Year: 2023
Type: Original Soundtrack (OST)
Composer(s): Inon Zur
Number of tracks: 79

★★★★★

Charming dullness

A universe full of possibilities. Skyrim in space. The next big thing. Starfield has been given many attributes that the role-playing game can adorn itself with. And while some are enthusiastic about the unique NASA punk setting, excited about assembling spaceships and enjoying the great shooter gameplay, others are annoyed. Annoyed by constant loading times, vacant and boring planets and lackluster quests.

I myself have not yet been able to set foot in this universe, but after the mixed reviews and due to my huge pile of shame, I have no ambitions to do so in the near future. I'm not put off by it, but I'm not really hyped either. Maybe at some point, like with Cyberpunk 2077, which I haven't played yet either - which I hope to change soon.

A huge role-playing game in an even larger game world naturally requires a sufficiently extensive musical accompaniment. Inon Zur, who has been providing Bethesda games with his compositions since Fallout 3 , took on this colossal task. And this is exactly how the Starfield score sounds: like Starfield-Score: wie Fallout in space. Of course, this is somewhat exaggerated and unfairly abbreviated, but fragments that are reminiscent of Zur's work for Fallout 4 or Fallout 76 do in fact crop up again and again in the 80-track OST. With his drawn-out strings, wind instruments and occasional vocals, the Israeli-American strikes a similar chord, creating a feeling of both vastness and abandonment in the same way.

Unlike in the post-apocalypse, the positive tones and hope predominate in Starfield . The emptiness of space is not oppressive and frightening, or full of danger as in the Fallout-games. Although these also exist, they only play a minor role. No, instead it invites us to explore and takes us on a journey.The score is almost meditative for long stretches and is the direct counterpart to a thoroughly styled Mass Effect, in which almost every moment is choreographed. Not least due to the different game concepts, free space is the dominant motif here, which the music in turn generates with a lack of motifs.

On the one hand, this leads to the deceleration I have already described above, to this peaceful flow - but on the other hand, it is also somewhat ... boring. Which doesn't have to be a bad thing in an age in which a concept like boredom seems to have been forgotten as a result of permanent barrage of stimuli. For me, who feels like I'm looking for the next kick every second, listening to the score was an almost cathartic experience.

There is no rollercoaster of emotions here, no leap from highlight to highlight. The score of Starfield flows along at a leisurely pace, only occasionally interrupted by individual pieces or moments within the tracks that make us sit up and take notice. With a running time of 5.5 hours, it takes its time. Time to take a deep breath, time to look into the distance. So this album is not for a quick snack, but rather a long, drawn-out chill-out session with dessert and kicked-up legs - a quality that cannot be measured on my rating scale. But anyone looking forward to a feast of unique and rousing melodies à la The Elder Scrolls or Dragon Age will be disappointed when they close the airlock.

No.	Title	Artist(s)	Ratings
01	Into the Starfield	Inon Zur	4
02	Planetrise	Inon Zur	4
03	Go Steady, Go Safe	Inon Zur	1
04	Fleet Scum	Inon Zur	3
05	First Flight	Inon Zur	3
06	The Sol System	Inon Zur	3
07	New Atlantis	Inon Zur	2
08	Peaks and Valleys	Inon Zur	4
09	Starlight Far from Home	Inon Zur	2
10	Fine Work Under Pressure	Inon Zur	1
11	Navigator Corps	Inon Zur	2
12	The Safety of the Citizens	Inon Zur	3
13	The Mountain Builders	Inon Zur	3
14	Triumvirate	Inon Zur	3
15	Ancient Forces	Inon Zur	4
16	Exploration I - Home Planets	Inon Zur	2
17	Constellations	Inon Zur	3
18	Akila City	Inon Zur	3
19	Freestar	Inon Zur	2
20	The Red Land	Inon Zur	2
21	You Make Your Cut, You Get Your Cut	Inon Zur	3
22	Cutthroats	Inon Zur	3
23	The Eye	Inon Zur	2
24	Long Shadows	Inon Zur	3
25	A Home Among the Stars	Inon Zur	2
26	Field of Vision	Inon Zur	3
27	Within the Walls	Inon Zur	2
28	Deep Time	Inon Zur	2
29	The New Old Frontier	Inon Zur	3
30	The Rock	Inon Zur	2
31	The World Machine	Inon Zur	3
32	Exploration II - The Hills and the Mountains	Inon Zur	3
33	Protector	Inon Zur	2
34	The Last Explorers	Inon Zur	2
35	Field Agent	Inon Zur	2
36	In Silent Orbit	Inon Zur	2
37	Cydonia	Inon Zur	2
38	Trace	Inon Zur	2
39	Tectonics	Inon Zur	3
40	Dispatched	Inon Zur	2
41	Sublevels	Inon Zur	2
42	Hardness Scales	Inon Zur	1
43	Heliosphere	Inon Zur	2
44	Death and Crimson	Inon Zur	4
45	Abandoned	Inon Zur	2
46	Chamber	Inon Zur	2
47	Supra Et Ultra	Inon Zur	2
48	Echo Marker	Inon Zur	3
49	Exploration III - Explorers Club	Inon Zur	2
50	Defender	Inon Zur	2
51	Weapons to Bear	Inon Zur	5
52	The Ghosts of Science	Inon Zur	2
53	Ecliptic	Inon Zur	3
54	Decay Heat	Inon Zur	4
55	Neon	Inon Zur	3
56	Rook	Inon Zur	3
57	Exploration IV - Vulcanism	Inon Zur	2
58	Core Sample	Inon Zur	3
59	Tenacity of Life	Inon Zur	4
60	Wrecked Tech	Inon Zur	3
61	Canopy	Inon Zur	3
62	Spacers	Inon Zur	3
63	Understory	Inon Zur	3
64	Exploration V - Evergreen	Inon Zur	3
65	Guardian	Inon Zur	3
66	Stars and Sacrifice	Inon Zur	4
67	Under a Distant Sun	Inon Zur	3
68	Roughneck High-Tech	Inon Zur	3
69	Badlanders	Inon Zur	3
70	Exploration VI - Strange Sands	Inon Zur	2
71	Moonbase	Inon Zur	2
72	Boarded!	Inon Zur	3
73	Snowball	Inon Zur	3
74	Aurora	Inon Zur	2
75	Deep Freeze	Inon Zur	3
76	Exploration VII - The Ice Lands	Inon Zur	2
77	Nobody's Home	Inon Zur	3
78	Exploration VIII - The Far Reaches	Inon Zur	1
79	A Home in the Galaxy	Inon Zur	4