Highlights

  • There is no underwater exploration in Starfield, but players can spend hours exploring planets and customizing spaceships.
  • Underwater gameplay wouldn't have added much to the quests and could have taxed the game's engine performance.
  • Starfield focuses on exploring the stars, so skipping underwater adventures isn't a major loss.

Underwater exploration is not a part of the total package in Starfield, and that is probably for the best. Starfield was an ambitious title for Bethesda, and the sheer scale of the game proves that. Players can spend hours upon hours exploring without touching the main story. Of course, longtime fans of Bethesda titles would expect nothing less. However, for all that Starfield strived to reach new horizons, not every potential terrain ended up being explored in the final game. Upon further inspection though, it should be clear why Starfield's did not dive into every possible level design.

The opportunity to explore planets in Starfield is one of the game's big selling points. While players could explore dungeons in The Elder Scrolls and abandoned cities in Fallout, planets are Starfield's main source of discoveries. Players can even design their own custom spaceships to use when traveling among the stars. Considering that Constellation, the group that the player joins during the story, is dedicated to exploring the galaxy, it only makes sense that exploration would be a major focus of the game. In a good playthrough of Starfield, the player will be able to have a long list of discovered planets to their name.

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Underwater Exploration Isn't a Part of Starfield and Doesn't Necessarily Need to Be

Players Cannot Go Exploring Underwater in Starfield

While players can discover watery planets in Starfield, actually exploring underwater is impossible. The player is capable of walking across the surface of planets for miles, and obviously, flying starships is another major aspect of the game. However, actually diving underwater is out of the question. Admittedly, this does make some sense. Most of the time, the player will be wearing a bulky spacesuit when outside of their ship. It's not hard to imagine that exploring underwater might be difficult in such a suit.

Players can still swim on the water's surface, but there are no underwater adventures to be had in Starfield .

Underwater Gameplay May Not Have Meshed With Starfield's Design

Underwater gameplay probably wouldn't have added much to the many playable quests in Starfield in the first place. If anything, gameplay underwater would likely have been slower in order to mimic the feeling of moving in the water. After all, no change in physics would raise the point of why underwater gameplay would be included in the first place. Even if the player used a submarine or other watercraft, it would have likely just come off as a more limited version of the game's starships. Exploring underwater probably wouldn't have offered much importance to the Starfield experience as a whole.

Underwater Graphics Could Have Proven Taxing For Starfield's Engine, Affecting Performance

Performance is another area that should be taken into account. There's little question that Starfield's art direction is striking, but the presentation also has the potential to become a downside. Attempting to undertake a visual design that mimics underwater exploration could prove taxing on the game, dragging down performance during such sections.

It would be cool to see a shimmering, wavy world underneath the waves, but unless a game's engine is specifically designed with that in mind, it could prove more trouble than it's worth. For the sake of Starfield's performance, underwater exploration was probably best left out of the final game.

Players may not be able to go diving in Starfield, but all things considered, it's not a major loss. Fans can play Starfield for a long time, exploring planets and setting up outposts for far longer than the main story of the game would run. Players can already explore plenty of planets in Starfield with the tools at their disposal. While underwater exploration would be cool, it isn't something that the game necessarily needs, especially if not fine-tuned. As it stands, Starfield is just fine even without the ability to send the protagonist underwater.