The following contains major spoilers for Starfield on PC and Xbox Series X|S.
Bethesda promised to deliver a highly customizable experience in Starfield. They made good on that promise not only by granting players an unprecedented level of freedom to explore the cosmos but also by placing a significant emphasis on player choice throughout the game’s narrative. The main story mission “High Price to Pay,” for example, requires players to choose which companions to defend, while another main mission presents a more challenging ethical dilemma.
Rhetorically speaking, ethical dilemmas are situations in which two conflicting ethical requirements are presented, and a decision must be made that will unavoidably compromise a moral principle. In a true ethical dilemma, it is impossible to justify one choice over the other, as neither choice is ethically or morally acceptable. Another of Starfield‘s main missions, “Entangled,” presents an ethical dilemma known as the “trolley problem” in which players must make a very difficult choice that will permanently change the game’s world and the people in it.
The Trolley Problem Is a Classic Ethical Dilemma
A runaway trolley is barreling toward five people who are tied up on the tracks and unable to move. The collision will undoubtedly kill them all if the trolley isn’t diverted in time. A bystander notices the trolley and happens to be standing near a lever that can alter its course. However, while diverting the trolley will save the five people, it will still kill one innocent person who is tied to the track the trolley will be diverted to. Either the bystander can do nothing and the trolley will kill five people, or they can pull the lever and the trolley will only kill one person. Which choice is ethically sound? Which is the right choice to make? This is the trolley problem.
The trolley problem was created in 1967 by a philosopher named Philippa Foot as part of an analysis of the abortion debate and the principle of double effect, which explores and explains whether it is permissible to cause harm in order to bring about good. The problem has been used in numerous experiments since it was created, and in most of those experiments, the participants chose not to pull the lever. It seems most would rather let fate decide who is killed than be the one to choose. Unfortunately, Starfield players are forced to make a similar choice during the main mission “Entangled,” regardless of whether they want to.
Starfield’s “Entangled” Mission Presents Players With a Version of the Trolley Problem
The “Entangled” main mission is one of the last missions in Starfield, and it is also one of the most creative in terms of overall design. On their way to retrieve another Artifact, players will receive a distress signal from the satellite orbiting Freya III in the Freya System. An unfamiliar voice cuts in and out, saying that there’s been an explosion in the High Energy Research Lab of the Nishina Research Station, and players are tasked with landing on the planet in order to respond to the distress call.
Upon reaching the research station and approaching the door, players are greeted by Ethan Hughes, the Chief of Security for Nishina, through an intercom. The brief conversation reveals that Nishina never sent a distress signal, but Ethan agrees to open the door once he hears that the distress signal mentioned something about an explosion in their High Energy Research Lab. He suggests players speak with the Director, and they are free to proceed inside.
After passing a security scan, players can then speak with Hughes directly, who agrees to lead them to the Director. As they are making their way through Nishina’s storage area, players are suddenly transported to another instance of the research station—one that appears to be overrun by some type of fungus covering the floor, walls, and ceiling. Out of the ground come vicious Cataxi, giant scorpions who can put up quite a fight.
In the middle of the battle with the Cataxi, players are then transported back to the Nishina they were in from the beginning, and an excited Hughes is seen standing in front of them, in complete shock about what just happened. Once he calms down, he continues to lead players to the Director until they are once again transported to the alternate Nishina, where they meet a lone and scared NPC named Rafael.
It turns out that Rafael was calibrating an experiment in Nishina’s High Energy Research Lab three months prior when there was an explosion. That explosion caused a gas leak, which sparked a fire, and Rafael could do nothing about it because he was trapped in the control room. The fire wound up killing everyone else at the station, including Ethan Hughes, whom the player had just been speaking with moments before meeting Rafael. It becomes clear at this point that players have been hopping between two different universes inside the research station.
Just as Rafael is beginning to explain a possible reason for this “distortion” between universes, players are transported back to the original Nishina, and Hughes continues to lead them to the Director. Finally, they reach the Director and tell her about this other universe where Rafael seems to have survived a devastating fire. The Director mentions that Rafael “died in the accident” in their universe.
What To Choose In “Entangled?”
The Nishina Research Lab was built around a xenolith in order to study a gravitational distortion. Three months ago, Rafael was calibrating an experimental probe when there was a series of explosions that ended up killing him. However, the probe is still running, which Rafael says is feeding the distortion. In order to end the distortion, the probe at the research level will have to be manually shut off. Players are then tasked with making their way down to the research level while hopping between universes using a Probe Control Unit, which allows them to control the probe digitally. Unfortunately, there’s a catch to all this.
Players soon learn that ending the distortion while in one universe will cause them to permanently remain in that universe. The question is, what happens to the other universe once this decision is made? On the one hand, they are two entirely different universes. However, choosing the universe where Rafael survived would, in a way, kill everyone at the research station. In the same way, choosing the universe where Rafael died would save everyone at the research station. But this would all only happen in the player’s universe.
This is the trolley problem. Should players choose the universe with Rafael alone? Or should they choose the one without him but with thirty people, all with families, careers, and futures ahead of them? While both universes might go on to exist, one of them will cease to exist in the player’s reality, making them solely responsible for either keeping one man or thirty people alive in their universe. The Director suggests saving Rafael, as he needs help more than they do, but is that the more ethical choice?
While the quantum mechanics of it all certainly leave a lot of questions unanswered, this choice ultimately comes down to who players want to remain in their universe. As the Director said, it could be argued that the obvious choice is Rafael, assuming everyone in her universe would still survive, only in another universe. However, the universe players choose is, in fact, their universe, and as people have died in both universes, players are not only choosing who lives but also who dies.