Starfield aliens – is there intelligent alien life?

Are there Starfield aliens? Starfield sees a future version of humanity taking to the stars, and colonising worlds light years away from earth, but during all of these years, have we made contact with aliens? While we haven’t made contact with any intelligent life out there in space in our own time, surely by the time Starfield takes place, one might think that we’ve finally made the connection by then. That’s where we come in to tell you what the story is with aliens in Starfield.

We should clarify that we’re talking about intelligent life, not just alien monsters, though you can find plenty of those in our Starfield enemies guide. And while you’re at it, why not check out how humanity got to this point with our Starfield story explainer guide, too. For now, though, let’s go through whether Starfield aliens will be gracing our screens in the Settled Systems.

Are there aliens in Starfield?

Although Starfield is set a few hundred years in humanity’s future, it still doesn’t seem like we’ve made contact with any intelligent alien life. As previously mentioned, there are plenty of animal-like monsters roaming around some of the inhabitable planets in Starfield, but as for anything on the same level of intelligence as humans, there doesn’t seem to be anything.

Having said this, Game Director Todd Howard has played coy on the subject of aliens, and made a particularly interesting comment when asked about them in 2021, stating that “there is a way that we approach it”. This suggests that there will be at least some alien content in the game at some point, but we don’t know anything beyond that.

There are hints that there may possibly be some unknown alien civilisation in the Starfield lore. A major part of the game’s story is investigating Artifacts, which are mysterious objects of which little is known. These Artifacts could potentially be the relics of an ancient alien civilisation, or even a currently existing one that we will get to interact with during the game’s story.

Can you play as an alien in Starfield?

No, you cannot play as an alien in Starfield. While playing as different non-human races has been a part of previous Bethesda games in The Elder Scrolls series, you’ll be limited solely to human characters in Starfield. While this may feel disappointing to some, the Starfield character creator has a whole host of options to help make the character creation process hugely interesting.

That’s everything we know so far about Starfield aliens. While there might not be any aliens around, there’s still plenty of people to meet in the various Starfield factions. And while you’re at it, be sure to check out some of the places you’ll be visiting with our Starfield planets guide.