Starfield - Bethesda Softworks - Release Date - Sep 6th 2023

[Osprey]

I think the low Steam reviews are due to bad performance on lower end hardware because i cannot think of a single other reason why this game should be rated lower than Fallout 3/4 aside from nostalgia.

I've read through the top negative reviews and performance is barely even being mentioned. The criticisms revolve around the gameplay and the game world. It may not be any worse than Fallout 3/4, but there's disappointment because people expected something better. Part of that is probably due to Bethesda promising thousands of worlds and infinite replayability, but you eventually realize that there's only a very limited number of unique and interesting worlds and there's no replayability because choices don't matter and you can do every quest line in one playthrough. Obviously, 75% of players seem to not mind, but 25% feel a little let down.

 

[Leafs at Knight]

I don’t understand how you spend 80 hours on a game you find average. That’s a lot of time.

Still loving it, although the Ryjukin Industries questline had an annoying mission with pure stealth that was frustrating.

I’m getting more frame drops the deeper I get in the game. Not sure if that’s related or not. No crashes but big dips.

It's an open world RPG, 80 hours isn't a whole lot lol. Average =/= bad, and still worth playing it through to see how the story wrapped up. I'm sure basically everyone that plays video games has played an average game for 80~ hours at some point, especially an rpg or a MP game.

 

[Leafs at Knight]

I think the low Steam reviews are due to bad performance on lower end hardware because i cannot think of a single other reason why this game should be rated lower than Fallout 3/4 aside from nostalgia.

Well Fallout 3 was a lot better written game, had choices that mattered, and fun exploration in an open world game that was worth doing. Fallout 4 I'll give you, but just goes to show Bethesda hasn't improved since Skyrim in 2011. Also there isn't even an fov slider on pc lol, dlss, or colour blind options, it's 2023.. It's not just lower hardware, I have a well above average setup and had to install a handful of mods like the dlss one to make the game look and run smooth.

 

[WeDislikeEich]

I still really like the game but I do get the disappointment. The open world is kind of bland. It’s a whole lot of the exact same buildings and locations on planets and only a handful of bigger cities to explore. I’ve been a bit disappointed in the loot too. I’ll explore a big facility and find barely anything worth keeping, or waste a bunch of time to pick a master lock only to find a few credits and a box of ammo.

I wish planets had more interesting locations and loot. I’m losing interest in exploring them. It gets repetitive with so little variation. And I really wish there were more locations with cities and side quests.

I don’t necessarily agree that choices don’t matter. To some extent they don’t but there are many cases where they do. Like the crimson fleet quest I saw mentioned recently - if you go and start killing people when you’re not supposed to you do only get reprimanded the first time but if you do it a second time you get locked in jail and banned from the UC. It can also have negative effects with companions to the point where they leave too.

Overall, I was hoping for more of a jump forward in this game though. I agree it does feel a bit too much like Bethesda games of past with nothing really groundbreaking.

I am still enjoying it enough to keep playing. I think I have about 120 hours played and still have main quests to do. I’m finishing up the crimson fleet quest now. I plan to finish the game and will most likely play new game + at some point before the first DLC releases. The cyberpunk 2077 DLC is next up though.

 

[Turin]

I find the quests miles better than Fallout 4, and the factions miles better than Skyrim. So while it feels dated in some aspects, for fans of BGs games there are a lot of improvements relative to to the recent titles.

Well Fallout 3 was a lot better written game, had choices that mattered, and fun exploration in an open world game that was worth doing. Fallout 4 I'll give you, but just goes to show Bethesda hasn't improved since Skyrim in 2011. Also there isn't even an fov slider on pc lol, dlss, or colour blind options, it's 2023.. It's not just lower hardware, I have a well above average setup and had to install a handful of mods like the dlss one to make the game look and run smooth.

Fallout 3 had the worst main quest I’ve ever seen in terms of writing. And I think had less quest choice without question, besides hur dur blow up a city for no reason quest.

In Skyrim your choices did not matter at all, you didn’t really have any in-quest choices. There’s more options in Ryujin than all of Skyrim.

 

[Leafs at Knight]

I find the quests miles better than Fallout 4, and the factions miles better than Skyrim. So while it feels dated in some aspects, for fans of BGs games there are a lot of improvements relative to to the recent titles.



Fallout 3 had the worst main quest I’ve ever seen in terms of writing. And I think had less quest choice without question, besides hur dur blow up a city for no reason quest.

In Skyrim your choices did not matter at all, you didn’t really have any in-quest choices. There’s more options in Ryujin than all of Skyrim.

Fallout 3 dlc was better than the entirety of starfield. And you proved my point nothing you did really mattered in Skyrim which came out in 2011 (same with oblivion in 2006), and now again in starfield. Bethesda hasn't gotten over the hump of making interesting role playing mechanics in their games. Also the dark brotherhood questline in oblivion was better than any faction in this game, and multiple like the thieves guild in Skyrim are better. The ryujiin quest line felt like a cheap thieves guild equivalent.

There's no options in the ryujiin questline other than to actually correctly identify the culprit or frame someone else, which in turns leads to absolutely nothing different by the end, and the conclusion is the same. You can do the last couple missions guns a blazing, and nothing changes. It's the same conclusion. And that's just one example, basically nothing in the game matters. The game is a mile wide, but an inch deep.

The uv and crimson fleet quest lines were cool, but at the end of the day it doesn't really matter what you choose at the end.

I still really like the game but I do get the disappointment. The open world is kind of bland. It’s a whole lot of the exact same buildings and locations on planets and only a handful of bigger cities to explore. I’ve been a bit disappointed in the loot too. I’ll explore a big facility and find barely anything worth keeping, or waste a bunch of time to pick a master lock only to find a few credits and a box of ammo.

I wish planets had more interesting locations and loot. I’m losing interest in exploring them. It gets repetitive with so little variation. And I really wish there were more locations with cities and side quests.

I don’t necessarily agree that choices don’t matter. To some extent they don’t but there are many cases where they do. Like the crimson fleet quest I saw mentioned recently - if you go and start killing people when you’re not supposed to you do only get reprimanded the first time but if you do it a second time you get locked in jail and banned from the UC. It can also have negative effects with companions to the point where they leave too.

Overall, I was hoping for more of a jump forward in this game though. I agree it does feel a bit too much like Bethesda games of past with nothing really groundbreaking.

I am still enjoying it enough to keep playing. I think I have about 120 hours played and still have main quests to do. I’m finishing up the crimson fleet quest now. I plan to finish the game and will most likely play new game + at some point before the first DLC releases. The cyberpunk 2077 DLC is next up though.

No, that example you gave doesn't matter. You have to choose between the uc sysdef or crimson fleet by the end of the quest line anyways. In my game uc hate me because I choose crimson fleet over them. But you can still visit uc controlled planets and everything, they scan your ship when you enter one of their systems, and then yet you land anyways even if you slaughtered uc members before.

 

[Mikeaveli]

I've read through the top negative reviews and performance is barely even being mentioned. The criticisms revolve around the gameplay and the game world. It may not be any worse than Fallout 3/4, but there's disappointment because people expected something better. Part of that is probably due to Bethesda promising thousands of worlds and infinite replayability, but you eventually realize that there's only a very limited number of unique and interesting worlds and there's no replayability because choices don't matter and you can do every quest line in one playthrough. Obviously, 75% of players seem to not mind, but 25% feel a little let down.

I guess I just evaluate games differently than them, I prefer to judge games on their own merits rather than against whatever expectations people have before launch. I am able to enjoy games like Fallout 4 and Cyberpunk despite them not being what I hoped they would be in some aspects. Is Starfield the generation defining game it couldve been? No, but i would give it a very solid 8.5/10 from what I've played so far, though I've still only played 30 hours as I've barely had time to game at all the past few weeks. I expect it to be in my top 5 games of the year in what is turning out to be an all-timer.

Well Fallout 3 was a lot better written game, had choices that mattered, and fun exploration in an open world game that was worth doing. Fallout 4 I'll give you, but just goes to show Bethesda hasn't improved since Skyrim in 2011. Also there isn't even an fov slider on pc lol, dlss, or colour blind options, it's 2023.. It's not just lower hardware, I have a well above average setup and had to install a handful of mods like the dlss one to make the game look and run smooth.

Personally I can't agree on Fallout 3, that game has a really bad main quest and there are basically two choices in the entire game that have an impact, one of which you don't even get to see unless you're playing with the DLC (which was made in order to retcon one of the most nonsensical endings I've seen in a video game). Not to mention that it completely misinterprets the lore of the original games and also dumbs down its themes. Two things I will give the game are that I vastly prefer how Fallout 3 handles character stats (SPECIAL, skills, perks, traits, etc.) over Starfield, and the soundtrack is excellent.

Basically, if you give me two games with mid stories and RPG mechanics, but one has vastly improved gameplay and visuals (and I'd argue art style) in exchange for even shallower RPG mechanics, I'm going to take the game with improved gameplay every time.

 

[GreytWun]

Starfield began development in late 2014, early 2015 and uses the same old game engine which has a ton of limitations.

I don’t understand why people are acting like it’s a game from 2022 or 2023 and should be drastically different than other BGS games.

I think people got too hyped and expected too much not understanding the game started development 8+ years ago.

 

[Turin]

Fallout 3 dlc was better than the entirety of starfield. And you proved my point nothing you did really mattered in Skyrim which came out in 2011 (same with oblivion in 2006), and now again in starfield. Bethesda hasn't gotten over the hump of making interesting role playing mechanics in their games. Also the dark brotherhood questline in oblivion was better than any faction in this game, and multiple like the thieves guild in Skyrim are better. The ryujiin quest line felt like a cheap thieves guild equivalent.

There's no options in the ryujiin questline other than to actually correctly identify the culprit or frame someone else, which in turns leads to absolutely nothing different by the end, and the conclusion is the same. You can do the last couple missions guns a blazing, and nothing changes. It's the same conclusion. And that's just one example, basically nothing in the game matters. The game is a mile wide, but an inch deep.

The uv and crimson fleet quest lines were cool, but at the end of the day it doesn't really matter what you choose at the end.


No, that example you gave doesn't matter. You have to choose between the uc sysdef or crimson fleet by the end of the quest line anyways. In my game uc hate me because I choose crimson fleet over them. But you can still visit uc controlled planets and everything, they scan your ship when you enter one of their systems, and then yet you land anyways even if you slaughtered uc members before.

How does it not “matter?” What are you expecting in a sandbox game? Ryujin isn’t the same outcome every time, the decisions you make say a lot about the character youre playing. The main quest literally changes the universe for example. You’re not really specifying what “matters” means here. If the Oblivion Dark Brotherhood is so good what matters in that one? Their same story plays out every time, you can never save Lechance.

 

[The Mars Volchenkov]

Ok, the end of the Ryujin Industries questline was a total pain for someone who has put nothing into stealth.

 

[WeDislikeEich]

Ok, the end of the Ryujin Industries questline was a total pain for someone who has put nothing into stealth.

I have stealth maxed, have a chameleon pack, a stealth suit that makes my character 25% harder to detect and I still had a very difficult time near the end of that mission. I couldn’t figure out wtf kept detecting me at first then after a bit I realized what it was.

I finally did it after a bunch of quicksaves and reloads. What a PITA.

Getting to his office was actually relatively easy though, if you stick mostly to the vents and take the right route. Oh, and using the “sense star stuff” power also helps so you can see where enemies are.

You don’t actually have to complete it stealthily. I’m not sure it’s worth the effort.

 

[kmart]

Starfield began development in late 2014, early 2015 and uses the same old game engine which has a ton of limitations.

I don’t understand why people are acting like it’s a game from 2022 or 2023 and should be drastically different than other BGS games.

I think people got too hyped and expected too much not understanding the game started development 8+ years ago.

but starfield is different, its worse - it looks like bethesda lost important people or/and focused on different aspects of their game while regressing in other areas. the base/ship gameplay for example, its fine but it shouldnt come at the cost of a dead ai compared to skyrim which got released over 10 years ago.

sf galaxy has no life in it because with all their "more dialoge lines than skyrim and fa4" advertisements, their npc dont really intereact with each other anymore, they are dead quest givers that never leave their initial cell... the player always needs to jump from one loading screen to the next where u find some1 to talk to or another audio log or a mounted intercom... there is no nazeem who wanders around and instults people, or a shop keeper drinking ale at the bar in the evening.

why couldnt a gangster in neon visit the club or a ranger go on patrol or they both meet each other at random spots and talk - they had the voiced actors after all... my theory: this would require lots of outsourced departments working with each other and betheada lost touch here, u can feel how every mission/gameplay feature is played a bit disconnected from each other or dont matter at all, like they created something in a vacuum and were not able to make it work with each other afterward.

 

[Osprey]

No, that example you gave doesn't matter. You have to choose between the uc sysdef or crimson fleet by the end of the quest line anyways. In my game uc hate me because I choose crimson fleet over them. But you can still visit uc controlled planets and everything, they scan your ship when you enter one of their systems, and then yet you land anyways even if you slaughtered uc members before.

I made the opposite choice (mostly because I resented being called a "rook") and the Key is now empty and pointless to visit anymore, so I'll say that that particular choice has consequences. I ended up losing the best place to sell contraband and stolen items. The next best and where I'm having to go now to sell contraband is The Den in the Wolf system (near Sol and Alpha Centauri), though it's not as convenient because I usually have to sit and wait 48 hours once or twice to sell everything. It'd be nice to still have the Key, but it's cool that I'm forced to adapt to the consequences of my actions and I wish that there were more examples like that.

I guess I just evaluate games differently than them, I prefer to judge games on their own merits rather than against whatever expectations people have before launch. I am able to enjoy games like Fallout 4 and Cyberpunk despite them not being what I hoped they would be in some aspects. Is Starfield the generation defining game it couldve been? No, but i would give it a very solid 8.5/10 from what I've played so far, though I've still only played 30 hours as I've barely had time to game at all the past few weeks. I expect it to be in my top 5 games of the year in what is turning out to be an all-timer.

I don't think that you necessarily evaluate games any differently than anyone else. I think that all of us start out trying to enjoy games as they are, but there comes a point when we do have to judge them against other games. I don't believe that you can actually judge anything on its own merits. You need to have something to judge it against. In the case of Starfield, that's past Bethesda games, their promises for the game and other current games (like BG3). If you're not thinking of that and just enjoying the game, that's good, but there comes a point (where most reviewers are at) when you do have to judge how it stacks up.

 

[Osprey]

but starfield is different, its worse - it looks like bethesda lost important people or/and focused on different aspects of their game while regressing in other areas. the base/ship gameplay for example, its fine but it shouldnt come at the cost of a dead ai compared to skyrim which got released over 10 years ago.

sf galaxy has no life in it because with all their "more dialoge lines than skyrim and fa4" advertisements, their npc dont really intereact with each other anymore, they are dead quest givers that never leave their initial cell... the player always needs to jump from one loading screen to the next where u find some1 to talk to or another audio log or a mounted intercom... there is no nazeem who wanders around and instults people, or a shop keeper drinking ale at the bar in the evening.

why couldnt a gangster in neon visit the club or a ranger go on patrol or they both meet each other at random spots and talk - they had the voiced actors after all... my theory: this would require lots of outsourced departments working with each other and betheada lost touch here, u can feel how every mission/gameplay feature is played a bit disconnected from each other or dont matter at all, like they created something in a vacuum and were not able to make it work with each other afterward.

The NPC AI does feel like a step back. I remember in past games that NPCs would move around more and sleep. For example, if you visited a shop after dark, the owner wouldn't be behind the counter, but upstairs, in bed, instead. Similarly, if you visited someone's living quarters, you could find him in bed at night and gone during the day. In Starfield, NPCs are always on the job and never in their living quarters. Whether it's 3pm or 3am, you can find them behind their counter or desk. It's convenient if you need to talk to them, but not very immersive. I wouldn't mind having to track them down or simply take a seat and wait for them to come to work. It'd be cool, though, if stores were still open all day and night, but staffed in shifts, so that you'd meet and trade with different NPCs at night than during the day. If you actually need a particular employee for a quest, though, there could be a dialogue option like "I have something for..." and a response that tells you when they'll be in, tipping you off to have a seat and wait. More vendors would require more voice work, but would be a relatively easy way to make the world feel more dynamic and realistic.

 

[Leafs at Knight]

Starfield began development in late 2014, early 2015 and uses the same old game engine which has a ton of limitations.

I don’t understand why people are acting like it’s a game from 2022 or 2023 and should be drastically different than other BGS games.

I think people got too hyped and expected too much not understanding the game started development 8+ years ago.

Not sure how or why when a game started development is relevant at all, in fact it probably counters your point more than it makes one. They've had 8 years to live and learn from their own games including Fallout 4 and fo76 which came out during this time, on top of looking at various other games that came out during this time to learn from. Also a game like baldurs gate 3 came out this year, was in development for almost 7 years and completely blows starfield out of the water on every single aspect that the 2 games can be compared against. When there's aspects in their previous games including dating back to Morrowind that are better than starfields, you start to wonder if Bethesda peaked many years ago (they did).

 

[Leafs at Knight]

How does it not “matter?” What are you expecting in a sandbox game? Ryujin isn’t the same outcome every time, the decisions you make say a lot about the character youre playing. The main quest literally changes the universe for example. You’re not really specifying what “matters” means here. If the Oblivion Dark Brotherhood is so good what matters in that one? Their same story plays out every time, you can never save Lechance.

It literally doesn't matter in the end, that's my entire point lol. Ok you frame the right person or the wrong person in the end, complete the quest, and go on your way. There's no implications or events that may benefit your choice or potentially harm your choice moving forward. The ryujiin faction just remains the same throughout the universe, you don't get maybe a branching quest depending on your choice that expands the relationship of whoever you decided to save/frame, etc; you expose a companies shady dealing, but don't see anything past that played out. That's what I mean by nothing matters, maybe I'm just spoiled by baldurs gate 3 where most of your choices have some sort of implication. Nothing matters in the dark brotherhood quest, it was just a good quest line, better than pretty much anything in starfield. But that game was made in 2006, and my entire point is you'd hope to see Bethesda grow and improve as a developer but most of their development seems stuck in 2006. Ironically Morrowind in 2002? was probably their best game that felt like an RPG.

 

[x Tame Impala]

Haven’t played the game. A lukewarm reception to Starfield is disappointing to me as a GamePass subscriber though because it was supposed to be their BIG DEAL of a game. It’s why I’m not super geeked about Microsoft snatching up all these dev teams.

If Xbox live wasn’t included with GP I highly doubt I’d have it

 

[GreytWun]

Not sure how or why when a game started development is relevant at all, in fact it probably counters your point more than it makes one. They've had 8 years to live and learn from their own games including Fallout 4 and fo76 which came out during this time, on top of looking at various other games that came out during this time to learn from. Also a game like baldurs gate 3 came out this year, was in development for almost 7 years and completely blows starfield out of the water on every single aspect that the 2 games can be compared against. When there's aspects in their previous games including dating back to Morrowind that are better than starfields, you start to wonder if Bethesda peaked many years ago (they did).

baulders gate was 6 years.

They don't have the same people working on it during the entire 8 years. The game I can only imagine changed a million times in that time frame with how large they were planning it to be, mixed in with pandemic and pushing it back every year. They have to commit to something eventually and not go back and change things.

The game is flawed, I have already called out many issues in this thread alone and haven't played it in over a week now due to having nothing really else to do. However the 100+ hours I played, I had a very good time.

 

[Super Cake]

Ok, the end of the Ryujin Industries questline was a total pain for someone who has put nothing into stealth.

At least you were able to finish the questline.

I am stuck on the talk to David at SSNN part of the Sabotage quest being that his marker is glitched all the way outside of the playable area.

 

[S E P H]

How is the overall storyline in this game? Good, bad, average, other, combination of both?

 

[LarKing]

Ok, the end of the Ryujin Industries questline was a total pain for someone who has put nothing into stealth.

I ended up reloading and leveling up to at least get the stealth bar. Still had to use a walkthrough. Those guards have better hearing than Daredevil. Sometimes it would take me minutes to walk 10 feet because every tiny step I took put me close to being discovered. I guess you don't have to use stealth but I was trying to be a good guy and not kill anyone. Ryujin missions were incredibly boring to me. If I do a NG+ I'll be staying far away from being their glorified errand boy again.

 

[WeDislikeEich]

I ended up reloading and leveling up to at least get the stealth bar. Still had to use a walkthrough. Those guards have better hearing than Daredevil. Sometimes it would take me minutes to walk 10 feet because every tiny step I took put me close to being discovered. I guess you don't have to use stealth but I was trying to be a good guy and not kill anyone. Ryujin missions were incredibly boring to me. If I do a NG+ I'll be staying far away from being their glorified errand boy again.

Did you remember to take your spacesuit off while sneaking? If you leave it on, like you said every step you almost get detected. With it off you should make a lot less noise.

 

[GreytWun]

I ended up reloading and leveling up to at least get the stealth bar. Still had to use a walkthrough. Those guards have better hearing than Daredevil. Sometimes it would take me minutes to walk 10 feet because every tiny step I took put me close to being discovered. I guess you don't have to use stealth but I was trying to be a good guy and not kill anyone. Ryujin missions were incredibly boring to me. If I do a NG+ I'll be staying far away from being their glorified errand boy again.

I agree. I didn’t like the Ryujin missions although I don’t really like playing stealthy in games to begin with.

 

[LarKing]

Did you remember to take your spacesuit off while sneaking? If you leave it on, like you said every step you almost get detected. With it off you should make a lot less noise.

Yep. I had it off and used aids to have less movement noise. Idk if I was glitched or what. Legit had to go one step at a time. One of the most miserable gaming experiences I’ve ever had

 

[Mikeaveli]

I don't think that you necessarily evaluate games any differently than anyone else. I think that all of us start out trying to enjoy games as they are, but there comes a point when we do have to judge them against other games. I don't believe that you can actually judge anything on its own merits. You need to have something to judge it against. In the case of Starfield, that's past Bethesda games, their promises for the game and other current games (like BG3). If you're not thinking of that and just enjoying the game, that's good, but there comes a point (where most reviewers are at) when you do have to judge how it stacks up.

Yes, I think I misspoke earlier, of course I do compare games to each other, that's why I find it strange that Starfield has a lower score than a game it is a strict upgrade over (Fallout 4). I just disagree with the idea of incorporating expectations of a game into a review, because when I read a review of a game I want just that, a review of the game, not a review of the pre-launch marketing.

Personally I think the game is on the same tier as Cyberpunk where it is comfortably better than a lot of the major "RPG"s that are coming out now (Hogwarts Legacy, Horizon series, Assassin's Creed, The Outer Worlds) while also being obviously worse than the top tier CRPGs (BG3, Divinity: OS2, Pathfinder WOTR). I just find it strange that a game like Hogwarts Legacy had basically the exact same criticisms thrown its way as Starfield (story, shallow RPG mechanics, exploration beyond Hogwarts, bad PC version, etc.) and similar critic review scores yet the game has a 92% rating on Steam while Starfield sits at a 74%.