A very fair review of the game. I really wanted to like Starfield. I put a lot of time into the base building and ship building, spent a lot of time exploring, but I just didn't get that feeling of a living breathing world the way I did in other Bethesda games. It's hard to explain, but it's as if the game looks deep, but the more you play it, the shallower it feels. It's like I was in the Matrix in a world built for me, if that analogy makes sense. I might revisit it in a few years time, but it just didn't grab me.
I think the suboptimal delivery of its worldbuilding and the fragmented, poorly defined nature of space and the faction boundaries go a long way in creating this feeling.
Hopefully it grabs you on a revisit, for what it's worth, I've heard a lot of players returned to it 6-12 months later and then it 'clicked.'
Enjoyed this review. Haven't played Starfield. This makes me more curious. But probably not curious enough to actually play it when there are so many other games I haven't gotten around to playing that seem more interesting to me.
I partly disagree with this statement though:
>Fallout 4 really was the Starfield of its day and was widely rejected by Fallout fans
This doesn't sound right to me. I would say Fallout 4 was divisive. I think the median person who enjoyed Fallout 3 and NV was lukewarm on 4, considered it a disappointment but still had fun with it. I was in this camp (and I'm someone who's primarily a Fallout 1-2 fan at heart). Maybe 30-40% outright hated it. I also know people who loved 4 and consider it better than NV. These people mostly enjoy the settlement building aspect and tend to play with mods that expand that part of the game.
But Starfield doesn't seem divisive. Almost everyone seems to hate it, or to have no interest in it based on the hate. I don't personally know anyone who is a fan of it.
Glad you enjoyed! It's definitely one to get on sale, as much as I am enjoying it I think full-price, especially after 2 years, is a bit steep for this game. It's a crowded (and good) year for games we're having so far, I don't blame you.
Perhaps 'widely rejected' was a slight exaggeration on my part, it was definitely influenced by the people I've been around. One of my friends played Fallout 3 and New Vegas *exclusively* from about 2011 to 2019; unless we roped him into playing something, that's all he'd do. He hated Fallout 4, 100%-ed it and hasn't touched it since, my friend also hated the TV show though so perhaps a Fallout extremist haha. In my experience, Fallout 4 lovers and Skyrim lovers tend to have a lot in common: it was their first game in the franchise and the one they and all their friends got addicted to and even if older games were deeper, better written, more fulfilling roleplay experiences, nothing can replace those memories. I get that.
Absolutely right here, I do feel its reputation is undeserved but I also wasn't along for the hype train or the launch so I don't get that same sting of being 'burned' by the game.
It's remarkably solid, but modding the everloving piss out of it on pc to serve your particular tastes is definitely the way to go, and the padding of procedural content (you're allowed to ignore it) is evident.
SOMEONE ACTUALLY REVIEWED THE DAMN GAME FOR WHAT IT IS INSTEAD OF WHAT IT'S NOT. Ngl, this actually makes me more interested in the game. A proper exploration rpg set in space with the hallmarks of quality Bethesda games.
I'll confess that I've actually only played FO4 and Skyrim, but it's so good to see someone who enjoyed the game talk about its strengths. Solid review. Would read more.
Really glad you liked it! Yes this is something that irritates me in modern gaming a lot too. I've seen 2 reviews for Assassin's Creed Shadows for example but 50+ articles talking about everything *but* the game.
FO4 and Skyrim are solid but the traditional fanbase of those series tends to have a harsher outlook on them because they sacrificed a lot of roleplaying elements.
Next review is already in the works! This post got a level of traction I really wasn't anticipating.
It's good to hear that at least the sidequests and roleplaying of the game held up - reminds me of the way the Dark Brotherhood questline in Oblivion was held up as a bright spot even in the midst of widespread disappointment in the older fanbase.
As for why it came and went and barely seemed to have made any waves, I think it's half to do with Bethesda's overhype - they were promoting Starfield like it was going to be their GTA 6, and I think if it'd been a little less overblown people would've given it more of a chance and been less swayed by the surge of negative reception and glitch videos. But I think most of the rest of it is Baldur's Gate 3, which released almost exactly a month earlier. Now, I typically don't think much of developers blaming underperformance on big launches near their release, but in this particular case there would be plenty of justification. BG3 really dominated the RPG sphere for quite some time, was the perfect [for widespread success] balance of nostalgia/brand reignition and novel [since most people hadn't played the other recent Larian games] and offered I think a bit too much direct comparison to Starfield for Starfield's good. Especially since BG3 is such a long game I think even most people who got it at release were still playing when Starfield came out. Then you have people comparing Starfield not only to one of the biggest RPGs of the decade, but also to its own promises as a big step forward for Bethesda. Once it became apparent it really was a Fallout/Elder Scrolls game with spaceships [as reductive as that may be, it's hard to explain how it really misses the mark] I think most people who eventually will play it just mentally backburnered it instead of picking it up anyway. And when that happens, everyone with a bone to pick or who genuinely don't like the game have a field day, because it means the game is a massive failure which validates their opinion of it.
And I'm one of those people. I saw some previews of Starfield in its final year and the only big thing I could take away from it was 'well, the combat looks a bit better than Fallout at least.' I figured it'd be alright - the big problem is that I have plenty of things to play that are more than alright. If nothing else, I'll say this: your review makes me think Starfield might be a little more than alright. Thanks for the effort.
I think it might be the best roleplaying experience in a Bethesda game since Oblivion, however, I really wish they'd add attributes back to their games, the whole character and class-making experience feels very superficial without it.
Baldur's Gate 3 was more massive than I think anyone could have anticipated. I heard nothing about the game until it came out and then suddenly it was everywhere. I've not played it/bought it since enormous, 100+ hour story-driven RPG's kind of scare me off (and I really just find DnD to be a derivative, basic fantasy setting, truth be told) but watching a friend play it, it looks like a modern KOTOR: like prime Bioware come back to life. The comparisons don't favour Starfield at all. Starfield does feel like a game that should have come out in 2018-2019, as much as I like it. Bethesda have become a bit like Ryu Ga Gotoku Studios (of Yakuza) or classic Valve where I feel their games are almost genre in and of themselves.
It's definitely an above average game. I wouldn't move it to the top of your list or put off something new to play Starfield but I think for a 20% off sale or something it's worth the price and it's not as bad as the internet makes out. Thanks for reading!
Great review! Liked that you shared your perspective having played other Bethesda RPGs. Starfield was my first big Bethesda RPG and it only made me want to play the others.
A great review (and fair) I liked and enjoyed Starfield enough on Game Pass to buy it outright. I got distracted by other releases so never finished it but will definitely be going back. Probably starting with a new playthrough.
I’ve read plenty others who enjoyed it on release but given the amount of negativity such proclamations garner, why would anyone even bother? Many who would enjoy it probably wouldn’t even try it given the poor reception. I really hope Bethesda doesn’t abandon it completely as it is partly their own fault with the inflated hype pre-release and the subsequent near silence since.
No Man’s Sky is a great example of something recommended ‘to play instead’ nowadays, conveniently forgetting that this game had it’s own controversy at release and which has since been improved (although I’ve never been able to get into it).
I think anybody who likes sci-fi or past Bethesda games would have a good enough time in Starfield if they tried it, ignore the hate. Just because it says it on the internet doesn’t make it true. There is plenty to enjoy here.
Glad you enjoyed it! I skewed on the positive side because I never see or hear anything good about Starfield but I am genuinely really enjoying my time with it and plan to buy the expansion at some point in the future.
Couldn't agree with this sentiment more. I see a lot of belly aching online about how Star Citizen is never coming out and how Elite: Dangerous has been dead for years and I think a lot of these people need to give Starfield a shot. The hype was a bit ridiculous, ever since Fallout 4 (as I mentioned, 10 years ago that really was a lot like Starfield now reputation wise, at least to me it seemed that way) I've learned to expect Bethesda to make... Bethesda games.
Gamers have short memories, can't tell you how many fans of a franchise I see do a complete 180 when a good patch drops or a DLC repairs some of the lost goodwill and you can point this out to them and get ratioed to death, best to leave some communities to their collective ignorance.
The YouTuber effect is real. All it takes is a video full of cherry-picked bugs, glitches and whining about pointless details to get thousands of people to not buy the game.
Ha ha, I’m actually on a playthrough of FO4 just now on my Rog Ally. Loving it! I really believe that these recent handhelds have given older games (and older gamers) a real boost. The truth is that you can never please everyone and the echo chamber that is the internet just amplifies the noise 🤷♂️
Such an interesting game. I think Fallout 4 is a really good game but a bad entry in its own series, I should replay it too, don't think I've done a save since 2017 at this point.
Nice review. I bought Starfield when it was released, played it and completed the first ‘loop’ of the game, became Starborn, never bothered with NG+ and went on my own adventures. Then gave up.
I thoroughly enjoyed my time with it but I didn’t want to replay everything over again with different choices, and once you remove that there’s very little left and it all becomes far too samey.
And it hurt, I love sci-fi, I’ve played NMS, Elite Dangerous, EVE Online, they all have good things and things they lack and I so wanted Starfield to fill that gap. The environmental storytelling is brilliant, the main missions and little side quests are great but exploration is just so bland. And this is the problem with space games in general, there will never be enough content to fill a galaxy of stars and procedural generation just doesn’t make anything interesting.
For some reason my Save points overwrote themselves despite being careful so I no longer have that pre-Starborn save and if anything I’d have never taken the decision to finish and lose Andreja as a companion so I can’t return.
I lost myself in Skyrim for 2 years just wandering around, never finished the main quest line, still haven’t. With Starfield I don’t think you could do that because the universe is empty without the quests.
In all, a great game with some deep flaws, I got my money’s worth but I won’t be back, unlike Skyrim that I continually replay time and again.
Coincidentally I completed the main quest in Starfield today.
I tried it when it first came out and described it as the most average game ever. I gave up after maybe 20 hours.
Then I started it up again a few months ago and couldn't put it down. It's oddly addicting. The ambient soundtrack is relaxing. Like you, I found the ability to open role play refreshing (I went with a sort of religious hippie trucker theme). Walking around a big space ship is a dream come true. And for adults, the ability to say IRL, eh, I'm tired so I'm just going to futz around on a random planet and collect rocks and look at alien sunsets is a nice break from a go-go-go intensity.
Some of the characters are boring but there's also moments of genuinely excellent writing. This includes an industrialist who you think is going to be a jerk but actually is probably the most sympathetic portrayal of a late middle age man I've seen in a game. Was not expecting that.
I'm going to continue the post-game playthrough (no spoilers) and I think pick up the DLC as well.
A very fair review of the game. I really wanted to like Starfield. I put a lot of time into the base building and ship building, spent a lot of time exploring, but I just didn't get that feeling of a living breathing world the way I did in other Bethesda games. It's hard to explain, but it's as if the game looks deep, but the more you play it, the shallower it feels. It's like I was in the Matrix in a world built for me, if that analogy makes sense. I might revisit it in a few years time, but it just didn't grab me.
I think the suboptimal delivery of its worldbuilding and the fragmented, poorly defined nature of space and the faction boundaries go a long way in creating this feeling.
Hopefully it grabs you on a revisit, for what it's worth, I've heard a lot of players returned to it 6-12 months later and then it 'clicked.'
Enjoyed this review. Haven't played Starfield. This makes me more curious. But probably not curious enough to actually play it when there are so many other games I haven't gotten around to playing that seem more interesting to me.
I partly disagree with this statement though:
>Fallout 4 really was the Starfield of its day and was widely rejected by Fallout fans
This doesn't sound right to me. I would say Fallout 4 was divisive. I think the median person who enjoyed Fallout 3 and NV was lukewarm on 4, considered it a disappointment but still had fun with it. I was in this camp (and I'm someone who's primarily a Fallout 1-2 fan at heart). Maybe 30-40% outright hated it. I also know people who loved 4 and consider it better than NV. These people mostly enjoy the settlement building aspect and tend to play with mods that expand that part of the game.
But Starfield doesn't seem divisive. Almost everyone seems to hate it, or to have no interest in it based on the hate. I don't personally know anyone who is a fan of it.
Glad you enjoyed! It's definitely one to get on sale, as much as I am enjoying it I think full-price, especially after 2 years, is a bit steep for this game. It's a crowded (and good) year for games we're having so far, I don't blame you.
Perhaps 'widely rejected' was a slight exaggeration on my part, it was definitely influenced by the people I've been around. One of my friends played Fallout 3 and New Vegas *exclusively* from about 2011 to 2019; unless we roped him into playing something, that's all he'd do. He hated Fallout 4, 100%-ed it and hasn't touched it since, my friend also hated the TV show though so perhaps a Fallout extremist haha. In my experience, Fallout 4 lovers and Skyrim lovers tend to have a lot in common: it was their first game in the franchise and the one they and all their friends got addicted to and even if older games were deeper, better written, more fulfilling roleplay experiences, nothing can replace those memories. I get that.
Absolutely right here, I do feel its reputation is undeserved but I also wasn't along for the hype train or the launch so I don't get that same sting of being 'burned' by the game.
It's remarkably solid, but modding the everloving piss out of it on pc to serve your particular tastes is definitely the way to go, and the padding of procedural content (you're allowed to ignore it) is evident.
SOMEONE ACTUALLY REVIEWED THE DAMN GAME FOR WHAT IT IS INSTEAD OF WHAT IT'S NOT. Ngl, this actually makes me more interested in the game. A proper exploration rpg set in space with the hallmarks of quality Bethesda games.
I'll confess that I've actually only played FO4 and Skyrim, but it's so good to see someone who enjoyed the game talk about its strengths. Solid review. Would read more.
Really glad you liked it! Yes this is something that irritates me in modern gaming a lot too. I've seen 2 reviews for Assassin's Creed Shadows for example but 50+ articles talking about everything *but* the game.
FO4 and Skyrim are solid but the traditional fanbase of those series tends to have a harsher outlook on them because they sacrificed a lot of roleplaying elements.
Next review is already in the works! This post got a level of traction I really wasn't anticipating.
It's good to hear that at least the sidequests and roleplaying of the game held up - reminds me of the way the Dark Brotherhood questline in Oblivion was held up as a bright spot even in the midst of widespread disappointment in the older fanbase.
As for why it came and went and barely seemed to have made any waves, I think it's half to do with Bethesda's overhype - they were promoting Starfield like it was going to be their GTA 6, and I think if it'd been a little less overblown people would've given it more of a chance and been less swayed by the surge of negative reception and glitch videos. But I think most of the rest of it is Baldur's Gate 3, which released almost exactly a month earlier. Now, I typically don't think much of developers blaming underperformance on big launches near their release, but in this particular case there would be plenty of justification. BG3 really dominated the RPG sphere for quite some time, was the perfect [for widespread success] balance of nostalgia/brand reignition and novel [since most people hadn't played the other recent Larian games] and offered I think a bit too much direct comparison to Starfield for Starfield's good. Especially since BG3 is such a long game I think even most people who got it at release were still playing when Starfield came out. Then you have people comparing Starfield not only to one of the biggest RPGs of the decade, but also to its own promises as a big step forward for Bethesda. Once it became apparent it really was a Fallout/Elder Scrolls game with spaceships [as reductive as that may be, it's hard to explain how it really misses the mark] I think most people who eventually will play it just mentally backburnered it instead of picking it up anyway. And when that happens, everyone with a bone to pick or who genuinely don't like the game have a field day, because it means the game is a massive failure which validates their opinion of it.
And I'm one of those people. I saw some previews of Starfield in its final year and the only big thing I could take away from it was 'well, the combat looks a bit better than Fallout at least.' I figured it'd be alright - the big problem is that I have plenty of things to play that are more than alright. If nothing else, I'll say this: your review makes me think Starfield might be a little more than alright. Thanks for the effort.
I think it might be the best roleplaying experience in a Bethesda game since Oblivion, however, I really wish they'd add attributes back to their games, the whole character and class-making experience feels very superficial without it.
Baldur's Gate 3 was more massive than I think anyone could have anticipated. I heard nothing about the game until it came out and then suddenly it was everywhere. I've not played it/bought it since enormous, 100+ hour story-driven RPG's kind of scare me off (and I really just find DnD to be a derivative, basic fantasy setting, truth be told) but watching a friend play it, it looks like a modern KOTOR: like prime Bioware come back to life. The comparisons don't favour Starfield at all. Starfield does feel like a game that should have come out in 2018-2019, as much as I like it. Bethesda have become a bit like Ryu Ga Gotoku Studios (of Yakuza) or classic Valve where I feel their games are almost genre in and of themselves.
It's definitely an above average game. I wouldn't move it to the top of your list or put off something new to play Starfield but I think for a 20% off sale or something it's worth the price and it's not as bad as the internet makes out. Thanks for reading!
Baldours gate 3 is really good. It’s writing is pretty hackneyed and woke (the dreaded woke) but it still has pretty damn good story regardless.
I would put it in the same tier as kotor but it is in the bottom of the tier. It is like bioware came back to life but maybe not prime you know.
Great review! Liked that you shared your perspective having played other Bethesda RPGs. Starfield was my first big Bethesda RPG and it only made me want to play the others.
Then for you, the best is yet to come :) Glad you enjoyed the review!
A great review (and fair) I liked and enjoyed Starfield enough on Game Pass to buy it outright. I got distracted by other releases so never finished it but will definitely be going back. Probably starting with a new playthrough.
I’ve read plenty others who enjoyed it on release but given the amount of negativity such proclamations garner, why would anyone even bother? Many who would enjoy it probably wouldn’t even try it given the poor reception. I really hope Bethesda doesn’t abandon it completely as it is partly their own fault with the inflated hype pre-release and the subsequent near silence since.
No Man’s Sky is a great example of something recommended ‘to play instead’ nowadays, conveniently forgetting that this game had it’s own controversy at release and which has since been improved (although I’ve never been able to get into it).
I think anybody who likes sci-fi or past Bethesda games would have a good enough time in Starfield if they tried it, ignore the hate. Just because it says it on the internet doesn’t make it true. There is plenty to enjoy here.
Glad you enjoyed it! I skewed on the positive side because I never see or hear anything good about Starfield but I am genuinely really enjoying my time with it and plan to buy the expansion at some point in the future.
Couldn't agree with this sentiment more. I see a lot of belly aching online about how Star Citizen is never coming out and how Elite: Dangerous has been dead for years and I think a lot of these people need to give Starfield a shot. The hype was a bit ridiculous, ever since Fallout 4 (as I mentioned, 10 years ago that really was a lot like Starfield now reputation wise, at least to me it seemed that way) I've learned to expect Bethesda to make... Bethesda games.
Gamers have short memories, can't tell you how many fans of a franchise I see do a complete 180 when a good patch drops or a DLC repairs some of the lost goodwill and you can point this out to them and get ratioed to death, best to leave some communities to their collective ignorance.
The YouTuber effect is real. All it takes is a video full of cherry-picked bugs, glitches and whining about pointless details to get thousands of people to not buy the game.
Ha ha, I’m actually on a playthrough of FO4 just now on my Rog Ally. Loving it! I really believe that these recent handhelds have given older games (and older gamers) a real boost. The truth is that you can never please everyone and the echo chamber that is the internet just amplifies the noise 🤷♂️
Such an interesting game. I think Fallout 4 is a really good game but a bad entry in its own series, I should replay it too, don't think I've done a save since 2017 at this point.
Nice review. I bought Starfield when it was released, played it and completed the first ‘loop’ of the game, became Starborn, never bothered with NG+ and went on my own adventures. Then gave up.
I thoroughly enjoyed my time with it but I didn’t want to replay everything over again with different choices, and once you remove that there’s very little left and it all becomes far too samey.
And it hurt, I love sci-fi, I’ve played NMS, Elite Dangerous, EVE Online, they all have good things and things they lack and I so wanted Starfield to fill that gap. The environmental storytelling is brilliant, the main missions and little side quests are great but exploration is just so bland. And this is the problem with space games in general, there will never be enough content to fill a galaxy of stars and procedural generation just doesn’t make anything interesting.
For some reason my Save points overwrote themselves despite being careful so I no longer have that pre-Starborn save and if anything I’d have never taken the decision to finish and lose Andreja as a companion so I can’t return.
I lost myself in Skyrim for 2 years just wandering around, never finished the main quest line, still haven’t. With Starfield I don’t think you could do that because the universe is empty without the quests.
In all, a great game with some deep flaws, I got my money’s worth but I won’t be back, unlike Skyrim that I continually replay time and again.
I like Starfield. I need to play it again now that the DLC has dropped.
I like Fallout 4 though too ;-)
Coincidentally I completed the main quest in Starfield today.
I tried it when it first came out and described it as the most average game ever. I gave up after maybe 20 hours.
Then I started it up again a few months ago and couldn't put it down. It's oddly addicting. The ambient soundtrack is relaxing. Like you, I found the ability to open role play refreshing (I went with a sort of religious hippie trucker theme). Walking around a big space ship is a dream come true. And for adults, the ability to say IRL, eh, I'm tired so I'm just going to futz around on a random planet and collect rocks and look at alien sunsets is a nice break from a go-go-go intensity.
Some of the characters are boring but there's also moments of genuinely excellent writing. This includes an industrialist who you think is going to be a jerk but actually is probably the most sympathetic portrayal of a late middle age man I've seen in a game. Was not expecting that.
I'm going to continue the post-game playthrough (no spoilers) and I think pick up the DLC as well.