Starfield is, seemingly, a game replete with wonder, spectacle, and the visual majesty of the universe. But based on a new update from Bethesda, the RPG game also sounds absolutely brutal, with one of the Starfield guns packing more fear factor than any of the Skyrim spells, or even Fallout’s Fatman. With the Starfield release date getting ever closer, and a lot of wonderful gameplay showing off the planets and the solar system, I offer this as an official warning: shooting and combat in Starfield are going to be vicious.
We’ve seen plenty of Starfield guns so far, as well as Starfield armor, Starfield companions, and Starfield space combat. But in a new Bethesda developer interview, we get the low-down on one Starfield shooter that sounds frightening whether you’re the user or the unfortunate victim.
Dane Olds is the lead weapons designer at Starfield. After talking about their inspirations, in particular the original Doom, they discuss what might be Starfield’s very own BFG 9000, the somewhat more innocuously named Mag Pulse.
“One of my favorites would be the Mag Pulse,” Olds explains. “It’s one of our new magnetically driven weapons that features a grid of 25 barrels. Each barrel has its own aiming laser which is incredibly cool. When you use it in the game, you’ll see a grid of lasers projected onto objects in the world which tells you exactly where your shots will land. We haven’t done anything like it before.”
25 barrels. A laser aiming grid. This sounds like some hellish, Paul Verhoeven, Omnicorp monstrosity. Just imagine, you’re stalking through some dilapidated spaceship, trying to find a new power core, and suddenly a laser grid appears on your torso. You barely have time to say ‘oh no’ before 25 separate projectiles tear you to pieces. You can see the Mag Pulse below:
“I have so many other weapons I love though, too,” Olds continues. “The Razorback is a six-shot revolver that uses exotic 7.5mm white-hot rounds that I use when I want to be a space cowboy. The AA99 feels so beefy and cool. It’s hard to pick a single favorite.”
Olds also shares some details on how guns might affect our inventory space, explaining how some weapons are designed to be light and compact in order to benefit space travel.
“In Starfield, when creating the Combatech weapons we wanted to make items that were optimized for space travel,” Olds says. “That meant trying to reduce weight as much as possible and making things as compact as possible so they could fit aboard the cramped confines of a spaceship. As a result, our Combatech weapons are created from light-weight metal alloys and polymers, and are mostly bullpup designs.”
So, as you might have expected, Starfield is not just a peaceful, serene tour through space. With the Mag Pulse especially, it sounds like it has some real, probably quite gory FPS game chops. Just one more reason to be excited.
As we wait for Bethesda’s space opera to arrive in full, find out everything there is to know about Starfield traits, so you can start planning your build. You’ll also want to start working on Starfield character creation, so you’re ready to blast off the moment the game drops.