A Starfield modder is doing something Bethesda should have done: making pilotable mechs
Don't just stand on alien planets. Stomp on 'em.
One of the things I really don't get about Starfield is the whole mech situation. Mechs are everywhere. There's a bunch of lore about mechs being used in the Colony Wars that took place decades earlier. There are mechs you can look at in factories and junkyards and museums. There was even a shot of a player walking past a mech shown in one of Starfield's early gameplay trailers, and an animated trailer heavily featured them.
But you can't actually climb into a mech and pilot it in Starfield (explained in the lore as a ban on mechs since the end of the war). When it comes to mechs, Bethesda decided you can look but you can't touch. And you definitely can't ride. I guess my question is: why, tho?
The good news is a modder named Jared Kohr is doing something Bethesda probably should have done in the first place. Check out the video below of Kohr's mod in progress that will actually let you climb inside a towering mech and go for a stomp on the surface of a planet:
Even for an early test, it looks pretty good! The mech is extremely cool (the model is credited to another modder, m150) and it feels hefty and weighty as it walks, runs, and stomps around. The weapons systems look and sound great, too, though it occasionally appears as if the cannonfire isn't coming from the mech itself.
There's obviously a lot more to be done, like (hopefully) an adjustable third-person camera angle so you can see more than just a few dozen yards ahead. I'm also crossing my fingers for a first-person cockpit view with a sweet HUD and crosshair for those weapons. Finally, I'll be able to take on those terrormorphs without running away.
While you wait for that mech mod to be finished and released, be aware that Bethesda might be working on mechs, too. Late last year it teased some "all new ways of traveling" coming to Starfield as an update in 2024, and while that's a pretty vague statement it's possible it could include ground vehicles for planetary exploration.
My best guess is some sort of speeder bikes, but considering mechs are basically power armor but bigger, and the Fallout games are full of power armor, it seems like it wouldn't take all that much work for Bethesda to get mechs officially working in Starfield. Would it? We'll have to wait and see.