Mako-like vehicles in Starfield were not part of the game’s vision

You might not like that Starfield doesn’t have any ground vehicles, but Bethesda’s Todd Howard has said that this is by design.

In a game like Starfield, where you can practically explore the entirety of each of its 1000 plus planets, there might be some vehicles like a car or a dune buggy you can use to get around. That isn’t the case, though, leaving you to either hoof it, or fly about with your jetpack. But it’s not like this is some glaring omission Bethesda made. In fact it was quite a conscious decision, as explained by Howard in a recent interview with Bloomberg.

“It’s something we consider,” Howard said when asked by Bloomberg where there are no ground vehicles to be found. “Once you do vehicles it does change the gameplay. So by focusing, once you land in your ship, that you’re on foot, it lets us really for the players make it an experience where we know how fast they’re seeing things.” Howard did also offer a sort of “um actually,” kind of point as well, going on to say, “in one sense, you do have a vehicle. You have your spaceship, you can go around space. On the surface you have a jetpack you can upgrade which is super fun.”

A lot of players really do wish the game had land vehicles, as evidenced by some of the discussions being had on Reddit. Others have even asked if something like the Mako from Mass Effect could be introduced, which while known for its jankiness, was still something people really loved.

Of course, it’s always possible that Bethesda could go back on its choice and introduce land vehicles in an update or some DLC somewhere down the line. For now, though, you’ll just have to rely on that jetpack.

In the same interview with Bloomberg, Howard was also asked why Starfield hasn’t been optimised for PC. His response? “You may need to upgrade” your rig.