Starfield, the new action RPG from the creators of Fallout 4 and The Elder Scrolls, revealed several gameplay snippets during Microsoft’s Xbox & Bethesda Showcase digital event this Sunday. The game was featured in a lengthy segment with Bethesda’s designer Todd Howard, who detailed various gameplay mechanics, a story involving space artifacts, and the ability to visit over a thousand planets in the game’s universe. Starfield will launch in early 2023 for Xbox Series X / S and PC, included with Xbox Game Pass, at no extra cost to service subscribers.

The gameplay started by showing a little bit of the beginning of the game, on the Kreet moon. As with other Bethesda games, playing first-person ( FPS ) and third-person is possible. The mission quickly turns into combat against the Crimson Fleet pirates. The combat system offers a good arsenal of weapons equivalent to pistols, rifles, shotguns, and grenades. During the game, there is the possibility of obtaining resources for crafting and creating mods for your weapons. In the beginning, there are also alien creatures that seem peaceful if not threatened, which become monstrous and aggressive as the gameplay progresses.

After the first mission, the player is introduced to Constellation, the last group of space explorers that aims to keep the peace and whose base is situated in the city of New Atlantis, on the planet of Jemison. They are also interested in a type of mysterious space artifact found by the player, divided into various parts across the universe, and appears to communicate through visions with anyone who touches it.

According to Howard, the character creation system was also shown and called the most flexible ever made by Bethesda. Users can choose their character’s appearance, past, and background, which will offer three extra abilities, in addition to choosing personality traits that can add advantages and disadvantages. The mechanics of developing skills will be an evolution of previous games from the developer. New skills will be unlocked as you level up – you need to use them and complete specific quests to improve them.

In addition to creating your protagonist, the game will allow you to develop bases to generate resources and hire characters that the user finds along the way to work on it. Even the ship can be built, allowing you to change its look and performance by choosing parts from certain manufacturers, among elements such as the engine, shields, and weapons system. In the game, users will have the chance to pilot their ship directly and engage in space combat.

At the end of the presentation, Todd Howard explained the level of freedom players would have. During the demo, the gameplay was guided from the moon of Kreet to New Atlantis on the planet of Jemison. However, users can choose to go anywhere, land anywhere on the planet, and any planet out of various systems. There will be hundreds of solar systems and more than a thousand planets.