Starfield Review Thread
Starfield Review Thread
Game Information
Game Title: Starfield
Platforms:
- PC (Sep 6, 2023)
- Xbox Series X/S (Sep 6, 2023)
Trailers:
- Starfield – Official Live Action Trailer
- Starfield Official Gameplay Trailer
- Starfield Direct – Gameplay Deep Dive
- Starfield: Official Launch Date Announcement
- Starfield: Official Gameplay Reveal
- Starfield: Official Teaser Trailer
- Starfield – Official Announcement Teaser
Publisher: Bethesda Softworks
Review Aggregator:
OpenCritic - 87 average - 93% recommended - 76 reviews
Critic Reviews
ACG - Jeremy Penter - Buy
"A huge game with excellent performance and very few bugs that lives up to MOST of the strengths of Beth games. A bit disjointed, but even after 140 hours I am still playing."
Arabhardware - Ahmed Yousry - Arabic - 10 / 10
Starfield is one of the best RPGs in gaming history. A love letter from Bethesda and Todd Howard to their fans who have been waiting for a new title for over 25 years. It's the perfect result of the studio's 30 years of experience, and the beginning of a new era for Xbox.
Attack of the Fanboy - J.R. Waugh - 5 / 5
Starfield is the most potent value proposition for Game Pass, being the killer app for the subscription service. It is also the best, most ambitious game in the Xbox Game Studios library to date. It would not be a stretch to say this could be one of the most ambitious games ever made, and that it followed through with many of those goals with relatively low compromise.
BossLevelGamer - Dayna Eileen - 9 / 10
Starfield is a game that will have players sinking hundreds of hours into it. There are some Bethesda touches that need to be forgiven, and some interesting end game options, but ultimately, it is a game that brings something to the table for every kind of player.
But Why Tho? - Mick Abrahamson - 9 / 10
Starfield is Bethesda firing on all cylinders.
CGMagazine - Steven Green - 9.5 / 10
Despite its occasional bug, unexplained mechanic, or small gripe, Starfield is one of the premiere titles in Xbox's library and adds to Bethesda's storied history.
COGconnected - Oliver Ferguson - 90 / 100
Starfield is Bethesda’s most polished game yet. It has a ton to do but falls flat on the exploration aspect. Without vehicles, walking around planets is not an efficient way to travel. The story is fantastic however and the game is visually stunning. It’s a unique experience you shouldn’t miss out on.
Checkpoint Gaming - Elliot Attard - 9 / 10
Starfield may not be the seamless and faultless persistent open world some may be craving. Though what it does provide is still certainly worthy of elation. Give the title some time to warm up and you'll uncover a vastly refined and picturesque journey of otherworldly proportions. A game of size, scope, and quality all wrapped into one-the beauty of discovery is but a warp drive away.
Cinelinx - Caleb Gayle - 5 / 5
Starfield takes you on a journey of creation, wonder, mystery, and storytelling like never before. Once you start playing, you'll be hooked and may find it hard to tear yourself away from the game.
ComicBook.com - Tanner Dedmon - 4 / 5
My opinion of Starfield is overall high despite what my many criticisms might suggest. It's a Bethesda RPG, and even Bethesda's middling options blow competitors out of the water when it comes to choice and freedom, so Starfield was always going to be a success. Whether it's enough of a success to uplift Xbox and make someone buy a new console is another discussion, but Starfield itself is perfectly competent and – dare I say it – fun, and even the most frustrating moments were unable to deter me from wanting more
Console Creatures - Bobby Pashalidis - Recommended
Starfield is a technical marvel for Bethesda, delivering an excellent adventure across the cosmos. It's polished, filled with personality and feels familiar but entirely new at the same time.
Destructoid - Steven Mills - 10 / 10
I wasn’t sure if it could be done, but Bethesda has managed to raise the bar for sandbox games even higher. In the end, Starfield is an epic sandbox open-world RPG with a beautifully immersive universe, a captivating story, and fun and compelling gameplay the whole way. I’m so happy to have experienced Starfield organically, and I really hope you get to as well.
Digital Chumps - Will Silberman - 9.5 / 10
Starfield changes the RPG game by adding a slow burn of a main quest alongside a character management system that keeps players' power in check. It's nearly perfect, and I can't wait to spend another chunk of my life playing another excellent Bethesda RPG.
Digital Trends - Giovanni Colantonio - 3.5 / 5
Starfield isn’t the generation-defining video game that overeager fans might be expecting; it’s a fairly typical, though impressively constructed Bethesda RPG where depth and stability often come at the expense of scope. The surprisingly limited base adventure isn’t so much the draw here, though. The enormous intergalactic playground feels custom-made for modders who want to explore the infinite possibilities of space just as much as Constellation and Bethesda itself.
Fextralife - Fexelea - 9.4 / 10
Starfield is a compelling and engaging interstellar adventure that successfully blends core RPG mechanics with open world exploration and deep questing. A complete delight from start to finish and an instant classic for any gamer that enjoys Sci Fi and is ready for adventure.
GAMES.CH - Joel Kogler - German - 90%
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Game Informer - Matt Miller - 8.5 / 10
Go in with the expectation that it will take some time to find your footing in such a vast gameplay space, and there’s a universe well worth discovering here.
Game Rant - Dalton Cooper - 5 / 5
Starfield delivers on everything it promised and then some.
GameSpot - Michael Higham - 7 / 10
Bethesda's spacefaring adventure has its moments with impressive scale, satisfying combat, and some worthwhile side quests, but its shallow RPG systems and uninspired vision of the cosmos make for a journey that's a mile wide, but an inch deep.
Starfield is a true system seller. More than a game, it's an epic poem. An extremely rich and generous adventure that surprises you every time and when you least expect it. It is by far the most ambitious Bethesda's game and one of the boldest games of the last few years. For sure, Starfield will go down in the history of video games.
Gamepressure - Giancarlo Saldana - 9.5 / 10
With hundreds of hours of gameplay, various quests to complete, and thousands of planets to survey and explore, Starfield capitalizes on everything that has worked for Bethesda in the past, giving us an experience that feels like a giant leap in greatness.
Gamepur - Zackerie Fairfax - 10 / 10
I had plans going into Starfield. I thought I knew how I was going to play. But like a solar flare to a ship, Bethesda’s masterpiece of a space RPG knocked me into a black hole where hours feel like minutes, and any attempt to escape its intoxicating grasp is futile. I got lost in space, and it felt so good.
Starfield is THE space game. There’s no reason to play any others, at least not any currently available. It’s an experience made even more enticing as the game will be available on Game Pass from day one and forever. With modders supposedly able to craft entire planets, it’s likely Starfield will dominate the space RPG genre for years and years to come.
Gamersky - 心灵奇兵 - Chinese - 9 / 10
Starfield is a masterpiece that unites the creativity and experience that Bethesda has built up over the years. Even after hundreds of hours of play, there is still fresh content waiting to be discovered. Just as TESV and Fallout 4 still have players making modules and discussing details, I believe that ten years from now, there will still be a large number of players who will be travelling in the universe created by Starfield.
GamesHub - Edmond Tran - 4 / 5
It's the static and mechanical elements of Starfield that shine the brightest – the art, the environments, the combat systems. They make up the strong foundations of a playset with a very intriguing scenario. But you need to mentally meet Starfield partway to complete its vision of a vast, living universe. You need to stretch out the expanse and envision the journey. You need to look past the menus and form the fantasy. You need to help breathe life into its paper dolls. You need to add your own dash of wonder, and imagine your own unknowns. Truly, Starfield is a role-playing game, through and through.
GamesRadar+ - Leon Hurley - 5 / 5
With this kind of freedom 'avoiding the main mission' is the main mission.
Gaming Age - Dustin Chadwell - A-
Starfield is, overall, a very good RPG from a studio known for making very good RPGs. Not the most surprising news I’m sure, but it’s nice to see that they’re able to break away from the Elder Scrolls and Fallout settings successfully, and I do feel like their take on space exploration is a breath of fresh air for this type of RPG experience. It’s a huge game overall, so if you’re the person that believes time played = value, you’ll be pretty happy with this one for sure, but at the same time if you’re worried about overall quality, I think you’ll still enjoy your time with Starfield.
Gaming Nexus - Eric Hauter - 9.5 / 10
When they are firing on all cylinders, Bethesda games deliver pure video game magic, and Starfield is no exception. Offering an enormous galaxy to explore, a ludicrous wealth of interesting content, well-written characters, and innovative mechanics that push the genre in new directions, Starfield is a (mostly) clean experience at launch that should be experienced by all action/RPG fans. This is a new classic.
GamingBolt - Shubhankar Parijat - 10 / 10
As unfathomably vast and boundless as the subject matter it covers, Starfield raises the bar for its genre and for the medium as a whole in countless ways - much like the best of its Bethesda-developed forebears did in their time.
GamingTrend - David Burdette, David Flynn, Ron Burke - 90 / 100
Bethesda Game Studios has reached new heights in Starfield. A thrilling narrative, loaded with an entire universe to explore and backed by sublimely polished systems, has ushered in the ultimate Bethesda experience. It's truly hard to summarize just what makes Starfield special, and that's because so much of it is. You'll be glued to your screen for hours, going where no explorer has gone before.
Hardcore Gamer - Adam Beck - 4 / 5
Starfield is a momentous RPG, even if it doesn't quite deliver in all its areas.
Hey Poor Player - Andrew Thornton - 5 / 5
Starfield isn’t a perfect game. No game is. That said, for a game to have this much ambition and actually pull off almost everything it set out to accomplish is a remarkable achievement. I haven’t even talked about some of the game’s most interesting elements, such as how it approaches New Game+, which I can’t wait for more players to see. Starfield is a triumph that I’m confident players will be exploring for years to come, not only because it will remain incredibly compelling but because it will take that long to see anywhere near everything it has to offer.
IGN - Dan Stapleton - 7 / 10
Starfield has a lot of forces working against it, but eventually the allure of its expansive roleplaying quests and respectable combat make its gravitational pull difficult to resist.
All in all, Starfield stands as a testament to Bethesda's creative prowess and dedication. It has succeeded in crafting an immersive universe that encapsulates the spirit of exploration and adventure. With its captivating storyline, refined mechanics, and attention to detail, Starfield beckons players to venture into the cosmos and experience a journey that will likely resonate for years to come.
Kakuchopurei - Lewis Larcombe - 100 / 100
Ultimately, Starfield not only marks the beginning of a new Bethesda universe but also stands as a testament to the studio's ability to adapt its RPG mastery to a spacefaring epic. As players traverse the cosmos and uncover the mysteries it holds, Starfield promises to provide countless hours of immersive gameplay, solidifying its place among Bethesda's iconic RPG titles. It truly delivers on all fronts.
Merlin'in Kazanı - Ersin Kılıç - Turkish - 83 / 100
Starfield is a game that you'll play for long hours, you'll be frustrated by the limitations from time to time, but for the most part you'll enjoy it just as big as the game itself.
MondoXbox - Giuseppe Genga - Italian - 9.7 / 10
Starfield can be summed up in one word: immense. Immense for the quantity and quality of stories it delivers, immense for the number of different activities it makes possible, immense like the galaxy it allows us to explore. Bethesda's new RPG will make you live a great sci-fi adventure, exploring hundreds of planets, admiring beautiful sceneries, and granting you many emotions, all at your own pace and making you live the adventure the way you want. If you are fascinated by space exploration and love narrative-focused experiences, this is an absolute must-have.
MonsterVine - Joe Bariso - 4.5 / 5
Starfield is a Bethesda game pushed to the absolute limits, it's a good thing that Bethesda is still the very best at what they do.
Multiplayer First - James Lara - 9 / 10
It has everything you’d want from a Bethesda game: a deep and prosperous universe filled with endless possibilities and limitless potential. Be who you want to be, go where you want to go; your freedom is in your hands, and what you do with it is entirely up to you in Starfield.
Noisy Pixel - Azario Lopez - 8 / 10
Starfield is a true space adventure that only Bethesda can deliver. It's an experience catered to the fans of large expansive RPG narratives, but this one takes it a step further to stretch across an entire universe. There are minor systems and menus that cause confusion, and the lack of real tutorials paired with a flimsy opening holds back the opening hours. Still, the experience is undeniably memorable, and the writing for NPCs makes up the best moments. Although the many systems can be overwhelming, this is a game full of discovery for all who play.
Starfield is arguably the most important Xbox release in a long while, and it delivers an impactful experience that Bethesda fans have been waiting for. Despite a few dated mechanics and systems, it's a relatively polished release compared to their usual offerings, and that alone is a massive achievement.
I had hoped to see Starfield as a great step towards an evolution in the Bethesda formula, but sadly, this isn't the case. Starfield is, most likely, what you would expect it to be, and while that's good enough for fans, it does miss out on the opportunity to take that next step.
Oyungezer Online - Sabri Erkan Sabanci - Turkish - 9 / 10
This game became my Skyrim. Even though I've finished the game and seen a lot of things, there are still a lot of quests I want to do, a lot of planets I want to explore, a lot of people I want to meet. If you like science fiction, I'm almost sure you'll agree with me.
PC Gamer - Christopher Livingston - 75 / 100
Starfield shares plenty of DNA with Skyrim and Fallout 4, but ultimately falls short of both.
Starfield is a true behemoth of an RPG, and in many ways it's the logical endpoint of Bethesda Game Studios' well-worn formula. However, its massive scope pushes this formula to the absolute limit and the cracks begin to show, from feature creep to the stop-start nature of its exploration. Dedicated Bethesda fans are sure to get their fill, but this interstellar adventure never leaves the atmosphere.
Paste Magazine - Garrett Martin - 5 / 10
Playing Starfield makes me want to play games that explore space and games that were made by Bethesda, but it doesn’t make me want to play Starfield. It tries to give us the universe, but it’s so weighed down by its own ambitions and a fundamental lack of inspiration that it can’t even get into orbit.
Pixel Arts - Reza Modaresi - Persian - 10 / 10
Starfield surpasses all expectations from Bethesda and then some. It's a sprawling, captivating masterpiece brimming with intricate details, leaving you torn over which aspect of gameplay to immerse yourself in. This game redefines the RPG genre, offers an outstanding action-packed experience, and serves as an all-encompassing simulator of the universe. Whether you're prepared to embark on a galactic odyssey that spans hundreds of hours or not, Starfield beckons, and if time is scarce, you'll want to clear your schedule ASAP!
Polygon - Nicole Carpenter - Unscored
In trying to do everything, Starfield obfuscates its most compelling mysteries.
Press Start - Brodie Gibbons - 9 / 10
If what you're hoping for is The Elder Scrolls or Fallout in space, then Starfield is that. Not only does it have countless stories begging to be sought out against a vast and beckoning star chart, it's also the most polished Bethesda Game Studios title we've ever had.
Prima Games - Daphne Fama - 9 / 10
Starfield is a good game, like a really good game. It embodies the spirit of Manifest Destiny in a way that no other open-world game has ever come close to approaching. It’s a game that’s meant to be played slowly over the course of months, if not years. And even then, you shouldn’t expect to uncover every little detail.
RPG Fan - Noah Leiter - 98%
Starfield delivers on its promise to make a huge, fun, compelling, and player-focused playground for sci fi RPG fans to play and perform in.
RPG Site - Alex Donaldson - 9 / 10
Starfield is wider, wilder, and more ambitious than I expected - but also shows surprising restraint in many areas. More than the sum of its parts, it's the best game of this type Bethesda has delivered.
Rock, Paper, Shotgun - Edwin Evans-Thirlwell - Unscored
A short, sparky and colourful 2D PICO-8 blaster about a space captain fighting fascist robots.
SECTOR.sk - Peter Dragula - Slovak - 9.5 / 10
After conquering wastelands and fantasy worlds, Behesda begins to conquer the universe. Starfield offers their biggest RPG yet with a very good mix of story, action and exporation. The Creation Engine still shows beautiful scenery, but also its limits in map size.
Saudi Gamer - خالد أحمد - Arabic - 7 / 10
Starfield can be described as a mixed-bag experience that combines great features from excellent side mission designs with amazingly world-building potential and an engaging story with suspense elements to offer. On the other hand, exploration in the game is unfortunately weak in many aspects; This is due to the large reliance on procedural generation of environments. Also, the role-playing elements do not have a strong presence or impact.
Saving Content - Scott Ellison II - 5 / 5
Starfield doesn’t reinvent the RPG genre, but it does make it quite exciting. It’s a game that feels distinct from the studio’s prior work like The Elder Scrolls and Fallout, and this even represents the best of both worlds. Bethesda Game Studios managed to incorporate streamlined systems to make exploring space something fun, and never a chore. There’s just nothing I dislike about it. Starfield is ambitious and magical, capturing the curiosity and vastness of space beautifully, for what feels like a truly next-gen experience.
Screen Rant - Akshay Bhalla - 4.5 / 5
Even though Starfield is slightly rough around the edges, it never detracts from all the fun and adventure. With engaging storytelling, charismatic characters, and an enthralling world, Starfield is an instant classic and a triumphant homecoming to blockbuster gaming for Bethesda Game Studios.
Shacknews - Donovan Erskine - 9 / 10
Starfield is more than a welcome addition to Bethesda’s family of RPG franchises, it feels like the start of a new era for the studio. Not only is it the developer’s most technically impressive game, but it also delivers a worthwhile narrative that takes some major swings and establishes a sprawling mythos. It has some blemishes here and there, but Starfield proves to be an awesome sci-fi adventure.
Siliconera - Brent Koepp - 9 / 10
Starfield is a genre-defining space exploration RPG. With a vast galaxy of characters and stories to uncover, this is Bethesda's best work in years.
Spaziogames - Stefania Sperandio - Italian - Unscored
Starfield aims to be Bethesda Game Studios' magnum opus: it's compelling, entertaining and familiar: it feels like spending time with a longtime friend. This also means that it is inherently old in its structure and in how its universe reacts to the player. It's a shame that it comes with some unforgivable sins, like how dull the planet explorations is, but you will spend tons of hours in the game nonetheless.
For the sheer size of it, the beauty of the hundreds of different landscapes you can explore and the always engaging missions, Starfield is a massive technical achievement.
TechRaptor - Erren Van Duine - 8 / 10
Starfield's biggest strength is its complimentary content - sidequests, exploration, and more will gather your attention for hours despite a less-than-compelling narrative.
TheGamer - Ben Sledge - 4 / 5
I came into Starfield wanting to explore the stars, and I got a brilliant sci-fi story instead. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a little disappointed.
TheXboxHub - Richard Dobson - 4.5 / 5
Figuratively and literally, Starfield is the next evolution for a Bethesda game; taking that framework and that sandbox before applying it 1000 times over.
Tom's Guide - Roland Moore-Colyer - 4 / 5
Starfield boldly goes beyond just Skyrim and Fallout in space
Tom's Hardware Italia - Andrea Riviera - Italian - 9 / 10
Reducing Starfield to a number is far from being easy. On the one hand we have Bethesda's most ambitious game ever with an overwhelming amount of content: full of secrets, quests, characters and casual adventures; on the other hand we have a title still anchored to old dogmas, with a high dose of proceduralism and some limitations that most critics will not appreciate. Nevertheless, Starfield is destined to become a new cult, capable of attracting millions of players for at least the next decade, just as Skyrim did before it, as well as being the first big star of Xbox's rebirth.
TrustedReviews - Ryan Jones - 4 / 5
We play every game we review through to the end, outside of certain exceptions where getting 100% completion, like Skyrim, is close to impossible to do. When we don’t fully finish a game before reviewing it, we will always alert the reader.
VG247 - Josh Broadwell - 4 / 5
Starfield’s grandiose scope sets the scene for a few under-developed ideas in an otherwise thoughtful, muddy take on the sci-fi genre.
VGC - Jordan Middler - 5 / 5
Starfield is the ultimate Bethesda game. It takes what people loved about Fallout and Skyrim, and casts it across an enormous galaxy filled with captivating characters.
VideoGamer - Tom Bardwell - 9 / 10
Starfield is the enchantment and wonder of space bottled and fleshed out into something grand and ambitious, thoughtful and attentive, janky at times, often funny, but always charming.
Wccftech - Francesco De Meo - 9 / 10
With an engaging story, well-developed characters and lore, and a huge amount of meaningful content, Starfield is one of Bethesda's finest games and one of the best role-playing games released in the past few years.
We Got This Covered - Ash Martinez - 4.5 / 5
Starfield may not shake Bethesda’s legendary formula as much as some players wanted, but it defies all but the most unreasonable expectations. Newcomers will easily lose themselves in the universe, and fans of the studio won’t be disappointed. Starfield easily joins Fallout 4 and Skyrim as a titan of a game that will continue to enthrall players long after its release.
WellPlayed - James Wood - 8.5 / 10
Starfield is a magical, if a little clumsy, first journey to the stars for Bethesda, the RPG maker reminding us of the power of player freedom, engaging writing, and just a little jank.
Windows Central - Jez Corden - 4.5 / 5
With incredible writing, its slow-burn stories snowball into immense moments, and tight RPG/FPS combat thrills in spaceship battles, grounded firefights, and zero-G death ballets — Starfield is a landmark experience with a bright future ahead of it.
Worth Playing - Chris "Atom" DeAngelus - 9 / 10
Starfield both hits and misses the mark. Starfield has both improvements and steps backward from the previous games, and whether you consider it to be better or worse than Fallout is dependent on what you prized from those games. If you're looking for more Fallout 4 with bigger and more detailed environments and quests, then Starfield is pretty much everything you could hope for and more. If you're looking for No Man's Skyrim, however, it's disappointing. Almost everything on the ground feels good, while the space travel and exploration feels lackluster. If you're looking for a Bethesda-style, open-world RPG, Starfield scratches that itch, and Bethesda fans will lose countless hours in scouring every nook and cranny.
XGN.nl - Ralph Beentjes - Dutch - 8 / 10
Starfield is a Bethesda RPG in every sense of the word. It offers a large, rich and intriguing world, filled with sidequests and a mysterious main story. The possibility to enter your spaceship and explore the galaxy and fight space pirates is really fun. It has however a few strange bugs, the graphics can change a lot and firefights miss something extra. We’re certain though that RPG fans can easily spend hundreds of hours in Starfield.
XboxEra - Jesse Norris - 9.7 / 10
Starfield is a new beginning. Not only for Bethesda but for Xbox as a whole. With excellent writing, stunning graphics, and thrilling gameplay it makes the galaxy yours to explore, shape, and live in. It is a wonderous tapestry to experience your story in a way that only the best have done before.
Video Review - Quote not available
Kind of interesting that the vast majority of negative/mixed reviews are regarding gameplay/story rather than complaining about major bugs (although jank has been noted in a few, and I'd honestly be a bit disappointed if there wasn't any).
We'll have to wait until release (Cyberpunk's bugs weren't that prominent in reviews either), but I really hope this "lol Bugthesda" meme can die.
Regardless of how buggy it is, I expect Dunkey to somehow break it as soon as he boots it up, which should be entertaining.
I mean it wasn't a meme. Bethesda games are buggy on release. The PS3 edition of Skyrim was notoriously not fit for release, I honestly do not think that level of bugs would ever have been tolerated nowawdays. It's also something that Microsoft's QA team really ought to be credited for because it seems they are the reason this game stands out amongst Bethesda releases in recent years.
That said imma wait till a few days afterwards just in case. And the story getting bad reviews is not unsurprising as Bethesda has not really had a good one since Morrowind, or maybe Point Lookout in F3.
You are right, but I just get tired of it sometimes as a "predictor" or that they should be lauded for not releasing something that falls apart at release.
Bethesda have a reputation for a reason, but the lack of QA (or at least publishers willing to listen to QA) in a lot of modern gaming has made some of Bethesda's previous issues seem almost normal.
I guess that's more an indictment of modern gaming than really a defense of Bethesda, lol. And for all the shit they get about "modders fixing their games", they were the ones who actually went and fixed a lot of FO76's issues after that launch disaster.
Either way, regarding the story... Yeah. I find that oftentimes the side quests (particularly faction quests or the FO4 follower quests) tend to be way more interesting than the main quest in some of their games.
bethesda's games have always been incredibly buggy on release, but they've never released a single player game that was unplayable because of the bugs
Skyrim for PS3 is in an unacceptable state to this day. The longer you play a save the worse the performance gets. My cousin finished the game at like 5 fps.
Fallout Nee Vegas has crash on startup issues day one on PC. Lots of folks couldn’t play it and I believe an unofficial patch came faster than an official.
FO4 was unplayable for me due to constant crashes to desktop. On a new rig at the time too
The lolbugthesda meme exists because it's true. There aren't many games I've had to completely start over because of a game breaking glitch in a side quest, but that was Skyrim and the infamous thieves guild glitch.
They're good games but pretending there are no bugs, either funny cosmetic ones or serious progress blocking ones, helps no one.
Sure. I don't think I was pretending there weren't any bugs. I think it's more the dismissive approach toward their games before release that gets a bit tiring, even if it is often warranted in some respects.
Creation Engine is buggy as fuck, and I'll always expect their games to have a fair amount of jank at the very least. Even Obsidian had troubles with it (though some of those bugs could also be attributed to lack of time and testing).
But I hope that if this does prove to be have better release than their others (admittedly, it can be a low bar), that it sticks.
I played from 5 pm yesterday at release until 5 am today, and I literally encountered one single bug, which was that I managed to get a big enemy's pathing hung up on a rock, so I could kill it.
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As much as I love them, I'm about to be a hypocrite and say I don't know if Bethesda will ever have non-janky AI. It's the one thing that's been fairly consistent over a very long time now.
Whether it's enemies or your followers, or just pathfinding weirdness with NPCs, it's like their AI is just kind of... there sometimes. If had a conspiracy theory about it, I'd say they're doing it on purpose to get you to explore the world by finding your missing followers (of which I'm sure we'll see many get stuck on different planets entirely now).
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That's why it's unscored.
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No Fun Allowed
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Seems like roughly Skyrim/Fallout in space. Even though I'd have wanted something different, I can't say I'm not a sucker for their formula so I'll just wait for a sale and have a blast with mods.
This seems positive enough for me to buy it, even though I haven't even finished part 1 of BG3 yet lol.
Im near the end of BG3, and "stuck": I'm just unwilling to end it. Happens often with RPGs for me. So a good time to take a break and play something else.
Yeah I feel this too with games that really hit me. You get so invested in your character and your playthrough that you don't want to let go of your save, so instead of committing down the last stretch of main quest you maybe boot it up, scrounge out a fight somewhere or do some small remaining side quest, then run around town mindlessly a bit and shut down the game.
I had that happen with Cyberpunk earlier this year and I'm feeling it starting to set in with BG3. The allure of a second playthrough is stronger here, though, so that might help me stay the course.
I bounce around between games a lot, so I was never going to be done before anything else came out, but they should definitely scratch different itches, also. They might both be big RPGs, but I fully expect to be able to play Starfield with stuff in the background and there's just too much narrative to do that with BG3. I also just itch for more actiony stuff at times (right now that's a 2D pixel art game called Chasm). Even if I drop 20 hours in a game before switching to the next one, one game isn't going to actually be the only one I play for that long, personally.
"Once we head out, you won't be able to return to your hometown for a while. Are you ready to leave?"
- Yes
- No
So many moments like this in RPGs that make it hard to leave just by saying that. I get so sad and I have to walk around saying goodbye to everyone in the whole area before I depart.
I'm in the last act and nearing the big bads... But bugs are getting more frequent. One of them allowed me to traverse the entire foundry without starting a fight. One bug wouldn't let me remove one of the party members from my group after they got knocked unconscious and I couldn't help them up.
So it's been a slog of frequent saves and reloads. Still enjoying the game, though. And can't wait to start a 2nd playthrough.
Patch 2 came out yesterday and was supposed to address some Act 3 issues. Have you played since then? I've also noticed some bugs in Act 3 but nothing gamebreaking thankfully.
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A mission might send you to the other side of the vast starmap, but the actual travel time between systems is always the same (and the poorly explained fuel system, which is actually just your range, isn’t much of a limitation). When I discovered that so much of space flight is effectively a series of non-interactive cutscenes, it largely shattered the illusion of exploring a vast universe. It’s impossible not to compare Starfield to the way you freely enter and exit planets’ atmosphere in No Man’s Sky, so it’s a bit of a letdown every time you see a planet and remember it’s just a picture of a planet you’ll never be able to reach by flying toward it. It’s something that happens a lot.
The fact that you can't fly over to planets and land, and that you get around the vastness of space by simply fast traveling, is disappointing. This seems less space-y, and more like Fallout-y to me.
As someone who isn't really into FPS games these days, I think I might give Starfield a skip.
Just played for a few hours on my Steam Deck and yeah it does feel a lot like Fallout, but with extra steps. It’s very polished and I’m sure I’ll have a lot of fun with it eventually, but so far I’ve been disappointed with the little I’ve seen.
I got the game for free though, so I don’t feel too bad lol
This is sort of why I didn't feel any great compulsion to pre-order or anything. I'm sure it will be a fine game, but I think games like Star Citizen have spoiled my expectations a bit on big space sim type games, even though they're not really that comparable (more just following the logic of comparing it to NMS). I had the same issue with Outer Worlds, it wasn't a terrible game or anything but it was a bit simplistic and consoley compared to how it was marketed.
Still, I will probably get SF down the road when it's on sale. I'm interested to see what modders get up to once that community has matured the scene a bit.
And I'd argue that even in No Man's Sky it's not as fun as one would want it to be; sure it's "seamless" but it's also more or less just a glorified loading screen. Turns out there just isn't much meaningful gameplay you can do while moving from one place to another through empty space across vast distances especially when the game has to work in the background to load and unload everything.
But at least it's immersive. In something like Skyrim you at least have something to look at, or in Fallout you can marvel at the desolate landscape that'll be different everywhere you go. Space is just that, space. Which is why in, say, Mass Effect it works well, because you get to explore your ship and talk to the crew between missions and that's fun, while the travel is minimized (though still just loading screens).
Tbh it’s worse than fallout. In fallout you didn’t have loading screens every 15 minutes. Going from planet to planet is just a loading screen after loading screen and some additional meaningless steps like “get out of spaceship”. It’s a Bethesda game but with worse exploration mechanics. But now we know what fallout/tes in space from bethesda is gonna be like.
Otherwise it’s decent. Mind you I haven’t gotten far but story is kind of interesting, side stories(the larger ones) as well. I think they did a good job with lore. Can’t say anything against shooty combat, don’t know about melee.
I just wish there was less garbage to pick up. In a game where you can gather materials for crafting and projects etc, where you are in a room with 20 object you can take but just 2 of them are not trash it’s tiresome
I was surprised at the 7 scores until I caught the bit about how it's all fast travel. You can't just start on a planet, take off in your ship, point it at a moon or something and fly there.
OTOH, how boring would it be having 1:1 space travel?
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penn_%26_Teller's_Smoke_and_Mirrors
"Considered by Penn to be the "best part" of the collection, Desert Bus is a simulation trick minigame and a featured part of Electronic Gaming Monthly's preview. It is the most notorious minigame in the actual game. The objective of the game is to drive a bus from Tucson, Arizona, to Las Vegas, Nevada, in real time at a maximum speed of 45 mph (72 km/h). The feat requires eight hours of continuous play in real time to complete.[2][3]
The bus contains no passengers, there is little scenery aside from an occasional rock or bus stop sign, and there is no traffic. The road between Tucson and Las Vegas is simplified compared to the real highways: it is now completely straight. The bus veers to the right slightly, and thus requires the player's constant attention.[3] If the bus stops, or veers off the road it will stall and must be towed back to Tucson, also in real time. If the player makes it to Las Vegas, one point is scored. The player has the option to make the return trip to Tucson for another point, a decision which must be made in a few seconds or the game ends. Players may continue to make trips and score points up to a maximum score of 99 points, which requires 33 days of continuous play. Although the landscape never changes, an insect splats on the windshield about five hours through the first trip, and on the return trip the light fades, with differences at dusk, and later a pitch black road where the player is guided only with headlights.[2] The light eventually returns at dawn, but due to a programming bug it will cycle endlessly between dawn and night for the remainder of the game. The game cannot be paused."
This was solved 30 years ago in Star Control 2, with a non-Newtonian Hyperspace that kept vast distances still feeling vast and made fuel important, while in-system travel was still free and newtonian. There are plenty of options between "fast travel all the things" and "1:1 model of the absolute terrifying emptiness of space" -- and even then, the "1:1 model of vast emptiness of space" is still kind of doable, if you're willing to make the hyperdrive flexible for the various increments of in-system/interstellar travel. The hard part actually would be modeling the surfaces of planets in a way that makes the player forced to land at the "interesting" parts of the planet instead of letting them explore the entire surface of boring procedural-generated landscape without making it feel restrictive.
Starfield is a spacetravel ****tease.
Star Citizen is the **** that will do whatever you want, but she's bloated and extremely dysfunctional, riddled with bugs and falls over drunk and passes out constrantly.
Some people pay extra for that... :)
Thanks for doing this!
Not the epic space saga similar to Mass effect Trilogy I was hoping for but not a bad game either. Exploration is fun enough, base building is good, ship combat also felt nice.Quests are a mixed bag, some feel really dated and mundane. Performance is pretty bad i.e the game is very demanding. Struggles to maintain a steady native 60fps on the 3060ti at 1440p even on low or medium settings. Maybe patches will make a difference. Honestly this feels like something I would pick up during a sale or play on game pass, not worth the full price for me at least.
ship combat also felt nice
Ooh, that was the thing I was really curious about -- too many "space" games are just conventional FPS games set on various alien worlds and space stations, with only minimal nods to interplanetary vehicles.
Permanently Deleted
I'll just be playing it on Game Pass and then probably buy it when it goes on sale on Steam in a few months. Probably Winter Holiday sale or whatever.
By that time, maybe the Creation Kit will be released (though, that's more likely to be next year) as well, which makes for much more in-depth mods. Also any script extenders (which will very likely only work on the Steam version) and unofficial patches should be a bit more stable early next year.
Until then, I don't really need it on Steam.
I keep forgetting to preload, though, which I should do when I get a chance, just to get the initial ~120 GB out of the way.
Looks like a slam dunk, it's really good to see.
I can only say: Amount of absolute ratings is too damn high!
Excited to play it, too bad i gotta wait 5 more days since i didn't wanna shell out 30 more just to play it earlier lol
Don't get me wrong. I'd love to play it too, but from stream gameplay and reviews it's definitely NOT game worth 10/10. Is it a good game? Yes. But is it the most epic game of the decade? Definitely not.
Going to dump my initial impression. Note my bias, I love clutter looters and this is a Bethesda clutter looter in space with a bunch of additional systems resting on top of that genre.
It’s a space clutter looter
Played 8 hours last night so this is a very early impression. I love clutter looters and didn’t expect much else from Bethesda’s Fallout/Scrolls main studio. The Bethesda crafted areas are excellent if you are looking for what I call a Fallout / Elder Scrolls clutter looter. Lots of stuff to loot, the FPS combat is much better than Fallout 4 or 76. Don’t expect a space sim like SC or NMS this is a Bethesda Fallout/Scrolls style game with a bunch of additional systems on top of it.
First person combat
I’ve played both SC and NMS. While exploring a station in Starfield I thought to myself… this is what SC should have been for their foot exploration. The derelict stations in NMS are rather static environments and never cared for them much. What surprised me about the Starfield AI is they will “flee” or “flank” by running past you at times. I’ve lost track of enemies at times because of this and have had to go hunting for them. If I had to compare a more recent rpg shooter I'd say the combat is sort of close to Remnant 2 but where Remnant 2 combat is more deliberate and paced, Starfield fire fights are more erratic and frantic. I did find myself enjoying hunting down the AI that will run off and setup elsewhere.
Ship travel
There is fast travel. If you are looking for a space flight sim this is not for you. I don’t have an issue with fast travel as I get no thrills from traveling in space 1:1. There is simulation and there is stupid… SC leans a bit too heavy into the latter. Don’t expect 1:1 space travel in Starfield, it isn’t made for that.
Ship combat
Again this is not a space flight sim. Most recently coming off Everspace 2 I do miss the strafing controls and pedal usage, but that game is star fighter like combat. Starfield does have a ship editor and seems to be more about load out than fighter style combat. Think a bit more like Expanse style combat. I don’t have much time in this area of the game so I can’t say a whole lot more about it.
Additional systems
I haven't played enough to have an impression on the other systems but they are there: ship building, research, resource gathering, surveying, and base/output construction.
Initial impression
I love Bethesda clutter looters and this one is in space. The first few locations are fantastic in their detail, interactivity, and clutter; I going to eat up the Bethesda crafted clutter looter areas. The 1,000 worlds will likely function as a massive canvas for future mods.
Watched the Digital Foundry video and was really impressed on the fact it is so segmented. I thought it was aiming to be like No Man's Sky but I guess I might have misheard at some point