Starfield is a familiar game for those experienced with previous Bethesda Game Studios outputs (Elder Scrolls, Fallout). The pacing, tone, and execution are all standard fare in the genre they helped grow and develop in the past decade. I was hoping for a little bit more in their first new IP in over 2 decades.
Starfield, like its creators predecessors, is filled to the brim with activities, locations, and dense lore. The history and lore in particular was something that jumped out to me as being impressive. The cities, settlements, and factions have a deep history and a high level of detail in their inner workings. There are some small inconsistencies, like how the Free Star Collective could of ever competed with the united Colonies in a decades long conflict if their central base is a run down piece of crap; but nothing that ever took me out of the game. The character work, voice acting, and sequencing are all high marks for Bethesda, I wish a couple of the companions had been a little more varied in their intentions, all basically being good people who want to help, there is no gray or evil path to take here.
The action and gun play is certainly not the best of its type, feeling floaty and weightless. There are plenty of cool and unique guns to be found and there is a deep upgrade system to build a playstyle of your own, although the upgrade paths are locked behind the slow moving skill tree. Ship combat is another rough spot, and possibly features the worst technical and gameplay feel of any previous Bethesda game. Ships are slow turning and upgrade options are limited. The ship design and building element of the game is very detailed and fun, even if you struggle with designing and building your own creations in this way.
On of my main issues was the pace of leveling up and being able to progress through the games seemingly simple skill tree. There are about 90 unique skills that can be learned, and each has 3 levels that can be learned within. So you would need around 270 skill points to learn and upgrade them all, you earn 1 point per level, at a 46 hour playthrough I was at level 24, so the math is not encouraging there. Not being able to level them all is not an issue as it is an RPG and talent choices should matter, the problem is that there is no re-spec system built into the game, talent point choices are final.
Exploration and adventure are at the heart of Bethesda's games, unfortunately with the vast map, fast travel, limited unique locations, and procedurally generated planet surfaces there is less a feeling of true adventure and more of a teleporting ping pong game. Outposts and caves are the same 3 layouts throughout the universe, planet traits are a 1 time scan of an object for small experience gains and fetch/survey quests.
The story, which stands a psuedo "search for meaning and knowledge", is really good though and does a good job wrapping up loose ends and encouraging additional playthroughs.
Starfield, like its creators predecessors, is filled to the brim with activities, locations, and dense lore. The history and lore in particular was something that jumped out to me as being impressive. The cities, settlements, and factions have a deep history and a high level of detail in their inner workings. There are some small inconsistencies, like how the Free Star Collective could of ever competed with the united Colonies in a decades long conflict if their central base is a run down piece of crap; but nothing that ever took me out of the game. The character work, voice acting, and sequencing are all high marks for Bethesda, I wish a couple of the companions had been a little more varied in their intentions, all basically being good people who want to help, there is no gray or evil path to take here.
The action and gun play is certainly not the best of its type, feeling floaty and weightless. There are plenty of cool and unique guns to be found and there is a deep upgrade system to build a playstyle of your own, although the upgrade paths are locked behind the slow moving skill tree. Ship combat is another rough spot, and possibly features the worst technical and gameplay feel of any previous Bethesda game. Ships are slow turning and upgrade options are limited. The ship design and building element of the game is very detailed and fun, even if you struggle with designing and building your own creations in this way.
On of my main issues was the pace of leveling up and being able to progress through the games seemingly simple skill tree. There are about 90 unique skills that can be learned, and each has 3 levels that can be learned within. So you would need around 270 skill points to learn and upgrade them all, you earn 1 point per level, at a 46 hour playthrough I was at level 24, so the math is not encouraging there. Not being able to level them all is not an issue as it is an RPG and talent choices should matter, the problem is that there is no re-spec system built into the game, talent point choices are final.
Exploration and adventure are at the heart of Bethesda's games, unfortunately with the vast map, fast travel, limited unique locations, and procedurally generated planet surfaces there is less a feeling of true adventure and more of a teleporting ping pong game. Outposts and caves are the same 3 layouts throughout the universe, planet traits are a 1 time scan of an object for small experience gains and fetch/survey quests.
The story, which stands a psuedo "search for meaning and knowledge", is really good though and does a good job wrapping up loose ends and encouraging additional playthroughs.