Todd Howard Reveals Having No Vehicles on Planets in Starfield Is a Great Opportunity for Players and Here’s Why

The need to explore the mystery of what can be found in space has been in the minds of millions of people. To make the dream come true, in a manner of speaking, Starfield has given its players a unique chance to explore over 1000 planets at their leisure, taking their spaceship throughout the galaxy.

Starfield has provided players with seemingly unlimited potential for space exploration. However, players found themselves facing a big issue. With the lack of vehicles to explore planets on, the entire process became very slow. As fans wanted to know Bethesda’s logic behind it, Todd Howard pitched in with the studio’s perspective.

Todd Howard speaks about the lack of vehicles in Starfield

In an interview with Bloomberg Technology, Todd Howard was asked a question about the lack of vehicles in Starfield. Fans aimed it specifically at vehicles not being available on planets, not in space. Howard explained the decision was intentional, as they felt it would have changed the gameplay.

By not including a vehicle for exploration, Bethesda felt like they had better control over the pace of world exploration. This means they could slow down the pace at which players explored the planets and really let them take in their surroundings. In a way, it does benefit players, since it gives them more time to discover collectibles, interact with NPCs, and just get a better feel for the planet. Instead, if they were in a vehicle, there was a good chance they would have just driven past a point of interest in a rush.

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The lack of vehicles does not mean Bethesda constricted exploration. They do have tools offered to players to make traversing the environment easier. The jetpack, for example, is an excellent demonstration of this. By using it based on the gravity of the planet, you can create traversal strategies to maximize exploration. Also, without vehicles, players can experience different gravity levels on different planets.

While not having a vehicle was not a particular problem players had, they did feel annoyed at times. Having to run across a large area that could have been crossed in a matter of seconds in a vehicle was frustrating for some.

The decision to not include vehicles does feel logical, especially given how easy it is to miss small details in such a vast game.

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