Into the Starfield we go! The long-awaited adventure did come out six weeks ago in early access, and I have been playing it since then. I felt that in order to give it a fair shake, I needed to make sure I’ve seen most of what it had to offer, as well as play as different types of characters and in different styles to make sure that I didn’t miss something crucial. After approximately 300 hours in the game, I feel confident in my opinions about it. I will attempt, ever so carefully, to avoid any real spoilers in the review.
You play as
a character who has been mining resources on planets and moons across the
galaxy. In typical Bethesda fashion, your backstory, your name, your identity
are all up to you, and the writers don’t dictate any of that for the player. There
are traits you can select during character creation that do give you somewhat
of a background, but otherwise it is all your choice as the player to fill in
the blanks however you may desire. The other characters call you “Dusty”, a
nickname provided to you due to the dusty nature of your business.
As most
Bethesda titles do, you embark on a tutorial section of the game that fills in
the basic controls and gameplay loops you will be required to utilize during you
adventure, which culminates in the usual scenario of a situation that you are
best suited to deal with, and that is where the true game begins.
The game
features storylines of piracy, fascism, liberation, love, exploration and
clandestine operations. You can be a pirate, a soldier, a lawman, a cyber
runner, you name it, and it all still lets you achieve whichever ending you so
desire.
Narratively,
the game is thin in some places and well fleshed out in others. I suspect there
may be creative reasons behind some of this, but it is indeed noticeable. Non-player
characters do recognize the achievements of the player and this is shown through
various dialogues and rewards, which is quite interesting.
From an
exploration standpoint, Starfield delivers something that we had yet to truly
see in a western RPG before. The sheer vastness of the universe, with over one
hundred different solar systems to explore, each with planets and moons, space stations
and abandoned ships, is a sight to behold. And touching down on any one of
these celestial bodies yields interesting results; each planet or moon has it’s
own features, from gravity strength to oxygen levels and biological systems.
Some feature acid rain, chemical rain, poisonous water, corrosive gases, and
other hazards to overcome. And further still, there are unique flora and fauna
species not only to these planets and moons, but also to unique biomes within
those planets and moons. You can have frozen tundra, sweltering rainforests,
arid deserts and marshy swamps, as well as everything in between.
Scattered
across these spaces are also minerals and resources, from common things like
water and iron, to lesser found resources like xenon and uranium. You can mine
these resources for crafting things like weapon and suit modifications, as well
as to build outposts and equipment, and also for selling to make money, and
even for quests. Peppering the landscape still are a myriad of procedurally-generated
structures, some of which may be a proverbial (or maybe even literal) gold mine
for those hunting loot.
Combat has vastly
improved over previous Bethesda titles, with weapons having a better feeling
and targeting feeling a lot more natural. Of course, the potential of combat happening
in low or zero gravity situations is also a welcoming feel, providing lots of
verticality and chaos to be had.
A big
portion of concern for any player of a Bethesda game this close to release is
performance. Bethesda games, by nature, are known to be buggy, largely in part
due to the massive scale these games are built on. You can touch and move so
many objects in a Bethesda game, and in Starfield, we have the added
complication of gravity to the physics calculations of these objects. This
produces an issue where it’s near impossible to do quality control thoroughly enough
because no two playthroughs will be alike. Remembering that Skyrim was bugged
into an unplayable state for quite sometime due to a bee in the opening
sequence that altered the physics so bad that they couldn’t further test at the
time, this is no small feat to ship a game in a playable state with this level
of interaction.
I can only speak from experience here, but in my time with the game, approximately 300 hours at time of this article being written, I have experienced the following bugs:
- I had a hard crash of the game after trying to travel the New Atlantis Transit system while over encumbered by 1400 kilograms.
- I
had two more hard crashes during basic space travel, while grav jumping to new
systems.
- I
had once instance where my character would not move while in first person mode.
I could only move in third person mode. I merely reloaded my most recent save
and it was fine.
- I
had an instance where my ship disappeared from the landing pad, and the Trade
Authority kiosk at the landing pad was no longer visible. I also just reloaded
a save here and it was fine afterwards.
- I
had an instance where all the NPCs of a certain faction were hostile towards me
for no reason. This particular spot has three factions, and it was a different faction
being hostile each attempt I made to continue the quest. I had one attempt
where they all were hostile as well. I ultimately got through it without any of
them being hostile by keeping my weapon holstered during the dialogue sequence.
Aside from
those larger bugs, I have had misplaced quest markers, noticed some typos in
dialogue and have seen frames dropping on occasion, but overall playability has
been fine, considering most of those issues were before the second patch was
released. Playing on both the Series S and Series X has been fairly similar in
experience, with no noticeable shortcomings on the less-powerful S.
Starfield
delivers a new exciting universe to experience, with tons of lore, in what many
consider to be Todd Howard’s Magnum Opus. Although there are some gripes, I
feel confident that Bethesda will continue to optimize the game and add to the
experience through expansions down the road.
Pros:
Large scale
Bethesda RPG
Endless possibilities
through New Game Plus
Cons:
Some
players experience game-breaking bugs, forcing a restart
Clumsy button
mapping on console
Needs more accessibility options
Review Platform: Xbox Series S|X
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