Summary
- Starfield's early launch has lived up to the hype as another big release of 2023, offering complex interwoven systems that demand players' attention and care.
- The inclusion of spaceships in Starfield adds a welcome layer of strategy to dogfights, borrowing the ship power management mechanic from FTL: Faster Than Light.
- Starfield combines the action-adventure RPG genre with strategic elements, offering players the opportunity to carefully plan ship combat encounters and adding a new layer of strategy to the game.
After years of waiting and anticipation, Starfield's early launch began on Thursday for Premium Edition adopters and quickly cemented its place as yet another big release of 2023 that mostly lives up to the hype. One thing that may not have been clear in the pre-release period for the title is that Starfield throws a lot at players, with plenty of complex interwoven systems needing attention and care at any given time. One of these is the welcome (and expected for a space-faring adventure) inclusion of spaceships, which have their own unique in-flight mechanic that smartly borrows the ship power management from FTL.
Subset Games' FTL: Faster Than Light is the RTS spaceship-management sim that took Steam by storm upon its release thanks to its incredibly addictive and rewarding spin on the roguelike genre. Surprisingly, Starfield shares quite a few similarities to the highly-regarded indie in that both games require the player to manage both their spaceship and its crew, where assigning the right person to the right job is paramount. One of the main in-flight mechanics of FTL is the need to balance the limited power of the ship's reactor, and Starfield borrows this in a way that streamlines it while still adding a welcome layer of strategy to dogfights in the far reaches of space.
How Ship Power Management Works in FTL Compared to Starfield
As one would expect from a strategy game, ship power management in FTL is decidedly more complex than it is in Starfield. Each ship that players can choose from in FTL has a variety of included subsystems that require power from the reactor. All ships have piloting, engines, oxygen, and weapons as a baseline, but players can gradually add subsystems that they deem necessary (like shields or sensors) as they progress through the game. The amount of power players have at their disposal is limited, meaning that survival occasionally boils down to allocating power to the correct subsystem at the correct time.
Starfield uses a similar, albeit much more streamlined and simplified version of this exact system. Rather than allow players to have more than a dozen subsystems at their disposal, all ships in Starfield have the same six areas in which to allocate power. The starting ship has three weapons as well as an engine, shields, and gravity drive to manage. The amount of power able to devote to each of these systems is ultimately determined by each ship's reactor. Power is limited, but players can smartly balance their defensive and offensive capabilities with a few swift movements of the left analog stick, shifting priorities on the fly to either go all out in a dogfight or quickly escape an unwinnable encounter in the depths of space.
Starfield's Addition of Strategic Layers to its Action-RPG Foundation Is a Win
At its core, Starfield is very much another action-adventure RPG in the same vein as other Bethesda titles like The Elder Scrolls or Fallout. That said, it represents the culmination of several ideas that have been presented throughout the developer's long history to give players an experience that is truly unique among its titles. Classic mechanics like lockpicking and persuasion make an expected return in Starfield, but they do so in a way that adds a new layer of strategy to each system, deepening player engagement and immersion in the process. Ship customization, flight, and combat are no different.
Instead of giving players what could have been a throwaway "take it or leave it" style distraction in the game's ship combat, Starfield properly leans on its identity as an RPG first and foremost and gives players the opportunity to carefully plan each encounter. Within the opening moments of Starfield, players will be thrust behind the controls of their newly acquired ship and expected to quickly come to grips with all the systems at play. Thankfully, Starfield competently balances the accessibility and fun of a space combat game with the strategy and planning of an RPG or RTS like FTL, giving players the best of both worlds.
Starfield is available now in early access launch for PC and Xbox Series X/S.