Starfield players will be able to join any of the factions in the game, even the bad guys

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Players will be able to choose from the United Colonies, Freestar Collective, Ryujin Industries, or the Crimson Fleet

Starfield
(Image credit: Bethesda / Xbox)

Upcoming Bethesda RPG Starfield will allow players to ally with any of the factions in the game, including the "bad guys."

In the latest episode of the Into the Starfield developer update, It was revealed that players will be able to choose what Starfield factions they want to run with. As explained by lead quest designer Will Shen: "We always make a bunch of different groups that represent some of the major factions in the game."

According to Shen, players will be able to choose from the United Colonies; "That represents the future of space republic idealized," the Freestar Collective; "Which is the space western fantasy," Ryujin Industries; "Which represents corporate life" - and according to Shen "has one of the best starts of any of the factions" - and lastly, the Crimson Fleet; a group of space pirates that players can either join or secretly sabotage.

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The rest of the update video sees Starfield director Emil Pagliarulo, artist Istvan Pely, and director Todd Howard join Shen to discuss other elements of the upcoming game. 

We also managed to get our first sneak peek at Starfield gameplay during the update. Although it was only on the screen for a short amount of time, it has definitely given us a taste of what the Bethesda RPG will have in store for players when it releases in November 2022. 

As we edge closer and closer to that release date, we’ll start hearing more and more about Bethesda’s upcoming sci-fi RPG. So far this year we’ve heard that Starfield is aiming for a "very realistic" and "NASA-punk" sci-fi world, meaning the game will be set in "a sci-fi universe that's a little more grounded and relatable" when compared to over space-exploration stories that usually opt for more fantastical settings. Think more Space Odyssey, less Guardians of the Galaxy.

Want to know more about the upcoming Bethesda title? Find out how The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion helped to inspire Starfield’s dialogue system. 

Hope Bellingham
Hope Bellingham
News Writer

After studying Film Studies and Creative Writing at university, I was lucky enough to land a job as an intern at Player Two PR where I helped to release a number of indie titles. I then got even luckier when I became a Trainee News Writer at GamesRadar+ before being promoted to a fully-fledged News Writer after a year and a half of training.  My expertise lies in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, cozy indies, and The Last of Us, but especially in the Kingdom Hearts series. I'm also known to write about the odd Korean drama for the Entertainment team every now and then.