Does Starfield Have Magic?

Starfield is here, and it’s incredible. The amount of personalization you can add to your experience, the depth of exploration, and the flexibility of combat make this feel like Bethesda’s next potential mega-hit like Skyrim. But it’s a new IP, and with that comes questions, such as whether there will be references to other games, and whether it’ll still retain the feel of previous Bethesda RPGs. For Elder Scrolls enthusiasts, people might be wondering, does Starfield have magic?

Will Magic Be in Starfield?

Given the theme of NASA-punk as its aesthetic, Starfield doesn’t have magic in a traditional sense, but it does have gravity-based powers. You’ll acquire these powers from various temples after acquiring corresponding artifacts in the main quest. The powers include dashing, creating O2 fields around yourself, gravity manipulation, and even concentrated energy blasts.

Related: Starfield’s Overhauled Animations Make Combat Satisfyingly Smooth

Meanwhile, skills you can develop in Starfield that are similar to magic include things featured in the recent Starfield Direct such as Xenosociology.

While it ostensibly means you’re able to communicate with and control alien creatures not unlike a beast master role, it also is pushed as a sort of mind-control ability you can use in the wild. Starfield seems to settle on a more grounded take compared to other Bethesda mainstays like The Elder Scrolls.

That’s not to say the game won’t have magic realism or magical elements to either its story or tucked away in its 1000+ worlds. But it seems to be a sort of plucky, quasi-realistic sci-fi complement to the fantasy world of The Elder Scrolls and the mutated, irradiated wastelands in Fallout.

There could easily be easter eggs, bizarre alien artifacts, or other mysteries, but until we sink our teeth into the game, that part is mild speculation. But perhaps it’s a trick question, and maybe what we should be asking is, “Is the magic we’re wanting, the experience of Starfield itself?”