Starfield has a slow intro, but gets exciting several hours into the campaign. Here’s how long you should play before getting distracted by side quests.
Bethesda games typically open with a big bang, so it’s ironic — and potentially off-putting — that the studio’s first game in literal space does not. Know that Starfield does eventually get its explosive narrative moment. You’ll just need to get through a few campaign missions first.
Compared to the intros of Skyrim (dragon immolates a small village) and Fallout 4 (humanity immolates Earth), the opening hours of Starfield are almost offensively low-key. You’re cast as a space miner, and you spend time doing menial space miner things: wandering around a cave, pointing a laser at a rock, fighting off some space pirates. You might get aspirations of striking out on your own, seeing what wonders the galaxy holds. Don’t. If anything, prioritize the campaign — at least for the first few missions.
After completing the initial two missions, you get three missions at once: “Back to Vectera,” “The Empty Nest,” and “Into the Unknown.
