Starfield is said to outperform other Bethesda RPGs in many ways: With more than 250,000 lines of dialog, it offers more conversations than Fallout 4 and Skyrim combined. The game world with its large mass of accessible planets also screams gigantism. But how much game time does Starfield actually have to offer?
What’s going on? Shortly before the release of Starfield on September 01, 2023, the developers at Bethesda once again chatted about the game time during Gamescom 2023. Depending on what you focus on while gaming, you will travel through the world of the sci-fi RPG for quite a long time.
Playing through Starfield: An overview of the main story and side quests
What RPG fans will be most interested in before Starfield’s release, besides modability, story and freedom of choice, is the question: how long will it take me to play through the RPG? The answer to this depends on your play style, that is, whether you are only interested in the main story, or also take in the side activities.
How long is the main story of Starfield? After Todd Howard said in 2022 that players would need about 40 hours for the main quest of Bethesda’s RPG, we now know: You’ll be busy with the main story of Starfield for around 50 hours – but that’s just the beginning.
The role-playing game not only offers a significantly longer campaign than Skyrim (with its 25 to 30 hours), but also a New Game Plus mode for the first time in the history of Bethesda RPGs. This, in turn, should be quite a challenge, because as Pete Hines, Senior Vice President at Bethesda, revealed at Gamescom 2023, the game really gets going after the story is finished.
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He left it open what exactly that means and thus a lot of room for speculation. We will probably unlock some interesting features and gameplay elements late in the main story, so a second playthrough in New Game Plus is definitely worth it.
How long does it take to complete a full playthrough of Starfield including all side activities? To complete Starfield with all side quests, you’ll likely need well over 100 hours. During the Bethesda showcase at Gamescom, Hines said he has already spent 150 to 160 hours in the RPG and is not even close to a full run:
There’s so much stuff I have intentionally not done. No matter how you want to play there is so much for you to do in this game.
How long you will really need for Starfield will also depend on whether you skip cutscenes or take enough time for the dialogs. You can find out for yourself on September 1, 2023 at the latest, when Starfield is finally released for PC and Xbox after a long wait.
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