Starfield (PlayStation 5/PlayStation 5 Pro)

PlayStation 5 players finally get to enjoy Bethesda Game Studios' Starfield space role-playing game. 

I can only envy PlayStation 5 owners as they fire up Starfield for the first time. They may have had to wait nearly three years for the privilege, but the wait will have been worth it. You see, back in September 2023 whilst the idea of Starfield being like The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim in space was a great idea, the execution for Xbox Series X|S and PC owners was somewhat different. Don't get me wrong, I loved Starfield at launch, but I could understand the criticisms. 

The game offers players the ultimate space fantasy. Starting as a humble miner, the player's character stumbles on a strange artifact, one of many scattered across the heavens. This propels them into an adventure with a band of interplanetary explorers, called Constellation, to uncover the secrets of the artifacts. 

Starfield's plot is secondary to the immersive universe in which the game exists. On original release, one of the criticisms included the game having a universe with mainly nothing in it. Which is kind of correct. Most space games and movies cheat when it comes to the fact that space is mainly a vast expanse of nothing. But for a tight narrative experience, like what fans were expecting with Starfield, walking around on the surface of a deserted moon, occasionally coming across some cookie-cutter outpost, was not well-received. 

Yes, there are vast areas of nothing, but there are also hub worlds with huge cities, like New Atlantis in Alpha Centauri, the cyberpunk tourist city of Neon and the western-inspired Akila City. Even the most isolated planets will have some sort of settlement, usually abandoned, where players can forge their own story. 

It may not quite be Skyrim in space, but you can still live a second life among the stars, exploring, bounty hunting and even engaging in a bit of piracy. There's no requirement to relentlessly pursue the main quest line, either, because, as well as stumbling upon emergent gameplay experiences, there are loads of side and faction quests to keep you busy. 

If you've played any of Bethesda Game Studios' earlier games, like Oblivion, Skyrim or Fallout, you will understand what sort of role-playing game you are going to be getting into. As a Bethesda role-playing game, a lot of effort has gone into the character creation section towards the beginning of the game. In addition to your character's looks, player choices affect stats and perks that, to some extent, shape how you play the game. 

There's quite a bit of inventory management, with equipment, weapon and clothing upgrades, as well as skill trees to unlock. Quests involve visiting quest-givers and carrying out tasks in other locations for loot and credits. There's also plenty of combat. 

The major addition is your spaceship, or spaceships, which kind of work similar to housing in Skyrim and the base building in Fallout. Starfield also allows for the building of outposts, and you can still buy houses, but it's your ship that gets you from A to B. The modular spaceship design and the easy-to-use editor allow players to build unique ships with custom engines, weapons, storage capacity and technical specifications. 

In the game's original release, space flight was not as expected, with players only flying their ships in orbit, during encounters and scripted sequences. The illusion of interplanetary space flight just wasn't there, replaced with a fast travel system and cut scenes for all the interesting bits. That's kind of been sorted out now. 

As well as engaging in space combat around planets and areas of interest, including boarding ships that you've successfully immobilised, as has always been in the game, players can control the ship between planets. There can be punctuated mid-voyage encounters that make things interesting along the journey. 

PlayStation 5 owners join the game at a sort of version 1.5. Both the premium DLC expansions are available, and included if you bought the premium edition, and the free update, Free Lanes, adds interplanetary spaceflight to the game. There have also been three years of patches ironing out many of the game's issues and optimising the visuals. 

PlayStation 5 owners get to choose the display settings from "performance", aimed at 60 frames-per-second, or "visuals", aimed at players happy with a sub-60fps experience but with better effects, lighting and crowds. PlayStation 5 Pro owners also get to choose an "enhanced" mode, although this is still not recommended for 60fps or above. 

Even on a PS5 Pro, I preferred the higher frame rate of "performance" over "enhanced". No matter what your choice, the game looks crisp and better than I remember it being at launch. I'd go as far as to say that playing Starfield on PlayStation 5 Pro is second only to PC. 

Many of the game's flaws are inherent in the design and will never be fixed. The game's director, Todd Howard, has as good as said that players should not expect a No Man's Sky-style reinvention of Starfield. That may be so, but Starfield, if you look at it for what it is rather than what it isn't, as of right now, is a rather excellent game. 

Starfield looks amazing on PlayStation 5, but the shortcomings of the game's aging engine are obvious, especially when you look at the recent The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered, which replaced the game's original version of the Creation Engine with Unreal Engine 5. 

Of course, Starfield looks much better than the original Oblivion, and all of Bethesda Game Studios' titles since, including Fallout 4, but the below-par DNA is still there, especially in the facial animations. 

The muted tones give the game an almost retro-seventies styling. This and the "lived-in" look of the hardware suggest inspiration from the likes of Star Wars and Alien rather than 2001. The ships, stations, vehicles and spacesuits all sport a believable near-future NASA aesthetic, which neatly supports a largely grounded sci-fi story. 

It's an intriguing high-concept idea worthy of an Arthur C. Clarke novel. The plot unfolds with a genuinely shocking revelation that leaves you pondering the uncomfortable truth that just because we can do something, it doesn't mean we should. 

The game is available in two flavours, the standard and premium editions. I'd recommend the premium edition if you can, as this has the base game and the two expansions, Shattered Space and Terrain Armada, both of which have now been released. 

The premium edition also includes digital extras, a soundtrack, an art book and a skin pack. You also get 1000 credits to spend on mods in the Starfield Creation store. 

It's worth noting that the game carries a rather unfair R18+ rating in Australia due to the use of drugs. It's a bit puritanical, since the game is really just standard sci-fi and space-opera fare. But it's better than the Australian ratings board outright banning the game as they would have a decade ago. 

Revisiting the game on PlayStation 5 after three years reminded me of just how good Starfield is. And now, with years of tweaks and the new Free Lanes update, it's even better. The two premium expansions add content for higher-level characters, making the game even more immersive. 

For PlayStation 5 role-playing game fans, especially fans of Skyrim and Fallout, Starfield is a must. 

Verdict: 9/10