Photo: Bethesda
Starfield is days away from its September 6 release for the general public. The reviews have been out since the 1st day of fall, and it got an 87 on Metacritic for Xbox Series X|S and an 88 on PC. On OpenCritic, it got an 88 as well, with a 94% "Critics Recommend." Steam player reviews aren't out yet, but until they come out, here are some handy tips for your first playthrough.
First and foremost, if you're playing on a PC with an Nvidia graphics card and don't want to mess with that blurry FSR2 option, there's a workaround.
If you're not used to being a "Hackerman," it could be a bit of a hassle, but it's not too complicated at the end of the day. It's a mod called "Starfield Upscaler - Replacing FSR 2 with DLSS or XeSS," and does exactly what it promises.
As for the entire playthrough, there's one aspect where opinions converge, even among the most enthusiastic Bethesda Games fans. It seems like everyone agrees that the game is main quest first, side quests later. While an RPG like this might offer freedom of choice during questlines, a lot of rich content won't be made available to you unless you go on the main path first.
Another great advice is to make your companions carry all the heavy stuff for you. In typical Bethesda fashion, the looting system isn't user-friendly, so you'll have to improvise when you become over-encumbered. There's also the storing mechanic that lets you dump your items on your ship, and no matter where your adventures take you, they'll still be right where you left them.
Having an awesome-looking space suit with a cool helmet might be suitable for strolling on a God-forsaken planet, but not while running through town trying to find quest NPCs (non-playable characters). To hide your helmet during towns, cutscenes, and things of this sort, go to the menu and fiddle with the show/hide settings.
Another agreed-upon character feature is the "Persuasion" ability, which lets you unlock different branching quest paths simply by talking to quest-giving NPCs. Sometimes, space violence and photon torpedoes aren't the only options. Every time I play an RPG involving player choices, like Baldur's Gate III, I pump attribute points into "Charisma" to see how the stories branch out.
Bethesda was never great at the User Interface weapon equipping systems, and things haven't changed much in Starfield. To have everything ready, go to your inventory and select the weapons you're using as "Favorites" so you can easily switch between them.
While the star chart and whatnot might be fun to navigate at first, it becomes a hassle when you're often traveling. The quickest way to eliminate this headache is to use the pause menu and look for your destination. Fast travel from there.
Speaking of space travel, don't forget to loot to your heart's content when you're fighting pirates. The first space fight has some nice gear for you to use, so don't spare any of that pirate booty.
One last piece of advice for a beginner's adventure is to use the mining tool as a laser weapon. Until you find something better, you can always depend on it. Just keep your eye on that cooldown meter. You can't shoot it forever with no penalty.
If you're not used to being a "Hackerman," it could be a bit of a hassle, but it's not too complicated at the end of the day. It's a mod called "Starfield Upscaler - Replacing FSR 2 with DLSS or XeSS," and does exactly what it promises.
As for the entire playthrough, there's one aspect where opinions converge, even among the most enthusiastic Bethesda Games fans. It seems like everyone agrees that the game is main quest first, side quests later. While an RPG like this might offer freedom of choice during questlines, a lot of rich content won't be made available to you unless you go on the main path first.
Another great advice is to make your companions carry all the heavy stuff for you. In typical Bethesda fashion, the looting system isn't user-friendly, so you'll have to improvise when you become over-encumbered. There's also the storing mechanic that lets you dump your items on your ship, and no matter where your adventures take you, they'll still be right where you left them.
Having an awesome-looking space suit with a cool helmet might be suitable for strolling on a God-forsaken planet, but not while running through town trying to find quest NPCs (non-playable characters). To hide your helmet during towns, cutscenes, and things of this sort, go to the menu and fiddle with the show/hide settings.
Another agreed-upon character feature is the "Persuasion" ability, which lets you unlock different branching quest paths simply by talking to quest-giving NPCs. Sometimes, space violence and photon torpedoes aren't the only options. Every time I play an RPG involving player choices, like Baldur's Gate III, I pump attribute points into "Charisma" to see how the stories branch out.
Bethesda was never great at the User Interface weapon equipping systems, and things haven't changed much in Starfield. To have everything ready, go to your inventory and select the weapons you're using as "Favorites" so you can easily switch between them.
While the star chart and whatnot might be fun to navigate at first, it becomes a hassle when you're often traveling. The quickest way to eliminate this headache is to use the pause menu and look for your destination. Fast travel from there.
Speaking of space travel, don't forget to loot to your heart's content when you're fighting pirates. The first space fight has some nice gear for you to use, so don't spare any of that pirate booty.
One last piece of advice for a beginner's adventure is to use the mining tool as a laser weapon. Until you find something better, you can always depend on it. Just keep your eye on that cooldown meter. You can't shoot it forever with no penalty.
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