Starfield Chronicles: Part 2 — Becoming a Bit of a ‘Joiner’
OK, sure, one of the very first things you do in the story is quit your ties with the Argos Extraction company, seemingly immediately after your very first time down the mine… Even if somewhat understandable in context.
But this part seemed to revolve around joining with a number of factions in fairly short order.
From where we ended in Part 1, I was standing outside Constellation’s base of operations, ‘The Lodge’, prepared to enter and see what the recent strange turn of events would mean to my life going forward.
A few things happened here, with the upshot being:
- I now have a room of my own!
- The ship is confirmed as ‘mine’ (I suppose insofar as I am now an official member, at least).
- Sarah, the leader (I believe) of Constellation is a fixed companion until at least a little further into the story.
- Vasco the robot is staying on as a companion also — although I placed him on the ship as crew. This seemed to have been the game’s intention, although I’m unclear whether I can also bring him along on missions / as a combat companion or not. I’ll get around to investigating this sooner or later.
And from here, I’ve already seen some of the divergence possible in story paths. Pete has gone to Luna already, a place I know I will want to go from a conversation — but not somewhere I’ve yet made a priority.
I started out with the intention to follow the main story for a bit, sure.
But the main story — likely by design — will take you to someone who makes you an offer to join what seems like one of the main factions of the game. (Think Mage’s Guild or The Companions from Skyrim.)
Sarah while telling me it was a big choice, seemed otherwise supportive of my diversion — so I’m now an exam-tested and approved member of the UC Vanguard. As a Captain no less.
That did make me do a double-take the first time I saw that rank being referenced, but I suppose this makes sense in the way that I am the captain of a ship with a crew (albeit… a very small one).
I also found the UC Security Centre and joined them. Despite being told I might be overqualified, what with my UC Vanguard rank and all, and starting with a very menial piece of work… Well, it has shown signs of perhaps escalating rather quickly.
I’ve also got an invite to work for the news network, and another to join a corporation’s private force. I haven’t taken up the latter yet, but… I may have done the first. Of course being careful to keep Constellation out of the news, as seems to be their preference, and sharing the glory around with the others deserving of it!
I haven’t yet joined with the corporation — mostly because I don’t yet know anything about them… But I might go along and find out sooner or later.
Given the distance Starfield is into the future, I was surprised by the lack of any obvious terraforming on Mars. The city is instead built underground, as are, it seems, most facilities of substance.
The mission steps on Mars also started to open up also in the approach to ‘solving’ problems. The variance available seemed to be pretty broad, depending on your willingness to fight vs. break the law vs. simply spend a high number of credits (for where you’ll likely be in the game when you get here).
From what I’ve experienced so far — I am in full agreement with Roger. The scope of the game is indeed truly epic, but the gameplay could not in good conscience be described as anything revolutionary.
It is Fallout or The Elder Scrolls but in a brand new set of trappings.
As it turns out though?
I’m very much here for that, and am enjoying the experience greatly.
If I was to have a wishlist of improvements though, chief among them would be an improvement to the ground/surface mapping. Initially, I thought there wasn’t one at all, but that’s not quite true. You can — with the scanner up — hit ‘G’ for a surface map… And it isn’t completely useless. It will show you in a relative sense where known points of interest lie, but…
Yeah… It could be better. I’ll see if I can remember to take a screenshot of it for next time.
