Starfield is Bethesda’s No Man’s Skyrim in latest gameplay preview

Bethesda showcased a bunch of new Starfield gameplay as part of the Xbox Games Showcase, and the upcoming RPG seems to be taking plenty of cues from Hello Games’ No Man’s Sky.

There’s plenty of similarities at least, in the half-hour deep dive we got this evening – and not just in the sense of freedom that Bethesda wants to offer players in where to go, and what to explore. There’s even scanning of planets, as well as fauna and flora as you build up a database of planets and all the stuff you’ll find on them.

You’ll be able to design and customise your ship how you want – you’ll also get to pick fights with other ships flying between the stars, and even – if you choose – docking with an enemy ship and heading on board yourself to take out the enemy crew. In fact, if you do that, you’ll even be able to claim the ship for yourself and add it to your fleet.

Of course, there’ll be plenty of other stuff to do outside of combat – with some of the showcase giving us some Mass Effect vibes for good measure, as you’ll be choosing your own crew. Some of them you might meet on adventures in the world, some at space stations and more – you’ll get to know some of these characters pretty well across your journey too, especially during the game’s main story.

The team also took time to announce that they’ve teamed with Xbox to make some specific Starfield based hardware – including a much-rumoured Starfield controller and official Xbox Headset in a fetching bespoke colour scheme.

Starfield is set to arrive on Xbox Series X|S and PC from September 6, 2023, but those who opt for one of the games special editions will also get themselves five days of early access. They’ll also get access to the game’s first story expansion, entitled Shattered Space.