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.

Other than the faces of people (and a few bugs which most games have today unfortunately), this game is absolutely incredible. I'm almost 100 hours in and really feel as i'm just getting into the thick of it. There's is literally so much to do in this game and all of the environments are beautiful. I was a little disappointed when I found out that there wouldn't be as much in space (or "In the Starfield" as they call it in game) but the rest of the game definitely makes up for it. Maybe it's because I have been waiting for a game exactly like this forever, but it's definitely my new favorite game.

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.

Starfield is a typical Bethesda game which is fine for 10+ years ago. I wanted to like it... I still want to like it but I can't. I can't entirely place my finger on all the issues. I can tell you several of them. The world is large and empty... really empty. Like I know you were "trying for boring" so we could experience what space is like. Well... let me say it is a video game! It isn't real life. It isn't supposed to be. May be try for quality over quantity in the next game.

The game starts slow. I would love to say it gets better but for the most part it doesn't. When you finally get to the part that starts explaining everything, the game is pretty much over. Not to forget to mention (at least for me) that the game got super buggy. Like crash on load screens (and there are way to many of those) and frame rate issues. Oh my ship didn't render properly for half the game so every cut scene showed me floating through space or hovering down to the planet. Once again many many many many many load screens. (I under exaggerate.) Like I play the game while doing other thing there are so many load screens.

When it does come down to the action, it is ok as a first person shooter aside from the AI ammo passing through solid objects and I really like the dogfighting but good luck trying to dogfight on the regular. As a RPG I didn't feel it. I just kept getting the feeling that I'm not improving my character as much as I am being less punished if I can just get the next level and then the next level comes and you are still bored.

Like seriously who played the game to be a space pirate. That was sure on my list of things to do and then came the bounties. Steal a ship worth 14k (3k after registration... why yes I'm sorry let me register my my pirate ship) and then 45k in bounties for stealing it. Aww I see Bethesda make sure you drain all the fun out of it.

Then there is their morality standards... not sure what they are since I accrued fines for nothing multiple times through the game. Bounty system broken. Sneak system... is there a real one? Morality harping from story line character. (Hint Bethesda this is a role playing game. I play with different morality laws based on my role and you pulled me right out of role playing with your game.)

Don't get me wrong I put hours into the game with hopes that I would like it more but every time I started to think it was getting better the game just stopped me and was like 'NO'.

If you are a hardcore Bethesda fan then play the game. You might like it. If you didn't care for their previous work, run cause this is one of their worst so far considering how far technology and gaming have come. I played the game on game pass. I bought it for a month. I am glad I didn't buy the game. Don't. It is worth 1 month of game pass. Play it. Push through it if you can and drop it and forget about it like so many other are doing.

Oh Bethesda how far you have fallen or is it your Microsoft overlords? We may never know now.

(Based on Patch 1.8.86) Pros

• Art design suitable for the concept of space exploration.

• Exceptional soundtrack quality.

• Large volume of game.

• Fresh new type of new game plus mode.

• Large selections of weapons.

• Significantly improved game engine.

• A procedural generation system that operates more naturally than other games.

Cons

• Boring main quests
• Not a good AI
• An uncertain game concept that is neither a space opera with a rich story nor an adventure where exploration is the main goal.

• Awkward character animation.

• Still bad optimization and frequent stuttering.

Conclusion The game that sparked doubts about the future of Xbox.