I mean… just. I think people still want moon rovers.
Opinions on Starfield are divided, but there are two criticisms that are fairly widely shared: on the one hand, the maps aren’t very good, and on the other hand, it’s a bit disappointing that there are no ground vehicles to explore the planets.
In an interview with Bloomberg this week, Todd Howard responded to a question about the lack of ground vehicles by saying that the idea was considered, but the development team preferred to see “how quickly (players) can see things” on planets by exploring on foot. He also pointed out that: You can fly.
“In a sense, you have a vehicle, which means you obviously have your spacecraft, and you can move around in space,” Howard added. “But on the surface you have a jetpack that you can upgrade, which is very fun and a new experience for us. Obviously the planets have different gravity levels, which makes this experience unique to many planets.”
Jetpacks have a rich and important history in video games. Tribes, Titanfall, Star Wars Battlefront. The 1991 Super Nintendo classic, The Rocketeer. Destroy all humans. Titans: Citizen Caputo, you know what I mean. Some have turned the Starfield jetpack into an unparalleled tool of war, using it to transform into an invisible flying robot. Ghost snipers.
Buggy rides aren’t always fun either. Every time I played Mass Effect, I cringed at the thought of having to spend everyone A little more time driving the damn Mako, and there’s something to be said for crashing into a planet and being stuck on its dusty feet. But it’s hard to see an open field and not want to at least do it a little Mountain biking. Apparently one of the first things we humans did when we finally arrived at another celestial body was try to figure out how to drive a car there.
I can see vehicles as expansive content. Maybe there will be a sequence with a monster truck gathering on a low-gravity planet, with a trochasaurus flying around and shooting cosmic fire at everyone. Or they could build on the Western theme and have a touring band of space cowboys with cybernetic horses. Whatever Starfield has in store for the future, one thing is certain: Bethesda’s game modding community is unparalleled, and a clear call has been made for space cars.
Nothing this complex has appeared on modding sites yet, of course, but here are the best Starfield mods so far.
It is not possible to mention anyone in this post.
