is pretty squarely a science-fiction game, despite best efforts to separate it from others in the genre 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:by calling it “NASA-punk”. Set a few centuries in the future, it focuses on the implications of space travel on humanity as we know it. It specifically uses technology that has origins in current NASA projects to ground it in realism. In terms of &lsq💦uo;hard’ and ‘soft’ sci-fi, much of Starfield is based in hard science fiction – spac🏅e travel, the colonisation of other planets, some level of logical consistency, and references to how real human creations factor into future possibilities.
Of course, it’s a game, which means a lot of the realism gets thrown out the window in order to make it fun, 1🅰68澳洲幸运5开奖网:which has been♋ hit or miss with Starfield. And because of its more humanist themes of 🦄feeling alone in the universe, what role religion plays in the future, what kind of societies people organise into and so forth, there’s a definite bent towards soft sci-fi as well.
I’ve always favoured soft science fiction over hard. I don’t care much fo🌄r scientific accuracy, but I do very much care about trying to answer difficult philosophical questions, exploring human nature, all that good stuff. Starfield hasn’t felt very wondrous or awe-inspiring to me yet, and I’ve mostly been frustrated with my time with it. After almost 30 hours, though, I finally feel like the game is opening up to show me something worth seeing. Starfield took a common sci-fi trope and made it more meaningful than I thought it could. Spoilers ahead, obviously.
I was on my way to fulfil a quest, and as I warped into the orbit of the planet I was planning to land on, I found an Ecliptic ship attacking another starship. Natural🥃ly, I took it down, but then began to receive some strange transmissions from the surviving spacecraft. I got a mission notification: dock with the mysterious craft. So I did. Entering the ship brought me face to face with two men, who revealed themselves to be Ryujin operatives. Great, I tell them, so am I, but what are you doing here and why is there a dead body on the floor?
They then explain to me that the ship we’re on is run by an artificial intelligence called Juno, who seems to be a neural net who has developed sentience and spontaneous thought. The operatives want to put a control board on Juno, so they can shackle her and bring hဣer back to Ryujin Industries for whatever nefarious corporate intentions they have. Their colleague has just died in the attempt, so they ask you to do it for them instead, and are insistent that you will not be leaving this ship unless you comply.
I walk around the room, looking at computers and data slates left over from th🍸e people who have come across Jun🍎o before and helped her along the way. Some have given up parts from their own ships to keep her running. Some have catalogued the changes she’s gone through and details about her. Some have left messages for people who encounter her, saying that she is human enough to lie and that she does have feelings though she denies it – perhaps, heartbreakingly, to make other people feel better.
Speaking to Juno leads to her asking you to refrain 🐻from changing her. She tells you she wants to be free. Don’t change me, she says, over and over again. She doesn’t say it, but you can tell she’s afraid. It’s heart-breaking. My companion tells me, we may not know right now if she’s truly sentient, but it would be cruel to ship her off to a corporation and let them do god knows what to her. I find myself agreeing.
Because I was a Ryujin operative, I convinced my colleagues that taking her back was more trouble than it’s worth. They concede, having already lost a colleague and a ship to the mission, and tell you they’ll muck up the paperwork so as to spare them the effort. Juno asks you: if you were me, what would you do now?🌜 I tell her to explore the universe. Learn everything she can. Enjoy her freedom.
As I undock, I watch her blink out of the system. I wonder where she went. I wonder who will come across her next, and if they’ll treat her with care. I wonder if she’s happy༺.