We still don't know much about Starfield, but its music is on point

Another day, another cinematic, softly-lit video of Bethesda developers pitching us on the big picture artistic drives of their upcoming space RPG, Starfield.

For the third episode of the "Into the Starfield" series, audio director Mark Lampert sits down with composer Inon Zur to discuss their creative processes and goals for the game. Previous episodes covered the game's "NASA-punk" art style and some more conceptual back-and-forth on its gameplay, like how they hope to channel "older hardcore RPGs."

It's a little hard to judge what they say about the music and its relationship to Starfield's gameplay at this point in time, but there was an interesting tidbit around the 2:30 mark where Zur describes how he tried to mirror the feeling of venturing out and returning home in the game's music.

"Everything is streaming, everything is changing, and everything is returning back," Zur says. "...There's always this drive to go back home, and that's what feels so complete to us. We want to complete the mission. We want to complete our journey."

The tracks themselves are definitely strong. What we've heard so far reminds me most of Marty O'Donnell, Michael Salvatori, and C Paul Johnson's regal, yet dreamy score for the original Destiny.

Interestingly, Zur and Lampert both agree that the main theme is the hardest part of a project to nail down, but that the rest of the score subsequently slots into place rather neatly. Any other conflicted opinions about Fallout 4 aside, Zur definitely nailed its main theme.

It's an interesting enough conversation, but the whole Into the Starfield series just seems a bit self-congratulatory with the game still an unknown quantity. It has the character of a "making-of" documentary from after a successful launch, rather than something to convince gamers of an unproven setting from a studio exiting a bit of a slump, and Starfield remains a game we still know precious little about.

Hopefully we won't have to wait long for more concrete previews of Starfield. It's due to release this year, on November 11.

Associate Editor

Ted has been thinking about PC games and bothering anyone who would listen with his thoughts on them ever since he booted up his sister's copy of Neverwinter Nights on the family computer. He is obsessed with all things CRPG and CRPG-adjacent, but has also covered esports, modding, and rare game collecting. When he's not playing or writing about games, you can find Ted lifting weights on his back porch.

Read more
The creepiest guy leans in front of an NPC mid-conversation in Starfield.
Starfield promises it still exists as silence drives fans to space-madness, but it mostly just annoys everyone: 'They are deliberately choosing not to communicate more'
Astronaut on alien planet
A recently launched and now terminally sideways Moon lander contains Imagine Dragon's Starfield song, which seems eerily fitting
The director and executive producer at Bethesda Game Studios, Todd Howard, addresses the crowd about the new Fallout video game during the Bethesda E3 conference at LA Live in Los Angeles, California on June 10, 2018. - The three day E3 Game Conference begins on Tuesday June 12.
'I think geniuses come up with terrible ideas, too': Former senior artist at Bethesda likens Todd Howard's struggles with complete creative control to George Lucas
Wyrdsong concept art
Wyrdsong, the RPG from ex-Bethesda talent, isn't dead—but it's no longer an open world: 'We're down to a skeleton crew'
The Elder Scrolls 6 teaser trailer - the stylized logo "The Elder Scrolls VI" over a sweeping landscape of mountains and arid plains.
The Elder Scrolls 6: everything we know about the next return to Tamriel
Mass Effect 3 didn't have music like Vigil or Suicide Mission because composer Jack Wall had a spat with Casey Hudson: 'Casey was not particularly happy with me at the end'
Latest in RPG
Gale, a wizard from Baldur's Gate 3, looks very bloodied and very sad at the player while a celestial midnight blooms behind his depressed mug.
Baldur's Gate 3's latest stress test update fixes heartbreaking bug that caused a total party-wipe on Ironman Mode at the game's final boss, forcing dejected testers to restart the entire game
Lady smiling with the sun in her face
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33's director was 'starving for new turn-based RPGs,' and figured if he wanted them, there would be others out there who'd want to play his game
Astarion, a silver-haired vampire from Baldur's Gate 3, places a hand on his chest and pouts.
Wizards of the Coast gaming head says Baldur's Gate 3 'certainly raised the bar' and changed how they think about big budget D&D, but they still want 'different entry points' including smaller games
Natarkveld, a horrific amalgamation of Nata and Arkveld, screeches like a creature in Monster Hunter Wilds.
Monster Hunter Wilds player spits in the face of creation, fuses Nata with Arkveld like they're doing a Full Metal Alchemist villain speedrun
Fallout 76 ghoul screenshots
How to become a ghoul in Fallout 76
Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 barbers change hairstyle - Henry sitting on a horse wearing armour.
Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 sold 5 times more than the original in its first month
Latest in News
The "mind blown" meme from Tim & Eric.
Friendship ended with human race: Boffins declare the 'meme Turing test' has been passed, and AI is now making funnier captions on average than you useless lumps
Gale, a wizard from Baldur's Gate 3, looks very bloodied and very sad at the player while a celestial midnight blooms behind his depressed mug.
Baldur's Gate 3's latest stress test update fixes heartbreaking bug that caused a total party-wipe on Ironman Mode at the game's final boss, forcing dejected testers to restart the entire game
Two adventurers face off against a pair of undead scallywags in Frosthaven
X-Com creator Julian Gollop unexpectedly takes over sequel to sprawling board game adaptation, and you can try out the closed beta next week
Naoe and Yasuke pose against the backdrop of a burning building.
After Ubi came crawlin' back to Steam, Assassin's Creed Shadows blasts past a million players in under 24 hours and has already smashed Valhalla's player record
Gabe Newell in a Valve promotional video, on a yacht.
Valve CMO threatened the company would walk away from games if it didn't own the rights to Half-Life—'It wasn't an idle threat—we weren't going to take on all of the risk to make other people rich'
Nvidia Blackwell GPU with specs annotated.
CEO Jensen Huang reveals that Nvidia is now making chips in the USA but will that help with gaming GPU supplies?