Starfield - Empty Spaces (Review)

Honestly, I'm absolutely loving it, but it's also exactly what I hoped it would be: A Standard Issue Bethesda RPG in space. I know that it's not really doing anything new, but I kind of didn't want it to. I'm also not going to be a twat and respect that other people's opinions are different!

Should have replied here - the comments on your site are mostly insults - anyway - it has just dawned on me that I’m bored with the writing and skipping dialogue - then wondering why I’m not finishing the Outer Worlds instead. I’m also finding the Wild West in space trope uninteresting - space Wyoming. I may just revisit when it’s discounted and modding has progressed given the issue with game pass saves being locked in a weird format etc.

Every time I try to play it I think "I never did finish that Dark Urge playthrough" and go back to BG3.

Wow 4 out of 10 that is a low score, but I don't really disagree, personally I don't think mechanically it's that bad, I actually prefer it to Outer Worlds in that sense, since OW has a unbalanced combat that is either too easy or too harsh depending on difficulty combined with a slow walking speed. (It also has a very comparable problem with inventory size) But then again I played Outer Worlds this year so all my frustrations with it are quite fresh. What Starfield doesn't have is a single truly interesting character like Parvati, but then again I'm not too found of the rest of the cast in Outer Worlds, and I find the "satire" in that toothless at best.

Are ypu prepared to handle the shitstorm that will come down for not giving a glitchy fallout 3 in space an 11/10?

"It’s the sheer lack of imagination that truly makes Starfield so sad to play." Yeah, that's about right. I agree 100%. It's also lacking in the personality. The setting is about as exciting as the future city from Demolition Man, but without a crazy Wesley Snipes showing up to make things interesting. It's a setting where they forgot to write in a crisis that makes it interesting. Dialogue is flat, it takes 5 hours for the game to get interesting, and the entire setup for the main plot is so bland it makes me think it was written by Collin Robinson from WWDITS. I'm enjoying the game (I'm one of the masochists who played Fallout 76 all the way through), but it's just more Bethesda. All be it Bethesda with a main plot that seems to have been lifted whole cloth from No Man's Sky complete with the exact same ending twist. But one thing does make it a bit bearable. I modded it to get rid of carry weight. That made the game more enjoyable.

I wish I could buy this just to compare it to the games you're comparing it to because I'm actually curious. I adore No Man's Sky. I won't waste the money for now because it just looks kinda dead. There's nothing so far that i've cared about that i've seen, I'd have to see a more detailed review to make sure. It seems like it has less personality than Fallout 3 and that game has my nostalgia/heart but i wouldn't say it was good either. I hate massive empty open worlds with a passion now. I wanted this game to be good because Bethesda sucks but their games are weirdly satisfying. This just makes me really sad. Bethesda has always gotten the nostalgia discount from me, but now it just looks sad. I'll be fair to it in that I haven't played it. I might when it goes on sale.

I disagree this time. I remember all the praise The Outer Worlds got, and how that game was put on a pedestal in the frequent comparisons to Fallout '76... And it was a great game at the time, I loved it too... But I think Starfield does everything TOW did, only much, much better; with more depth and nuance, and less reliance on characters having just one gimmick to their personality. Maybe it's the way I like to play Bethesda games,? Always starting out Skyrim by picking the flowers and mushrooms in the area, then swimming in the lake for the little fish to kick off some alchemy... Or in Fallout 4 by claiming the settlements and setting up a little triangle trade between Sanctuary, Red Rocket and Abernathy Farm before I head down into Lexington... I know I'm gonna put thousands of hours into Starfield, so I'm really slow-walking it and pottering around decorating my outposts before I move on anywhere. I'm nearly 120 hours in and I've just added Andreja to my crew after becoming a Freestar Ranger, so I feel like I'm just barely getting started. OF COURSE I want mods too. There's so much I want to tailor about the experience; from removing fast travel and adding slow in-system travel with downtime on my ship, place anywhere for outposts, angle and grid snapping, poly romances, proper naked bodies, sexier and more interesting outfits, eventually a sex framework... But daaamn it's so much of what I wanted already, I wake up in the mornings excited to take off and see what's new to explore out there.

As someone who absolutely fell in love with deathloop, but it took a little while... It's just so weird to see this release have no to little innovation, but then deathloop just be such a great game. It's so different from any other Bethesda game. Wild....

I entirely agree with Steph's comments, and have been rather enjoying the game. These are not things in conflict, it is entirely possible to enjoy media whilst holding it to account. Starfield does nothing to advance the art or science of game design. It's boldest achievements are 1. Proving there's still lots of life left in space games, and 2. Proving that you don't need to put any effort into a game to call it AAA and get huge sales. If anything, starfield is further proof of my personal hot take: "early access" (beyond small indie studios) has been a net negative for both gamers and developers, and has pushed all parties into an unhealthy relationship. Starfield feels like an early access title, there's so little (if none) innovation, and many leaps backwards. I picked up Starfield because I'm the sort of person happy to spend months of my free time setting up heavily modded versions of games. But that doesn't mean I am not waiting with baited breath to see if Bethesda not only actually do their jobs, but learn from other successful developers and keep actively engaged and working on the product.