It’s equal parts comedy and tragedy that Microsoft felt the need to clarify that its not-E3 summer games showcase had the “most gameplay they’ve ever shown in a briefing in Xbox history.” In an era where most conferences are dominated by CGI trailers, showing gameplay is a novel act.
As part of this desire to keep things real, Xbox also chose to focus only on games coming in the next 12 months, as opposed to some nebulous future over the horizon. If you subscribe to Xbox Game Pass right now, this is what you can expect to play until it’s time to re-up. As much as I respect that decision, though, it also unfortunately highlights how Xbox’s next-gen lineup feels somewhat lacking, especially with its only truly huge game, Starfield, now delayed to 2023.
Todd Howard Is Back!
Fortunately, Starfield looks like a game that's worth the wait. The showcase gave us our first look at gameplay for the upcoming sci-fi RPG, Bethesda’s first major game since Fallout 4 (and the company's first new franchise in 25 years). The progression systems seem to build upon previous Bethesda games. Like Skyrim, Starfield rewards you for using your favorite skills by making you better at said skills. And conversations with NPCs will instantly feel familiar to not only Bethesda fans, but fans of Bethesda-inspired games like The Outer Worlds. Here’s hoping the gunplay is better than Fallout 4's.
The shift in setting adds fresh energy to the mechanics and the gameplay. This isn’t a fantasy world or an irradiated wasteland. This is an outer space frontier with a spirit of adventure, the missing link between current-day, real-world NASA and Mass Effect's diverse alien worlds. Even the color scheme splits the difference between aerospace realism and otherworldly color. You can customize your spaceship to fly to hundreds of planets in various systems, too. It may be too gigantic for its own good. Like No Man’s Sky, having so many worlds may leave each world feeling less unique.
Starfield looks like a massive game, and I don’t want to suggest the team should have crunched to reach its previous November 2022 launch date. Halo Infinite was originally an Xbox Series X/S launch title before it got delayed a year, and that turned out great. Plus, given Bethesda’s history of buggy and broken initial releases, this is the moment to take your time and launch with a clean slate, a new franchise on new consoles. We don’t need another Cyberpunk 2077 situation. Still, like Halo in 2020, Starfield’s absence this holiday season leaves an obvious and unfortunate void for Xbox.