5 combat features that we expect to see in Starfield

Starfield is indubitably among Bethesda Softworks' most ambitious titles ever. The space RPG involves the most significant open world the studio has put out, spanning numerous star systems and over a thousand planets. A great deal of attention is put into the exploration element of the game. This is apparent in its ancestry in the Bethesda design philosophy and in its marketing campaign.

However, the exploration alone is hardly all a modern role-playing game offers. In the last decade, Bethesda has gradually climbed out of its old reputation for slipshod unpolished combat in its games. Fallout 4, released in 2016, was leaps and bounds ahead of its predecessor in gunplay.

Like Fallout 4, id Software staff has helped Bethesda develop Starfield again. While the older glimpses of combat in an earlier game build were notoriously floaty, the latest 45-minute footage has significantly improved.

Note: This article is subjective and reflects the writer's opinions.

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5 new combat features that Starfield fans are hyped for

1) Gravity-driven gunplay shenanigans

Starfield has zero-gravity environments (Image via Bethesda Softworks)

Titanfall 2 has proven just how much first-person gunplay can be spiced up with elements of vertical movement. Starfield's Boost Pack, i.e., the jetpack you can equip on your back, will allow you some much-needed Z-axis freedom. There will also be perks tied to this gadget to grant it a progression curve. It will likely start as a super-jump and extend enough to feel like a flight.

Where things get interesting is not just the vertical movement but how gravity will be a significant variable in firefights. Despite their many muck-ups, the level design is a front where every Bethesda game has one-upped its predecessor. Following that trend, we might see setpieces as good as Control.

The Starfield feature also gives us a slight glimpse into how gravity affects combat. In one of the many combat sequences featured in the 45-minute gameplay debrief, we can briefly see how the recoil of a shotgun pushes you back in a zero-gravity situation.

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2) Expanded hand-to-hand gameplay

Unarmed combat is an in-depth feature in Starfield (image via Bethesda Softworks)

Bethesda's most popular role-playing game, Skyrim, notoriously lacks hand-to-hand gameplay perks. However, it is the lone standout in that regard. Unarmed combat has been a viable playstyle in other Bethesda in-house games that precede it, such as Oblivion.

Fallout 4, and even the much older Fallout 3, have extended perk support for exclusive unarmed playstyles. It is only fitting that Starfield takes it to the next level.

As Starfield lead weapon design artist Dane Olds admits, hand-to-hand is his preferred way to play the game. In the gameplay showcases thus far, only the 'Neurostrikes' perk in the Physical skills tree has been singled out as the exemplar of unarmed gameplay.

Unarmed combat might take Oblivion's utility approach, where fists deal 'fatigue damage' to incapacitate enemies. Still, the fact that it is not an afterthought in a NASA-punk game inspires hope.

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3) Space combat variety

Starfield has a modular spaceship customization system (Image via Bethesda Softworks)

A NASA punk based on exploration would naturally involve much traversing through space. Manual space flight became a community meme in early 2022 due to the shortage of the news. But the latest gameplay showcase has thoroughly confirmed its presence as an in-depth system.

Bethesda's take on space flight is an exciting balance between Faster Than Light's resource management and space opera combat spectacle. The spacecraft of the Settled Systems are all modular. These modules can freely be swapped in a spaceport, including space cannons.

More importantly, the Starfield Direct showcases at least four different modular slots dedicated to weaponry. The mix-and-match potential this opens up will lend great flexibility to space combat strategies.

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4) Enhanced stealth mechanics

Starfield will feature stealth gameplay (Image via Bethesda Softworks)

All mainline Bethesda games released under Todd Howard's directorial purview, including Oblivion, Skyrim, and Fallout 4, have feature-complete stealth systems. Even in the older titles, the sneak system factored in minutiae like armor weight and ambient light level.

Sneaking has a vintage charm to these games due to how similar they feel in practice. The Skyrim sneak eye peeling open is no different from the meter going from Hidden to Detected in Fallout 76, leading to a mechanical stagnation in what we expect from these titles. The modding community has only embraced the actual sandboxing possibilities that a functional stealth system raises.

Mods like Sneak Tools on the classic Skyrim engine upped the ante over a decade ago by exemplifying this potential. Now that there is the scope of a retro-futuristic setting, it will be interesting to see what new sneaky concepts Starfield can offer to match the mounting expectation from the Stealth Archers.

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5) Space magic

The Starfield character menu (Image via Bethesda Softworks)

A hub menu has become standardized in most role-playing game user interfaces. This one-stop central menu is intended to grant easy access to all the game menus you would want to visit regularly: inventory, character skills, maps, and so on. The image demonstrates that this game involves a character model at the center.

A slick circle encloses this player character preview. On the circle, six motes open further specialized menus. The interesting point of note here is that the upper mote of the circle is only present in a few glimpses we get throughout the Starfield Direct, while absent in others.

This is no coincidence. The gameplay clip that involves Telekinetic gravity magic is not a one-off. The game's story is confirmed to involve alien artifacts and a 'specialty' bestowed upon the player character. The sixth mote in the UI indicates that this game's rendition of a magic system will be complex enough to warrant its build menu.