Bethesda is working on the studio's first new IP in over two decades. Starfield will be an all-new RPG set in space, but aside from that, very little is known about the new title's gameplay or story.

However, there are some key reasons that Starfield could significantly push the boundaries of the standard Bethesda RPG formula. Not only that, but there are comments from developers which imply that Starfield could be a blank canvas for the sort of experimentation which could make other upcoming Bethesda games quite different from those seen in the past.

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The vast majority of the available information on Starfield can be summarized in one sentence: Starfield will be a Bethesda RPG set in space. It is unknown if there will be alien races for players to interact with in the game. Bethesda fans have no inkling as to whether the game will have a central character-driven story found in series like Mass Effect, whether it will be a more open-world focused experience like Skyrim, or whether Bethesda will be taking a radically new approach to its RPG design.

However, there is some information about the game which gives a hint at the direction it might be going in. Some Starfield screenshots were reportedly leaked last year, and these leaks appear to be backed up — a logo seen on the shoulder of the figure in the leaks was also seen on the shirt of a Bethesda employee during an event.

Here's how the leaks break down. One image shows what appears to be the player character viewed from a first-person perspective standing in front of some sort of building. What this screenshot confirms — assuming the leaks are real — is that the player will have a health and stamina bar as in a traditional Bethesda RPG. They also appear to have a jet pack, and weapons as indicated an icon underneath their stamina bar which resembles a gun.

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The design of the suit, the building, and the fact that Todd Howard talked about touring SpaceX in a conversation with Elon Musk would imply that the game will fall on the harder side of the sci-fi scale, at least taking aesthetic influence from real-life space programs. This is in contrast to the sillier and softer sci-fi seen in one of Bethesda's flagship franchises, Fallout.

In the bottom left corner of the screenshot is what looks like a compass, but it also has C02, oxygen, and what is likely a gravity scale. While oxygen and CO2 could easily work in the same way as traditional Bethesda mechanics like Fallout's radiation levels, the gravity meter could imply that Starfield will make use of more robust physics than previous Bethesda games. Bethesda's engine is set to get a huge upgrade before the release of Starfield which could make this possible, as well as getting that jet-pack to work in a satisfying and exciting way.

The base seen in the same screenshot has visual similarities with the player character's gear. This could imply some similar base-building mechanics to those developed across Skyrim's Hearthfire expansion and Fallout 4's more expansive settlement system. The screenshot shows the player character from a third-person perspective, but it remains unclear if this is simply a zoomed out version of the more traditional first-person Bethesda view.

Another screenshot showing a spaceship has fans of games like No Man's Sky hoping that Bethesda's engine upgrade will allow for space flight and battles. All in all, there are several big possible though unconfirmed changes Starfield could be making from the traditional Bethesda RPG.

Its CO2, O2, and gravity meters could imply a greater emphasis on survival mechanics. Building bases could have a greater focus than their supplementary and entirely voluntary presence in Fallout 4, especially if the player finds themselves on uninhabited planets. Finally, the game could be a great opportunity for Bethesda to experiment with creating more consistent and realistic physics that may play into the game as players attempt to navigate planets with very different environments.

To add to those possibilities, Todd Howard mentioned at Brighton Digital 2020 that Bethesda Game Studios would be making greater use of procedural generation in the creation of Starfield and The Elder Scrolls 6. Procedurally generated landscapes aren't random as in Daggerfall. Instead, parts of the landscape are generated by a computer before developers go in and flesh out the details, keeping every player's experience of the world consistent. This could allow some of Starfield's planets to be huge, though fans hoping for realistically sized worlds will very likely be disappointed due to the need for developer polish of those generated landscapes.

The more experimental features included in Starfield could have big implications for future Elder Scrolls and Fallout games. Fans might expect the world of The Elder Scrolls 6 to be far larger than previous games if Starfield's procedural generation works well. The desire to create bigger towns and cities in The Elder Scrolls was already mentioned by Todd Howard at Brighton Digital, supporting this. Starfield could also allow the studio to experiment with a wider variety of ways to interact with the environment, from flying to more complicated uses of physics. This could include elements like destructible landscapes, for example, though that is far from confirmed.

Overall, Starfield provides a great opportunity for Bethesda to experiment and push the boundaries of the RPG design which has defined the company for years. Bethesda's design philosophy has remained relatively static in its core principles since The Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind. If Starfield has elements which require significant changes to be made to the studio's engine, these could lay the foundation for features in the next Fallout and Elder Scrolls games. For now, however, Bethesda fans will have to wait for more details about Starfield. One thing's for certain though, the fact that Bethesda is working on a new IP at all means change is in the air.

Starfield is in development.

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