When Starfield was revealed to be a sci-fi game where you would be free to explore hundreds of planets, it raised a lot of questions. Similar statements had been made about No Man's Sky, which caused some players to attempt to make comparisons between the two space-exploration RPGs. While there are some comparisons to be made, the two are actually quite different, especially when it comes to how you will travel between planets. Here's how Starfield handles landing on planets.
How to land on a planet
While you might initially assume you can simply fly directly at a planet and touch down on it wherever you like, that isn't the case. Starfield doesn't let you go from space into atmosphere seamlessly, but instead uses loading screens.
Step 1: Set a course or select the planet you want to land on from the map.
Step 2: Choose either one of the marked locations on it, or choose any available spot on the surface you want to explore or build an outpost on.
Step 3: Press and hold the Land button prompt.
Step 4: A short cutscene will play showing your ship touch down on the planet's surface.
It is somewhat disappointing that you can't freely fly your ship to or from planets, but instead need to use menus to enter and exit them, however, that probably would be too much of a technical hurdle for Starfield to handle along with everything else it is trying to do. Perhaps a mod will one day allow something like this, but for now, this is how you need to do it.
