Starfield is Bethesda's first new IP in decades, but for a universe the studio touts as 25 years in the making, the trailers released so far give fans relatively little insight into the setting. It's clear the game will be angling for a hard sci-fi take on the traditional Bethesda RPG experience, but the in-game footage leaked and revealed so far has focused on barren landscapes and ship interiors.
Despite not getting the spotlight in the trailers, the diversity of Starfield's setting has been revealed in some of the new concept art pieces revealed by Bethesda at E3. Here are the images and what each likely means for the upcoming game.
The Engineering Bay
If there's anything a good hard sci-fi story needs, its a grand sense of scale; making the player feel like a tiny dot among a sea of stars ripe for exploration. This piece showing a player facing out into a large space port does just that, and likely has connections to the game's ship customization. A recent Bethesda survey asked players how much time they spent creating their characters, homes, and spaceships. Combined with the modular designs of the ships seen so far, ship customization in a large engineering bay like this is likely in store.
Sunset Repairs
This next image has a interestingly Star Wars-like vibe for the sci-fi game, showing what seems to be the player recovering after a bumpy landing. The robot seen welding something on the ship's underside was also seen in the Starfield trailer, and is likely an extension of the ship that players can use like a NASA probe. The ship's legs also raises questions about movement on the ground, while the small campsite set up by the player on the left could indicate survival mechanics. Once the player is out of their ship and exposed to the elements, they could be gathering supplies and preparing for a journey, survival game style.
Cliffside City
Although the Starfield trailer claims the player is embarking on humanity's final journey, it's clear they aren't the only person who has headed to the stars. This concept shows a large city built into a craggy cliffside. The birds and plant life are also one of the first hints players have got about fauna and flora in the game. The sleek design of the buildings could hint a connection to Constellation, the spacefaring organization the player is a part of that gets name-dropped in the trailer.
Frontier Shanty Town
The Star Wars design influence can be seen once again in this rag-tag town, which appears to be scrapped together out of old ship parts. The costume design is particularly interesting, showing a departure from the sleek spacesuits seen so far and showing off layers and textures that give the game a more wild west look. The piece suggests that the player won't just be pushing humanity's boundaries, but exploring frontiers that have already been settled.
Metropolis
With another impressive looking settlement, this piece has an interesting connection to the city on the cliffside in another Starfield image. Both settlements have large gaps in the middle of their buildings which appear to act as highways for ships to pass through. This could even be the same city from another angle, with the trees seen in the bottom right and top left having a resemblance to the cliffside foliage in the first image.
Oil Rig Town
In one of the most unique concepts seen so far, this piece appears to depict a domed city on an oil rig-like platform. Based on the bright lights, it could be a Vegas-style wretched hive of scum and villainy. It even appears to have its own literal underworld, with what could be shantytowns and shops build underneath the main dome. Fans of Deep Space 9 or Omega from Mass Effect may be in luck if they were hoping for similarly seedy locales in Starfield.
Dense Jungle
While many of the concept pieces seen so far focus on ships and cities, this piece depicting the player exploring a dense jungle is among the most exciting for fans who want to uncover alien wildernesses. If the game's jungles really are as dense as the one in the concept art, it could explain the player's jetpack, allowing them to traverse extremely rough terrain and explore environments on different levels. Some of the plants in the piece could even be hostile. Bethesda fans who found the bare landscapes in the leaked Starfield images and the recent teaser disappointingly barren could find that the game's environments are far more diverse than they first thought.
Exploring The Cave
Another piece depicting exploration, this concept shows two figures journeying into a cave; one holding a briefcase, the other what appears to be a gun. What dangers await them within remain unknown. The more interesting tidbit is if one of those figures is supposed to be the player character, this could be an early indication that Starfield will have a follower system like Skyrim, allowing the player to add different characters to their crew as they explore the cosmos.
Aliens And Acid Pools
This piece shows what looks like a large crab-like alien race, finally showing some of the truly bizarre creatures fans might be able to expect as they journey through Starfield. The question of whether Starfield will have aliens with human-or-above intelligence has yet to be answered, but the alien design seen here at least indicates that the game will be going for some pretty unique and interesting biology. Whether the crab aliens are intelligent, peaceful, or as dangerous as Fallout's Deathclaws will undoubtedly change how players interact with them, but for now at least fans can get their hopes high for more alien species to be revealed as the game is revealed.
An Orbital View
This final piece doesn't reveal much in terms of specifics, but based on the landscape of the planet it could be the same world seen in some of the other Starfield concepts released by Bethesda at E3 2021. Most of all, this piece points to how deeply invested Bethesda is in realizing Starfield as a specifically "hard" sci-fi RPG, focusing on realistic-looking planets that make the tiny ship visible in the top right seem miniscule in comparison.
Starfield releases November 11, 2022, for PC and Xbox Series X/S.