I absolutely adore Bethesda games. The Elder Scrolls may be might favourite franchise ever, with both Skyrim and Oblivion ranking in my top 5 all-time favourites; and I loved Fallout 3 and 4, even if I played them long after release. So naturally, I was expecting a lot - no, a whole lot from this game. Their first new IP in 25 years and a larger-than-life space concept got me beyond excited to see what BGS would come up with next. Perhaps unreasonably so. Honestly, I had hoped for a game of the generation contender.
And today, as I finish my NG+ 2 run, as much as I still love it, I feel it falls quite short of it.
I will get to what I love in Starfield in a bit. And there is a lot to love, both in new aspects and iteration of old ones. But I’d like to start with what I feel are the game’s shortcomings. When I finished my first playthrough, I was enamoured with it, so I may have overlooked some of the issues that truly hinder the experience. With over 200hrs put into it, some of those issues have become more glaring, making it hard for Starfield to amount to a pantheon-like experience for me.
One of the two main problems I have with this game is how it handles exploration. For all the planets and moons it has, Starfield has a massive continuity barrier if you’re looking to explore its world in the usual Bethesda-like way. Loading screens have always been a part of their games, they’ve never bothered me much and, in fact, a controversial opinion I have is that I actually like them when stepping into a dungeon, since it brings with it a clear notification for tone changing and a likely tenser gameplay segment. But loading screens in BGS games have always been mostly dedicated to the line separating interiors to the outside environment. This created a sense of continuity when exploring the world, and made it easier to get lost in its wonder or sidetracked by its vast points of interest. The issue with Starfield is that, due to the very nature of its layout, loading screens are everywhere, not just connected to interiors. Get on your ship, exit the planet, travel to another planet, travel to another solar system, land on a planet, exit the ship, enter a facility, leave a facility, travel to another planet tile. Even though you can eventually bypass some of these, all are separated by loading screens that, as much I would’ve liked to sit here typing otherwise, effectively tear at the exploring thread of the world.
Now, even though exploration is the main draw for me in Bethesda games, Starfield was giving me so many great things throughout my playthrough that I quickly started ‘forgiving’ it for that - and let’s be fair, it would be virtually impossible to have a game at a literal galactic scale that felt as continuous as anything else they’d done before. But here enters the other main problem I have with this game: its procedurally generated content: not being able to produce a sense of exploration continuity at such a massive scale is one thing; plastering the exact same layouts throughout so many planets so frequently as you go off the beaten path, however, is a different thing altogether. Labs look the same, natural phenomena areas look the same, mining facilities look the same, caves look the exact same. So many of these feel samey and overly formulaic, a copy/paste version of one single blueprint. So much so that you’re often left wondering if you have been to that exact planet and location before, and enemies simply just respawned (chances are you haven’t and they didn’t). It gets pretty old, pretty fast. And while Starfield’s lore may attempt a shy explanation of this due to the pre-fabricated units set up across the galaxy, it doesn’t account for the caves layout, the same enemy placement and number, and so on. This isn’t to say you don’t come across tons of handcrafted content. You do, in fact more so than any other previous Bethesda game. But the sheer vastness of this world renders more variety a herculean feat, and you’re frequently left with an underwhelming feeling of ‘been there, done that’ which is in direct contradiction with what their titles usually give the player. Apart from doing a poor job at hinting what is handcrafted and what is procedurally generated, Starfield’s heartbreakingly glaring mistake, in my eyes, is that they took their ambition and spread it across an entire galaxy rather than a single star system.
The issues with the game don’t end here, sadly. In fact, to me, they are too numerous to go into detail on all of them. However, there are degrees to this. Some are annoying or downright frustrating. Others are simply personal preferences or nitpicks, which most people likely won’t care about. I’ll go through them in a bullet point manner for the sake of brevity, otherwise I’d need to turn this into a video review rather than a written one. But I will do so by highlighting which past Bethesda game(s) have done it better in my opinion:
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no city maps, not in any useful sense anyway. This is hit and miss since I love the immersive option of finding your way by using the in-game signs, but these aren’t always helpful either, meaning you will probably struggle to know where things are during your first few visits. Every single major Bethesda game did this better;
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somewhat related to this, the game starts a bit confusingly. There are no real proper tutorials, even for its most complex systems, and the unintuitive way the UI is set up only adds to the sense of inventory noise. Be it due to its bigger simplicity of simply better design, I feel most past BGS games handled this better;
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no land vehicles. I don’t care that this is by design, it’s a poor decision, period. If you don’t want to constantly use fast travel, you waste a ton of time going from and to your ship after landing on a planet, time that could be much better enhanced by some sort of ‘mako’ or (ideally) hover vehicle. Past BSG games didn’t have this problem because of how much smaller their worlds were comparatively;
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lack of an enticing weapon/armour crafting system - it is clunky and unintuitive, and unlike Fallout 4, for example, you can’t break down junk to obtain useful components. Directly tied to this, there’s also no visual way to discern which pickable objects are useful and which ones are junk, forcing you to highlight each one individually instead;
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lack of really unique loot - for the most part, what you get are rare versions of existing models. This is somewhat an iteration of what had already been done in Fallout 4, which means it’s missing that truly unique loot feeling you’d get from games like Morrowind, for example;
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ridiculously repetitive way of obtaining powers - with so many on offer, and considering each has 10 iterations, having to go through the exact same layout and do the exact same thing every single time if you want to engage with this (technically you don’t have to) is, after you’ve experienced it for the first couple times, an absolute bore. Compare this with how they handled shouts in Skyrim, and it’s easy to see how they fumbled this particular aspect;
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lack of a survival mode - like most Bethesda games, Starfield seems primed for survival playthroughs, or it would have if they hadn’t significantly toned down its survival-focused aspects in the final version. Something like Fallout 4’s survival mode may be in the cards for DLC, but there’s no reason not to offer it on release if one of your main goals is replayability;
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even if you have everything related to it maxed out, stealth sucks. Even though they were far from brilliant, most past BGS games did this better, and while I understand this isn’t exactly a world suited for stealth, if the option is there, it needs to be much better tuned than it was, since stealth-focused missions become a save-scumming chore otherwise;
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tied to this is the fact that you need to put a skill point into even the most basic things to be able to start interacting with them properly. You can’t use a boostpack, you don’t have a stealth meter, you can’t pickpocket, you can’t use targeting in ship combat, etc. until you spend a point in those specific perks. This makes zero sense to me. Anyone can technically do these things, it’s just a matter of how good they are at them. This was never a problem in any other BGS game;
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also related to this is the lack of respec on NG+. As much as I love this aspect of Starfield (and I’ll praise it later on), not being able to respec severely hinders the replayability out of the gate if you just want to roleplay as a different character. It’s a bummer and an odd design choice to me. No other Bethesda game came with a NG+ mode before, so this aspect can’t be compared;
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often washed out interior filters in dungeon cells. This is the exception in an otherwise exceptionally good-looking game. Compared to how similar places looked in games like Skyrim, Oblivion or even Fallout 3 and 4, this is clearly a step down;
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finally, NPC issues. NPCs are the best they’ve ever been on several fronts, but them not having schedules (e.g. Oblivion or Skyrim), not reacting to aggressive behaviour in any way (e.g. Skyrim) and their renewed lack of environmental reactivity (a long lasting problem in BGS experiences, which is better addressed here but still far from ideal) doesn’t do immersion any favours. To top it all off, the unnamed generic NPCs are the ugliest, most bizarrely created mofos I remember seeing in any game, ever. Seriously what the hell is that?
If you somehow made it through all of this, you might be looking at my rating and wondering what is wrong with me. Like mentally. That’s naturally a topic for another day, but the fact is that I’m done complaining about Starfield. And what follows is a heap of deserved praise for what it does so well - at times magnificently so - that it simply compels me to relegate most of its issues to the background and bask in its glory.
There were two moments, at the very beginning, that made me feel ‘home’. One was the first time I heard the theme song coming on as the menu screen presented itself. Although I wouldn’t say Starfield’s is the best BGS soundtrack out there (still Oblivion to me), this is, I feel, their best theme song, and the epic tone it inspires is something that has been a staple in most other main titles from the studio. The other moment was when I saw my ship after stepping out of that first mine, and how tiny it made me feel. The sense of awe I felt at the difference in scale, right then, is what leads me to disagree with everyone who says Starfield doesn’t have a step out moment like all recent Bethesda games do. This is it. Looking at your ship as it lands, standing next to it, is the step out moment. It’s just a differently executed one. From then on, I kept bumping into BGS trait after BGS trait, and in that sense, Starfield kept feeling more and more familiar. Once the game got its hooks on me, it became impossible to resist it. But there were a couple of things that, compared to anything they’ve done before, were such a step above that took me by surprise.
The obvious one to me is the writing. In my personal opinion, this is by far the best main story the studio has ever told, in plot, tone, prose, and execution. Voice work is fantastic, there are several different ways to approach a situation, a handful of impactful, surprising twists throughout, and some of the missions, I’d argue, are absolute top, not just better than anything they’ve done before but right on par with some of the greatest missions throughout gaming history (High Price to Pay, Unearthed and Entangled are personal favourites). Though I do have some issues with the fact that it never really loses its sense of urgency - which therefore makes jumping out of the main thread a bit weird from a roleplaying perspective -, the 'high stakes’ concept embedded in the overarching narrative is superiorly executed, not only because of how well it is written, but because it turns you into an active participant when it comes to meaning. Here, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the superb job they did with NG+. In a feature which normally only means you get to repeat the game whilst keeping your gear and sometimes level/skills, Starfield infuses a highly creative concept that effectively ties what came before with what comes after. And how it ties it, well that’s all up to you. It’s a brilliant spin on the feature, one that isn’t perfect, but that feels so incredibly well executed from an intent standpoint that I couldn’t help but take a moment to fully appreciate it all.
It all hit me during my third run (there’s no way to mention this without spoiling the philosophical design and parts of the story, so I’ll need to tag it. Read at your own peril): in my first playthrough I was as a run-of-the-mill good guy; in my second, I decided to play a bit looser, not caring about my actions so much, going as far as doing the occasional ‘mean’ deed; during my third run, however, I didn’t really plan anything, and just went into it a lot more detached from roleplaying intentions. As a consequence, and again without much thought, I started to become a nasty character, just to see the other side of the ‘can I get away with this?’ question. As I was approaching the end of my run, it dawned on me: I had become The Hunter. A character we tend to associate with evil within the game’s plot, a soul with seemingly no regard for fellow beings, motivated solely by its own goals and desires. Yet a character who, nevertheless, started his journey as a force for good, in fact, Keeper Aquilus himself, a priest of the Sanctum Universum. At that point, when it finally hit me, I had to marvel at Starfield’s design: through my own experience, without any coaxing, I had effortlessly become what I had fought so hard to avoid in my first universe run, before jumping into unity and consequently a different yet identical universe. It raised on me legitimate questions about the nature of humanity, what keeps us good, ethical, and how much we’d resist the dark selfish temptation of the other side were we given the chance to ‘erase it’ if we wanted. For a video game to be able to evoke such deep thoughts in me is no small feat. And for that alone, Starfield will always have a special place in my gaming heart.
The accolades don’t end there. There’s a very impressive jump in writing quality from their last game to this one that is seen virtually across the board, but especially so in the faction quests. Not all of them stand shoulder to shoulder in quality (personally I feel the UC Vanguard narrative is the standout), but all four are very different, very well written, highly entertaining for the most part, offer a healthy amount of enjoyable twists, and with the exception of Ryujin, do quest rewards extremely well. They are also enhanced by a wide range of high quality characters. Additionally, I enjoy how Starfield’s companions always have something interesting or relevant to say in regards to each one of these quest lines if you take them along with you. And speaking of companions, to me, this is easily the best set of followers Bethesda has ever devised. I’m not particularly keen on their very one-sided moral compass, but in terms of writing, voice acting and contextual awareness, Sarah, Andreja, Sam and Barrett are the cream of the crop when it comes to BGS games. Barrett’s aside, their loyalty missions are also great and add an extra layer to your relationship with them. The studio still has a ways to go when it comes to companion awareness, but it is undeniable to me how far they’ve come since the talking-to-a-wall days of my beloved Skyrim. When everything clicks, it’s an awesome feeling.
I’d like to mention some other positives before I’m done. Once again, for the sake of brevity, I’ll do it bullet point style just like I did for the negatives. Though here, I won’t compare these to past Bethesda games, since their presence on this list implies that either I believe Starfield does them better than any game that came from the studio before, or that they are unique to this game:
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combat is an impressive evolution. It’s not DOOM of course - nor is it meant to be -, but gunplay is leagues above anything they’ve done before, fluidity of movement and animations are much better, the boost pack gives it a novel, fantastic sense of verticality, and despite the criticisms I’ve read, I actually feel enemy AI is much better here than it’s ever been. Yes there is the occasional brain freeze, but enemies generally take cover, flank you, hide, run away if they feel the odds are against them, and all of this combines to give engagements a very organic satisfying feel;
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related to this is the physics. Starfield offers a great deal of freedom in movement and combat approach, and the nature of the environment plays a big part in how these segments will turn out. A low gravity area will greatly affect jumping and boost packing, and a Zero-G environment will make guns behave differently - ballistics, for example, propel you backwards when you shoot. This also affects the weight of the mass of the objects you’re carrying (you can carry more in a lower gravity planet for example). The game is full of little details like this that highly enhance your experience;
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ship combat is amazing. It takes a while to get used to and it’s clearly harder than ground combat, but once you get comfortable with it you can do some seriously awesome stuff. Everything feels punchy and highly intense when you’re in the thick of it, and I just love the epic tone of it all. Putting some skill points into it is highly recommended in order to make the most out of these dogfights;
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also somewhat connected to combat are ship landings. There is just something so enticing about going about your business and getting stopped on your tracks because you spot a ship landing in the distance. The curiosity gets the better of me every single time, and I just have to investigate. Sometimes they’re friendly, like scientists or colonisers, but others they’re hostile, and few things are as alluring in this game as taking a ship and making it your own. I adore the organic feel these moments bring to the table, and this can also be seen throughout the game in spontaneous creature / human fights, random missions with awesome rewards, memorable pieces of environmental storytelling, or getting into a dogfight and deciding to dock - and board - an enemy spacecraft;
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Starfield looks absolutely gorgeous. The attention to detail in ship parts, armours, weapons and so on is insane. I have never taken as many screenshots in a game, ever. I particularly love the used feel most things have. If a certain piece is supposed to look worn, it will be chipped and scratched, for example. The global illumination system is also phenomenal. Lighting comes across very realistically, and I love the attention to detail displayed here too: planets have their own rotation and orbit that you can track, with shadows and light cast accordingly at all times. This is done for every single planet and moon, which is beyond impressive - dungeon lighting needs some serious work though. Alongside this, named NCPs look incredible in dialogue, especially for a BGS game;
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mini-games have never been better in a Bethesda title. In fact, this might be my favourite lockpicking (or digipicking in this case) system in any game. But aside from that, I also like how the persuasion system works. I’ve seen it compared to Oblivion, and when I do, I wonder if people actually played that game recently, because apart from the colour-coded difficulty, there aren’t many similarities at all. In Starfield, it’s much more about what’s actually being said than the perceived degree of difficulty, leading you to pay attention to dialogue in a much more intentional way. It works really well for the most part, and I couldn’t help but be impressed at how effectively it was implemented;
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I also love how the skill system was designed. First you put points into skills, then into ranks, which are all tied to challenges that you can overcome only by doing something relevant to that specific skill. It’s a logically entangled system that keeps the player from becoming OP too soon, and coaxes them to go on an improvement journey. Some skills are all but useless though;
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ship building. I cannot believe how many hours I spent on this system since I was convinced I wouldn’t even engage with it. The feeling of improving your ship as you go along, and giving it virtually any look you want, is tremendously gratifying. I also enjoy the sense of progression here, since you start out with a very humble ship and good parts are quite expensive. It gives the game economy a big reason to exist, and it encourages you to manage your budget and take on high-paying jobs or quests;
- performance is also significantly improved across the board. They don’t call the studio ‘Bugthesda’ for nothing, but in this case they went above and beyond to make sure that moniker didn’t apply here. It certainly isn’t perfect still, but aside from the occasional crash and texture loading problems, I had very few issues throughout my several playthroughs, and especially after the first patch was released (which completely resolved both of those problems).
I always thought that, with Starfield, I was getting a Bethesda game in space. The irony of that thought is that I never truly considered what it meant. And what I got out of it was something very different, that somehow still felt very familiar. For the first time, I find myself playing a Bethesda game for its questlines, not its exploration; for the questions it poses, not the ones it lets me ask; for the narrative it tells me, not the narrative I create. This still doesn’t sit well with me in a way, but the more I digest it, the more I accept it as an impressive evolution in their storytelling process, one done at a much larger scale than anything they’ve attempted before. And yet, it’s still a Bethesda game in design, systems, mechanics, interactions, core philosophy, and yes, even silly NPC interactions. If feels like a cross between Mass Effect, Skyrim and Fallout 4, with lots of layers added to it for good measure. And despite all the problems I highlighted above, its scope is magnificent in ambition, and often in execution. So at the end of the day, meeting it where it’s at, Starfield is easily one of the most memorable gaming experiences I’ve had over the past decade. And with patches, updates, expansions and mods, it’s one I’ll surely keep coming back to, time and time again. 9.5/10
