As the Artemis II crew return to Earth, Starfield on PS5 is a great way to keep your space exploration fantasies alive

Six days into NASA's Artemis II mission, four astronauts made history. The crew of the Orion spacecraft surpassed the record for human spaceflight's farthest distance from Earth, which was previously set by the Apollo 13 mission over 50 years ago. 252,756 miles travelled. Unseen regions of the lunar surface uncovered. The promise of what's to come from all of this is staggering: lunar outposts, deep-space excursions, missions to Mars. It's been inspiring to watch this unfold in real-time.

Unlike in the 1970s, when citizens of Earth followed the final crewed mission of NASA's Apollo program from a small rotation of television and radio stations, we are now afforded endless ways to satiate our curiosity of the grand tapestry of the galaxy. Some of the best modern sci-fi movies, the likes of Ad Astra and The Martian, are readily available on streaming platforms. Project Hail Mary is in cinemas and utterly delightful. Arthur C. Clarke classics like 2001: A Space Odyssey and Rendezvous with Rama can be read on Kindle for less than the cost of a coffee. No Man's Sky is readily accessible, standing as one of the best space games alongside Elite Dangerous, Mass Effect: Legendary Edition, and Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy. It's been a wonderful week to be a fan of science-fiction and/or endlessly fascinated by space travel.

And today, as the crew of the Orion make their way back to Earth, Bethesda Game Studios prepares to launch Starfield onto PS5. It's a serendipitous turn of events, and one you should grasp with both hands if you can afford the opportunity.

Should you play Starfield on PS5?

Bethesda Game Studios is best known as the creators of some of the best RPGs of all-time. You have probably sunk hundreds of hours into at least one of The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion or The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim, and been enticed into returning to Fallout 3 and Fallout 4 following the success of the Amazon Prime Video show. Starfield is the studio's latest effort, having first landed on PC and Xbox Series X in 2023.

Starfield has proven to be a divisive experience, and I don't necessarily see that changing anytime soon – if ever. The Free Lanes update and premium Terran Armada expansion also arrive today across all platforms, introducing a smattering of quality-of-life improvements, interstellar travel, and plenty more besides. These changes further the role-play fantasy that the core game provides, but they don't fundamentally overhaul it.

I traveled to Bethesda Game Studios last month, and learned that the studio is uninterested in launching a 'Starfield 2.0' overhaul as some players had hoped it might – Bethesda is proud of the game it made, and sees no need to change it. Lead creative producer Tim Lamb told me that players should expect "the best version of Starfield" to exist from April 7 onwards: an "irresponsibly large Bethesda Game" that exists with "multiple years of additional support, systems, and content."

This is all true: The best version of Starfield is the one that's available from today. It's also true that this RPG still isn't for everybody. If you lock into its vibe, you'll no doubt find that Starfield creates a vacuum that just consumes time. Over 1,000 planets and more than 100 star systems to explore; the opportunity to live life in a galaxy far, far away with some classic Bethesda questlines, strong base building foundations, deep progression/customisation systems for your character, companions, and ship.

If you don't lock into its vibe, well, you're going to find that Starfield never quite reckons with this friction at the core of its design ethos: outer space can be kinda boring, and Bethesda has simulated that accurately. Bethesda buries a lot of great ideas and moments throughout this RPG, but the studio doesn't do a fantastic job of leading you between them. The game really is, for better or for worse, "irresponsibly large".

That's because, like Skyrim before it, Starfield is ostensibly about freewheeling exploration and stumbling into trouble. The problem here is that the barren space between those moments is at an astronomical scale in Starfield. There are large stretches of time where very little of interest happens to or around you. This needn't be the end of the world, but it is something you need to be aware of coming in.

Starfield carried a lot of baggage back in 2023, and it was burdened by the weight of expectation. Coming back to the game a few years later, this time with a new character, I must say that I'm finding myself enjoying its rhythms a little more this time around, as uneven as they can be. I'm having a nice time exploring new worlds, shooting up space bandits, building out the spaceship of my dreams, rattling through faction quests.

Starfield is by no means my favorite Bethesda game, but I'm having a perfectly enjoyable time being afforded the freedom to traipse around space. The Artemis II mission captivated me for a week, drawing my gaze away from Earth and towards the stars. Starfield on PS5 has transformed my imagination into a virtual reality, letting me experience the fantasy of being beyond Earth.

I can't tell you if you're going to like Starfield – what I can say is that if you're willing to give it a chance, it might just surprise you.

Related:

• The five biggest changes in the Starfield Free Lanes update
• Starfield interview: Tim Lamb on the PS5 release
• There's still more to come from Starfield in the future