Based on its approach to advertising the game in 2021, Bethesda seems determined to sellStarfieldon the merit of its planets. That’s not a surprising approach; from the moment it was first announced, the notion of a Bethesda game about traveling through outer space sounded appealing. So far, lots ofStarfieldconcept art focuses on teasing the environments that players might be able to explore.Starfieldlooks like it will house highly diverse biospheres that rival evenStar Wars' myriad of planets, and there will be some compelling cities worth visiting too.
While it’s great to seeStarfieldput such an emphasis on exploration, travel means something different compared to most Bethesda games. Whereas traveling across the wasteland inFallout 4or between cities inSkyrimis a matter of walking, either manually or with fast travel,Starfield’s network of planetswill require space travel, which means both manual and fast travel could be more arduous. Ideally, Bethesda will go out of its way to streamline both forms of travel as much as possible inStarfield,or else players may not be excited about roaming the galaxy.
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Starfield’s Travel Must Be Efficient
Encouraging players to wanderStarfield’s map by filling its planets with unique flora, fauna, NPCs, and locations to discover is important. Bethesda’s concept art, as well assome clips explaining importantStarfieldlocations, suggest it already has plenty of ideas. However, travel between these landmarks needs to be snappy. If going from one planet to another means sitting through a long loading screen or watching cutscenes of spaceships going to-and-fro, players will get annoyed with interplanetary travel quickly, no matter how engaging each planet is.
That means Bethesda needs to makeStarfield’s travel convenient and fun. For moments when players have to manually fly to another planet,Starfieldmight take some notes fromNo Man’s Sky’s transportation system. InNo Man’s Sky,players can quickly take off into space and get to a neighboring planet, potentially finding resources or other landmarks along the way. It also has some engaging distractions in outer space, like dogfights or asteroids laden with resources.Starfieldneeds to borrow bothNo Man’s Sky’s snappy travel and its outer space gameplay features, keeping the slow approach to travel rewarding.
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Fast travel is always the easiest way to get around, butStarfieldcould still run into issues. Bethesda might be tempted to introduce cutscenes for fast travel that show off each planet, for instance, but it’s for the best that fast travel simply gets players to their location quickly. Repeated cutscenes do less to explore a location than letting the player roam it on foot. Optimization will be crucial forStarfieldbecause of interplanetary fast travel, too. Loading a huge slice of a planet at a moment’s notice is no easy feat, but Bethesda still needs to keep loading times as low as possible, or else players won’t want tovisit multiple planets during oneStarfieldsitting, which could slow gameplay overall.
Traveling is Crucial to Starfield
There’s no getting around the need for rewarding, practical travel systems inStarfield. Because it’s a game that takes place across multiple planets, Bethesda has to work diligently on its travel systems, as vehicles and transportation will bind the game together. Optimization shouldn’t be too much trouble with the help of modern gaming PCs andthe powerful Xbox Series X, but making travel convenient and fun is on Bethesda. Hopefully the studio has a few tricks up its sleeve.
Starfieldreleases June 24, 2025 for PC and Xbox Series X/S.
