Starfield har teknisk set 1000 planeter, og over 100 solsystemer, at udforske, men måden du gør det på er markant anderledes end i andre Bethesda Game Studios-spil. Sådan bliver det et eller andet sted nødt til at være, hvis spillet skal byde på et verdensrum at udforske, men spillere er alligevel ret utilfredse med den ret opbrudte oplevelse det er at rejse imellem golde planeter uden meget at se eller gøre.
Så hvad mener studiet selv om den måde udforskning er blevet implementeret på? Det har tidligere Bethesda-designer Bruce Nesmith udtalt sig om i et stort interview med MinnMax, hvor han indrømmer at det ikke blev helt som studiet havde håbet:
"Game director Todd Howard pretty much pulled the number 100 for the number of solar systems out of thin air, but the more we went on, the more it was like, 'OK, so all core activity takes place in these two dozen in the settled systems and the rest of it is open space, but people love our big games. They love that open area to explore, so let's go ahead and let 'em have it'."
"I think some of the exploration stuff didn't come through as well as it could've because they decided to make other choices. And never misunderstand this. In every game studio on the face of this planet, they know the choices they're making. They know the things that are not going to be in there. They know what the players are going to moan about. But you got to make the hard choice."
Så ideen er måske er at spillets bredere åbne verden mere er der for kontekst, i stedet for at den skal spille en direkte, funktionel rolle. Hvad synes du om det?