I beat this game over a month ago so... only seems appropriate to review this now.
This game was a pretty solid disappoint, mostly because I think its antithetical to the things that worked about previous Bethesda titles. There are little things that are missing or changed for the worse from games like Fallout 4, like the awful new research system that makes any minor upgrade to your gear a massive chore or just the lack of really any interesting companions. But what really gets me is the awful decision to have procedurally generated planets with repeated Points of Interest. In a game with like, 1,000 planets, every one feels the same because you're fundamentally going to be doing the same things on them. In every area where it feels like a person designed it be unique, the game is fantastic, to the point where I would consider this to Bethesda's strongest world they've created yet, but its undeniable that this game feels too big. Starfield is also probably Bethesda's best narrative performance, as a lot of the side quest chains were very well done, with the main quest standing out as being really, really good. It's held back a little by the fact that the huge emotional moments of the main story not only relied on having attachments to the relatively flat companions, but also that they were where I encountered the few visual bugs that were in my playthrough. Can't help but wish for more considering that this was the first singleplayer Bethesda experience in like, 8 years. God only knows when Elder Scrolls 6 and Fallout 5 will release, and now an incredibly mediocre title will be their poster child until then.
This game was a pretty solid disappoint, mostly because I think its antithetical to the things that worked about previous Bethesda titles. There are little things that are missing or changed for the worse from games like Fallout 4, like the awful new research system that makes any minor upgrade to your gear a massive chore or just the lack of really any interesting companions. But what really gets me is the awful decision to have procedurally generated planets with repeated Points of Interest. In a game with like, 1,000 planets, every one feels the same because you're fundamentally going to be doing the same things on them. In every area where it feels like a person designed it be unique, the game is fantastic, to the point where I would consider this to Bethesda's strongest world they've created yet, but its undeniable that this game feels too big. Starfield is also probably Bethesda's best narrative performance, as a lot of the side quest chains were very well done, with the main quest standing out as being really, really good. It's held back a little by the fact that the huge emotional moments of the main story not only relied on having attachments to the relatively flat companions, but also that they were where I encountered the few visual bugs that were in my playthrough. Can't help but wish for more considering that this was the first singleplayer Bethesda experience in like, 8 years. God only knows when Elder Scrolls 6 and Fallout 5 will release, and now an incredibly mediocre title will be their poster child until then.