Bethesda's new Starfield trailer introduces mercenary and pirate factions
As well as a little detail about the Settled Systems' history
I'm fighting off a real Bethesda itch right now. I know I'll hate myself if I start yet another Skyrim playthrough, and I'm too fussy to decide on a Fallout to sink another fifty hours into. But now there's a new Starfield trailer, and it's making me pine for those damned RPGs all the more. The developers have dived into Starfield's history, and revealed a handful of factions we'll come across on our space travels. It's mostly concept art, but hey, it's very nice concept art.
So, Starfield is set in 2330, in a section of the Milky Way galaxy that's about 50 light-years away from our solar system. It takes place 20 years after a war between the two largest factions in the Settled Systems, the United Colonies and Freestar Collective. The trailer doesn't go into detail about what they were fighting about, but it was called the Colony War, so it seems likely they were at odds over who owns what planets. Ah, space capitalism.
In the game's current setting, the devs explain that the factions are no longer at war, but there's an "uneasy peace" between them. There's plenty more to be wary of beyond war, though. On our travels, we'll meet threatening folks such as the Ecliptic mercenaries, the pirates of the Crimson Fleet and religious zealots of something called House Va'ruun.
We also learn a little more about our role in the Settled Systems. As we found out around E3 time, players work for an organisation named Constellation. Our job will be to explore this solar system, and uncover whatever mysteries it holds.
I am curious how all this exploration fits in with the civilisation that already exists in the Settled Systems. Constellation seem like the sort of folks who're looking for old, unexplored things (like space archaeologists), but what we've seen of Starfield so far is a bunch of sci-fi cities. I hope we hear something about cool uncharted planets in the future, that's the stuff I really want to see.
This video is part of a series of behind-the-scenes looks at the game which are sent to subscribers of Bethesda's free mailing list. You can sign up here if you want to see more updates, though the videos aren't super exclusive, they're just unlisted on the developer's YouTube channel.
Starfield is set to release on November 11th, 2022. That's too far away, I gotta scratch the itch. Skyrim it is.