Starfield
An RPG about swapping a mining job for a starship and an alien mystery. Bethesda Game Studios developed it, Bethesda Softworks published it, and it released on September 6, 2023 for PC and Xbox Series X|S; a PS5 version followed on April 7, 2026.
Exploration happens mostly on foot, in first-person or third-person view, while ship fights and outpost building fill the gaps. Quests branch from a main storyline into faction careers and companion subplots.
Top 3 Reasons to Play
- Your ship is a build, not a menu pick. The ship builder assembles it module by module, and the Starship Design skill gates the better parts.
- A character starts with a background that grants three skills. Traits add gameplay modifiers, some with story consequences, and 82 skills across five trees cover everything from piloting to outpost engineering.
- Factions are not mutually exclusive: a single playthrough can cover the UC Vanguard, Freestar Rangers and Ryujin Industries. Only the Crimson Fleet line forces a hard pick, between the pirates and UC System Defense.
Story and Lore
In 2330, humanity lives scattered across the Settled Systems. The United Colonies and the Freestar Collective, the two biggest powers, fought the Colony War from 2310 onward, and the peace that followed is an uneasy one in a region that remains dangerous.
The Spacefarer, as the player character is known, begins as a miner. Early in the game the Spacefarer finds an Artifact, meets the explorer Barrett on Vectera and gets pulled into Constellation, a small group based at the Lodge in New Atlantis that hunts for more of these objects. Touching one triggers visions.
The search leads to ancient Temples that grant Powers, and to the Starborn: humans who passed through a phenomenon called the Unity and were cast into other universes. Once they enter the story, every Temple you finish pulls a Starborn into a fight, and defeated ones vanish without leaving a body. The game never spells out who built the Artifacts and Temples.
Gameplay and Mechanics
Interstellar travel runs through the grav drive, which jumps the ship between systems from the star map. Moving between planets inside one system originally ran through menus and loading screens; the Free Lanes update from April 2026 added Cruise Mode, which flies between planets at lightspeed. Planet surfaces are procedurally generated, and a scanner marks resources such as iron and lithium for harvesting.
Combat comes in two forms
- On foot, fights are first- or third-person shootouts with ballistic and laser weapons, plus melee and a boost pack for vertical movement.
- In space, weapon classes are ballistic, energy and missile, and the Targeting Control Systems skill allows aiming at an enemy ship’s individual subsystems.
A skill point buys a skill, but ranking it up means completing a challenge tied to that skill. Planetary Habitation, for example, opens outposts on worlds with extreme heat or cold and raises the cap on how many can be built, while Outpost Engineering adds improved modules and research.
The same Free Lanes update also added
- X-tech, a resource for upgrading ships and weapons, along with weapon quality tiers above Legendary.
- Ship modules for stealth boosts, extra thrust and extra shields, plus a prebuilt all-in-one module.
- A shared container reachable from every outpost, and a database that lists owned outposts and resource locations.
- The Moon Jumper, a surface vehicle.
Characters and Factions
Constellation’s core crew doubles as the main companion roster. Sarah Morgan chairs the group after a career in the United Colonies military that included heading the UC Navigator Corps. Barrett hands the Spacefarer a ship and the robot Vasco at the start. Sam Coe, a former Freestar Ranger, joins with his daughter Cora, and Andreja keeps her past close. Walter Stroud, co-owner of the Stroud-Eklund shipbuilder, bankrolls the organization, and the graduate scientist Noel rounds out the group.
Factions
- The UC Vanguard recruits in New Atlantis, starting with a piloting test before a three-mission story.
- Akila City is the home of the Freestar Rangers, whose missions carry a space-western tone and a conspiracy spanning the colonies.
- Ryujin Industries runs corporate espionage out of Neon; any company job kiosk begins the storyline, and stealth and persuasion do most of the work.
- Pirates make up the Crimson Fleet, introduced through an undercover job called Deep Cover that passes through Cydonia on Mars.
Faith drives three smaller groups: House Va’ruun, House of the Enlightened and Sanctum Universum.
The Starborn are divided over who should reach the Unity. The Hunter believes anyone able to get there should pass through, while the Emissary wants access limited to those who can wield the Artifacts’ power responsibly.
The Terran Armada, introduced in DLC, is made up of people from both sides of the Colony War who dropped out of sight during it, and who regard themselves as Earth’s rightful heirs.
Editions
- Standard Edition: the base game.
- Digital Premium Edition: the base game plus the Shattered Space story expansion (released September 30, 2024, set on Va’ruun’kai, the homeworld of House Va’ruun), the Terran Armada story DLC, 1,000 Creation Credits, the Constellation Skin Pack (Equinox Laser Rifle, spacesuit, helmet and boost pack), and the digital artbook and original soundtrack.