One of the burning questions surrounding Bethesda’s space epic, Starfield, is its approach to replayability.
While New Game Plus modes have become a popular fixture in games, Bethesda has historically shied away from them in titles like Fallout and The Elder Scrolls. But, Starfield defies this trend, not just by incorporating a New Game+ but by tailoring it uniquely to fit the expansive universe and gameplay mechanics that are its trademark.
Although the game itself avoids the term “New Game Plus,” opting instead for its own nomenclature – much like how it calls a jetpack a “boost pack” and a lockpick a “digipick” – for clarity, we’ll stick to the universal term that we all understand.
After completing Starfield’s final mission, the game gives its players two choices: continue exploring the vast universe, teeming with over a thousand planets and myriad side quests or reset the universe and start anew.
Should you choose the latter, you’re launched into what is effectively a New Game Plus, albeit with certain differences.
First, what stays with you in this new beginning? You continue possessing similar XP, skills, and powers acquired in your first playthrough. You also gain a new spacesuit and spaceship – the Starborn Spacesuit Astra and the Starborn Guardian ship, both top-notch equipment with perks and performance benefits. The Spacesuit Astra is a one-piece wonder with maxed-out damage resistances and environmental protections, along with additional perks like extra resistance as your health decreases. The Guardian is a formidable vessel with ample cargo space and armament, although it isn’t customizable.
Then, what gets left behind? Virtually everything else. Everything, from your accumulated wealth, the fleet of ships you might have painstakingly built or bought, the arsenal you amassed, and even your standing with the game’s factions and companions – all are zeroed out.
So why would anyone choose to start over? Well, not only does it give you a fresh take on all of Starfield’s side missions, but it also gives you a new set of artifacts and powers to discover in different locations. More importantly, some quests are even exclusive to New Game Plus, hidden away during your first playthrough, thereby expanding the game’s already massive amount of content. You also have the flexibility to skip the main storyline and dive right into these new quests and unexplored territories.
While some find wiping assets and relationships a necessary sacrifice for these new experiences, others question the decision.
When you think about it, for a game that champions exploration and a multi-layered narrative, resetting almost all the progress seems counterintuitive. Thus, it would be wiser to max out everything in your first playthrough of Starfield before even of the New Game Plus mode. The enemies in the New Game Plus mode aren’t scaled, and that the high-value items and dialog options you gain are often not consequential enough to warrant rushing into a reset. So, basically, you’ll only go to the New Game Plus mode to check it out.
This is one of the areas where Bethesda’s surprising lack of expertise and experience is showing, but it’s not half-bad – there are some cool moments when you play through Starfield again in New Game Plus.
Overall, the freshness of the new playthrough isn’t a big enough draw to outweigh the loss of progress and assets.
Despite the criticisms, Starfield’s New Game Plus mode invites players to explore new facets of a complex universe, with the opportunity to make different choices and stories, albeit at a steep cost. Whether this gamble pays off and enriches the game’s replayability or stands as an interesting but flawed experiment, remains a point of contention ahead of its public launch.
Either way, the endgame of Starfield is many hours away, depending on how you play it. For now, Early Access players don’t seem to mind the flaws of Starfield. Hundreds of thousands have flocked to the latest Xbox exclusive on Steam.
