The implementation of space mechanics is one of the biggest criticisms of Starfield. It is criticized that every spaceship flight is tied to a short cutscene. But at least the individual celestial bodies in a solar system can be reached. However, one does not want that.
Starfield is not a space simulation. The sci-fi RPG is much more of a role-playing game than a simulation. There is a lot of criticism for the meager mechanics in space: too simplistic, too little immersion.
One point of criticism is that one performs a fast travel even within the orbit of a planet when one wants to land on a planet. You don’t really fly to the planet, instead you are hundreds of kilometers away and land at the push of a button via a cutscene.
As a curious streamer on Twitch discovered, you can at least reach the planets… if you have enough patience and no expectations.
The new sci-fi RPG celebrates its full release on September 6. The video gives an insight into the gameplay:
Pluto is empty, flat, and broken
The explorer in question is Alanah Pearce. Pearce is on Twitch as “charalanahzard” and is also known for her work as a gaming writer and voice actress. Additionally, she was part of the writing team for God of War: Ragnarök.
The streamer wanted to know what happens when you are patient enough and fly the slightly more than 2,000 kilometers from the fast travel point to the planet. So she set a course, set several alarms for regular course corrections, and went to sleep.
It took almost 7 hours and 30 minutes for the ship to be in immediate range of the planet. The streamer’s ship was suddenly surrounded by clouds – there was some kind of atmosphere. Can you also land? Here is the clip from the moment she reached the surface:
“It’s flat. It’s confirmed: Pluto is flat,” Pearce realized upon “impact” on the planet’s surface.
Instead of landing on solid ground, the ship flies through the heavily pixelated surface and found itself in empty space. “I must be inside Pluto,” she notices.
This is what it looks like inside Pluto:
So there was nothing to see, except for a graphically broken planet surface and the empty interior of Pluto. Maybe astronomers were right after all, to deny Pluto the status of a full-fledged planet.
Starfield is a big RPG, but not an action fireworks. A little patience is certainly appropriate. Not quite as much as the streamer charalanahzard showed during the flight to Pluto, but still a bit: Those who survive the slow start of Starfield will celebrate the game.
