Starfield fans hope its guns come with manufacturer-specific and environmentally-inspired design traits


A Starfield character holding a gun.

For those who’ve invested thousands of hours into the likes of Skyrim and Fallout 4, the release of Starfield can’t come soon enough.

Regardless of how you feel about the prospects of Bethesda's venture into space, what you think the end goal of its story might be or whether you like what it looks like in Far Cry 5, the idea of being able to delve into a freshly curated game filled with new quests, characters and locations has RPG lovers of all stripes intrigued.

One of the aspects of the game that’s definitely got potential players fascinated is its combat, with melee battles already having been subjected to plenty of speculation and what the galaxy’s guns might look like being the current hot topic.

What kind of hand-cannon are you hoping to blast your way through Starfield with?

The thread containing this magnum-based meeting on the Starfield subreddit began with a post from user Conner_S_Returns, who posted a collage of images containing various futuristic firearms and asked their fellow players: “What kind of gun designs do you want to see in Starfield?”

One idea that their fellow players definitely seemed interested in was the Borderlands-style idea of different in-universe weapon manufacturers each having a range of guns that reflect their specific design philosophy, with the user suggesting: “Perhaps (you) have your energy weapon producers that are (at) the cutting edge of laser tech, a manufacturer that still makes (modern) guns we have now, one that combines the two styles and maybe one that (puts) scrap pieces together (to make firearms).

User Sargentnbawesome argued that this system should also allow for: “guns to be able to tell a story of the systems that people inhabit”, with the geographical locations of different manufacturers leading them to incorporate different materials or fabrication methods.

Similarly, user Avenger1324 suggested that the game’s futuristic setting could allow for some truly imaginative armaments that could really make it stand out, with the likes of “grenades that screw with gravity in a small area or an EMP device that disables weapons and shields reliant on electronics” helping to spice up traditional gunplay.

Meanwhile, user docclox was slightly less specific with their vision, declaring in response to Conner_S_Returns’ query: “Definitely (guns) that go ‘Bang! Bang!’. If we're going to have energy weapons, I think I prefer the ones that go ‘Voop! Voop! Voop!’ over the ‘Pew! Pew! Pew!’ variety.”

Regardless of your preferred stance on the inevitable voop vs pew debate, make sure to follow us for lots of guides to its world and mechanics. You can also check out our latest mods of the month for some killer Skyrim and Fallout mods that’ll help tide you over until it arrives.

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