One of Fallout’s most infamous NPC bugs rears its ugly head in Starfield too

Starfield’s early access launch has been as smooth as one would hope for so far, but despite discussion over the polish of the game’s build this weekend, there have been one or two pesky bugs that slipped through the cracks—some of which Fallout fans will be all too familiar with.

From headless NPCs with only eyeballs to characters missing entire faces, these creepy glitches have popped up from time to time as players progress through their journey to the stars, with players documenting and sharing them with the masses.

Most of the September bugs are popping up on PC and revolve around NPCs, including interesting ones where players walk up to a vendor only to discover their face is gone.

In several other cases, the NPC’s body remains mobile and active, but the head—outside of the eyeballs—is just gone. I don’t think it’s possible to function as just a set of eyeballs but hey, maybe it’s an Akila thing.

Other visual bugs have been reported too, with one player encountering a grotesque transformation of an NPC with an upside-down head and fractured textures.

While not exactly gamebreaking, it certainly is unnerving and very strange.

Some players are even begging for these visual bugs to remain a little while longer. One player is already saddened by the fact the game is becoming more and more polished and said that they wish Bethesda “could keep some bugs in.”

Those who have ventured into Fallout’s wastelands might remember seeing something familiar, with this bug similar to that seen in Fallout: 76 and Fallout 4. 2023’s Starfield is built upon an upgraded version of the Creation Engine used in Bethesda’s post-apocalyptic RPG, so it makes sense that we’ve seen these glitches reoccur from time to time.

The otherwise smooth early access launch only strengthens the discussion earlier this week that Starfield would have “the fewest bugs of any Bethesda launch.”

We’ll know for sure come this week’s official release whether any day-one patches will be deployed to fix any glaring issues.

In the meantime, enjoy the faceless, headless NPCs while they last—we expect Bethesda will only want to improve Starfield and wipe these bugs out ahead of the game’s general launch on Sept. 5.