Summary
Those familiar with previous Bethesda games shouldn’t be surprised to learn that side content is whereStarfieldshines the brightest. The main story of the game is great, but exploringStarfield’s many distinct planets, lore-rich cities, and tertiary narrative content will take up the bulk of many players' time. However, also like in other BGS titles, there are many hidden gems in this sprawling game.
After a brief introductory section, players are set loose inStarfield’s rendition of the Milky Way galaxy. From there, a player can choose to beeline through the main story quest, or ignore it altogether and pursue side missions. Whether these side missions center on one of the game’s many factions or are built around a single member of the supporting cast, they are almost all worthwhile, as they can offer valuable material rewards and engrossing narrative content. It’s hard to single out a singleStarfieldmission as being better than most, but some will certainly pull at the heartstrings more than others.
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Starfield’s Final Thoughts Mission is Heartbreaking
Starfieldhas flashy side missionswith premises that can easily hook any player. Some of the game’s more memorable missions involve things like becoming a key player in a corporate espionage scheme, traveling through the galaxy as a noble United Colonies representative, or playing different gangs off each other in Neon, the game’s cyberpunk-inspired city. Many of these missions are attention-grabbing and glamorous, but there’s one mission that is understated, nuanced, and can very easily go unnoticed.
The mission is called Final Thoughts, and it tells a heartbreaking tale of a man saying farewell to his wife and son. While exploring Navacci, a moon orbiting Polvo, players can come across one ofStarfield’s many pre-built outposts. Sadly, all the engineers working at the outpost have been killed, leaving the player to examine the surroundings for clues about what transpired. Looting one of the corpses will yield an audio slate titled “For Claire Mensah, New Atlantis.” The audio log is a heart-wrenching monologue, recorded by the dead man in his final moments, where he says expresses his final thoughts to his wife and young son. He states that he is sorry that he will never get to see them again, and that his biggest regret in life is not spending more time together as a family.
To complete the quest, playersmust travel to New Atlantisand deliver the slate to Claire Mensah, per the instructions given in the slate’s title. Speaking to Claire, it’s clear that she does not suspect that anything is amiss with her husband, which makes it all the more tragic when she learns of his fate. Players have a few options as to how they wish to respond to her grief, but no matter what they say, this story has an undeniably sad ending, with no silver lining to be found.
This quest is short and straightforward, but it is one of the more sobering, human moments in the game, standing apart fromStarfield’s many high-octane questsand activities. The fact that the game doesn’t draw attention to it, obscuring the first step of the quest in a seemingly random corpse in a remote outpost disconnected from any bigger quest lines, makes it hit much harder. This is due in part to the fact that players won’t be expecting the game to hit this emotional note, as they will likely come across the audio slate during their regular, low-stakes adventuring. Final Thoughts is a reminder of how strong Bethesda Game Studios can be when it comes to writing moving side content, as the quest can make even the most stoic players at least a little misty-eyed.
Starfieldis currently available on PC and Xbox Series X|S.
