Gaming Starfield | Metacritic (Series X): 83, OpenCritic: 86

[RedSky]

Trying to get into this game and feeling underwhelmed. Got to New Atlanta expecting it to look amazing and my word it's shite.

I wanted to go and explore the first planet with the research station. But the ship only had one small locker and I'm full up on inventory space carrying a bunch of stuff.

 

[amolbhatia50k]

Trying to get into this game and feeling underwhelmed. Got to New Atlanta expecting it to look amazing and my word it's shite.

I wanted to go and explore the first planet with the research station. But the ship only had one small locker and I'm full up on inventory space carrying a bunch of stuff.

I’m contemplating giving up on it and just watching the last bits on YouTube. It’s a game that’s narratively set in the future but mechanically set in the past.

My suggestion - don’t explore. Just play it from quest to quest. The game has nothing to offer in terms of exploration.

 

[RedSky]

I’m contemplating giving up on it and just watching the last bits on YouTube. It’s a game that’s narratively set in the future but mechanically set in the past.

My suggestion - don’t explore. Just play it from quest to quest. The game has nothing to offer in terms of exploration.

Which is bizarre as Skyrims greatest strength was its exploration.

 

[Redlambs]

Trying to get into this game and feeling underwhelmed. Got to New Atlanta expecting it to look amazing and my word it's shite.

I wanted to go and explore the first planet with the research station. But the ship only had one small locker and I'm full up on inventory space carrying a bunch of stuff.

I did warn you

Much like Skyrim, with about 100 mods it will reach it's potential.

 

[Gehrman]

Trying to get into this game and feeling underwhelmed. Got to New Atlanta expecting it to look amazing and my word it's shite.

I wanted to go and explore the first planet with the research station. But the ship only had one small locker and I'm full up on inventory space carrying a bunch of stuff.

New Atlantis looks like shit but Akilla and other places look great or better at least.

 

[VeevaVee]

Trying to get into this game and feeling underwhelmed. Got to New Atlanta expecting it to look amazing and my word it's shite.

I wanted to go and explore the first planet with the research station. But the ship only had one small locker and I'm full up on inventory space carrying a bunch of stuff.

Atlantis is probably the least interesting I've been to so far. It's just a big retail park. There's a safe in your room in the lodge with unlimited capacity if you want to offload stuff but most of it you might as well sell.

The other cities have a bit more going on, but I do think they could have been made to feel more alive. I've been spoilt by RDR2. Still enjoying it though.

 

[Herman Toothrot]

My dad does things like this. I refuse to be in the same room as him when he's playing anything because it winds me up.

Last time was in The Ascent where he asked me to do a 'hard part' for him and had to query why he'd been hoarding skill points like it was wartime.

I was busy!

Just started the main story and it feels incredibly patronising after having completed the Ryujin Industries storyline first. The game is now giving me all these tips, maybe there is something to be said for doing at least a couple of the main missions first. I kind of feel a bit overpowered being able to use my Ryujin tech in conversation with level one characters.

 

[Mr Anderson]

I think I have the glitch where ‘Into the Unknown’ main mission doesn’t allow me to dock at ‘The Eye’. Although it could be a docking issue as I was also in Porrima II where there is a quest for a ship floating in orbit and it also doesn’t trigger.

tried different ships, from Frontier to my new modified ones - no good. So annoying, I’ll have to try and see if doing side quests for now fixes it but no idea.

:EDIT: Got it working after a hard restart of console. Also reset my elite controller just incase it was a keybind issue with 'A' when trying to select the station/ship

 

[amolbhatia50k]

So that’s, it I’m done with Starfield - watched the fag end of the game online as I had pretty much lost interest in it. I don’t regret putting time into it because curiosity is a funny thing. However suffice to say that it’s been hugely disappointing for me. Have moved on to Ori and Hifi Rush for the remainder of my time with the Xbox which based on my short time with them are just vastly superior games. Will post overall thoughts on Starfield in the other thread.

 

[Alock1]

Will post overall thoughts on Starfield in the other thread.

Make it as long as possible please I can't wait to read it

 

[Laurencio]

I’m contemplating giving up on it and just watching the last bits on YouTube. It’s a game that’s narratively set in the future but mechanically set in the past.

My suggestion - don’t explore. Just play it from quest to quest. The game has nothing to offer in terms of exploration.

Some of the quest chains are very good and interesting, but the exploration part is just tedious and basically consist of running in a straight line with your scanner until you get 100%. I swear, the only reason they made it so that you had to scan creatures multiple times was to stop people from 100% a planet in 5 minutes. They probably wanted the planet to feel bigger that way, but honestly it doesn't and it only makes you feel like you're wasting time running through nothing-landacapes looking for yet another tiny animal to get closer to completion.

I have yet to understand the point of outposts and why I should be interested in that mechanic, but maybe they will tell me at some point...

Honestly this game is at its best when you play from quest to quest. The ryujin quest was good, and the Vanguard quest feels like a substantial quest that you could base an entire game on. All of that's nice, but it doesn't really feel like a space exploration game. Space feels very small when you're tasked by NPCs to get them a drink from a bar in another solar system...

 

[Kaos]

Some of the quest chains are very good and interesting, but the exploration part is just tedious and basically consist of running in a straight line with your scanner until you get 100%. I swear, the only reason they made it so that you had to scan creatures multiple times was to stop people from 100% a planet in 5 minutes. They probably wanted the planet to feel bigger that way, but honestly it doesn't and it only makes you feel like you're wasting time running through nothing-landacapes looking for yet another tiny animal to get closer to completion.

I have yet to understand the point of outposts and why I should be interested in that mechanic, but maybe they will tell me at some point...

Honestly this game is at its best when you play from quest to quest. The ryujin quest was good, and the Vanguard quest feels like a substantial quest that you could base an entire game on. All of that's nice, but it doesn't really feel like a space exploration game. Space feels very small when you're tasked by NPCs to get them a drink from a bar in another solar system...

Nope, just typical Bethesda shoehorning in a mechanic just so Toddy boy can go up on stage and make all those superficial marketing points - 'Build your base!, Customise your ship! THOUSANDS of planets to explore', when really at a fundamental level it means feck all and doesn't provide anything for the core experience.

I'll die on the hill that Bethesda are very much an average dev shop that haven't made anything spectacular since Morrowind. I wasn't remotely excited when they announced this and its exactly the game I thought it would be.

Still feels like Star Citizen is the only 'game' that comes close to scratching that immersive space exploration itch. And that's still only a glorified tech demo at this stage. NMS and Elite at their current states are a commendable effort, but suffer from the same 'wide as an ocean, deep as a puddle' shortcoming this game does.

 

[Coxy]

…All of that's nice, but it doesn't really feel like a space exploration game.

Where was it marketed as such?

this isn’t no man’s sky and it’s always been made plain this is a RPG set in space.

I agree withthe rest of your post - the sentiment.

 

[Gehrman]

Im still waiting for this game to click. I mean its very chill and by no means a bad game. But im not immersed. I find myself checking redcafe or taking a break and doing the dishes or something. And ive played it a few hours everday since release. The most entertaining aspect is the missions where you go to a planet to shoot something. Otherwise everything else feels half baked and endless fast travel with loading screens.

 

[Bebe]

Bit of a contrast to recent posts but I'm enjoying this more and more (35ish hours in). I keep finding new factions to join, all of which seem to have interesting questlines. I've started the Ryujin, Vanguard and SysDef/Crimson Fleet stuff in the last few days and all have been a good time. I've also discovered that kills in the Vanguard flight simulator count towards Piloting skill progression, which is a big deal as I've acquired a Class C ship and would love to actually use it.

I really appreciate how NPCs will tell you about their personality and values in a conversation, and then react accordingly in the persuade mechanic. When an NPC says something indicating he has a strong sense of honour, and then reacts positively when I appeal to that sense of honour, the game dialogue feels natural and outcomes don't feel arbitrary. Big fan of that, even if overall the speech/dialogue/persuade system is somewhat shallow.

I will admit that the game lacks almost any kind of fun exploration whatsoever, which seems unthinkable in a Bethesda game. It's more Mass Effect than "Skyrim in space" - you pick a planet, fast travel there and then do a mission in a space station or on the surface (which usually involves entering a space station). There's none of the "set off in a direction and see what happens" unless you fancy wandering around a mostly empty planet for a bit scanning plants. I used to mock Mass Effect 2's planet scanning, but Bethesda have managed to come up with something more boring AND more time consuming.

My roommate has played many more hours than myself and spent a good chunk of that time grinding levels by killing animals on high level planets. He's 20+ levels beyond me but barely doing more damage because I've been doing missions that tend to give out great loot. Sort of underscores my feeling that this is a "pick a quest and go do it" game more than a "wander around and see what happens" game.

 

[Mr Anderson]

I’m enjoying the missions and semi ‘grind’ one must do. Not ventured too much out of New Atlantis really, bar the first time you travel to Akila with Sam Coe. Built an outpost to put a few crew members and steadily up to Level 22 without trying the farming XP bullshit you see all over. With all my attempts to conceal my contraband I finally got caught, but it’s lead to a side quest with UC SysDef so that’s interesting.

The only thing I feel is lacking is the characters you interact with for missions, the Sarah’s and Sam’s - they feel lifeless really to an extent, just someone reading off a script. I find myself reading the dialogue and skipping ahead. Even with all the faults Cyberpunk had, their character interactions were better than this. But the depth of interactions you can have with NPCs is brilliant on the other hand.

mill definitely keep playing as it is great fun and there’s a lot to do, missions even have so many levels to them.

 

[Vidyoyo]

https://metro.co.uk/2023/09/16/star...-very-wrong-with-video-game-reviews-19508778/

Just read through this and it seems like a decent assessment of Bethesda (and by extension Xbox's) approach to dealing with criticism – somewhere between conspiracy theory and merely explaining what PR is. It also feels like a distinctly British form of scepticism, which in an era of American-based online media is oddly refreshing.

 

[Andersons Dietician]

Decided to play around with the outposts for 30 minutes on Sunday. That turned in to like 4 hrs and well I’m still playing around with outposts building myself a mining and shipping empire.

Can’t believe how much time you lose whilst trying to figure out why you Hydrogen extractors don’t seem to have any power and why all of a sudden did that hydrogen generator just cut out. It’s tedious as feck but when you start seeing ships landing and taking off every 5 mins it feels good.

 

[Herman Toothrot]

Decided to play around with the outposts for 30 minutes on Sunday. That turned in to like 4 hrs and well I’m still playing around with outposts building myself a mining and shipping empire.

Can’t believe how much time you lose whilst trying to figure out why you Hydrogen extractors don’t seem to have any power and why all of a sudden did that hydrogen generator just cut out. It’s tedious as feck but when you start seeing ships landing and taking off every 5 mins it feels good.

Sound like there's an entirely different game in there I'm not playing. Where do you get started?

 

[Volumiza]

Decided to play around with the outposts for 30 minutes on Sunday. That turned in to like 4 hrs and well I’m still playing around with outposts building myself a mining and shipping empire.

Can’t believe how much time you lose whilst trying to figure out why you Hydrogen extractors don’t seem to have any power and why all of a sudden did that hydrogen generator just cut out. It’s tedious as feck but when you start seeing ships landing and taking off every 5 mins it feels good.

Yeah dude, same, I've disappeared down the galactic mining and shipping empire too! Proper rabbit hole / time trap.

 

[Andersons Dietician]

Sound like there's an entirely different game in there I'm not playing. Where do you get started?

Find planets That have helium and where that Helium is should be your main shipping area as you need it to power the interstellar cargo link. Find places that merge materials so preferably Helium and then iron, aluminium, copper, tungsten, nickel as you need them for everything. Preferably also somewhere close by where you can go and buy materials. Sealants and so on.

It is a total time sapper and can be annoying as hell but I’d recommend what ever resource you are picking out it straight in to a linked group of storage container first and then make links off of those as it just makes it easier to keep track of what you are doing.

Yeah dude, same, I've disappeared down the galactic mining and shipping empire too! Proper rabbit hole / time trap.

I now need a bigger ship to transport it all but have started fabricating adaptive frames and selling those to fund my new build. After I’ve finished playing FarmVille I might go back to actually shooting people and doing the main story.

 

[Herman Toothrot]

Find planets That have helium and where that Helium is should be your main shipping area as you need it to power the interstellar cargo link. Find places that merge materials so preferably Helium and then iron, aluminium, copper, tungsten, nickel as you need them for everything. Preferably also somewhere close by where you can go and buy materials. Sealants and so on.

It is a total time sapper and can be annoying as hell but I’d recommend what ever resource you are picking out it straight in to a linked group of storage container first and then make links off of those as it just makes it easier to keep track of what you are doing.




I now need a bigger ship to transport it all but have started fabricating adaptive frames and selling those to fund my new build. After I’ve finished playing FarmVille I might go back to actually shooting people and doing the main story.

Nice one. Could you recommend a place?

 

[Mr Anderson]

Relationships in this, what a waste of time. All it is is extra dialogue, nothing happens or changes dramatically. Another thing even Cyberpunk done better in.

same as buying apartments, why would spend the money when you can fast track to your ship and sleep? There is no perks that I can see that owning property brings.it’s just fills a void for you to spend money on, an afterthought.

nothing of the above, the way they have done it, adds depth.

 

[Siorac]

I've started this but it feels like I just load it up to get repeatedly punched in the face by the UI. It was always bad in each and every Bethesda game but they've outdone themselves this time. The whole thing is a clunky mess, from the inventory management to the starmap.

And the game throws so many different systems and mechanics at you right away, without presenting anything actually interesting. It's not a great start.

 

[Bebe]

I've started this but it feels like I just load it up to get repeatedly punched in the face by the UI. It was always bad in each and every Bethesda game but they've outdone themselves this time. The whole thing is a clunky mess, from the inventory management to the starmap.

And the game throws so many different systems and mechanics at you right away, without presenting anything actually interesting. It's not a great start.

I'm liking the game now but this is so true. I'm still figuring most of it out honestly. There are multiple mechanics I just haven't bothered with and I'm starting to suspect that I never will.

 

[Gehrman]

 

[Mr Anderson]

Over 2 days play time, only just discovered how to turn on your torch in dark areas ffs

 

[amolbhatia50k]

Over 2 days play time, only just discovered how to turn on your torch in dark areas ffs

that’s not even hard to figure out. I think they give a prompt for it?

 

[Fully Fledged]

that’s not even hard to figure out. I think they give a prompt for it?

Yeah while mining in the first area.

 

[Grib]

I'm liking the game now but this is so true. I'm still figuring most of it out honestly. There are multiple mechanics I just haven't bothered with and I'm starting to suspect that I never will.

I didnt do the "first" quest line that unlocks the story and powers for ages and I just never use them now as I keep forgetting they exist

 

[FreakyJim]

The writing is horrible, as expected. The companions are the worst I've ever seen in a Bethesda game. So bland, so boring.

 

[Nickosaur]

Haven't even unlocked any 'powers' yet. I'm completely addicted to scanning every species and plant when I land somewhere new. Might have to get the perks to speed it up as it's taken up way too much time. Now at level 24 and still not been to Neon yet...

 

[Redlambs]

Some of you are still trying to work your VCRs right?

 

[Massive Spanner]

The more I read about this the less I want to play it. Been spoilt by amazing modern games this year and this sounds so dated and bland in comparison.

 

[Gehrman]

The more I read about this the less I want to play it. Been spoilt by amazing modern games this year and this sounds so dated and bland in comparison.

It might just be my mood in general but it just lacks anything remotely memorable. Combat is decent. Overall its so slowly paced with all the menus and loading screens that its a relaxing experience. But yeah its big but bland. Its a decent game but its not a flagship game for xbox. Its a 7 or 8/10 experience. Honesty think fallout 4 was a better game despite the stick it got. Its not horribly bugged but there was a bug where i couldn't progress a major faction quest so i had to type in some console commands to get it going. If there are the same bugs on console i guess they have to wait for patches.

 

[Bebe]

I didnt do the "first" quest line that unlocks the story and powers for ages and I just never use them now as I keep forgetting they exist

I kept forgetting about them as well until I realized the "Sense Star Stuff" one is a big help with stealth. Now I exclusively use that one and continue ignoring all others

 

[Herman Toothrot]

The more I read about this the less I want to play it. Been spoilt by amazing modern games this year and this sounds so dated and bland in comparison.

Despite all the moaning, it's an awful lot of fun. I'm 24 hours in and find myself looking forward to playing it.

Put it this way, Game pass isn't getting cancelled anytime soon.

 

[Grib]

I kept forgetting about them as well until I realized the "Sense Star Stuff" one is a big help with stealth. Now I exclusively use that one and continue ignoring all others

Yeah I have three so far, that one I just got and have actually used it, once or twice, probably only once, but I do intend to try to use it more

 

[RedSky]

The more I read about this the less I want to play it. Been spoilt by amazing modern games this year and this sounds so dated and bland in comparison.

It's comedy gold at times.

 

[Redlambs]

Put it this way, Game pass isn't getting cancelled anytime soon.

What an odd thing to say, why would it? Even if Starfield flopped, it's going nowhere.