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Bethesda Game Studios yesterday launched Starfield, an open-world role-playing game that features several star systems and more than 1,000 planets. Revealed in 2018, it is the first new universe by the gaming studio in 25 years and is already a contender for the Best Game of the Year.
Starfield’s early access, which started on September 1 and lasted till September 5, saw more than 2 million concurrent players on Steam with only Premium Edition buyers. Here’s everything you need to know about Starfield, Bethesda’s most ambitious and largest title to date.
Set in the year 2330, the story takes place in a universe where humanity has gone interstellar and is exploring new planets. The player takes on the role of a miner in an area of space called ‘Settled Systems’, who is assigned to gather and extract minerals from a moon.
While cutting rocks in a cave, you stumble upon an object, which causes you to see a strange vision. Eventually, the player joins a group of space explorers who call themselves ‘Constellation’, seeking rare artefacts spread across the limitless space.
Starfield offers extensive customisation options, where players can create their own characters with backstories and traits. The game also lets you build a spaceship from different parts, with players able to add parts, rearrange the layout, use different colours for every module, add or remove weapons and more. Since Starfield is a space-action RPG, you can also engage in space combat.
In the journey across the vast outer space, you will be able to build your own crew, recruit nameless mercenaries and choose from various romance options. Players can also choose to make a settlement on a random planet from scratch as well as tie up with other factions for certain missions. Players can also switch between first-person and third-person view anytime they want.
The game has more than 1,000 planets spanning numerous star systems, with most of the planets having their own moons and space stations. Starfield uses procedural generation, so every planet you visit will have a different landscape, varying terrain and flora and fauna. These factors take into account the distance of the planet from the star and atmospheric conditions among other parameters.
According to RockPaperShotgun, Starfield’s main storyline is about 30 to 40 hours long, which is not lengthy, but if you want to explore space, it might take somewhere around 60 hours to complete the game’s storyline.
Starfield is available on Microsoft’s Xbox Series X and Series S consoles and PC. The game is already part of Xbox Game Pass and supports the console’s Play Anywhere feature, meaning you can own a digital copy of the game and enjoy the title on both Xbox and PC without having to purchase a separate version.
Bethesda Game Studios has released two sets of system requirements – minimum and recommended, which is pretty common for PC games launched in the last few years.
If you don’t mind playing the game at low to medium settings, you will atleast need Windows 10 21H1 or newer version. As for hardware, the minimum system requirements are set are AMD Ryzen 5 2600X or Intel Core i7-6800K, 16GB RAM, AMD Radeon RX 5700 or Nvidia GeForce GTX 1070 Ti.
For those interested in recommended system requirements, your machine should have at least 16GB RAM and pack AMD Ryzen 5 3600 or Intel Core i5-10600K or a faster processor. In the GPU department, Bethesda recommends at least an AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT or Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 or newer.
Also, Bethesda recommends that you install the game on an SSD with at least 125GB of free storage space.
On Steam, the base version of Starfield is priced at Rs 4,999 but those looking forward to the ‘Digital Premium Edition’ will have to shell out Rs 6,699. Steam users can also upgrade from the base edition to premium by purchasing the ‘Starfield Digital Premium Edition Upgrade’, which costs Rs 2,499.
Those who want everything should check out the Starfield Premium Edition, which includes the base game, a digital artbook, original soundtrack, Constellation Skin Pack and Shattered Space DLC. It is priced at Rs 9,199 on the Xbox store. However, those with an active Xbox Game Pass subscription can download the game for free.
