I had quite a fun time with this one. This is a lot closer to the original Fallout in terms of tone and explicitly only that game in the series as everything after deviated further and further from the original flavor, but that is not to say this game is just a poor attempt at recreating that flavor; it very much has an identity of its own, and that comes through in the narrative themes, world-building and writing.

I get the sense that the popular consensus that the game is "mid" has more to do with people having played it with the inflated story/narrative expectations of "New Vegas IN SPACE" than any specific issues with the game itself. I could also see some being disappointed with the limited scale of the various worlds they visited throughout their playthrough, but I found myself more than happy trading exploration for a more focused and streamlined approach to traveling and questing. From a graphical standpoint, the art direction is strong enough to make every planet and asteroid we land on feel distinct, though some are a definitely a lot more interesting to stare at than others.

That being said it aint perfect and that reflects the most in the combat, which becomes pretty trivial pretty quickly and lacks enemy variety.

Your mileage may vary but after bouncing off Starfield this felt exactly like what I was missing.