This ranks as the least enjoyable Bethesda game I've ever experienced. I want to emphasize that my opinion about this game is not solely influenced by my bias from playing Baldur's Gate 3, as many tend to assume when people critique Starfield for some reason.
EDIT: I am creating a entire section at the end of my review to log how many times I got softlocked in the game. So many of which happened in the main quest and I couldn't straight up progress if I didn't use console commands, on one instance I got softlocked twice in the same quest.
(Warning: A barrage of personal opinions follows)
Bethesda needs to seriously evolve. They've stuck to the same gameplay formula since 2002? I mean, Skyrim was a blast in 2013 and remains one of my all-time favorites, but it's clearly lost its charm in 2023. This game probably boasts even more loading screens than Skyrim. Its gameplay is undeniably more tedious compared to Skyrim and Fallout 4, which, I admit, also weren't known for thrilling gameplay, but we're comparing their past titles here. This game occasionally crashes when I fast travel, and you do a ton of fast traveling in this game. On one occasion, fast traveling actually caused my PC to completely shut down – I saw a bunch of green pixels on a black screen, and my PC just rebooted. For the record, I've checked for overheating issues, and that's not the problem. I haven't completed the main storyline yet, but it's been dreadfully dull so far. I don't typically pass judgment on things I haven't finished unless they're exceptionally bad, and this falls into that category. It's just a slog to trudge through the main quests. However, the side quests and faction quests seem somewhat more enjoyable. Strangely, stealth doesn't function properly, yes, in a Bethesda RPG. Enemies can spot you from the opposite side of a building with their backs turned, and the entire building goes on high alert to your location. Everyone seems to praise the lockpick system, but to me, it's dreadfully dull and feels like a chore. I often skip containers when I see them, and, honestly, they usually just contain Junk(2) or Crap(5) anyway. The starship's function is practically nonexistent since you fast travel most of the time. You only use the ship for mandatory quests and random space battles. Not having maps didn't particularly bother me, but it's a peculiar design choice. The UI is a mess; do yourself a favor and download StarUI. There are no ground vehicles; you essentially bunny hop across the planets for literal kilometers. You can come across the same building/cave twice within 10 minutes. I cleared a building in Luna and traveled to Mars, first thing I find is exactly the same building with exactly the same enemy placement. Empty random generated planets, which aren’t really planets, just square areas you land on with invisible walls. Players get stuck on completely flat floors, NPCs glitch through walls – you know, the usual Bethesda bugs. The fact that they're still using the Creation Engine in 2023... Well, that's a whole other story. I might add more thoughts as they come to mind. Thanks for coming to my TED talk.
!!! Following are the softlocks that I've encountered;
The Empty Nest main quest; "Take the artifact" wouldn't proc even if I did picked it up(and the event that's supposed to occur when you get out of the cave wouldn't occur), so I had to use a console command to progress the quest to next step.
All That Money Can Buy main quest; Near the end of the quest you have to talk to Walter before taking off from Neon, if you talk to him you can't leave the conversation and locked in a staring contest, your only option is to load a earlier save. I fixed this with a console command to progress the quest.
All That Money Can Buy main quest(2); After I fixed the conversation the quest progresses into "Take of from Neon", I take off, nothing happens. I can't fix it with console commands, if I do I can't control my ship for some reason. So I go switch my ship to "Wanderwell" instead of the "Frontier" I've build from scratch(deleted everything and made something new from the tutorial ship) and when I take off with that ship the quest progresses and the event that's supposed to proc in space once you take off happens.
Overdesigned side quest; Again you get stuck in a conversation with Walter when you try to complete the quest, granted this completes the quest but you are still stuck. But this time I can't leave the conversation even with console commands; "disable/enable", you can use "coc" command to teleport out of the Lodge and come back but Walter remains untalkable, like forever. There is no "Talk" button on him, so in fear or breaking things even further with the main quest because you literally can't talk to him I just forcefully completed the quest with a console command.
Nearly all Power from Beyond (power quests); all of the bugged after some point, and I don't know why. I land at the planets to find the temples, no scanner distortions, no nothing. If I find the temples by sheer luck, they are unnamed, just "Temple" and they don't give any powers.
Revelation main quest: The quest tells me to go to the Masada III. I jump there and what do you know, there is a floating quest marker. I assume it's supposed to be a ship but can't interact with it no matter what I do.
EDIT: I am creating a entire section at the end of my review to log how many times I got softlocked in the game. So many of which happened in the main quest and I couldn't straight up progress if I didn't use console commands, on one instance I got softlocked twice in the same quest.
(Warning: A barrage of personal opinions follows)
Bethesda needs to seriously evolve. They've stuck to the same gameplay formula since 2002? I mean, Skyrim was a blast in 2013 and remains one of my all-time favorites, but it's clearly lost its charm in 2023. This game probably boasts even more loading screens than Skyrim. Its gameplay is undeniably more tedious compared to Skyrim and Fallout 4, which, I admit, also weren't known for thrilling gameplay, but we're comparing their past titles here. This game occasionally crashes when I fast travel, and you do a ton of fast traveling in this game. On one occasion, fast traveling actually caused my PC to completely shut down – I saw a bunch of green pixels on a black screen, and my PC just rebooted. For the record, I've checked for overheating issues, and that's not the problem. I haven't completed the main storyline yet, but it's been dreadfully dull so far. I don't typically pass judgment on things I haven't finished unless they're exceptionally bad, and this falls into that category. It's just a slog to trudge through the main quests. However, the side quests and faction quests seem somewhat more enjoyable. Strangely, stealth doesn't function properly, yes, in a Bethesda RPG. Enemies can spot you from the opposite side of a building with their backs turned, and the entire building goes on high alert to your location. Everyone seems to praise the lockpick system, but to me, it's dreadfully dull and feels like a chore. I often skip containers when I see them, and, honestly, they usually just contain Junk(2) or Crap(5) anyway. The starship's function is practically nonexistent since you fast travel most of the time. You only use the ship for mandatory quests and random space battles. Not having maps didn't particularly bother me, but it's a peculiar design choice. The UI is a mess; do yourself a favor and download StarUI. There are no ground vehicles; you essentially bunny hop across the planets for literal kilometers. You can come across the same building/cave twice within 10 minutes. I cleared a building in Luna and traveled to Mars, first thing I find is exactly the same building with exactly the same enemy placement. Empty random generated planets, which aren’t really planets, just square areas you land on with invisible walls. Players get stuck on completely flat floors, NPCs glitch through walls – you know, the usual Bethesda bugs. The fact that they're still using the Creation Engine in 2023... Well, that's a whole other story. I might add more thoughts as they come to mind. Thanks for coming to my TED talk.
!!! Following are the softlocks that I've encountered;
The Empty Nest main quest; "Take the artifact" wouldn't proc even if I did picked it up(and the event that's supposed to occur when you get out of the cave wouldn't occur), so I had to use a console command to progress the quest to next step.
All That Money Can Buy main quest; Near the end of the quest you have to talk to Walter before taking off from Neon, if you talk to him you can't leave the conversation and locked in a staring contest, your only option is to load a earlier save. I fixed this with a console command to progress the quest.
All That Money Can Buy main quest(2); After I fixed the conversation the quest progresses into "Take of from Neon", I take off, nothing happens. I can't fix it with console commands, if I do I can't control my ship for some reason. So I go switch my ship to "Wanderwell" instead of the "Frontier" I've build from scratch(deleted everything and made something new from the tutorial ship) and when I take off with that ship the quest progresses and the event that's supposed to proc in space once you take off happens.
Overdesigned side quest; Again you get stuck in a conversation with Walter when you try to complete the quest, granted this completes the quest but you are still stuck. But this time I can't leave the conversation even with console commands; "disable/enable", you can use "coc" command to teleport out of the Lodge and come back but Walter remains untalkable, like forever. There is no "Talk" button on him, so in fear or breaking things even further with the main quest because you literally can't talk to him I just forcefully completed the quest with a console command.
Nearly all Power from Beyond (power quests); all of the bugged after some point, and I don't know why. I land at the planets to find the temples, no scanner distortions, no nothing. If I find the temples by sheer luck, they are unnamed, just "Temple" and they don't give any powers.
Revelation main quest: The quest tells me to go to the Masada III. I jump there and what do you know, there is a floating quest marker. I assume it's supposed to be a ship but can't interact with it no matter what I do.