Bethesda's Starfield has finally landed after years of anticipation, and it brings with it a monumental promise: to take players across a sprawling galaxy filled with mystery, exploration, and high-stakes decision-making. But as the first new IP from Bethesda Game Studios in over 25 years, expectations are sky-high. For PC players, that raises two major questions—how well does it actually run, and does the gameplay justify the investment in time and hardware?
Starfield is powered by Bethesda’s Creation Engine 2, which delivers impressive lighting, vast planetary vistas, and intricate environmental design. However, that fidelity comes at a steep cost: performance is inconsistent across systems, particularly in heavily populated urban hubs like New Atlantis or Akila City. These areas demand substantial CPU power, and even midrange systems can experience frame drops and occasional stutters.
What becomes immediately clear is that Starfield is designed with high-end PCs in mind. If you're running an RTX 4080 or 4090 with a modern Ryzen or Intel CPU, you'll experience mostly smooth 4K gameplay at high settings—especially with AMD’s FSR 2 enabled. For players on RTX 3060s or RX 6600s, achieving a steady 60 FPS at 1080p or 1440p requires some trade-offs, particularly with shadows, volumetrics, and crowd density. Entry-level GPUs like the GTX 1650 struggle even on Low presets, with frequent dips below 30 FPS and long load times, making the game borderline unplayable without major compromises.
At its heart, Starfield is an evolution of Bethesda’s RPG design philosophy—an open world (or rather, open galaxy) that lets you approach objectives however you choose. The sheer scale is staggering: over 1,000 planets, multiple star systems, and hundreds of hours of questlines. But it’s not just quantity—there’s genuine depth in faction interactions, ship mechanics, base-building, and character progression.
The main story, which revolves around the discovery of mysterious alien artifacts, starts slow but gradually escalates into a high-concept, metaphysical journey reminiscent of classic sci-fi. Meanwhile, side quests—particularly those involving the UC Vanguard, Freestar Collective, and Crimson Fleet—often eclipse the main story in both writing and impact. Each faction offers narrative branches with moral ambiguity and long-term consequences.
Combat feels more responsive and weighty than past Bethesda games, thanks to refined animations and better weapon handling. The variety of firearms, stealth options, and jetpack-based mobility give players multiple tools to adapt to their preferred playstyle.
One of Starfield’s standout features is ship customization. Unlike any previous Bethesda game, your ship isn’t just transportation—it’s your base, your lifeline, and your personal expression of style and utility. The in-game ship editor allows players to build everything from sleek fighters to bulky freighters, modifying everything from hull shape to shield generators and cargo capacity. The attention to detail is astonishing, and ship-to-ship combat is equally deep, with power management and targeting systems playing key roles.
Exploration is similarly expansive, though more structured than No Man’s Sky. While many planets are procedurally generated and barren, others contain handcrafted locations, quests, and environmental storytelling. The balance between randomness and narrative content is imperfect, but when it works, it feels like genuine interstellar adventure.
From a technical perspective, Starfield delivers visually stunning space environments. Planetary surfaces, nebulae, and skyboxes often look jaw-dropping, especially at higher resolutions. Interiors are atmospheric, with detailed lighting and texture work, especially in sci-fi facilities and cities. However, character models and facial animations still lag behind modern standards, showing the limitations of the Creation Engine in terms of dynamic expressions and emotional depth.
Sound design is another highlight. Weapon fire echoes through metallic corridors, engines roar with force, and the ambient hum of space stations creates a rich, immersive soundscape. Inon Zur’s orchestral soundtrack elevates key story moments, blending curiosity and grandeur with quiet reflection.
For a Bethesda launch, Starfield is surprisingly stable. There are bugs—this is a Bethesda game, after all—but they’re largely minor and infrequent. You’ll encounter the usual fare: NPCs walking into walls, textures failing to load, or the occasional freeze during fast travel. Crashes are rare, and critical save-breaking bugs are not widespread.
The biggest technical disappointment is the lack of native DLSS or XeSS support. While AMD’s FSR 2 performs well, especially on Radeon GPUs, players with NVIDIA cards are forced to use community-created DLSS mods to optimize performance. Thankfully, the modding community is already thriving, offering not just performance fixes but UI tweaks, retextures, and even early content expansions.
If you’re running a midrange PC (RTX 3060, RX 6600, or equivalent), these tweaks can make a big difference:
Resolution: Stick to 1080p or 1440p
Upscaling: Enable AMD FSR 2 or install a DLSS mod for smoother performance
Settings: Set Shadows and Volumetrics to Medium; turn off Motion Blur and Depth of Field
Dynamic Resolution: On, with target 60 FPS
Crowd Density: Medium or Low in cities to reduce CPU load
These adjustments help stabilize performance while maintaining decent visual quality. For best results, install the latest drivers and avoid background processes while playing.
Starfield is an ambitious, sprawling RPG that rewards patience and curiosity. For players with capable PCs, it offers one of the most expansive and detailed sci-fi roleplaying experiences to date. While its systems aren’t always perfectly executed, and performance can be uneven on midrange rigs, the sheer scope of content and freedom available to the player is unmatched.
Pros:
Deep roleplaying and exploration mechanics
Beautiful environments and spaceflight sequences
Ship customization and combat are excellent
Stable for a Bethesda game at launch
Rich modding potential
Cons:
CPU and VRAM intensive, especially in cities
Weak facial animations and dated NPC behavior
Slow opening hours
No native DLSS/XeSS support (requires mods)
Starfield may not be perfect, but for the right player—with the right hardware—it’s a space adventure that delivers both in depth and scale.