Starfield is the new mega role-playing game from Bethesda, and consequently, the expectations of the players were and are high. Huge worlds to explore, tons of side and faction quests, as well as a well-developed campaign – this is how many players have envisioned the sci-fi epic. Some have significantly overestimated the length of the main story.
How long is the campaign? The campaign of Starfield is approximately 17.5 hours long, according to the website “HowLongToBeat.com” (HLTB).
However, how long the main story really is also depends on the playstyle of a person. Some players take their time to read the dialogues carefully and take in every piece of information. Others skip to the most important information and then end a conversation.
Additionally, HLTB categorizes into different categories such as “main story only,” “main story and side quests,” and “completionist.” In the “completionist” category, the game must be truly 100% complete – including the main story, side quests, collecting collectibles, and exploring all planets.
It may also be that the average playtime on HLTB increases again as significantly more players complete the role-playing game and report their playtime.
Here once again is a summary of the playtimes on HowLongToBeat.com:
- Main story: 17.5 hours
- Main story + side quests: 50.5 hours
- Completionist: 205 hours
What did players think the campaign would be like? In the social networks, many players assumed before the release of Starfield that the campaign would be about 30 to 40 hours long (via Reddit).
This assumption was also based on a statement from Starfield head Todd Howard, who mentioned in an interview with IGN that the campaign of Starfield is about 20% longer than in previous Bethesda games. Furthermore, he stated that it should take around 30 to 40 hours if no side content is done.
What else is there to do besides the campaign? Besides the main story, which you shouldn’t finish in a hurry, you can do countless other things in Starfield and accumulate playtime. In the first tests, the faction quests were particularly praised.
And even though the exploration of planets is limited by invisible walls, the different celestial bodies have a lot to offer.
Furthermore, you don’t want to land on a new, shiny planet in a rusty freighter, but shine with your self-built spaceship – and the spaceship builder of Starfield is perfect for accumulating a lot of playtime.
This is how you build your ships in Starfield – All systems, subsystems, and modifications
