Bethesda is making up for the radio silence that engulfed much of Starfield’s development by turning on the hype machine. It has just released The Settled Systems, a compilation of three Starfield animated shorts that show the game’s universe.
First, there’s Supra et Ultra, which is Latin for “Above and Beyond”. It shows a bit of the life of a pilot who goes to New Atlantis to enlist in the Vanguard, The United Colonies’ military faction. This naturally provides a good excuse to show off a neat little space battle. The animation feels a bit bare-bones at times, with a segment that barely even features any coloring, but that’s clearly a stylistic choice and it looks nice overall.
Then there’s Where Hope Is Built. It’s a cute little short about a teen left orphaned by the war who saves an old man and ends up getting much-needed help in return. It’s a bit formulaic, but it does a good job of reassuring players that yes, there will be side quests.
Lastly, there’s The Hand That Feeds. It shows a Neon City scoundrel having a fallout with her partner following a change of heart while robbing an employee of Ryuijin Industries, a mega-corporation from the planet Volii Alpha. The whole thing culminates with her getting a job at her would-be victim’s megacorp. This is probably the most interesting of the bunch, as it hints that simple situations can have various possible outcomes.
We still don’t know if any of these characters will show up in the game. We also don’t know whether we’ll be seeing more episodes of The Settled Systems. Either way, we doubt these are the last promos we’ll see from Starfield.
Bethesda will likely keep the hype machine in high gear until Starfield launches on September 6, 2023, on Xbox Series X|S, and PC.
