As the next upcoming RPG from Bethesda Game Studios, Starfield has a lot of pressure on its shoulders. At the same time, Starfield also has a lot of predecessors to learn from, and one particular feature is already shaping up to exceed expectations in this regard.
Even though Starfield is a new IP, fans of Bethesda’s past games and overall RPG enthusiasts are still holding the game to high industry and genre standards. While Fallout 76 may still be a controversial topic to some gamers, Starfield has generously improved upon one of Fallout 76’s shortcomings: jetpacks.
Jetpacks in Fallout 76 are Awkward to Use
In Fallout 76, the public servers can’t always handle players using jetpacks, so ultimately it’s a bit of a risk to mod a jetpack onto a set of standard armor. Players have a few options when it comes to minimizing or eliminating fall damage, like wearing Power Armor in Fallout 76, but these methods aren’t always an appropriate solution. But this is only half the problem, as they are underwhelming to use to boot.
While Power Armor in Fallout 76 completely removes fall damage for the user, a jetpack will eat up the precious fusion cores used to fuel the Power Armor. Ever since Fallout 4 changed the way that Power Armor works, movement in Power Armor requires fusion cores, and actions that drain the AP meter — like using jetpacks and sprinting — consume Fusion Cores at an increased rate. Power Armor also comes with a very slow landing animation when falling from a great enough height, so although it’s a safe option, it’s a lot more taxing on time and resources compared to using jetpacks on standard armor.
What makes fall damage so unavoidable when using jetpacks in Fallout 76 is that they aren’t a reliable means of transportation. In the event of spontaneous server latency, jetpacks often fail to fulfill their sole purpose of lifting players upward or counteracting downward momentum. Since server latency can’t be consistently avoided, this often leads to players missing simple platforming attempts or potentially dying to easily avoidable vertical drops. For players looking to expand their vertical mobility in Fallout 76, it’s a lot more reliable to use the Marsupial Mutation Serum, which increases jump height.
Since Fallout 76 is a post-apocalyptic game, the jetpacks don’t quite deserve to be easy to use, but at the same time, they still leave much to be desired in their current state. While it’s unlikely that Fallout 76’s jetpacks will get a favorable overhaul, Bethesda’s next RPG has seemingly stepped up to the challenge of improving personal jetpacks. In the Starfield gameplay shown at the 2023 Xbox Games Showcase, the jump pack already looks like a serious upgrade from Fallout 76’s jetpacks.
How Starfield Makes the Most out of Jump Packs
Different planets in Starfield will have varying levels of gravity, which means that the jump pack is going to have a range of utilities and maneuvers instead of just one universal performance. On top of this is the potential for modding and improving the jump pack through various methods. The armor modding system has been a consistent staple in Bethesda’s RPGs, so Starfield’s jump pack could possibly be customizable with mods and different components. Whether the jump pack is customizable or not, the brief reveals so far about Starfield’s player skills also look promising in regard to altering jump pack performances.
Starfield’s jump packs are an undeniable improvement from how jetpacks function in Fallout 76, and the performance isn’t the only thing that Starfield builds upon. Not only is the jump pack a lot more appropriate and reliable to use in Starfield, but it already appears a lot more complex, which is what Fallout 76 was also missing. At any rate, Starfield’s jump pack is a great change compared to how underwhelming the jetpacks were the last time they were featured in a Bethesda RPG.