Bethesda's latest RPG, Starfield, has been watched keenly by the gaming community for some years now. Departing from the typical Fallout and Elder Scrolls franchises, Starfield marks an entirely new IP for Bethesda, taking the player on a journey across space rather than a nuclear wasteland or fantasy continent. With a lot of fans having high expectations for Starfield, Bethesda has been hard at work ensuring that the game has enough ambition and scope to meet those expectations, as shown by its first proper gameplay reveal in June.
Starfield showed off its first few minutes of gameplay at the 2022 Xbox and Bethesda Games Showcase, including a look at some of the game's combat, a glimpse at the story, and plenty more for fans to get hyped over. With everything described by Bethesda Director Todd Howard and shown in multiple pieces of in-game footage, Starfield looks to be an expansive title, likely giving players hundreds of things to do across countless hours of content.
However, for some, the ambition of Starfield is going too far, especially when it comes to how many planets will be available to explore. Todd Howard stated that there will be over 100 solar systems and 1000+ planets to explore in Starfield. To some, this is an exciting prospect, but to others, it indicates a potential lack of human touch on the level design of Starfield, as it is highly unlikely that Bethesda hand-crafted over 1,000 planets.
The problem for those against Starfield's 1,000 planets stems from procedural generation, which can mean that rather than a dozen or so planets that feel like meaningful, detailed worlds, the AI generation required to make hundreds and hundreds of spaces will leave them feeling less compelling. Many criticized No Man's Sky when it first launched for similar problems, with the game's many planets feeling devoid of life and diversity. Even some prominent figures in the gaming industry have shown their leeriness for procedural generation and "massive game spaces," with former Dragon Age Lead Writer David Gaider speaking on the matter in a recent tweet.
Even with the promise of over 1,000 planets to explore, it is unlikely that the level of detail will be spread equally among Starfield's worlds. Some, like the world of Jemison, clearly have some more focus placed on them. It is possible that Starfield could take influence from Mass Effect 2 as well, allowing the player to explore planets but with only a limited area that is playable. Either way, fans will be able to find out how Starfield's planets work when the game finally launches.
Starfield is scheduled to release in early 2023 on PC and Xbox Series X/S.