![\"Starfield](\"https:\/\/www.gameinformer.com\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/body_default\/public\/2023\/08\/31\/be42b21e\/starfield_theme_park_adventure_open_world_fallout_skyrim.jpg\")
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Starfield is finally here after a long five-year wait<\/a>, and it’s great! I\u2019m roughly 23 hours in, so I still have many galaxies ahead of me, but read Game Informer\u2019s<\/em> Starfield review<\/a> for in-depth thoughts on the overall package. With years of build-up and anticipation, I, like many Bethesda Game Studios fans, let my imagination run wild with what this new open world RPG could be. Now that I\u2019ve played a decent chunk of it, it\u2019s quite different from the studios\u2019 Elder Scrolls<\/a> and Fallout<\/a> series in some ways. Those two franchises are significantly more open world than Starfield. In fact, Starfield feels more like a great sci-fi theme park with exciting points of interests rather than an open world adventure. But players looking for a replica space-based Fallout or Elder Scrolls adventure might find disappointment amongst the stars.<\/p>\n From the jump, Starfield\u2019s brand of sci-fi reminds me a lot of golden age Disney, both the overall company and its first two theme parks, Disneyland and Disney World. Walt Disney and his team of Imagineers imagined space as a great, big, beautiful frontier ripe for exploration and human advancement, straying away from the dangers lurking in the great beyond. Of course, Disney is trying to sell an entertainment experience, so short of a somewhat scary, short-lived Alien ride in Tomorrowland<\/a>, its take on space felt extremely optimistic, the kind of bright-eyed joy that sells theme park tickets. It\u2019s this same kind of optimism for space exploration and humankind\u2019s place in it at the heart of Starfield.\u00a0<\/p>\n Space: The Final Frontier<\/p>\n There are large orchestral pieces that make you feel like the hero (if you choose to be), with wondrous planets to visit, and not a harmful alien in sight. Jumping from planet to planet is exciting (save for the various but quick load screens you\u2019ll encounter each time), and when you land, it feels like you\u2019re about to explore something brand new. Music swells, your companions remark on the beauty of a place, and what lies before you is an exciting mystery. Of course, these vibes are mostly top-level. Starfield is an action RPG, after all, meaning it doesn\u2019t take long before you\u2019re taking out other humans with various guns, killing space creatures, stealing to your heart\u2019s content, and taking out space pirates in dogfights. But for a fleeting moment, at every new location, I feel like a kid at a theme park, about to ride an attraction for the first time.\u00a0<\/p>\n I wonder what I\u2019ll see, what the music will be like, where the camera will flash (or, in this instance, where I\u2019ll stop to utilize the game\u2019s photo mode), what I can buy or pick up afterward at the gift shop (see: trading outpost or city merchant), and more. I love this approach to galaxy-spanning travel, but I admittedly had to learn to love it because it wasn\u2019t what I wanted or expected out of Starfield.\u00a0<\/p>\n I expected an open world adventure, but I quickly realized that Starfield isn\u2019t interested in the slow ambient moments that color my experiences in, say, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim<\/a> or Fallout 4<\/a>. Those games have various points of interest on their maps, like a city built out of a baseball field or the expansive Whiterun of Tamriel, but between them are open fields, forests, cavernous dungeons, mountains, and more. Part of the experience is exploring to your heart\u2019s content between stops from Whiterun to the next city and discovering something you had no idea about.\u00a0<\/p>\n![\"Starfield](\"https:\/\/www.gameinformer.com\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/body_default\/public\/2023\/08\/31\/0bfc96cb\/starfield3.jpg\")
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