i played this for about 10 hours. i wanted to try and at least finish the story before dropping a score but dear god this game is boring as fuck. i'm patient when it comes to slow openings if i can see the vision. i even enjoyed fallout 4 quite a bit despite it's flaws because it still had that cozy feel i like about bethesda games. but starfield is just loading screen after loading screen. you warp to a planet, drop off at the quest marker, kill some guys, warp again. there's nothing of value to explore. the game is ugly, runs like shit, and the quests are boring. the gun play is solid but that's about it. I don't like comparing games in reviews, but in a year with bg3 and cyberpunk 2.0, starfield is so unremarkable. hell, even day one cyberpunk was more fun than this. i know 10 hours isn't alot but another 30 hours of loading screens doesn't sound appealing.

Most reviews for this game seem to hover in the "mid" territory. I kind of get why, since in some ways the game does have an empty feel, can be a somewhat repetitive, AA budget, different from the rest of the "Valkyrie" series and is very light on story... at first. At worst I found this game pretty cozy and fun despite its repetitive nature at some points, at best I was genuinely surprised at how good the narrative turned out. I definitely get the "6/10" reviews but I feel this game has a lot to offer if you give it a chance. The empty feeling really serves the story well and reminds me of the weird "something isn't right" vibe of Nier: Replicant. Feels like a PS2 game structurally (positive) but with more refined gameplay than a PS2 budget title would have. Not on the level of something like a Platinum game, but it really clicked with me. Get the true ending, play on Hard Mode, and get the outline removal and film grain removal mods if you play on PC. Personal 8/10, more realistically a 6 or 7/10

this would be one of the coolest games of the decade if the pacing wasn't so bogged down by wave after wave of enemies. the gameplay is incredibly fun, but the combat loop is unfortunately tedious at many points. i found myself exhausted by the third act. your health melts before you know where the enemy is and by the third act you're most likely relying on the throw ability (which i recommend upgrading first.) assisted mode can alleviate some of the annoyance, but it feels like a band aid on an unbalanced game. the atmosphere is incredible, especially with headphones. the story is confusing, but still engrossing and gives you a lot to think about after the credits. unfortunately combat encounters more often feels like an interruption, than a fun challenge. i feel better checkpoints would've gone a long way to keep the pacing fresh. i do plan on playing the dlc, especially for the alan wake connections. despite my complaints, this game is definitely worth playing. so many cool ideas, just a lot of frustrations that come with them.

i played this game way after release, emulated, so i didn't really have technical issues too often. the game was a near steady 4k 30fps, so I can't speak to how the game launched. but oh my god, this game was so fun. the most fun pokemon experience i've since x and y (haven't played arceus yet) i love the mix of classic pokemon progression with a more open world. area zero was really cool and i liked seeing the story take some weird turns that i wasn't expecting. but please add voice acting, especially if you're gonna animate the scenes like there is. overall, a little janky, but i didn't have many issues that people dealt with on launch. this game was honestly such a joy, i was just happy to play a pokemon game.