Here’s how the “irresponsibly large” Starfield opens

At Gamescom, Xbox is showing attendees a twenty minute teaser video on Starfield that details the game’s opening moments.

Eurogamer was able to see an early screening, so can share what was seen.

Phil Spencer told the audience Todd Howard had described the game to him as “irresponsibly large”, but here’s how the journey begins. Spoilers ahead.

Players begin as a miner on May 7th 2330, descending into tunnels ready to mine some metal deposits. They grab a laser cutter and get to work, though of course things soon go wrong.

The player character encounters a strange gravity defying artifact, before waking up back at base. It’s this that kicks off the story.

From there players will create their character. The video swiftly covered creation, which includes plenty of diverse options and sliders, none of which appear to be gender locked. Players will choose a background and three traits.

We were able to see the game played in both first and third person, to show off that character. Soon after, the Crimson Fleet arrive and there’s a quick shootout with pirates, which looks to control similarly to most other first-person shooters.

Once defeated, it’s time to fly off to New Atlantis on another planet. Space travel occurs through menus: we had a glimpse of the star map and then jumped through hyperspace (surely covering loading screens).

Before that there was dizzying space combat above the planet’s atmosphere, shooting guns at the invading space pirates before locking on with missiles. Typical space stuff.

The video ended soon after the player arrived on New Atlantis – a bright, vivid city compared with the greys of the mining planet. Players choose a landing zone from a menu screen and then it’s off to see Constellation and find out exactly what that artifact was.

In all, Starfield looks very much like a Bethesda game. The environments are incredibly detailed – especially the interior of the player’s ship – while human characters are a little stiff and bland. There are dialogue options, a vast inventory, and some basic shooting.

Of course, it’s impossible to get a real sense of the game from just this short snippet, but if Fallout in space is your thing then Starfield looks set to fit the bill.

Starfield will release on PC and Xbox Series X/S on 6th September, or for buyers of the more expensive Premium or Constellation editions on 1st September, so not long until you can play this opening yourself. You can read more of the essentials in our guide to Starfield’s release date, file size, preloads and more.