Gamers Are Massively Praising Starfield After the Release of Free Lanes Update

A few days ago, PlayStation 5 users finally received an opportunity to play Starfield on their beloved platforms, 2.5 years after its original release on PC and Xbox Series X/S. However, more importantly, Bethesda Game Studios also released the Free Lanes update—the biggest update for Starfield so far, which significantly improved the game.

Before the launch of Starfield on PlayStation 5 and Free Lanes release, Bethesda revealed in the blog what new features players should expect on April 7. One of the best features is Cruise Mode, which allows players to travel between star systems without fast travel, exploring the cosmos and encountering random events during their ways. There is also the possibility of autopilot mode, during which you can do other stuff on the ship. More praised reviews about Free Lanes update to Starfield you can check out from some Reddit below:

RealDakJackal:

“Now that you can cruise a star system and not fast travel everywhere, it’s much less of a chore and more engaging. The random encounters are cool. You can set the auto pilot and walk away from the helm and talk to your crew, do game stuff, do dad stuff or do dishes. POI’s seem better (I tend to stay in space unless I need ammo anyway). Starting to feel like a solid Bethesda title and it’s good to be back. Overall, the experience is significantly improved. Well done Bethesda crew.

Edit: Nice job coinciding with the Artemis mission. Humanity is going back to the moon! Super cool.”

Poopscoop231:

“Did a new game plus and doing the old neighborhood quest with free lanes was honestly amazing, didn’t open a single menu.

Also in the accessibility settings you can enable landing animation every time you land now so thats also a game changer. One less mod to download lol

How yall feeling about the update”

Excellent-Court-9375:

“Cruise mode really isn't that special nor game changing to me, but the fact that POI repetition is practically gone has actually made exploring fun and worthwhile.

I'm barely using cruise mode and I dont really see the appeal of it to be honest, but I am really happy with the rest of the update.”

Dorirter:

“Yesterday and today I played a lot Starfield with a brand new character.

Well I play it anyway very often, I have about 800 hours now. So apparently the game was good enough for me as it was. I expected cruise mode and a few more POIs to be a small nice-to-have. I am a quest and photo mode player, after all.

So here's why the update made me really happy.

Cruise Mode

After the last 15 hours I have to say... I will never fly without cruise mode again. There are some Quality of Life things they could improve, but these are minor annoyances compared to how it changed the game for me.

Prior to Free Lanes, I was already flying around. Sort of. I used the scanner to select planets and moons, to avoid the map, but as the actual flight was just skipped with a cut scene, a system was explored very quickly and it felt not very rewarding. I also often ignored the random encounters which showed up on the map.

Now with Free Lanes, it... feels a bit like Elder Scrolls where I want to do A, but suddenly get distracted by B, C and D around the corner.

Example: in all the 800 hours I have I rarely responded to Alban Lopez' distress call. Today, I was suddenly thrown into that quest. I was in the Olympus system, just cruising around, and when I ended at my current destination, I was in a fight between UC, Spacers, Crimson Fleet and 3 LIST ships near a space station. It was pretty intense, and only after the battle I realized that I was suddenly in the Alban Lopez quest which I always avoided. (The quest played out a bit shorter than I remember. The part with neeting Alban on the planet and repairing the satellites was skipped entirely, because I stumbled into the already ongoing battle.)

So cruise mode lets me experience stuff in a much more natural way.

It also invokes a feeling of the spatiality of space. Of the relations and the distances. So space finally gets a meaning.

2. POIs

In the same system, on Nesoi, I saw POIs I never saw before. Nothing big, but in their combination they formed a story in my head. First, I stumbled upon a wreck of a crashed food transport. Just a few kilometers away, there was a bigger and very atmospheric 'scattered wreck' of a crashed pirate ship. So my mind combined both random POIs to environmental storytelling: surely both ships had a battle in orbit, and both crashed during that battle. Maybe the pirates first killed the transport but then were destroyed by UC.

3. The landing animations

Such a small feature, but so important. If I can't land by myself, I want to see my ship land, to have some connection between space and planets. Also I hated it when you spawn in front of the ship, maybe without space suit. Finally this is fixed.

4. Other small things

It seems they changed the loot tables - I find cool stuff now all the time. Even in space battles. I also like the small robot, it's cute.

So... that's it. (I was even pondering of calling this thread ironically "Todd lied again! It IS a 2.0!" but YMMV, so I just keep it at "for me, the update is very welcome")”

As you can see, players are really satisfied with Free Lanes update, and Bethesda confirmed the studio will continue to support Starfield in the future, as developers have a lot of ideas for the future DLCs.

Are you excited for Starfield’s recent update, Free Lanes? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

Free Lanes update for Starfield is currently available on PC, Xbox Series X/S, and PlayStation 5.