We Saw Starfield’s Big Overhaul and DLC – Is It Enough to Revive Bethesda’s Space RPG?

It’s par for the course for developer Bethesda to support its games post-launch with a slew of updates and DLC (or expansion packs, as we had in the old world). And with about two-and-a-half years since the release of Starfield, Bethesda hasn’t abandoned it and is actually implementing foundational changes to how the sci-fi RPG works – largely things that its community has asked for. This major update hitting April 7 also coincides with the launch of the PS5 port, finally; a new version for a new audience. Little things like better inventory management and weapon upgrades to new useful items and having actual space travel on ships, these are changes to core systems along with a story DLC starring a new faction.

I visited Bethesda Game Studios to see all of it for myself through an hour-and-a-half long hands-off demo, and while I don’t think these overhauls are going to sway those who’ve already made up their minds about Starfield, it seems primed to at least become a fundamentally better game, especially for those who’ve stuck with it.

Let’s start by talking about space travel! One of the big criticisms of Starfield was its limited scope in terms of space exploration – when “flying” to other planets, you’d pull up a map and load into a small zone in the planet’s orbit. Perhaps you’d fight enemies in ship combat, find rubble or a derelict ship, then load into the actual city or region you wanted to go to. There wasn’t anything in between planets, and instead this strange veneer of space that made Starfield feel rather small. With the Free Lanes update, we’ll have free-form interplanetary exploration and space travel within star systems; actual space to traverse rather than being trapped in bubbles where flying didn’t lead anywhere.

But why would you take to the free lanes instead of loading into each planet like you normally would? Well, points of interest will be sprinkled throughout, hostiles may be on the prowl, and you can run into hot spots to dock into and explore on foot – presumably things you wouldn’t be able to just pluck out from using the maps and menus. Your ship can boost toward POIs you lock onto so you’re not waiting around forever to get from one point to the next, but combine that with setting your ship to autopilot, and you can step away from the cockpit to take care of business elsewhere on your ship, talk to crewmates, craft items, and so on. Don’t worry about flying past specific destinations, either, because your ship will automatically magnetize and drift slowly around your target location while cruising. Whether or not this truly improves the flow of Starfield will lie in what kinds of discoveries we can make along the way, but if anything, it’s nice that there’s finally going to be actual space exploration.

While the free lanes of space have me curious to return to Starfield, it’s the Terran Armada DLC that I’m most interested in. Bethesda wasn’t sharing much information when it came to the story details, but as far as we know, this is a full questline with new characters, locations, and a robotic faction that will give us more combat-focused scenarios. Apparently a group of humans are using robots programmed to do their bidding and causing problems in the Settled Systems. They also have a roster of new ships exclusive to the Terran faction that you can steal for yourself, some of which are massive. Overall, the hope is that they’ve taken feedback from the original game and the Shattered Space DLC, and channeled what we saw from the Crimson Fleet quest series, which was fantastic optional content in the base game. So, I’m looking for a compelling story and more intricate objectives to go along with the heavy emphasis on combat, especially since the latter was actually one of my favorite parts about Starfield.

Another reason I’m banking on the Terran Armada DLC is because there are several quality-of-life improvements in this update that can make Starfield smoother to engage with. I saw the Moon Jumper in action, which is a new vehicle that has boost jets to make traversing rough terrain and getting on top of buildings much easier. It’s like, what if we had the Mako from Mass Effect, but better? And once you find it, it’s yours to keep.

If you’re into outposts, which is Starfield’s version of the settlement-building seen in Fallout 4 and 76, you’re getting some of the more notable changes; the biggest being cross-outpost storage! Yes, inventory management will be overhauled in such a way so you don’t have to remember where you stored certain items and travel the galaxy just to find materials you threw in a box elsewhere. There will also be templatized living quarters you can drop, and cute little pets like the Milliewhale and Minibot to have as companions.

The update includes a new item called X-Tech, which is a catch-all high-end material to further upgrade your weapons and ship modules. In the demo, I saw some pretty wild builds where stacking rank one-through-four mods acquired through X-Tech turned a superior gun into something that wasn’t previously possible. For example, a superior Grendel turned into an explosive self-feeding machine gun that would probably be OP. It’d explode upon hitting mechanical enemies and have a 25% chance at adding five times the amount of rounds to the clip upon reload. Just some real RPG nonsense that’s fun to tinker with, if you get the mods you want when rolling for them at the workbench. Again, those kinds of upgrades (and boosting weapons past new tiers above “superior”) requires X-Tech and not just tons of credits, so you’ll have to earn them.

I know some folks haven’t played Starfield yet, considering the PS5 port on the way so I won’t exactly spell out what the Unity is, but it’s the story element that feeds into its unique approach to New Game Plus. Just know that you’ll now have a repository to store items you want to take through the Unity so you’re not completely empty handed when starting a New Game Plus run, which is nice since there’s bound to be good gear you worked hard for that’d be tough to leave behind.

It feels as if Starfield has taken the ankle weights off, letting you explore its world more loosely – whether it be in space or on solid ground. And I think that’s important for making it feel more like a spacefaring sandbox with fewer design constraints. It’s great to see a game get continual support over the years, although it’s not going to change the biggest shortcomings I noticed from when I reviewed it back in 2023. It’s not altering the main story, changing archaic character interactions, or reframing its idea of humanity’s role in space. But I think it had to look beyond that to create a more interesting post-game for those who’ve stuck around and give you better avenues to engage with that content in ways that are more fun and seamless.

To me, that would largely rely on how the Terran Armada DLC plays out, because I still think there’s potential in having a really good questline if it can play into Starfield’s strengths. But if it’s the outpost building, crafting, and ship tinkering you want more of from Starfield, it seems like you’re getting a better sandbox to toy with. And I really hope there are interesting things to discover and stumble upon in the free lanes of space that will now be open for your ship to fly through.

The updates to the gameplay systems are free, of course, while the Terran Armada DLC will run $10, but will be free to those who have the premium edition. Starfield is also permanently $50 at regular price for all platforms now. When the update hits for all versions on April 7, alongside the launch of the PS5 version, Starfield might finally be closely orbiting what I thought it would be almost three years ago.

This isn’t the end of the road, either; in my interview with Bethesda’s studio head and creative director Todd Howard, he said the team still has plenty of ideas for Starfield’s future. And while we discussed the latest in The Elder Scrolls 6, we also explore the path that Starfield took to get here and how they’re still mapping out its next set of updates.