A Very Good (sometimes borderline great) Open-World x Sandbox Action Adventure That Will Only Get Better In The Upcoming Years
Given so much hype over the past couple of years, Starfield has landed and the result may upset those who felt it was the second coming of gaming Jesus, but for everyone else, what we got should satisfy fans, especially those who like the Bethesda style of Open-World games like Skyrim and the 3D Fallout games.
Visually Starfield is very impressive. While there is some repeat “dungeon” locations, the world, or more like universe, design is fantastic.
The cities are varied and interesting, with many landmarks while many of the planets look how they should instead of feeling too wild or uncanny.
NPC models are something of a mixed bag with minor ones looking average at best and derpy plasticine at worst, but the important (or even semi-important) ones look fine, if not amazing.
There are many varied outfits and equipment while it’s a shame they are tied to stats and there is no separate fashion option, its still nice.
Lighting and colour usage is well executed and again the cities are standouts as it helps give them their own identity; New Atlantis is the modern day shiny city, Akila City feels like the rural city and Neon definitely evokes the place with the biggest bright lights but also the darkest underbelly.
Audio is also very impressive, with some excellent music and ambient sounds that help make locations give them character. NPC speech is usually on point and sharp, though there are times characters can sound like they are in a tunnel, giving off an echo or underwater (probably the result of an audio bug). What Starfield deserves a lot of credit is having a ton of accents and different speech mannerisms.
When it comes to gameplay, this feels like an evolution of Skyrim for those who’ve played that (or Oblivion) with the odd touch of Fallout 4. For those who haven’t played it, the controls are well implemented for the most part (though activating some bindings can take some finger gymnastics) and while it’s nothing game changing it’s a fun action-adventure looter shooter that allows some flexibility for missions (aside from the odd ones).
The perk system is pretty novel, with you having to earn the right to unlock the next rank via challenges, rather than just allowing you to straight upgrade. This gives them more importance in selection, as well as making you feel you earned them.
The spaceship battles can be annoying at first but once you figure out the best way to approach it (and upgraded your ship enough) they are well done.
It is pretty good how you can just wonder around, bump into an NPC who will give what seems a throwaway (but lore adding) sentence and you get a quest. And speaking of quests, it’s not just the main missions that feel very important as many of the side quests are a lot more involving and have some strong emotional beats. Some standouts include hunting dangerous aliens (“Terramorphs”) that give a Space Hulk/Warhammer 40K vibe and going undercover as a pirate. Even the smaller side-quests have a feel that gives off a nice sense of achievement when you finish them.
So yes, Starfield is a lot of fun and when the highs are there, its a fantastic game. So what stops Starfield from (as of this moment) reaching greatness? It’s mainly issues and weird gameplay design choices.
Crafting is pretty fun, depending on what you’ve unlocked and the materials you have. Same for research as it helps make suits and weapons more powerful potentially.
Starfield doesn’t make it clear what an item is useful for. For research, at least you can track which ones you should keep but Digipicksm, used to open locked containers, are under misc, which is generally useless items.
The map isn’t very useful visually and so, it can be easy to get lost and not remember where a certain building is.
The game also doesn’t do a proper job of telling you what buffs and debuffs you have. I get there’s wanting to keep the HUD info as minimal as possible but it’d be nice if there was an option to display it.
Outpost building, which could have become a huge time waster, is instead very fiddly and awkward to the point many will just try it out for a while and then get bored, only using it as a dumping ground for storage. Ship Building is awkward but at least, on
Storage isn’t universally connected so if you put something in a container in a outpost or a owned location, it’s not going to count as having it for crafting and research.
Graphically very impressive, though unless your PC is something that is very high-end, it might struggle at ultra settings without a bit of tweaking. And if you’re using NVIDIA, you’re going to have to mod in DLSS support.
Romance happens very quickly, which can be quite jarring. But this can also be seen as a blessing as you get it out the way and have a companion that gives you emotional support (and not just a deadly companion who can act as a backup storage).
And there are times where the game can struggle to run smoothly with stuttering becoming a huge issue. This may be worse or non-existing depending on your PC set-up that said. But NVIDIA players seem to have it the worst.
Starfield might not be the great, amazing game yet. But the keyword is “yet” as it’s clear Bethesda are going to be supporting Starfield for a VERY long time and this is before we get into modding. It took a while for Skyrim to become a masterpiece and the same is for Starfield. And yes, you have a right to feel aggrieved that a game is released and has to be become what it “should” be down the road. But you can also see it as a journey, seeing it develop from a very good game to something that will become great, playing it again and again and seeing the differences.
Yes it has issues, no it’s not the second coming of gaming Jesus and no it’s not that wholly different from Skyrim and 3D Fallout games. But it is a lot of fun, it offers flexibility, not just in terms of approaching the game but scope as well (you can play for hours or just a quick session; either way you feel you made some progression) and it’s well worth experiencing now.
Rating: 8/10
Given so much hype over the past couple of years, Starfield has landed and the result may upset those who felt it was the second coming of gaming Jesus, but for everyone else, what we got should satisfy fans, especially those who like the Bethesda style of Open-World games like Skyrim and the 3D Fallout games.
Visually Starfield is very impressive. While there is some repeat “dungeon” locations, the world, or more like universe, design is fantastic.
The cities are varied and interesting, with many landmarks while many of the planets look how they should instead of feeling too wild or uncanny.
NPC models are something of a mixed bag with minor ones looking average at best and derpy plasticine at worst, but the important (or even semi-important) ones look fine, if not amazing.
There are many varied outfits and equipment while it’s a shame they are tied to stats and there is no separate fashion option, its still nice.
Lighting and colour usage is well executed and again the cities are standouts as it helps give them their own identity; New Atlantis is the modern day shiny city, Akila City feels like the rural city and Neon definitely evokes the place with the biggest bright lights but also the darkest underbelly.
Audio is also very impressive, with some excellent music and ambient sounds that help make locations give them character. NPC speech is usually on point and sharp, though there are times characters can sound like they are in a tunnel, giving off an echo or underwater (probably the result of an audio bug). What Starfield deserves a lot of credit is having a ton of accents and different speech mannerisms.
When it comes to gameplay, this feels like an evolution of Skyrim for those who’ve played that (or Oblivion) with the odd touch of Fallout 4. For those who haven’t played it, the controls are well implemented for the most part (though activating some bindings can take some finger gymnastics) and while it’s nothing game changing it’s a fun action-adventure looter shooter that allows some flexibility for missions (aside from the odd ones).
The perk system is pretty novel, with you having to earn the right to unlock the next rank via challenges, rather than just allowing you to straight upgrade. This gives them more importance in selection, as well as making you feel you earned them.
The spaceship battles can be annoying at first but once you figure out the best way to approach it (and upgraded your ship enough) they are well done.
It is pretty good how you can just wonder around, bump into an NPC who will give what seems a throwaway (but lore adding) sentence and you get a quest. And speaking of quests, it’s not just the main missions that feel very important as many of the side quests are a lot more involving and have some strong emotional beats. Some standouts include hunting dangerous aliens (“Terramorphs”) that give a Space Hulk/Warhammer 40K vibe and going undercover as a pirate. Even the smaller side-quests have a feel that gives off a nice sense of achievement when you finish them.
So yes, Starfield is a lot of fun and when the highs are there, its a fantastic game. So what stops Starfield from (as of this moment) reaching greatness? It’s mainly issues and weird gameplay design choices.
Crafting is pretty fun, depending on what you’ve unlocked and the materials you have. Same for research as it helps make suits and weapons more powerful potentially.
Starfield doesn’t make it clear what an item is useful for. For research, at least you can track which ones you should keep but Digipicksm, used to open locked containers, are under misc, which is generally useless items.
The map isn’t very useful visually and so, it can be easy to get lost and not remember where a certain building is.
The game also doesn’t do a proper job of telling you what buffs and debuffs you have. I get there’s wanting to keep the HUD info as minimal as possible but it’d be nice if there was an option to display it.
Outpost building, which could have become a huge time waster, is instead very fiddly and awkward to the point many will just try it out for a while and then get bored, only using it as a dumping ground for storage. Ship Building is awkward but at least, on
Storage isn’t universally connected so if you put something in a container in a outpost or a owned location, it’s not going to count as having it for crafting and research.
Graphically very impressive, though unless your PC is something that is very high-end, it might struggle at ultra settings without a bit of tweaking. And if you’re using NVIDIA, you’re going to have to mod in DLSS support.
Romance happens very quickly, which can be quite jarring. But this can also be seen as a blessing as you get it out the way and have a companion that gives you emotional support (and not just a deadly companion who can act as a backup storage).
And there are times where the game can struggle to run smoothly with stuttering becoming a huge issue. This may be worse or non-existing depending on your PC set-up that said. But NVIDIA players seem to have it the worst.
Starfield might not be the great, amazing game yet. But the keyword is “yet” as it’s clear Bethesda are going to be supporting Starfield for a VERY long time and this is before we get into modding. It took a while for Skyrim to become a masterpiece and the same is for Starfield. And yes, you have a right to feel aggrieved that a game is released and has to be become what it “should” be down the road. But you can also see it as a journey, seeing it develop from a very good game to something that will become great, playing it again and again and seeing the differences.
Yes it has issues, no it’s not the second coming of gaming Jesus and no it’s not that wholly different from Skyrim and 3D Fallout games. But it is a lot of fun, it offers flexibility, not just in terms of approaching the game but scope as well (you can play for hours or just a quick session; either way you feel you made some progression) and it’s well worth experiencing now.
Rating: 8/10