Current Events > So what's the verdict on Starfield?

(+) Yeah! (+)

Just not your game man

it seems like it good.

the metacritic user score was at around 3 a day ago now it up to the high 5s and low 6 (between pc and xbox series x) so ppl that have actually played the game think it good i think

I've only messed around with the main quest and the Vanguard quests and think the variety has been pretty good so far. Vanguard questline is excellent.

tripleh213 posted...

Just not your game man

That's fine, but that does not really invalidate my experience with the game and my subsequent opinion based on that experience.

And I am trying to play it just like how I would have played any other Bethesda game. Except with other Bethesda games the desire to explore just feels more natural - yeah maybe you're delivering cookies to grandma's house, but on the way you risk getting attacked by some bandits and you might discover a little haunted outpost and fight some ghosts.

In Starfield I have not had that experience yet... at all. People say there are pirate outposts on the planets and all that but I haven't really had any desire to explore out there and the game has given me zero reason to explore out there.

I'm having a lot of fun so far tbqh.

Space combat, Mining resources, scanning stuff, finding pirates to kill and steal from. It's all pretty fun.

I just wish I could actually spend more time really flying my ship instead of fast travel.

I've been loving it myself.

People hyped it up too much though and then expected it to be like BG3, despite it being a different style of game.

That and there are numerous quality of life things missing and odd choices with UI etc.

A real shame cant manually fly down to planets as well.

Funkydog posted...

People hyped it up too much though and then expected it to be like BG3, despite it being a different style of game.

I keep seeing people try to pretend that BG3 cannot be compared to it due to being a different style of game and that's frankly ludicrous.

Why can't Starfield have has interesting of companions as BG3? Why can't Starfield have as reactive of quests as BG3? Why can't the characters have the depth of characters in BG3? These are all things that are genre agnostic and BG3 knocked out of the fucking park while Starfield most assuredly did not.

Starfield had the budget, it had the dev time, it had the storied developers. They have no excuse.

Funkydog posted...

I've been loving it myself.

Same, it's a fantastic game that I only have like one or two complaints about:

1. The lack of a map or minimap makes it easy to get lost in the cities
2. The vendors need to have more money on them.

Other than that I love it so far. I just did a mission where you're sneaking aroung a wrecked colony being hunted by a massive alien predator. You don't know where it is, but you know how far away from you it is. It was tense and stressful and I loved every second of it.

Pretty underwhelming.

Hexenherz posted...

the game has given me zero reason to explore out there.

You're not far enough in the main story yet :)

Put in a 7 very quick hours. It's a great game. Probably Bethesda's best work yet. It doesn't have that spectacle or ultra deep mechanics you would expect from a Larian studios or Project CD Red, but it just scratches the right kind of itch if you're looking for an immersive, cozy, and fun open world game with lots of cool little details and humor. They really hit some of the sci-fi aspects well too.

Starfield < Garfield

Played it some more today. It is obnoxious trying to scavenge for things since the scenes are all so detailed and there is an overwhelming amount of just trash to avoid.

But I finally did get into some combat encounters and had fun knocking out some pirates and mercs and completing a couple more research projects. I just wish stealth were a little more viable, these guys were spotting me seemingly out of nowhere as soon as they turned a corner -_-.

Hexenherz posted...

I just wish stealth were a little more viable, these guys were spotting me seemingly out of nowhere as soon as they turned a corner -_-.

It's basically useless until you get one or two perks into it.

Sniping an animal from outside its threat range works to add a few easy ones.

I just had a very fun shoot out in some sort of 0-G casino that I discovered randomly exploring.

bluezero posted...

You're not far enough in the main story yet :)

Maybe. I am eager to finish this Old ... Whatever quest and shed this Sarah person from the Constellation Club so I can go back to just playing how I want. Maybe I will return to New Atlantis and just explore building by building for quests... that FOMO is real.

Hexenherz posted...

Maybe. I am eager to finish this Old ... Whatever quest and shed this Sarah person from the Constellation Club so I can go back to just playing how I want. Maybe I will return to New Atlantis and just explore building by building for quests... that FOMO is real.

Just finish the quest "Into the Unknown" then it will be better :)

https://www.reddit.com/r/Starfield/comments/16efpot/someone_showed_me_this_clip_i_think_hes/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3

^This is an excellent take on what Starfield is as a game.

Starfield gets good after the first 12 hours

Beveren_Rabbit posted...

Starfield gets good after the first 12 hours

It's a bad game then. Why is it not good from the start?

Well that's cool, just had a mission go completely missing on me. Did the tasks, was told to wait a certain amount of time then return to the NPC to discuss it, got a pop-up later that the results were ready to discuss but the mission is just gone entirely from my mission list... great.

Also the Steam forums are a shit show, everyone is just complaining and arguing about pronouns.

I'm gonna try and get to the 15 hour mark and see if I like it at that point but if I don't I'm gonna drop it. The game has barely any redeeming qualities to it. I think I'd rather just go check out what they've changed in Cyberpunk.

Beveren_Rabbit posted...

Starfield gets good after the first 12 hours

This is true-there are a lot of systems in the game, but once some hours pass and they start to click the game jumps from good to great in a hurry. Ten hours in, I would have given it a solid 7. Now 20 hours in it is a fantastic 9 for me.

The last two side quests I did were Mantis and Grunt Work (the first real quest in the UC Vanguard storyline). I have played all the Bethesda games (minus 76), and those are two of my favorite quests they have ever done.

It was probably a mistake to make the opening hours so uncomfortable. But if you can get by that (and dont go in expecting a game like No Mans Sky), there is a lot of fun to be had.

reincarnator07 posted...

It's a bad game then. Why is it not good from the start?

It's one of those RPG's where you need to earn a lot of QOL stuff through leveling. For a modern game it has a steep curve to overcome before you find your groove.

I don't think this makes it a bad game personally. AAA games like this aren't usually designed like this anymore for reasons that are kinda obvious.

Punished_Blinx posted...

It's one of those RPG's where you need to earn a lot of QOL stuff through leveling. For a modern game it has a steep curve to overcome before you find your groove.

I don't think this makes it a bad game personally. AAA games like this aren't usually designed like this anymore for reasons that are kinda obvious.

I wouldn't say it's bad because there's a lot of stuff you need to unlock through leveling. I think it has a rough start because it doesn't play like other Bethesda games and it's not quite compelling enough to make it as an open world survival title, either.

I am enjoying it more after getting ... over 10 hours in, but I was trying to play it like Fallout 4 or Skyrim and it just doesn't have the same flow at all. Too many mundane boring side quests to get caught up in which are good for variety but not great when they're the first things you encounter if you try to stray from the main mission.

Also the game doesn't explain like ANY of its systems. Still learning who the factions are, I started building an outpost but I don't even know how everything all works (like apparently power just automatically feeds to other buildings without the need to build cabling or anything). I am excited to learn how to build outposts but right now feel like I don't have enough resources to really delve into it.

Also one thing that bugs the heck out of me is the structure of the skill trees. Like why is Persuasion a Tier 1 skill you can get right off the bat, but other types of speech are not? Maybe that's how the pen and paper version is but it just makes for weird video game design when every other game I've played lets you choose one or more styles from the getgo so you can be a smooth talker or total threatening A Hole or any combination thereof to resolve situations as you want without forcing you to play for hours upon hours upon hours to get to those different speech styles.

Yeah, they really weren't exaggerating about the accessibility issues. Between the UI, menus, and basic mechanics, this game does an awful job explaining everything. There's no in-game tutorials, and things like building outposts really needs something like that. Not to mention the lack of basic things like a brightness setting.

I'm still hooked on it, but all of the help that I've had to google has just been for basic gameplay functions.

Hexenherz posted...

I wouldn't say it's bad because there's a lot of stuff you need to unlock through leveling. I think it has a rough start because it doesn't play like other Bethesda games and it's not quite compelling enough to make it as an open world survival title, either.

I am enjoying it more after getting ... over 10 hours in, but I was trying to play it like Fallout 4 or Skyrim and it just doesn't have the same flow at all. Too many mundane boring side quests to get caught up in which are good for variety but not great when they're the first things you encounter if you try to stray from the main mission.

Also the game doesn't explain like ANY of its systems. Still learning who the factions are, I started building an outpost but I don't even know how everything all works (like apparently power just automatically feeds to other buildings without the need to build cabling or anything). I am excited to learn how to build outposts but right now feel like I don't have enough resources to really delve into it.

Yeah I see what you mean. The other games encourage you to go to a small town first so you don't get overwhelmed easy. Here they throw you into a massive city.

For me I did the Vanguard faction quest early. The induction for that explains the factions and lore for the universe and then you get to train with the space flying. The game sorta nudges you to do this if you follow the main quest enough but it's really easy to end up somewhere else.

I've played 10 hours and every quest I have done so far has either been the main quest, the Vanguard or something I have encountered within those travels and I've had a great time. But when I've checked out the odd POI on a planet it's just been a base of mercs and nothing else.

Punished_Blinx posted...

Yeah I see what you mean. The other games encourage you to go to a small town first so you don't get overwhelmed easy. Here they throw you into a massive city.

For me I did the Vanguard faction quest early. The induction for that explains the factions and lore for the universe and then you get to train with the space flying. The game sorta nudges you to do this if you follow the main quest enough but it's really easy to end up somewhere else.

I've played 10 hours and every quest I have done so far has either been the main quest, the Vanguard or something I have encountered within those travels and I've had a great time. But when I've checked out the odd POI on a planet it's just been a base of mercs and nothing else.

I am glad you mentioned this. I have two strong recommendations for people getting into this game to do with what they will:

-I suggest refraining from any side content until after the main mission Into the Unknown. It is tempting to go off and explore before then, but those first missions really introduce you to all the basics needed for exploring in the game.

-As Blinx articulated so well, when you do explore it is useful to do the UC Vanguard opening quests early. It catches you up on lore, and the first real mission grunt work is outstanding.

I had a much better handle on Starfield and its universe by proceeding in that order.

I just found "harvested organs" on the floor of some director guy's office at a research facility that is researching plants. what

also pronoun debate on the steam forum is escalating into fullblown racist rants about hidden agendas to have black characters outnumber white characters. meanwhile I can't get my questions answered there because the second I post a topic it's flooded out by about 50 others complaining about wokeness.

It's not a bad game honestly. It just feels like fallout and skyrim in space. After playing it for a while I need multiple breaks like I did in skyrim. Also the menus are just bad and the melee is awful.

Nirvanas_Nox posted...

It's not a bad game honestly. It just feels like fallout and skyrim in space. After playing it for a while I need multiple breaks like I did in skyrim. Also the menus are just bad and the melee is awful.

This sums it up. I'm hooked on it, and it's going to be one of my favorite games of the year, but it's still got a lot of UI and QoL issues.

But Elder Scrolls/Fallout in space was all I wanted from it, so I'm enjoying it.

I've pledged to play my first run without mods, but I admit that's going to be tough. Some nice QoL stuff out there already.

I have now explored the same 3 abandoned robotics facilities with the same layout, same enemies, and same notes. I think I will just stop exploring stuff outside the quests.

bluezero posted...

I've pledged to play my first run without mods, but I admit that's going to be tough. Some nice QoL stuff out there already.

So far the only thing I've grabbed is the one that makes the skill mags bright neon green, so it's easier to see which ones they are.

I've been having fun with it. Has more of a Mass Effect feel for me personally. Especially if you play in third person.

I'm staying away from most of the mods for my first playthrough. And I have only encountered one bug which fixes itself upon reloading a save

Im confused by how boring it is. Its kind of amazing they released this. I havent encountered any major bugs though. Just massive amounts of blandness.

Im more or less happy with the combat and movement mechanics, theyre clunky but in a familiar way. To me the only unforgivable thing is the dead worlds. There isnt much point talking to npcs. Or even trying to participate in the games economy. Unlike other Bethesda games in that way.

boomgetchopped3 posted...

Im confused by how boring it is. Its kind of amazing they released this. I havent encountered any major bugs though. Just massive amounts of blandness.

My suggestion is to do a faction questline, like UC Vanguard, Rangers, Ryujin, etc. The faction quests seem to be way more interesting.

reincarnator07 posted...

It's a bad game then. Why is it not good from the start?

It is. people are just ADD and want some shooting as soon as it starts. But that's never been Bethesda's style

Patriotwolf posted...

It is. people are just ADD and want some shooting as soon as it starts. But that's never been Bethesda's style

It doesn't have to be battles for the planet or anything, but a game should absolutely be good from the start, even if it gets way better later on.

reincarnator07 posted...

It doesn't have to be battles for the planet or anything, but a game should absolutely be good from the start, even if it gets way better later on.

I am fine with the way it started personally

I'll pick up the Goty version in 5 years when the mod community eventually makes it a glorious thing.

AI chat bots incoming

Agonized_rufous posted...

I'll pick up the Goty version in 5 years when the mod community eventually makes it a glorious thing.

AI chat bots incoming

I doubt it will take that long.. Bethesda made it so that mods are easily implemented

Patriotwolf posted...

I doubt it will take that long.. Bethesda made it so that mods are easily implemented

I hope so, but I'm slow at getting stuff

So is the gameplay loop just:
Get mission to go to planet
Fast travel to planet
Fast travel to base
Talk to someone
Fast travel to planet
Possibly encounter something in space
Board ship
Clear ship
Fast travel to planet

Cuz that's been the past 2 missions for me.

ironman2009 posted...

i'm about 15 hours in and having a good time. it's not groundbreakingly amazing, but it's not bad either.

This is the majority experience.