Starfield story
What secrets lie at the heart of Starfield’s story? What themes and narratives are we set to explore in the grand campaign behind Starfield?
No game is complete without a really good narrative, lore, and Starfield’s story is shaping up to be no different. Todd Howard has previously talked about how Starfield will explore not just the universe, but also the unique story you will be telling.
For now, we have gone over the overarching narrative and themes that Starfield has been advertising. As soon as we know more about the specific story milestones, we’ll be back to update this guide, and add a big spoiler warning.
Starfield's main story
Starfield’s main storyline is set to explore the mystery surrounding the Artifacts – extremely advanced shards of technology that combine to create… something. That something is for you to discover, and the Constellation faction will assist you in finding the other Artifacts.
You begin the Starfield story as a miner for the Argos Extractors corporation, which is where you will encounter your first Artifact as part of the Starfield opening quest.
From there, you will travel to New Atlantis where you will find the Starfield Constellation faction, including all four romance options, and many of the major companions in the game.
Starfield’s main story is designed to take you from New Atlantis to all of the important corners of the Settled Systems in search of the Artifacts, so expect to find yourself on Mars, Akila, and in the city of Neon.
Once you’ve collected enough Artifacts, tidbits from various trailers and the Starfield Direct showcase hint that you’ll be visiting a temple, stepping through a portal, and maybe gaining mysterious, almost magical powers somewhere along the way.
At the end of your journey, Todd Howard hopes that you will look back on your entire experience, and wonder “Why are we all here? Where is it leading? And what’s next for humanity?”
Starfield's themes
As an epic adventure in space, Bethesda’s Design Director Emil Pagliarulo explains that, as a space game, Starfield has “romance, adventure, mystery, but I think with Starfield there’s this other layer of, you know, the cosmos, the universe. What is out there?”
Each of Starfield’s factions will also test you and explore different philosophical standpoints and varying levels of morality. Through these systems, Starfield will explore countless thematic cornerstones, and it will be up to you to choose which you engage with the most.
In many ways, Starfield will be a journey of self-exploration, and taking a much wider look at what it means to be human, and what kind of future we will create together.
Starfield story interviews
Bethesda have explored their story through several interviews, which you can view just below.
Your Starfield story
A Bethesda title wouldn’t be complete without the open-world RPG elements that let you create your own story. Starfield, just like the Fallout and Elder Scrolls series, doesn’t require you to follow the main questline. You can take off in your ship, chart a course to a random system, and play the game the way you want to play.
You can become a professional pirate by joining the Crimson Fleet, do the complete opposite and join the United Colonies space republic, or do neither and strike it out in the Settled Systems alone.
Starfield’s wide selection of skills, backgrounds, and traits provide a ton of roleplaying options for your Starfield builds, and this was ultimately Bethesda’s goal.
As Todd put it when talking about players reaching the end of the Starfield storyline “We want the players to have told their own journey.”
You never need to reach the Starfield ending to experience an epic story, as there’s always something incredible you’ll find on any one of the 1000 planets and in the thousands of locations, many of which will be unique to you thanks to the procedural generation introduced in the Creation Engine 2.
So make sure you secure your copy of Starfield with a pre order or Xbox Game Pass subscription. You might even be able to get your hands on the rare Constellation Edition of the game if you’re fast enough.