Let’s get this out of the way: I’ve always thought Starfield was cool. At launch, Bethesda’s sci-fi RPG was an incredibly ambitious game that captured my attention and imagination straight away, even if it had its issues. Is it the Skyrim in space that everyone wanted? No, but it’s getting closer, especially after the latest update. And now that Starfield has arrived on PlayStation 5, a whole new audience can experience it.

In terms of current-gen consoles, the PS5 has become my favorite, so I was eager to see what Starfield was like on a different platform. I’m also fresh off completing another Bethesda Xbox game on PS5 — Indiana Jones and the Great Circle — so the timing was perfect. I was also eager to see what the Free Lanes update brought to the table. And I’m happy to say that after all these updates, this current iteration of Starfield puts it right up there with Bethesda’s best games.

What’s Included In Starfield Premium Edition On PS5

The Standard Edition of Starfield on PS5 is priced at a reasonable $49.99. If you’re interested in the Premium Edition, that’ll run you $69.99, but considering everything that’s included, it feels well worth the price of admission. The Premium Edition on PS5 includes the following:

• Starfield base game
• 1,000 Creation Credits
• Constellation Skin Pack
• Digital Artbook & Soundtrack
• Shattered Space Story Expansion
• Terran Armada Story Expansion

Terran Armada, the new expansion, costs $9.99 on its own, so paying the extra 20 bucks for all of the above is a pretty good deal, especially when you consider previous Xbox games like Indiana Jones and the Great Circle were $69.99 (without the DLC) when they first arrived on PlayStation.

Starfield Updates Have Turned It Into A New Experience

Custom Image by: Katarina Cimbaljevic

As with Cyberpunk 2077, a sci-fi RPG with another rocky launch, playing Starfield years after it released feels like a different experience. The updates and DLCs have added various improvements, including vastly more POIs thanks to the Free Lanes update. Space travel, which was one of my chief complaints with the game when it first debuted in 2023, has also been greatly improved.

If you haven’t given Starfield a try recently, then I definitely recommend doing so. The planets can still feel a bit too empty, and there are certainly times the controls feel clunkier than they should be, but many of my quibbles at launch have been fixed, and I expect you’ll find that yours have been too.

That’s not even mentioning the Shattered Space DLC or the Terran Armada expansion that launched alongside the Free Lanes update and Starfield‘s release on PS5. The Premium Edition of Starfield on PS5 comes with all of these updates and DLCs, and it’s no exaggeration to say it’ll keep you busy for 100+ hours if you want to experience it all.

So, yes, Starfield is a much better game than it was in 2023, even though I admittedly thought it was pretty darn good back then too. After spending a lot of time with Starfield on PS5, I’m also convinced this is the ideal way to play it, especially if you have a PS5 Pro. And even if you don’t, the game looks and runs amazing on a standard PS5 regardless.

How Does Starfield Run On PS5?

Starfield is fantastic on PS5, and I didn’t have any issues when playing. It runs great, controls great, and looks great. There’s a different menu now from the one I remember, which takes some getting used to, but that’s a small complaint. It’s also an extremely small price to pay for better travel, more varied POIs, and the other improvements the updates have provided.

The most immediate downside to playing Starfield on PS5 is that the game doesn’t support cross-saves. So, if you’re coming over from another system like I was, then you’ll have to start a new game. It’d been a while since I had played Starfield, so I didn’t mind starting fresh, but if you’ve amassed a lot of wealth (and invested a lot of time) on another platform, this may be a major deterrent to checking it out on PlayStation.

Overall, Starfield on PS5 doesn’t control too differently, or feel too differently, from how it looks and feels on other systems. If you played this on Xbox already, there’s nothing too foreign about how everything handles on PlayStation. At the end of the day, whether you purchase Starfield on PlayStation 5 or not will come down to whether this is the only way you can play the RPG, or whether you just have a personal preference for the PS5 in general.

I’m one of those people with a personal preference, so I’ve enjoyed my time with Starfield on PS5 so far. Will I Platinum the game the way I have most Bethesda titles on PlayStation? It’s a bit too early to tell (re: not my first time playing through it), but I am having a lot of fun so far. I’m still making my way through the base story right now, so I can’t speak too heavily on the Terran Armada expansion, but I’m looking forward to seeing it when I get there.

Is Starfield On PS5 Worth It?

The one question almost everyone will ask is “Is Starfield on PS5 worth it?” It’s a logical question, and it comes with a straightforward answer: Yes, it’s worth it, but only if you’ve never played it before.

If you’ve never played Starfield, its release on PS5 is an optimal way to experience it. If you’ve played Starfield previously, especially post-launch with its updates, then there’s no real reason to double-dip unless you’re just really dying to own it on a PlayStation system. That being said, it looks amazing on PS5 Pro, so that alone might be worth it to you.

Bethesda’s dedication to Starfield is to be applauded. After multiple updates and fixes, the RPG is better than it’s ever been. It’s still not perfect, but that’s arguably part of its charm. Now that the sci-fi RPG has finally come to PlayStation 5, it hopefully means a much wider audience can experience everything Starfield has to offer. And after this latest update and expansion, that’s actually a whole lot

Systems

Released

September 6, 2023

ESRB

M For Mature 17+ / Blood, Suggestive Themes, Use of Drugs, Strong Language, Violence, In-Game Purchases

Engine

proprietary engine