Starfield breaks the Bethesda mold with ‘exciting’ New Game+ twist

Starfield promises hours upon hours of space adventure, and if that isn’t enough, Bethesda is also offering something they never have before.

After a lengthy wait, Starfield is finally poised to take center stage on Aug. 31 for early access and Sept. 6 for its global release, sending players across the stars in a massive explorable galaxy.

The sheer size and depth of Starfield has led to questions about whether you can ever fully complete the game, but according to Bethesda, you can—and an “exciting twist” will happen in New Game+.

Confirmation of a New Game+ in Starfield was provided by GQ, and while it’s not a new concept for the gaming world, it is entirely new to Bethesda titles of this size.

Skyrim and Fallout 4 both offered vast replayability, but that was confined to your first playthrough and the different approaches you could take within it. In Starfield, however, you’ll be able to continue your playthrough in a new way.

No details are available yet about New Game+ in Starfield, and it’s likely be quite a while until we learn more about it, thanks to the sheer amount of time the game will take to complete. So far, there’s no indication of how Bethesda will approach New Game+ in Starfield.

Usually, New Game+ takes you back to the start of the story but allows you to retain things like skills, perks, vanity items, and more for your new playthrough. It may be similar in Starfield.

However, given Starfield has over 1,000 planets to explore, it wouldn’t be surprising if you also retain the data you’ve collected about the worlds you’ve visited, as this would allow you to continue ticking things off your massive to-do list.

It could also be that Starfield’s New Game+ allows you to restart a specific story arc from the beginning, providing you with the opportunity to try different methods of completion or to simply replay your favorite moments, without having to reset everything entirely.

For now though, all we can do is speculate, though the inclusion of the feature in Starfield is encouraging.