Starfield

I'm a big Bethesda whore so I knew what I was getting into with this one and enjoyed what I could of it. What I absolutely expected and tried to ignore were the constant bugs and glitches Bethesda has become known for from the Elder Scrolls days of olde. From soft locked missions where entities do not appear that are supposed to in order to progress the mission to not being able to complete a mission because the planet I was on started rioting on their own because I attacked someone by accident, it's a bit of a mess. Thankfully though the main story missions weren't buggy and I was able to see it thru to completion. Alas what I did rather enjoy was the wanderlust the game portrayed. Countless star systems to explore, interesting dialogue choices with numerous outcomes. The ability to persuade, bribe and manipulate your way in and out of scenarios. And even the dogfights, while stiff as they were at times, felt cool and a definite broader direction for Bethesda made open world games. It was basically Fallout/Skyrim in space and that's fine. A fresh yet familiar feeling all the more while having the freedom to pretty much progress and do as you please. The graphics looked crisp but it's too bad the performance was choppy and framerate suffered at times in the larger open world areas. And even while there's hundreds of planets to explore, most outside of a handful feel desolate and bland. I guess they could only do so much before exhausting creative designs of more and more worlds. The combat is pretty much Fallout gunplay with utilizing your various medical items to cure ailments caused by the places you visit like super cold worlds you may get frostbite whereas others may have a thin atmosphere and you may contract radiation poisoning. Your spacesuits that you obtain do help repel these specific afflictions as well but only for a time. The story itself is just okay and ends in a way that reminds me of the Interstellar movie a bit. I put about 50+ hours into it before I decided to call it quits and I felt I had my fill by then. Overall, if you're a fan of the Fallout and Elder Scrolls games like myself and are interested in playing that style of game whilst in a different setting that is pretty ambitious but in the end comes up a bit short in regards to other aspects like world building and still needing a digital exterminator for the amount of damn bugs present, then give this one a shot.

It has been 1 month and 26 days since the release of Starfield, and in that time, I have logged 6 days with a total of 144 hours, give or take.

Now after the debacle of Fallout 76 it was important that Bethesda had a win in a major way for this title, and with all the time I logged I can confidently say it's kinda better?... ya that's what I want to say better.

Oh, Bethesda, Bethesda. What happened to you? Why have you become so lazy and complacent?

I'll start with the good...

The game is pretty and has a lot of interesting things to look at and explore, good questlines (sometiems), and ya, you know there are guns and then space guns... and I can't keep up this charade.

Starfield is the biggest game with the most restrictions I have ever played! Soo many game mechanics and decisions are made in this game purely for the sake of wasting your time!

The story is boring, uninteresting, and dull, and the writing here is just as bad. Admittedly, some questlines were interesting, but everything always just led to "Is that it? Oh, ok." Then this games "ending" is the biggest slap in the face I've felt from a games conclusion. I would give details on it, but to avoid spoilers, all I'll say is completely unsatisfactory.

All this sucks because the game is actually fun. The gunplay, the guns, and the ships. I can't begin to describe how many hours I've spent building and customizing my ship.

But the games' starkingly surprising limitations hold back everything. Also please Bethesda PLEASE dump this engine! It's time to put it to rest.

Yet still, for some inexplicable reason, this game receives high praise and scores! How? Why? The game has the worst ui, maps, and downright stupid enemy npcs.

Character customization is good, but clothing is extremely limiting in variety. There's basically one style and almost no women's apparel. This leads to another complaint: Why is there like no fashion for women in this game? Even when I want to role-play going out with my companion wife, I can't dress her up because there's absolutely no style for women, and that lack of variety led into many of my other role-playing experiences.

Finally, I'll speak about characters. They are ok. They are all just not at all well written. Now if like me you choose to take on a female companion as a wife, then get ready to be criticized for almost every little thing you do or don't do! If you want to be a space pirate, then you'll be hated. Unless I was Mr. Perfect all the time, I would hear about it from Sarah. There is no companion who is like down for anything or everything. It's just another limitation and lack of variety in personalities.

I'm sure there are plenty of other mechanics and systems in this game I'm forgetting to mention, but honestly, I'm tired and a little disappointed to review this any further.

I really wanted to love this game being the massive Bethesda fan I am, but because of the games limitations, restrictions, lack of variety, and subpar writing, it detracts from the experience. Though even after all that, I can not deny the amount of fun I did have, and the game does contain that Bethesda charm, so for that, I can be a bit lenient. But Bethesda, you have used up the last of my good graces. You are better than this. You have done better, and you should do better. So please, please don't screw up Elder Scrolls VI.

Final score: 6/10 3/5

Played on Xbox Series X and PC.

Starfield is a jack-of-all-trades and a master of none. It desperately needs an editor to cut through all the idealistic but useless features to remind the developers that quality always trumps quantity. A rich world and fantastic side quests clash with an uninspired main quest and a plethora of performance issues that render the game's push for exploration anything but. It's a mix of the studio's Skyrim with the genre-defining Mass Effect series, but never quite satisfies those itches and leaves the player thinking of stronger experiences. I ran into a plethora of issues from glitches to outright crashes, spent an inordinate amount of time troubleshooting issues I shouldn't be worried about on console, and doing my best to accept that Bethesda doesn't seem to care to learn from lessons that have hurt them for decades.

While Starfield seems stuck between generations and intentions, it's still fun (frustrating fun, sure, but fun nonetheless). Its side quests shine and its crisp combat only gets better the more skills you unlock. Character creation and crafting your journey are both solid in design and execution, and the game does reward your investment. With all my criticism, I am excited for the universe's future and the undoubted refinements to come, but quality control needs a firmer, more moderate hand.

If you enjoy games like Skyrim and Fallout then you will enjoy Starfield. This game is NOT a Space simulator so don't expect to play have the game piloting your ship. Personally I prefer this but I have seen people not happy that this is the case. There is countless quests to go through. The main quests feel like only a small percentage of stories to go through. You can enjoy playing through all the different faction missions (Sort of like guilds in Skyrim) and sidequests. Building a ship is fun but I am not the artistic type so I just use the one you get from completing a set of sidequests.

This game starts off fun but continues to get more fun as you play through.

Sadly the creation engine really does feel stretched to its limits in this game and I hope Bethesda does some serious work under the hood for Elder Scrolls VI. Its not a bad game to play but certain parts could be improved.

Like entering certain buildings requires a loading screen (Like in skyrim). If GTA V can make this seamless then I don't see why a game 10 years newer cant.

Hit boxes or aiming are frustrating at times. You clearly have your sites lined up for the bullet to not hit the enemy.

Sometimes youll reload but because the animation wasn't complete even thou it looked finished it will cancel your reload but not restart so youll be running with a gun with 0 bullets in the chamber. Would be nice if it atleast started the reload again.

Everything and I mean everything is locked behind skill points. Some stuff makes sense but others just felt like it was there to boast a bigger skill tree. Like why is a boost pack a skill point? Boost pack upgrades yh but to use one???

Other then this I have been enjoying the game. I hope Bethesda officially adds DLSS, I found an un-official way to use it but this should just be a feature. And hopefully they make some optimizations aswell. The game randomly stutters for no reason. I also had it crash a couple times or completely glitch out. A few bugs on PC but nothing that made you wanna stop playing. If anything watching an enemy sling across the map upon death never gets old.

The scope and vision cannot be grander. And Starfield indeed looks grand from the first minutes. The various mechanics and systems built into the game, from spaceship building to planetary exploration, are truly amazing, enough to fill multiple decent games.

But that's where the positives end. Starfield produces almost no gel, either in the form of a good story or cohesive world building, to hold its different parts together. The grand scope becomes pointless and bleak when there is no narrative to drive it. The various mechanics do not talk to each other and start to feel redundant very early. The saddest thing is when you push yourself to invest in some of them and they are proven to be redundant by the end of the game.

Bethesda seems to think that just because it's the first universe in 20 years for Bethesda (it's Bethesda!), players will just stick around for hundreds and hundreds of hours until they eventually truly appreciate all that's built within this grand scope. That's hubris. I felt a tinge of nostalgia I completed the game. Then I immediately deleted it and all my saves. What a disappointment.