Starfield Will Have Limited Landing Sites And Exploration

Starfield has had multiple leaks and official releases lately, giving us a far better look at the game. Some of these got blown way out of proportion, like the reveal of the loading screen, but for the most part, the information and fan response have been in equal measure. It has been revealed that Starfield will have limited landing sites and exploration. This news is interesting for several reasons, so let’s get into it.

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Summary

• Starfield is fast approaching, and several leaks have given us a better look at the game and what we can expect from it upon release.
• One of the biggest recent reveals is that Starfield will have limited landing locations and exploration.
• This information is a big reveal, given that some games in this same genre already allow full exploration.

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Tom Henderson has been one of the more relevant and reliable sources of information regarding Starfield. So much so that we accept that when he says something is coming in the title, we know it will be there. This same trust also applies to the absence of something, and Starfield appears to be missing something significant.

Tom Henderson recently sent a post on X revealing that there will only be three to five landing sites on any given planet. He also clarified that some of these would be free-form landing zones limited only by terrain. The last thing he added was that the landing zones could not be reached by walking from one to another.

Just getting around to all this Starfield boundaries stuff from an article that went up on IG which I actually thought was fine (since deleted).

Basically, planets have a different number of landing spots with terrain limits. One planet might have 3 landing spots, whilst…

— Tom Henderson (@_Tom_Henderson_) August 26, 2023

TL;DR – Land anywhere, terrain limit.. fin

— Tom Henderson (@_Tom_Henderson_) August 26, 2023

There could be several reactions to this, but the more general one seems to be confusion and disappointment. The idea of terrain limitation for landing seems like a good one in a space exploration game, but it doesn’t tell us what kind of terrain we can expect that to work on. The idea of the landing points, though, is a sticking point for many would-be fans of the game.

The idea that people can fully explore 1,000 entire planets was always questionable. But Pete Hines from Bethesda somehow reinforced this notion. pic.twitter.com/EM5ChmwNij

— Oliver Darko (@oliver_drk) August 26, 2023

The original idea behind Starfield was that you could fully explore many planets, allegedly up to a thousand. This goal was always questionable, given Bethesda’s record with delivering on promises, but we had some trust.

An isolated landing zone doesn’t sound like full planet exploration. It sounds more like the title will have an admittedly huge area for players to explore, and then they can move on to another. This concept is a fantastic idea, but the fact you can’t walk from one to another means it is not a full planet, just a few maps.

It is interesting, given that there are already games where you can explore an entire planet, such as No Mans’s Sky. An idea is as interesting as having a full planet at your fingertips, let alone multiple, is too interesting not to entice a player.

Still, it is also tricky to pull off. No Mans’s Sky took years of patching to get to that point, and depending on its state upon release, Starfield may need to be as well.

Now, it is not like there aren’t reasons why this game won’t be like this, or there are examples of how it could work. The first is that Bethesda will have stories, quests, and companions in this. Games like No Man Sky were just for exploring and crafting, with few story elements in the initial game. This difference alone probably adds several layers of complication to the title.

The other thing to remember is that being on a map like this is not the worst thing. The first three Mass Effect games had a setup like this that worked well. And we can’t forget that these will still be maps made by Bethesda that will be filled with things to do.

It’s like having several maps for Skyrim or Fallout 4 when you think about it. So, while this will likely not debut like we thought, it will still be an entertaining and detailed title. We will have to wait for the day we can explore the whole world seamlessly and have a story.

That is all that we have on the fact that Starfield will have limited landing sites and exploration.

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