Starfield, Bethesda’s foray into a current-gen open-world adventure, has landed on PlayStation 5 (and Pro), bringing with it a mostly excellent port that’s now more feature-rich than ever.
When it comes to Bethesda games, the classic idiom “Good things come to those who wait” rings true, and Starfield is no exception. Powered by Bethesda’s in-house Creation Engine 2, Starfield feels like the first true evolution for the studio when it comes to delivering a more dynamic and richer open-world experience. Gone are the days of stiff facial animations, wonky walk cycles and dead-looking NPCs, for the most part, but more on that later, giving players a planet-hopping adventure that feels bigger in scope than previous titles from the studio.
I played Starfield on PlayStation 5 Pro, which gave me access to three different performance toggles to experiment with. 60FPS performance, 40FPS visual fidelity, and an enhanced mode targeting PlayStation 5 Pro give those with the higher-end console a lot to choose from. Both Enhanced and Visual fidelity modes offer around 40fps, which those with Pro consoles and VRR-capable high-refresh-rate displays can utilize. In practice, however, stunning, I found myself going back to 60fps mode, as the visual trade-off was negligible in high-action sequences.
“Starfield, Bethesda’s foray into a current-gen open-world adventure, has landed on PlayStation 5 (and Pro), bringing with it a mostly excellent port that’s now more feature-rich than ever.”
The PlayStation 5 Pro and Visual fidelity modes also felt somewhat inconsistent, offering a good output only in indoor areas, such as ships, strongholds, and other interiors. The biggest drawback of the 60fps mode, however, is the complexity of facial geometry for lesser NPCs, particularly in crowds, which takes a massive hit in quality under the performance toggle. Even some of the higher-fidelity modes don’t completely eliminate this inconsistency in NPC model quality, which can make the experience feel inconsistent throughout.
As far as general performance goes, outside of visuals, Starfield on PlayStation 5 is solid. Despite murmurings of crashes and issues online, I had zero problems with the game during my 30+ hours with it. In other words, Starfield is an excellent port for PlayStation fans to dive into. Additionally, this latest release of Starfield is the most feature-rich, including not only the base game but also both expansions: Shattered Space and Terran Armada. The inclusion of the DLCs is a solid addition, addressing one of my major issues with the vanilla version of the game: the lack of more fantastical sci-fi elements that give the otherwise bland game some much-needed personality.
For those jumping into Starfield for the first time, players can expect a massive interstellar adventure spanning multiple planets. Despite many planets only offering a few select areas to land, the inclusion of some fun dogfighting mechanics, on top of the ability to board other cruisers, will keep players satisfied throughout the adventure.
Starfield’s main story follows your character, a deep-space miner who becomes entangled in a quest to collect pieces of an ancient relic, setting off an adventure into the cosmos. Like Bethesda titles of the past, Starfield allows players to form alliances with many kinds of people and factions, which works particularly well with the inclusion of a crewmate system that grounds the concept more deeply in the game’s mechanics.
“Gunplay and combat also feel like an order of magnitude above Fallout 4, Bethesda’s last major release.”
Gunplay and combat also feel like an order of magnitude above Fallout 4, Bethesda’s last major release. Guns feel snappy and responsive, while melee-based combat also benefits from feeling much more dynamic and less constrained. Weapon variety is also fairly diverse in Starfield, offering players everything from pistols to shotguns and heavy special weapons, such as lasers and other beam-based arms. Those elements play nicely into Starfield’s familiar but rewarding points-based skill tree, allowing players to build their avatar to suit their play style with confidence.
Modding support via the Bethesda workshop is also available in Starfield on PlayStation 5 — however, this is limited to mods that only use pre-existing in-game assets, as external assets are not allowed on the platform. At the very least, those looking for mods that only change in-game values, such as increasing the weight limit, can still do so without resorting to the PC release of the game.
Ultimately, Starfield on PlayStation 5 and PlayStation 5 Pro is a standout port of an already great game, made better by the inclusion of DLC content and a swath of performance toggles that make the experience custom-tailored for most console players.
