Starfield finally got a gameplay trailer at E3 2021, three years after the game's reveal. Instead of showing off the breadth of the world or the characters players might meet, however, the game stuck to following a single player character as they walked through their ship and prepared for launch, leaving players with only a tiny window into Bethesda's first new IP in over 25 years.
However, the reveal also saw the release of a significant amount of Starfield concept art, showing the true breadth of what Bethesda's new universe seems to be offering. Some costume designs in particular may surprise potential players compared to what they've seen in the latest trailer, truly putting the punk in Starfield's "NASA-punk" aesthetic.
NASA-Punk
Starfield's design has been described by Todd Howard as "NASA-punk," but until now most of what has been released had focused far more on the sleek scientific aesthetics of NASA and companies like SpaceX than the more hybrid look Todd Howard's terminology implies. As in the initial Starfield image leaks, the character seen in the game's E3 trailer exclusively wore a realistic looking spacesuit that seemed to suggest the game would exclusively lean into hard sci-fi.
Some of the armor concept art revealed in Bethesda's "Into the Starfield: The Journey Begins" video released after E3, however, showed a very different side of the game's visuals. While still erring on the side of hard sci-fi, the designs featured in the video showed a character wearing clothing that looked like it could be straight out of steam-punk fiction or a Mad Max movie. Tattered clothing cobbled together from scraps, jetpacks with skull symbols painted on the back, and trench coats all stand out against the spacesuits worn by Constellation, the space exploration group the E3 trailer suggests the player is a part of.
Pushing Starfield's Frontier
This diversity of design will be welcome news to a lot of potential Starfield fans. Not everyone wants to be a space explorer - others want to take to the stars as a cosmic corsair, a smuggler, or a bounty-hunter as they strike fear into their enemies or just make a quick buck in Starfield's galaxy. Another piece showed more of a hybrid design, which resembled parts of the Constellation spacesuit but with a far more retro look. This alternate space suit resembles the old-fashioned diving suits that inspired the diesel-punk aesthetics of series like BioShock. Once again, players who were worried that the NASA-punk style would limit their character costume options in-game are likely to be pleasantly surprised.
It seems that although Starfield will draw on the optimism of the moon landing era, there will still be parts of its universe that are more run-down, relying on scraps and old tech to survive as humanity embarks on its "final journey." This is also reflected in another piece of Starfield concept art, showing a run-down frontier-looking town that could be straight out of Star Wars.
The true extent of Starfield's visual diversity has yet to be seen in full, but the new concept art released after E3 will be a relief to fans who found the focus on Constellation in the Starfield trailer to give the game a strangely sterile look. If Bethesda is going to bring its first new universe in over 25 years to life, designs reflecting the different lives and struggles of its inhabitants will be key. Based on what has been so far, the studio may be on the right track.
Starfield releases November 11, 2022, for PC and Xbox Series X/S.