Highlights
- Starfield offers players four different factions to join, each with their own quests and side content, making the side content the game's bread and butter.
- The Crimson Fleet, a feared space pirate group, is considered the best faction with the best quest chain in Starfield, showcasing the game's strong writing and mission design.
- The Crimson Fleet quests provide some of the best side content in the game, featuring a variety of missions from heists to extortion, and the faction's characters are entertaining and intriguing, adding depth to the decision of joining or betraying them.
One of the defining characteristics of any Bethesda-made RPG is the existence of multiple factions for the player to join at any point in their playthrough. Starfield is no different, offering players four different groups to partner up with, each with their own branching quest chains and opportunities for worthwhile side content. While many are finding Starfield's main story quest to be a step up from previous games from the studio, it seems as if the side content is proving to still be the bread and butter of the game. Each of the available factions and their quests provide some of Starfield's greatest thrills, but the Crimson Fleet might just take the cake as the best of the bunch.
The space pirate group known as the Crimson Fleet is first introduced during Starfield's opening moments, descending on Vecterra immediately after the player meets Barrett and agrees to bring the artifact to Constellation. Although at first they seem like run-of-the-mill thugs in outer space and little more than an excuse for a quick combat tutorial, the player gradually learns that they're one of the more feared entities in the Settled Systems. Eventually, players get a chance to join the Fleet in earnest following one of the best quest chains in any Bethesda RPG, cementing the strength of Starfield's writing and mission design.
Starfield's 'Deep Cover' Mission Kicks Off Some of its Best Side Content
By the time most players fulfill the requirements to trigger the beginning of Starfield's Deep Cover mission, they've likely seen and learned enough about the Settled Systems to know that it's a bad idea to end up in the crosshairs of either the United Colonies or the Crimson Fleet. Being placed into a position where the player is forced to go undercover and play both sides only adds to the tension of the ultimate choice that has to be made, with either outcome coming with its fair share of pros and cons. This kind of dilemma is the foundation on which great quests are built, making players truly consider the ramifications of their choices (or even create separate save files to allow choosing both outcomes and seeing the result).
Aside from that, though, the quests themselves that spring up as part of going undercover for UC SysDef to infiltrate the Crimson Fleet provide some of the best side content available in Starfield. The missions run the gamut from carefully planned heists of top-secret technology to extortion and blackmail of corporate bigwigs on Neon and everything in between. Players can go into these missions guns blazing, but those who have invested some points into persuasion will find that there are plenty of angles from which to approach each mission's target objective. Through sheer variety alone, the Crimson Fleet missions to uncover the location of Kryx's Legacy are some of the game's most entertaining.
The Crimson Fleet Is a Motley Crew of Roguish Outlaws
Outside the missions themselves, the Crimson Fleet's membership counts itself as including some of the most entertaining characters in Starfield's impressive cast. Both Delgado and Naeva are equal parts intimidating and intriguing, giving players pause over whether joining up with the Crimson Fleet is such a good idea. By the time the player is forced to make a choice over whether to join or betray the Crimson Fleet, it's almost a guarantee that many will be conflicted given how much comradery has developed, or how much fear one might have about having the Fleet at their backs the rest of the game.
The best faction quests in Bethesda RPGs include well-written characters, engaging mission design, and worthwhile rewards, and the Crimson Fleet faction embodies all of these qualities. Not only are the quests a full spectrum of what's available in Starfield, but the reward waiting for players at the faction's terminal point is a must-have. Each faction quest in Starfield is worthwhile, but the Crimson Fleet matches the previous heights of Skryim's Thieves Guild or Oblivion's Dark Brotherhood.
Starfield is available now for PC and Xbox Series X/S.