Starfield is launching in less than a week, but the hype is currently overshadowed by seemingly false planets. The worlds of Starfield are neither round nor freely explorable. Guided summarizes the controversy.
What’s it about? Starfield was supposed to be the space dream for space nerds. Many fans of Star Citizen and No Man’s Sky saw it as a more mature and sophisticated approach to the space sim genre. However, Starfield doesn’t seem to live up to fans’ exploratory expectations. There are accusations:
- Starfield has no freely explorable worlds.
- The worlds are empty and desolate.
- The planets in Starfield are not round.
Planets in Starfield are separated by invisible barriers
What happened? The entire controversy surrounding the planets in Starfield stemmed from a leak a few days ago when someone got the game early. This leaker mentioned that planets were not fully explorable. Indeed, there are invisible barriers and a pop-up that appears when you and your star companions cross the boundaries of landing zones.
It’s important to note that the attempt to explore on foot was only made in the tutorial area. Tom Henderson, from Insider Gaming, confirmed the fear that it would look like this on all planets via Twitter:
Basically, planets have different numbers of landing zones with terrain boundaries. One planet might have 3 landing zones, another might have 5. These are the main landing zones with POIs, and then there is another number of landing zones where you can land anywhere (again, terrain boundaries apply).
You can’t run all the way around a planet, or whatever, and not get to another landing zone. It’s probably just a way to not load consoles/computers or something like that.
How bad is the limitation of planets in Starfield really?
Even though it’s disappointing that there is no complete simulation of star systems, it probably won’t affect gameplay at all. Guided author Kevin Willing (that’s me – hi!) has spent hundreds of hours on Star Citizen and No Man’s Sky. I’ve never even thought about walking around a planet. Rarely have I ventured more than a few minutes away from my landing spot.
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In a Twitter video, we can see how far players can run before the invisible barrier appears. The user took about 12 minutes at a sprint to reach the barrier from their landing spot. So, a landing area in Starfield is 24 minutes wide in a sprint. Afterward, you’ll have to hop back into your ship and choose the next landing spot. This issue would likely have never been noticed by most players.
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What remains negative about it: At Guided, we’re not a mouthpiece for the industry, so here’s a counter-statement. We stand up for the fans who are being belittled on social media for finding the fake planets in Starfield off-putting. Bethesda’s advertising never even hinted that open game worlds would be handled this way. That’s why most fans are upset – not because of the small worlds.
Nevertheless, it remains to be seen how many promises from Bethesda regarding Starfield have turned out to be untrue. To stay updated, follow us on social media or join our Discord server. You can find all the links via Linktr.ee!
