B&B Starfield

Welcome to Brew and Breakdown. Let’s begin. 

Our game featured today is Starfield. Steam gave this title a 7 out of 10. Wikipedia states, Starfield is an action role-playing game developed by Bethesda Game Studios and published by Bethesda Softworks. It was announced during Bethesda's E3 presentation in 2018. The game takes place in a space-themed setting, and is the first new intellectual property developed by Bethesda in 25 years. The game was released for Windows and Xbox Series X/S on September 6, 2023.

The game received generally positive reviews from critics, with particular praise for its open world, setting, and soundtrack, though its story and exploration divided critics.

In Starfield The player can switch between a first-person and third-person perspective at any time. The game features an open world in the form of an area within the Milky Way galaxy, containing both fictional and non-fictional planetary systems. The player is able to land on more than 1,000 planets and an unspecified number of moons and space stations. The majority of the landscapes within the game were procedurally generated, depending on the star of its system and its atmosphere, as well as locations of interest as the player approaches a planet, with modified and handcrafted content developed around them. The largest city in the game, New Atlantis, is the largest fictional city Bethesda has developed. As the player explores the game world, they encounter various non-playable characters (NPCs), some of whom have the option to join the player's crew. Such NPCs may aid the player in combat, carry items, speak to other NPCs on the player's behalf during confrontations, and comment on choices the player makes. The player may station crew members at any of their constructed outposts. Each companion character has their own unique skills and abilities. Some recruitable NPCs can be romanced by the player.

At the start of the game, the player can customize their character, a silent protagonist. Choosing the background of the player character unlocks three starting skills. As the player progresses, they will unlock additional traits which can aid or hinder them. For instance, the Introvert trait grants the player more endurance when traveling alone, but reduces their endurance when traveling with a companion. Traits are removable through quests or certain actions. As the player progresses, they gain experience and level up, allowing them to unlock abilities found in five distinct skill trees: Physical, Social, Combat, Science, and Tech. A variety of firearms, explosives, and melee weapons can be used to defeat enemies. Most weapons are customizable via attachments. The player is additionally able to equip various jetpacks (called "boost packs"), which aid the player in both combat and the traversal of impassable or challenging environments. When landed on a celestial body, the gravitational force acting upon the player varies depending upon the body's mass. Prior to landing, the player can scan planets and asteroids to view their natural resources. These must be extracted or harvested to fulfill many crafting recipes. Outposts can be erected by the player, which can serve as homes or facilitate resource-extraction operations. The player can install laboratories in their outposts to research craftable items and upgrades, which are sorted into five categories: Pharmacology, Food & Drink, Outpost Development, Equipment, and Weaponry. Outposts can be constructed in either first-person perspective or isometric perspective.

The player can construct, purchase, or commandeer spaceships. At various spaceports located on planets, the player can buy and sell parts and spaceships, or have their own repaired. The game features a modular ship customization system, allowing the player to modify their ships' central components, facilities, rooms, paint color, decorations, and weapons. Larger spaceships may possess greater storage capacity and living space, but a lower maximum speed and shorter maximum Jump Range. Weapons must be equipped to defend the player's spaceship during ship combat. Ships feature a "power allocation" system, whereby the player must prioritize which systems receive levels of power at any given time. During combat, the player can opt to allocate power to weapons systems rather than their ship's "Grav Drive." Both hostile and peaceful NPC-piloted spaceships can be boarded. The player can plunder, commandeer and destroy ships, as well as speak, trade, and kill their occupants.

The Decision

Starfield is vastly superior in terms of content and synonymous with rich epic story-driven media masterpieces. Brew and Breakdown gives this title 5 out of Five Coffee Beans. Sadly, once again, Brew and Breakdown has come to an end. Thank you for tuning in to Xbox Intel. 

Intel next time.