Starfield’s combat is Bethesda’s best, because we finally said goodbye to VATS

I’ve spent the last 20 minutes exploring an abandoned research tower in Starfield. It was one of many structures I’ve discovered in my jaunt across this planet, and so far it’s given me more resources and delights than I can physically carry. A legendary helmet here, a whole stack of medkits there, and even a small amount of one metal I need for some research. I’m so happy plundering away that I completely miss a heavily armed Spacer Captain lurking on the top floor, equally minding their own business looking out at the view. I move too quickly, alert them and suddenly I’m under fire, while a nearby Spacer colleague trips the alarm and suddenly my mini-map is pulsating with red dots indicating there are far more Spacers yet to come. 

However, I’m delighted. Before long I’ve taken out half the Spacers with a combo of impressive shrapnel grenades and my trusty laser rifle, before switching to a Legendary Pistol I found just moments earlier. In Starfield, combat is fluid, slick, and some of the best gunplay I’ve had with a Bethesda title in years – and it’s all because there’s no VATS. 

Space wastelands

V.A.T.S. (or Vault-Tec Assisted Targeting System as it’s actually called) allows players to slow time and target individual body parts for additional damage in all the Fallout games. For me, it was always incredibly clunky, and completely took me out of the moment. Unless you opted to invest in the associated VATS perks, I was never sure just how effective it was compared to just going in FPS-style. If I take precise aim at someone’s legs or arms, I want it to feel meaningful. Maybe not to the lengths of Sniper Elite with its bullet cam slo-mos, but more akin to feeling that impact in something like Call of Duty or even Dead Island 2. 

Because Starfield just lets you be completely present in combat, it feels like a transformation. I’ve never been enamored by Bethesda Studios’ gun combat, but this feels every bit as slick as you’d hope. That’s particularly true when you take gravity into consideration, with some planets having you leap higher and farther thanks to reduced gravity, and some space stations featuring combat in completely zero-gravity. Weapons push you back here, and add an extra level to the immersion offered by Bethesda’s space sim. 

It also has a huge range of gun and ammo types, with plenty of options to upgrade and tailor combat to your particular playstyle. I’m certainly loving some of the designs too, like the Elemental Refined Soulstice, which looks like an overpowered toy in the best way and even has a little epaper display for its ammo count. 

Now, there was no concrete reason to think that VATS should feature as part of Starfield’s combat, as it is a distinctly Fallout mechanic, that hasn’t stopped some fans from hoping it would make an appearance. I’m sorry to say folks, that as far as I’ve found in my 50 odd-hours with the game, there’s no VATS here as one of the Starfield skills to unlock. If you want to be a naughty space explorer, you could go and buy the drug known as Aurora over in a city called Neon which lets you slow time during combat for bullet-time-style moments. However, as it’s highly illegal everywhere but Neon, you’re going to cause yourself some serious contraband problems in the process. Of course, that’s an option too. 

What Starfield does do though, is make use of a version of VATS for space combat. It’s a Tech skill you can unlock called Targeting Control Systems and like VATS it lets you target specific parts of a ship – whether that’s the individual weapons, or components like the engine. What’s interesting about that though is that it feels like it serves a greater purpose. Take out an enemy ship’s hyper drive and it can’t warp out of battle, or take out the engine and you’ll be able to jump aboard and take out everyone inside – particularly useful if you then want to take the ship for yourself, which is a particular joy in Starfield.