Starfield Rating Teases Aliens and Fast-Paced Combat

After Starfield's condensed ESRB rating surfaced not long ago, the full description from the ratings board has now been revealed. Language, suggestive themes, and violent combat are a few different things cautioned by the ESRB with a brief summarization of the game teasing some of the aliens and other creatures we've seen previewed through some of the past gameplay reveals. Starfield itself is scheduled to come to the Xbox and PC platforms on September 6th, but we'll see much more of it before then when the game is shown off during an upcoming showcase this summer.

In line with other Bethesda games, Starfield will give players all kinds of ways to attack and defend themselves against equally varied creatures like aliens and other creatures, the ESRB rating said.

"This is an open-world role-playing game in which players assume the role of a miner tasked with finding Artifacts across the galaxy. From first-/third-person perspectives, players interact with various characters, complete quests, and search for supplies while battling enemies (e.g., humans, robots, alien creatures). Players use futuristic guns, lasers, axes, and explosives to kill enemies. Combat is fast-paced, with frequent gunfire, cries of pain, and explosions."

Ratings for the game have popped up elsewhere in the past and have talked about different reasonings for the game's Mature rating it earned with drug use being one of the justifiers. The ESRB's rating shares a bit more on this and says that players can buy, sell, and use a fictional drug called "Aurora." This idea of unique in-game drugs have been present in other Bethesda games like Skooma in Elder Scrolls and Jet in Fallout, so it shouldn't be surprising that Starfield incorporates things like that as well.

"A fictional drug (Aurora) is prominent in the game, with a section involving players' characters working in an illicit drug lab; players can also obtain Aurora by stealing or buying it from vendors (consuming Aurora results in a distortion effect on the screen)," the ESRB rating says.

The same rating also talks about post-sex dialogue heard "after sharing a bed with characters," though we know from previous ratings that the game doesn't actually have sex in it, so it'd seem that part is just implied.

You can read through the full rating for Starfield here.