it's out on the Microsoft Store, it's out on Xbox Series X and S and
13:50it's out on Steam.
13:52So yeah, go get it if you're interested, it sounds great, I'm really happy that it's,
13:56like we've proved the way, it's been worth the wait at least, which is great.
13:59Absolutely.