Todd Howard describes Starfield as “Skyrim in space” because of course he does

Now that we’ve actually seen something to do with Starfield, it’s time to start asking the real questions. The trailer released during the Microsoft/Bethesda Games Showcase was cinematic in nature, so the real meat of the game is currently unknown. Thankfully, game director Todd Howard sat down with a few interested parties to talk a little more about the game, managing to reveal both new information and dredge up previous Bethesda games, because of course, he did.

Todd Howard described Starfield to The Telegraph as, “a first-person and third-person game, like our other ones. We like that style of gameplay. First-person for us is still our prime way of playing. So you can see the world and touch all those things.” In a similar vein to both Fallout and The Elder Scrolls games, players can switch between first and third-person. “It’s also a bit more hardcore of a role-playing game than we’ve done. It’s got some really great character systems: choosing your background, things like that. We’re going back to some things that we used to do in games long ago that we felt have really let players express the character they want to be.” While many other Bethesda Games have robust character creators, the actual role-playing parts of those symptoms is often… lacking. One hopes that Starfield manages to fix that.

Speaking to The Washington Post, Howard describes the game as “Skyrim in space”; during the same interview, Bethesda Game Studios managing director said that the game was a “Han Solo simulator.” Apparently it took some time for the developers to really nail down what they wanted to do with Starfield. “We knew the style of game we wanted. But there’s so much science fiction, we didn’t have this existing franchise feel. We had to create that from scratch. What do the spaceships look like? What’s the tech level? What do people believe? What year is it really set in? And now man is living amongst the stars: What does that mean?” One can only hope that Howard and the team found the answers they were looking for along the way.

Starfield launches on November 11, 2022 for Xbox Series X|S and PC.

Last Updated: June 15, 2021