This review contains spoilers
Starfield is the first new open world rpg from Bethesda in a long time, and the first(?) under new owners Microsoft. I’ve been playing it since release and doing my second playthrough through new game plus, and I find it hard to articulate what I love about it so much. I don’t think it’s my game of the year, that probably goes to baldurs gate 3, but starfield does a lot more right than wrong. The way new game plus is integrated, it’s awesome, and I think they could have done more to more tightly integrate it, but choosing the new dialogue options is so satisfying.
The main quest is good, but I think the faction quest lines are really really good, and having done almost all of them, I think you could pick any one and do that and have a great time. In that regard, starfield has some of the best questing I’ve played this year.
Shooting is fine, I’m not a connoisseur of shooting games so I can’t remark on them. The level up benefits system is pretty good, though some of the challenges for perk levels 3 and 4 are really out there and feel grindy.
I haven’t really touched spaceship building or outpost guilting, it’s not really an area I find a lot of enjoyment in general. Thankfully starfield has a more simplified option for upgrading your ship.
The biggest controversy seems to be how you travel, with a lot of people being dissatisfied with fast travel and how you discover new star systems. I will say it probably could have been done better, but I can’t imagine how it would look, because I acknowledge that even if the game has sci fi magic and prefers to stick to realistic parameters everywhere else, traveling through a solar system would just take forever and that isn’t fun and fast travel is the only way to make traveling through the galaxy feasible. I’m sure the devs will take this experience and will refine it for next time.
If anything else, the takeaway should be that if you were worried about the next elder scrolls or fallout game or whatever new open world game then do, you shouldn’t be worried, the team at Bethesda knows how to put together an engaging video game with a surprising level of detail and well thought out world building. I’m super excited for what’s next from a studio that I’ve followed since I was a kid playing daggerfall.
The main quest is good, but I think the faction quest lines are really really good, and having done almost all of them, I think you could pick any one and do that and have a great time. In that regard, starfield has some of the best questing I’ve played this year.
Shooting is fine, I’m not a connoisseur of shooting games so I can’t remark on them. The level up benefits system is pretty good, though some of the challenges for perk levels 3 and 4 are really out there and feel grindy.
I haven’t really touched spaceship building or outpost guilting, it’s not really an area I find a lot of enjoyment in general. Thankfully starfield has a more simplified option for upgrading your ship.
The biggest controversy seems to be how you travel, with a lot of people being dissatisfied with fast travel and how you discover new star systems. I will say it probably could have been done better, but I can’t imagine how it would look, because I acknowledge that even if the game has sci fi magic and prefers to stick to realistic parameters everywhere else, traveling through a solar system would just take forever and that isn’t fun and fast travel is the only way to make traveling through the galaxy feasible. I’m sure the devs will take this experience and will refine it for next time.
If anything else, the takeaway should be that if you were worried about the next elder scrolls or fallout game or whatever new open world game then do, you shouldn’t be worried, the team at Bethesda knows how to put together an engaging video game with a surprising level of detail and well thought out world building. I’m super excited for what’s next from a studio that I’ve followed since I was a kid playing daggerfall.