Starfield's space exploration isn't what you think. 

Just a heads up to everyone else excited for the release, do yourself a favor and please avoid the RPGfan review online. Gives away the entire main questline and essentialy tells you the ending.

Feels like an unnecessary amount of loading screens just to get from point A to B.

It’s pretty obvious now why the game doesn’t have land vehicles. You’d reach the invisible walls very quickly. Lots of immersion breaking load screens. Very disappointing.

I do wish they had gone with the Elite Dangerous thing of having a "Cruise mode" that puts you into FTL so you could fly around a system and then load into a location by dropping out of it.

One thing for sure, I now have much more appreciation for what No Man's Sky managed to achieve.

I don't understand why they didn't confine the game to just, say, the solar system. Maybe that would allow the free travel we want and each area be more fleshed out with detail covering the entire surface. Getting a fully explorable Mars (with dozens of cities), few moons and a bunch of space stations would more fun than 1000 blank empty planets

So basically it’s space travel via teleportation. I wish we can figure that out in the real world.

I feel like there is still so much confusion about certain mechanics and what you can and can't do in Starfield, even post embargo. But thanks for updating your original video as new information came to light!

The problem is No mans' sky exists, which raises the bar regarding exploration. And Todds earlier general statements surely did make people think that the game would be more open.

I expected we could at least "jump"/"light speed"/" Quantum speed" (loading screen thats nice and dressed up to look like space travel) within a system, and actual loading screens when going between systems. Also having to open the menu to go anywhere seems very tedious. would've rather they just had markers/waypoints on screen for planets which you could just point your ship at, press a button to grav jump there.

Shout out to those Starfield-colored nails. Nice style touch for a launch day.

7:07 I don't mind that there are boundaries but I kinda wish they had made a lore reason for it. Something like, "going further from the ship will desync data connections and impair life support. Please stay within distance of your ship and remember, your ship can always be moved, but you can't be brought back from the dead." I feel like "you reached a boundry" is just a bit immersion breaking...

This is the most important information about the game todate. I can't believe people tend to skip the exploration limitations in their reviews. It's just a topic that's higly discussed and a huge hype point from the beginning. It will probably not hinder game fun but yeah, pretty important info there. Thank you

Really appreciate everything you do and respect that you're always going for factual accuracy with your reporting.

it feels more like mass effect more than skyrim in space

my impression was basically that it was going to be mass effect, but you can fly your ship. So this is more or less exactly what thought it was.

they were expecting a pulse drive of some kind that lets you manually fly at a speed that makes it make sense to fly around a solar system.

I think the marketing was extremely miss-leading up to this point. I guess they technically never this or that, but they were pretty damn vague and certainly let us imagine the space exploration was something that it isn't. Feel bad for anyone who pre-ordered this thing thinking it would be like no man's sky style exploration but just with more loading screens and some hand crafted stuff mixed in(which was the impression I got from the pre-launch sneak peaks etc).

So much for that "Whatever you see in the distance you can go to" idea that they keep spouting in every interview

Appreciate the clarification and taking the time to upload this video 😊

I definitely expected segmented “zones” throughout the game and in space etc etc…. But it really hit me how many loading screens - large and small- that the player faces in mundane tasks like doorways, hatches, ladders… exiting your ship lol. It’s crazy.

This may sound like an odd comparison but the exploration and how space travel works feels closer to the recent Lego Star Wars game than no man’s sky

If Mass Effect has procedural generation, it would be on par with Starfield (in terms of 'space exploration'). The idea of infinite exploration is probably better on paper than it is in practice, but there's no denying the breath-taking feeling of the likes of No Man's Sky with vast planets and enormous planetary systems....with Starfield wanting you to invest so much time, it would have been nice for it to feel like a deep space exploration, rather than a repetitive generator. One reviewer recorded their findings in a spreadsheet, and they faced the exact same generated environments, down to the enemy spawn and loot, from 2-7 times in the first 20 hours.... so I'm tempering my expectations and no doubt will enjoy the game for what it is.

Was playing Starfield today and it made me realize how immersive Star Citizen is aside from the bugs. Really take that game for granted lol.

This was... completely different to what I was expecting. Huh.

I don't think this is what's happening here but other games have a similar effect where it seems like your not getting anything closer but it's explained that you're alot farther than it looks and games like Elite Dangerous show how long it will take to get somewhere and it's measured in years without using the proper drives for faster travel.

Everyone needs to see this! Great job on the video!

These were all questions I had throughout the entire marketing campaign and the lead up to release, and no one who had an interview with any of the devs bothered to ask any of them. It was all just super generic questions that could be answered very vaguely. I wanted someone to ask if the planets were fully spheroid maps that you could go all over seamlessly, or if it was a bunch of different zones stitched together with loading screens….. this video answers that, and for that I am grateful. I just don’t know why nobody thought to ask this before.

When you crouch, does your ship go stealth?

they clearly didnt want people to be aware of how travel worked exactly until release

Wish I saw this video before I bought the game. What I thought was going to be the big “step out moment” ended up being a menu screen loading screen combo, followed by another menu and loading screen. I have never been so disappointed with a game. I let myself get hyped, should have known better.

I’m so glad there’s docking. The bf and I love docking.

best way i can describe the game from watching it is, its a large galaxy full of nothing where you run around looking for the 2 points of interest with nothing interesting at them. Fun

The immersion is really lost within this game and until either updates or mods it's unfortunately not skyrim in space, seems rather barren

Was confused as I watched the whole thing and the video suddenly turned private as I went to check the comments. Thanks for the re-upload

Honestly the space travel looks completley redundant in most cases. Same for a lot of the planet spaces. Definitely waiting for this to go on sale before i buy it.

Thanks for the clarifications. Does the area you can fly around in during combat feel big or small in that regard? I was excited for all the different ships and building mechanics, but if we barely use the ships I might be hesitant to buy the game at full price.

So basically, the zone size is like Armored Core 6 missions

Thanks for this video Alanah. Very informative and has absolutely affected (will not say which way) my purchasing decision as someone who is considering purchasing an XSX for this game.

Appreciate the breakdown; I was still on the fence as to whether I'll pick this up or not and although the gameplay seems fun enough, marker traveling is kind bringing me off the fence and back into my yard where I'm just play with the toys I currently have and wait for Alan Wake 2.

Todd "That's not just an backdrop, you can go there, land there and explore!" Players clipping through the backdrop.

I think people are mad that we got more Bethesda and less Star Citizen or No Man's Sky. Remember when most of us thought the ship wasn't even flyable and it was just going to be a game like The Outer Worlds and Mass Effect?

I didn't expect fully explorable planets or anything crazy like that, so the different maps are pretty much what i expected and that's fine, what bugs me is that, seemingly, the player can just completely ignore the ship and spaceflight altogether since you just have to flip through menus to spawn from one autogenerated map to the next. I thought they would at least have some sort animation of your ship flying to the planets surface while it loads the new area. Very disappointed but will still play to see how exploration really pans out.

So cool of you to do this. Mad respect!

One day I want a space game, where the earth isn't destroyed.

I kinda started flying to the marker finding out that I’m not even getting closer after 5 mins of top speed flying lmao 😂 disappointment sets in that we teleport instead 😅

Thanks for this Alanah!

Thanks for the clarification. I am excited to play regardless of any limitations

Edit starts at @3:30 for those that watched the original.

Yeah my main hope was they had a good balance between realism and the expected restrictions because it's a game it's supposed to be fun. The ship building definitely looks like what I want but if I don't get enough opportunities to use the ship, fight and explore etc this game might be a miss for me. From what I have heard though I do want to experience the story and other major quests, maybe wait for mods after that.

Great explanation, great review, game looks cool to me

I love your honesty! This made me rethink on playing this game

Glad to see the journalistic integrity to issue this correction. Functionally no different though. You're not making it "to the planet." You're just glitching the skybox. The planets don't exist as entities within space.

So basically they are hub worlds in the form of space in each zone? There’s no real exploration like star citizen or elite dangerous?

If you stand on a planet does the planet actually rotate? Is there a day night cycle?

I feel like someone should have been more vocal from jump that this travel is NOT like No Man’s Sky. With a game like that out and existing in the same space, I feel like it would have helped manage expectations. Skyrim in No Man’s Sky was the baseline expectation for lots of people.

I think everyone was expecting it to be more like Star Citizen gameplay. Being able to fly directly to planets manually with like hyperspace-like systems and some of the realism there...but its an xbox game sooooo yeah.

It's actually pretty exactly what I expected it was. It's a Bethesda style RPG. Not a space exploration simulator. I have no idea why so many people were expwong a space exploration simulator and not a Bethesda RPG. Especially when BSG themselves have been saying for years it's "Skyrim in space"

So basically the engine generates a dead area around the place you can teleport right ?

Thanks - really helpful! Also that Boo jumper is incredible.

Saturn has tons of moons though, in it's Ring...so you should be able to land on those moons and see Saturn in the sky...

Proves that StarCitizen is on another level of mechanism technology. Even if the game will never be finished. Starfield looks cool even still

Would there be procedural content beyond that wall if you just moved your ship closer, or is that one landing zone your only option?

Thank you for re-uploading this!

Woah, first off thanks for this video. It really clears off my questions on this game. Secondly, I am a little saddened by how we actually "travel" in this game. It's essentially just fast-travelling everywhere (from what I can see). Not to mention the rumor about the planet boundary thing turns out to actually be true. I thought this would actually be something like NMS with much higher budget and improvements everywhere but I guess I was hoping for too much. I am a big fan of NMS so any kind of space games will have such expectations placed on them as well. And so far it's not looking good for Starfield. Here's hoping everything else would be good like the combat and other mechanics that isn't totally space related

Space has too much space anyway, I've always said that.

Everything you've covered Alanah. Feels like stuff they had to do to avoid the bugs and criticism they've faced in the past. I'm curious if the plan is to increase the scope on your freedom in the future. And maybe overall this is a good sign for games, reprioritizing polish.

One thing this video didnt really touch on is that the landing zones are non contigous. So if you land on a planet, and reach a boundary but see a mountain in the distance, you cant visit that mountain by moving your landing zone. Each time you land a random seed is generated to populate the tile, up to 4 tiles ( after that old ones get deleted).

This makes me appreciate No Man's Sky a lot more now.

Tbh this makes star citizen more impressive even given it's flaws

Also I think this is very Bethesda game with some cool unique elements. I don’t know if it is 100% by me. But I do think it is a really impressive game none the less.

Well yeah, the game you guys are searching for is called 'Space Engineers,' developed by Keen Software House.

You should play Star Citizen just to compare the space travel between games. I know you can actually fly down to the planets in Star Citizen and wander around them completely, which is pretty cool.

And that's the part where Star Citizen shines. _That's_ space exploration.

idk if anyone else has said this but, you actually don't have to go to your travel map every time to travel to different planets. You can use LB I believe to open up a locations Hud and within your ship you can select landing points or different planets to travel too.

thanks for the reupload mate

after watching this video I'm going to wait to buy this game when its in the bargain bin at walmart in a few weeks.

All the stuff I see about this game just makes me want to play no man’s sky again

It's basically the dragon riding mechanic in Skyrim. They just replaced the area by removing the "floor" as well as changed the dragons and people into spaceships and floating debris. To make it not so visibly janky as it did in the TES game, they contained it within its own mini-game that you load into and out of by "fast-travel" with its own world box---hence no landing and going out into space manually a la No Man's Sky.

Out of all the games I am now amazed on No Man’s Sky technical achievement on landing on a planet.

I was super excited for this game, it looks great… controls probably really well… decent combat in and out of the ship. But..! I can’t help feel disappointed they have missed a massive opportunity not having the same mechanics as no man’s sky when it comes to flying from planet surface to planet surface or stations etc, exploring while on the surface, build anywhere and terrain manipulation plus multiplayer on top!. I’m really hoping that the mod community can basically finish making the game and add these things in… especially with no man’s sky getting decent updates and constantly improving. For me I think no man’s sky beats it on gameplay just…

Not as deep as Elite Dangerous exploration, but has more quality zones to land and explore. I'll take it! It seems to be closer to Mass Effect space exploration.

thx for the correction, I won't watch it though since I want to experience this game blind 😅

The guy who flew to the planet is probably someone who does the hutton orbital run regularly lol.. o7

I desperately wanted this game to be what SciFi gamers are being promised with games like No Mans Sky or Star Citizen for decades now: an open-world/galaxy-exploration game with actual content, "living"/non-sterile environments and a rich single-player storyline. And if not all of that, enough to scratch at least some of those itches and hopefully put some pressure on RSI, so they would finaly get their s**t together and finish *anything* of SC that was being promised 11 years and 600mil ago, instead of the endless (lucrative, i guess) feature-creep loop we got today. But this/Starfields "space-exploration" with hard level-borders, no sense of scale due to instant-traveling from one end of the galaxy to the other, and unmodelled planets that might as well be just simple sprites baked onto the level horizon....? This feels like they intentionally were vague about what this game would deliver, just to reel in people like me, which they knew would be underwhelmed by all the shortcuts they took. Thank frick i learned my presales-lesson years ago. Switching my hopes and dreams to Beyond Good And Evil 2 and... Ubisoft *sigh*... i guess.

i don't get people defending this and saying that this is an space rpg and not an space sim, but the whole idea of making an space fallout/tes was exactly that, to make a game where you explore the universe or even a galaxy if you want to shrink it down, but no, i think they fucked up the main thing that really got me hyped to play this game

when i first saw this i was so excited but the more i see and the times it got delayed i feel put off by it now.

wait so is the space you can actually fly your ship really small?

Short version: there's really no space exploration at all.

lol that's still bizarre, you have warp capabilities and settlements on distant planets but it takes you hours to get to a planet? that's a little silly, how do they decide when to settle for realism and when not to?

I need to see more of late game, see if theres anything outside the story in those worlds

So…what’s the point of the spaceship & all the customization? To stay in place & engage in mediocre spaceship combat? Do the space stations have any interesting encounters or quests?

wait so theres no spaceflight at all really? just warping places via a map?

Don’t know if I’ll ever play it, but 14 minutes of running to hit a wall seems like plenty of space to explore.

I'm even more confused now as to what you can and can't do...if you can't fly to and explore planets, then what can you do? Is it just a linear story from point A to B?

love the interior design work of your room in the background, can we please have a room tour ?

Well its a rpg and not a space sim. But the marketing was so misleading the people thought it was.

I can't believe I'm writing this, but star citizen makes this game feel super outdated, I hope the RPG aspects will be brilliant if not, I don't see much motivation for a space game with so limited exploration.

I was looking for this vid for like a half hour, and couldn't find it! Hahahah! I wondered what happened.

looks like if i want to fly a ship for a space game id stick with everspace 2 or no mans sky. Starfiled feels like you bought yourself a big gaming pc, bought the highest available fifa edition, but ended up playing footbal manager