Xbox Game Pass Just Let Everyone Play Bethesda's Most Ambitious RPG

Bethesda is one of the most influential developers in the role-playing genre. Second only to Bioware, the studio has helped craft the blueprint for more action-focused RPGs going as far back as 1996’s The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall. Bethesda evolved its original fantasy world for decades, culminating with the timeless classic Skyrim, with the occasional break to continue Black Isle’s Fallout series.

After 29 years, however, Bethesda would step back from its beloved franchises to make something entirely new and close to home for studio director Todd Howard. It was the game designer’s dream game: one that would reach for the stars and replicate the unknown wonders of outer space. Bethesda’s most ambitious and complex role-playing experience, Starfield, successfully realizes that dream into a compelling game just as fun as its previous work. And as of this week, Starfield is now playable on all tiers of Xbox Game Pass subscribers.

Like every other Bethesda RPG, Starfield follows your journey from space miner wasting away on an obscure desolate planet to being the leader of a space exploration collective. In the game’s opening hour, you join Constellation, an independent group tracking down mysterious artifacts across the galaxy. What unfolds is a race against time to find these scattered artifacts against the will of a mysterious threat that wants you dead.

Starfield’s main story is fairly compelling, even if it does get a little repetitive by its end. But true to Bethesda’s pedigree, Starfield shines brightest during its side quests. As you land on newer planets like Cyberpunk-themed Neon, Mars’ industrial city of Cydonia, and the Firefly-inspired Akila City, you’ll stumble onto new factions that provide a unique look at how people in this universe view the galaxy.

Joining the space military of the United Colonies on New Atlantis leads players toward uncovering a great, decades-old conspiracy hidden in plain sight. Joining the lawbreaking Crimson Fleet lets you live out the fantasy of being a notorious space pirate. You’ll break bread with a space grandma who is spending her retirement seeing what’s out there and uncover the identity of space-Batman ridding the galaxy of villainy.

In between questing, there are tons of ways to make your adventure totally your own. You can customize your ship’s every detail and spec with the in-depth ship builder. There’s an entire settlement building mechanic similar to Fallout 4 for those who like to craft. You can customize weapons and craft new ones. And the game’s features the coolest implementation of New Game Plus in all of gaming history. Starfield is a great time, with a lot to offer players that stick with it.

There is an elephant in the room regarding Starfield. In the long lead-up to its launch, it was sold to the public as a game that could convey the grandiose scale of endless space. In reality, that is only partially true. Space exploration isn’t the seamless romp it is in games like No Man’s Sky. Planet hopping is more mechanical and involves way more obvious load screens than even last year’s Star Wars Outlaws. And some of the same pitfalls that past Bethesda games struggled with, like its writing and technical issues, are sprinkled throughout the adventure.

But those shortcomings don’t mean this game isn’t ambitious in its own right. Being able to land on any planet and enjoy the tranquil silence of space is breathtaking. Being able to fly a spacecraft, exit the cockpit, and seamlessly talk to crew members in the halls you constructed from scratch is a true realization of the Star Trek game I’ve always wanted. And the breadth and variety of questlines, some of which could be its own single-player campaign, shows just how much Bethesda packed in its most recent game.

Those who expected Starfield to change the RPG genre as we know it were probably disappointed when they played it, and rightfully so. But when played on its own merits without those expectations, Starfield is a great game and a worthy evolution of Bethesda’s formula. That formula may be showing its age some 20 years after Morrowind, but it doesn’t make Starfield and its collection of science-fiction stories any less fun to experience.

If you’re a fan of Bethesda’s style of role-playing games (sales numbers suggest there’s a good chance that you are), Starfield is a no-brainer. It retains all the charm, fun lore, and cool missions as games like Oblivion, Skyrim, and Fallout. And while it’s not the genre-redefining experience its predecessors were, it’s still one of the generation’s coolest and most compelling universes to unravel.