Starfieldanticipation continues to mount as Bethesda has recently revealed the launch date for its Deep Dive event, as well as the game’s release, scheduled for July 30, 2025. With so much riding onStarfield, its premise, and features have kept the community abuzz with excitement, especially as Bethesda has taken the time to showcase several of the game’s intergalactic settlements for players to explore. For these settlements to succeed, some lessons fromDestiny 2’sNeomuna should be taken to heart.
Taking place roughly fifty light-years from Earth in the Settled Systems, the game allows players to journey through the stars, starting as amember ofStarfield’s Constellation faction, one of the last groups exploring the mysteries of the Milky Way Galaxy. With a focus on choice and agency, players will explore these mysteries and discover what it means for humanity to be a space-faring species, as well as to answer what comes next. The possibilities seem endless, with a myriad of settlements, factions, mercenaries, pirates, corporations, and more to visit and join.
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The new location featured inDestiny 2’sLightfallis the Neptunian settlement of Neomuna, a neon, cyberpunk city that has remained hidden from the rest of humanity until forces of The Witness lay siege. WhileDestiny 2hasn’t usually provided maps riddled with bustling NPCs going on about their daily lives, the marketing behind Neomuna seemed to indicate some level of change on that front. With promises of verticality and the ability for Guardians to use the new grappling hook to swing through its neon-lit streets, Bungie indicated a formula change for the game.
However, reviews from critics and players have provided an underwhelmed response. WhileDestiny 2’s Neomunais futuristic and beautiful, many claim that the city is lifeless and barren, except for Cabal and Vex forces that have invaded. The explanation provided inDestiny 2is that the citizens have uploaded their consciousness into CloudArk. This virtual reality simulation network leaves colorful holographic projections behind as indicators of its citizens.
Gone is the marketed verticality; instead, many players hit invisible walls that prevent exploration among the skyscrapers andhidden secrets ofDestiny 2’s Neomuna. While grappling exists, the fluidity sold before Lightfall does not fully represent the final product. Neomuna does not appear to be fully lived before its citizens uploaded their consciousness, despite lore explaining their technology surpassed that of humanity during its Golden Age.
Starfield’s Settlements Need to Be Alive and Reactive
With these elements in mind,Starfieldneeds to ensure that its intergalactic settlements, at their core, represent the marketing associated with them. While that hasn’t been as detailed as Neomuna was, if more information is revealed during theStarfieldDeep Dive Directin June, it must match the finished product in September. Beyond that, settlements inStarfield, especially those featured, need to feel alive and reactive.
With humanity inStarfieldthriving in the Settled Systems, players should expect some of those settlements to be densely populated and reactive, such as locations falling under the game’s two major factions: the United Colonies and the Freestar Collective. With these two factions in a Cold War-like state after a fierceColony War twenty years priorStarfield’s current events, many would expect these settlements to resemble a society growing but locked in a tense, mutually beneficial, yet uneasy alliance. Whatever events unfold should then showcase settlements reacting to the events organically as living and breathing societies.
Also, the intergalactic settlements inStarfieldshould feel lived in, even if abandoned or desolate by the game’s start. Even if recent events or gameplay occurrences change the status quo,Starfieldshould aim to make it apparent that life existed. Even olderStarfieldcolonies on Mars and Earthhave been promised to reflect the past and present situations that have shaped them. This will provide a more realistic feel to the game - an objective Bethesda has aimed to achieve withStarfield.
While most of this may seem intuitive, especially from a game design and development standpoint, some of these features felt underwhelming inDestiny 2’s Neomunasetting. And while it makes sense for Neomuna not to feature current NPCs in its present storyline, the fact that critics and players also felt it lacked details of life before the invasion are things that should not be the case in the settlements found inStarfield. ForStarfield, humanity’s presence should be felt, seen, lived, organic, and experienced.
Starfieldis set to launch on September 6 for PC and Xbox Series X/S.
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