While Starfield aims for a grounded, "NASA-punk" aesthetic, it has its share of fantastical sci-fi contrivances. But it does have one extremely believable prediction about the future: in 307 years, the Earth will be a barren husk.
You can try to visit Earth in Starfield, but you won't find much worth your time there. The in-game system scan describes it as a rock planet with a thin CO2 atmosphere. Fauna? None. Flora? None. But hey, at least the water's safe. If you can manage to find any.
I'm not among the lucky members of the 12DOVE staff who got to play Starfield early, but one of my colleagues did share a report about their attempt to visit Starfield's Earth. "I tried areas where New York, London, and Tokyo would've been, as well as India. All desert, literally not a single landing spot of interest."
Starfield takes place in the year 2330, or 307 years in the future. That means in this lore we've got less than three centuries left before the Earth's ecosystem just collapses under the weight of what humanity has done to it. Honestly, that sounds about right.
Our Starfield review is in, and our reviewer reckons that this is "an expansive and beautifully crafted open world experience full of endless discovery and opportunities." There are a few middling scores in the Starfield Metacritic, but by and large it's been highly praised, with aggregate scores putting it between Skyrim and Fallout 4 on the Bethesda tier list.
Check out our live blog on the Starfield launch for all the details in the final hours before Early Access.
