I’ve been on the fence withStarfieldfor a while. On the con side, I don’t care much for previousBethesdatitlesSkyrimorFallout, and it’s a huge game coming out at the same time asBaldur’s Gate 3(which I’ll be playing on console, apparently as the only person in the world yet to play it). On the pro side, it’s free. It’s also my job to cover video games, and I prefer space to icy mountains or nuclear wastelands, so maybe it will be the exception to the rule. What I’ve been expecting to do is to download it onXboxwhile I play BG3 onPlayStation, occasionally switching to check it out, only to lose interest, head back to Baldur’s Gate 3, and finally finish Starfield some time in November afterSpider-Man,Mario, andDetective Pikachuare out of the way. Now though, Starfield has revealed an ace up its sleeve.
My thoughts on Starfield have been pretty surface level so far.The 1,000 planets gimmick feels overblownwhen so many of them are empty, and it just makes it seem too big to bother with. Building your own ship sounds neat, and the roleplay elements are cool, but then they won’t be as good as they are in Baldur’s Gate 3 so what does that matter? But I’ve never given much thought to what you’re supposed to do in the game, what the story might be, where you go, or even how you play it. Part of that is wanting to discover it for myself, but mostly it’s that a lot of other games releasing a month or so either side of it are more compelling to me, so they’re the ones I’ve been reading about. The Starfield companions though could be the ones to get me to sink in deeper.
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Lead quest designer Will Shen recently revealed in a Discord Q&A thatthe game will have over 20 named companions who can join your crew. That’s seven more than the maximum amount you’re able to recruit inMass Effect 2, and over three times as many as you get inThe Outer Worlds, which feels like the closest game spiritually to Starfield. In both of these games, probably my two favourite space-faring RPGs with branching story paths and character mechanics, the best part are the companions. Starfield having 20 of them then is exciting, but I’m still wary.
More isn’t always more. Mass Effect 2 is a far superior game toMass Effect 3, but the companions (at least those permanently by your side) have even greater depth in the third outing when there are only seven of them, many of whom you get fairly late in the game. Having 20 also increases the chance of squadmates being forgettable, either because they don’t have enough room to breathe or because your playthrough can’t accommodate their needs. In the paragraph above, I initially wrote that Starfield had ‘four times as many companions as The Outer Worlds’, then when I went to check I realised ‘oh yeah, Felix’.
We don’t know who all of these companions are, and even if some are introduced in the next couple of weeks before launch, we won’t truly know them until we’ve experienced the game itself. A particularly cool design might get me on board further, but just knowing they’re out there is enough. The fact we’re getting 20 of them rather than a crew of four stitched together out of basic tropes and archetypes is encouraging too. There may be some duds in the roster, but with 20 you can afford to not like half of them and still have a robust crew of favourites to rival most other space RPGs out there. This many companions suggests it’s an element of the game the devs worked on passionately and with purpose, rather than adding the bare minimum to satisfy expectations.
I don’t know who Starfield’s 20 companions are, I don’t know if I’ll like them, I don’t know what they’ll add to the game. All that matters to me right now is that they’re there. I’ve barely thought about the story of Starfield or what I’m going to do in it, but knowing there are 20 characters I can take with me on my journey and watch grow as my decisions shape them is enough for me to finally care. I’m still going to play Baldur’s Gate 3 first. But maybe I’ll carve out a little extra time for Starfield too.
