Starfield is the RPG that Xbox needs but not necessarily the game the Xbox needs.

This is the first game from Bethesda I’ve ever played. Never played any of the Fallout games nor Elder Scroll games so for an RPG this was a totally a fresh experience for me. And I have to admit I’m pleased and impressed by Starfield. My first 15 hours of Starfield was a complete slog and I hated it. Pretty much every skill was a limit to the amount of things I could do and I couldn’t stand that. At one point I got so annoyed and stressed out with Starfield that almost dropped this game and MAN that would’ve been a BIG mistake. So my recommendation for this is just play the story. And I’m not saying RUSH the story, I’m saying PRIORITIZE the story to get the money, XP, and skill points that you NEED to do more with whatever you desire to to do in Starfield. Only then did this game get a lot better I had damn great time. But even with skill upgrades there will be many problems to consider. You really have to pay attention to the mass of stacked items because even if you max out your weight carrying limit, it can still be a struggle to manage if you’re not careful. I love how skills are handled because you actually need to do certain activities before making an upgrade to any skill. Once you invest skill points to do what you want or need, you will be in for a great time. Gun play works fine and is fun but unfortunately can get repetitive. There’s a decent amount weapons to choose but a lot do look similar with a few changes here and there. Luckily you can mod and upgrade these weapons at crafting benches. Personally I didn’t like any of the melee weapons. They felt clunky and out of place so I haven’t used them since I was 4 hours into Starfield. Energy weapons are also great with their main purpose being for zero gravity combat which I believe Bethesda handled well. My favorite parts during combat are when I fought enemies on a low gravity planets or moons which gave me tons of flexibility for how I could move. I would find everything from abandoned mines to labs or research stations etc, and they allowed me to jump around from building to building and man I had a blast doing that so combat wasn’t always repetitive. Space combat is short but lots of fun. You’ll go up against fleets of enemies in dog fights. It’s very important to make the necessary upgrades to your ships since the odds are against you in the numbers of enemies you face. And the sound design is easily some of the best in any video game I’ve played. Gun shots would sound different based on the gravity of whatever planet or moon you’re on. It’s a small detail many won’t notice but I certainly did and I’m amazed by it. Speaking of sounds the soundtrack is so AMAZING. I’m a big fan of the soundtrack from both Blade Runner films and Starfield’s soundtrack reminded me a lot about that. It felt like a mix of Star Wars and Blade Runner music and that’s very special to me. For the most part exploration was handled well but could’ve been better. Running from point A to point B was time consuming and wasn’t always fun to do, I got pretty bored and annoyed by it sometimes. I wish land vehicles were a thing in Starfield or at least make the jet packs work like they would in Star Wars to get around faster. But then again exploration wasn’t all that bad. One of my favorite things to do in Starfield are going to moons that are right next to a gas giant with rings. Seeing these gas giants from the surface of a moon is absolutely breathtaking to see. Graphics may not be the best but the visuals of planets, moons, or stars from wherever you’re located is remarkable to see. And of course every city, town, structure or space station you can find are visually detailed and beautiful to look at. Some of the coolest mechanics in Starfield are definitely the outposts and spaceships you can build to your liking. You can build many outposts where you can keep contraband that you can sell later or maybe you just want to mine resources for money or to build more structures. And man, I want to give a high five to the developers for letting me do as I please with my ships. It takes a little getting used to but once you get the hang of it you can build want you want with the only limit being your own imagination. I decided to build a giant pizza slice and I built Hera’s Star ship “The Ghost” from Star Wars and right now I’m planning to build a space ship from one of my favorite animes.

An aspect from Starfield I was definitely concerned about was the story. I heard it was boring and not very engaging with many saying it was a snooze fest. And I’m proud to say that I actually loved the story. It’s definitely not a deep story like how I would’ve loved even more but it’s not disappointment at all. I loved all the characters which all have their backstory to tell you about and I love how we can take them as companions that will go almost ANYWHERE with you. And of course there’s romance, I decided to romance Andreja and I LIKED THAT. You can make choices that will have different outcomes but don’t expect an in-depth choice that will completely alter the future of this game. I loved that you can be peaceful, sneaky or aggressive in the choices you make all while staying true to yourself. You can persuade people to get your way. The main story had a slow start but got more and more interesting as time went on as I got more lore about the universe. Side quests were mostly fun, some were so simple to do that I actually didn’t even understand what was going on and give you more of a reason to visit planets or moons you haven’t been to before. And the faction storylines had some of the best writing in the game. So if you play Starfield PLEASE don’t miss out on the faction storylines, they’re SO great.

Honestly, I wish I could give Starfield a 4.5 stars. And I can, but I won’t. While Starfield has its problems most of which are tolerable for me, I just can’t give it 4.5 stars. And the reason being, Starfield fails to show the full potential of the Xbox Series X. 30FPS doesn’t at all feel good for a game of this scale and WOW, the amount of loading screens that you have to go through is ridiculous to the point where it just doesn’t show off what the XSX can do. Other than that I truly believe Starfield is a fantastic and complex RPG through the stars. And as much as I want to, I already want to start NG+ but I unfortunately don’t have the time with the amount other games releasing. Again, I’m a new player to Bethesda and I believe that’s mainly why I enjoyed this experience so much and that’s one of the main reasons Starfield appealed to me.