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

[Cascarino]

I think we can all agree it's better than Cyberpunk and that's all that matters

If we’re judging the games as they are now, then I think Cyberpunk is the better game. I couldn’t stand Cyberpunk but gave it a go after completing Starfield, and it’s definitely a more well rounded experience, especially when it comes to the writing, setting and characters. That opinion may change when I put more hours into it, as I’ve played a ridiculous amount of Starfield, but as of now I definitely have Cyberpunk above Starfield.

It’s all subjective to an extent, Starfield has a lot more freedom in what you do, so I can see people who really enjoy the Bethesda blueprint loving it, and Cyberpunk has had a lot of time since launch to fix it. In a year or two Starfield could be amazing (for me, as im sure for some it’s already there).

 

[Redlambs]

If we’re judging the games as they are now, then I think Cyberpunk is the better game. I couldn’t stand Cyberpunk but gave it a go after completing Starfield, and it’s definitely a more well rounded experience, especially when it comes to the writing, setting and characters. That opinion may change when I put more hours into it, as I’ve played a ridiculous amount of Starfield, but as of now I definitely have Cyberpunk above Starfield.

It’s all subjective to an extent, Starfield has a lot more freedom in what you do, so I can see people who really enjoy the Bethesda blueprint loving it, and Cyberpunk has had a lot of time since launch to fix it. In a year or two Starfield could be amazing (for me, as im sure for some it’s already there).

Oh mate...it's 2023 and I thought we all know this one basic internet fact...

 

[Cascarino]

Oh mate...it's 2023 and I thought we all know this one basic internet fact...

 

[telstar96]

If we’re judging the games as they are now, then I think Cyberpunk is the better game. I couldn’t stand Cyberpunk but gave it a go after completing Starfield, and it’s definitely a more well rounded experience, especially when it comes to the writing, setting and characters. That opinion may change when I put more hours into it, as I’ve played a ridiculous amount of Starfield, but as of now I definitely have Cyberpunk above Starfield.

It’s all subjective to an extent, Starfield has a lot more freedom in what you do, so I can see people who really enjoy the Bethesda blueprint loving it, and Cyberpunk has had a lot of time since launch to fix it. In a year or two Starfield could be amazing (for me, as im sure for some it’s already there).

If you showed a novice Cyberpunk now and on release, they wouldn't believe it was the same game. It's quite astonishing how they've managed to salvage the game, although not the financial losses I'm guessing.

 

[Alock1]

If you showed a novice Cyberpunk now and on release, they wouldn't believe it was the same game. It's quite astonishing how they've managed to salvage the game, although not the financial losses I'm guessing.

Come on. That's not true at all.

 

[Kaos]

If you showed a novice Cyberpunk now and on release, they wouldn't believe it was the same game. It's quite astonishing how they've managed to salvage the game, although not the financial losses I'm guessing.

They've made an $81million profit this year alone. They're fine financially. The game was a success on that front, even on release.

 

[Siorac]

I don't know which genius at Bethesda decided to lock EVERYTHING behind fecking perk points but they need to be lined up against a wall and shot.

I need to destroy 15 ships (and waste a level-up point) to be able to unlock class B ships. Newsflash, game: I want to buy a class B ship BECAUSE I want to be able to destroy other ships easily because the starter ship is a piece of shit and the other A class ships that are available aren't any better.

At least they could have made it in a way that you only need to spend a level up point once, to unlock the skill and then subsequent levels are upgraded when you complete a challenge. Or the other way around: just ask perk points and leave me alone with the challenges. Or at least track all the challenges all the time, even when they aren't unlocked - if I already killed 500 people with ballistic weapons, don't make me kill another 100 after I unlock a specific level. But I guess the point is to make you grind the game all day long.

 

[RedSky]

Yeah, its dumb as feck. Want to build a base? Grind 40 hours first to get the relevant perk points.

 

[Bebe]

I don't know which genius at Bethesda decided to lock EVERYTHING behind fecking perk points but they need to be lined up against a wall and shot.

I need to destroy 15 ships (and waste a level-up point) to be able to unlock class B ships. Newsflash, game: I want to buy a class B ship BECAUSE I want to be able to destroy other ships easily because the starter ship is a piece of shit and the other A class ships that are available aren't any better.

At least they could have made it in a way that you only need to spend a level up point once, to unlock the skill and then subsequent levels are upgraded when you complete a challenge. Or the other way around: just ask perk points and leave me alone with the challenges. Or at least track all the challenges all the time, even when they aren't unlocked - if I already killed 500 people with ballistic weapons, don't make me kill another 100 after I unlock a specific level. But I guess the point is to make you grind the game all day long.

Join the UC Vanguard, and use the flight simulator thing to grind those ship kills quick.

But yes, the decision to lock everything in the skill tree is annoying as feck. Progression in Starfield feels like what I expect MMORPGs feel like.

 

[Fully Fledged]

Join the UC Vanguard, and use the flight simulator thing to grind those ship kills quick.

But yes, the decision to lock everything in the skill tree is annoying as feck. Progression in Starfield feels like what I expect MMORPGs feel like.

I did them doing ranger quests, it's worth having the wanted perk as well as that brings 3/4 ships on you on a regular basis. Still need the last cargo upgrade, but my cargo bay is more than 75% full so every time I jump I get one jump closer.

 

[Herman Toothrot]

So I've done the Vanguard, Ryujin Industries and Crimson Fleet questlines... what's left other than the main story?

I've nearly finished the main, but it's the least interesting and I'd rather not finish it off for a bit. The three I've completed have been a lot of fun. Enjoyed the pirate life and Terramorphs, even if they were not much of a challenge at Level 31. I love how quickly you become the most important person in the galaxy. So weird having a companion from Constellation following you around as you commit crimes and espionage. It makes no sense. By the way, what a bunch of dweebs Constellation are.

 

[Fully Fledged]

So I've done the Vanguard, Ryujin Industries and Crimson Fleet questlines... what's left other than the main story?

I've nearly finished the main, but it's the least interesting and I'd rather not finish it off for a bit. The three I've completed have been a lot of fun. Enjoyed the pirate life and Terramorphs, even if they were not much of a challenge at Level 31. I love how quickly you become the most important person in the galaxy. So weird having a companion from Constellation following you around as you commit crimes and espionage. It makes no sense. By the way, what a bunch of dweebs Constellation are.

There's the Free Star Rangers quest.

 

[Herman Toothrot]

There's the Free Star Rangers quest.

Ah yes, Westworld.

 

[Fully Fledged]

Ah yes, Westworld.

Yep.

 

[RedSky]

I've dropped this game. What questlines are actually worth doing? I got horribly bored after a while. Collected so many crafting materials but can't do anything with them because I have to unlock perks to do it. But there are too many perks that need to be unlocked before that to make crafting worthwhile early game.

The perk trees actually kills this game.

 

[Gehrman]

I think we can all agree it's better than Cyberpunk and that's all that matters

Cyberpunk is miles better. From the writing, combat and world. Starfield is just yeah some different locations you travel to but with mediocre quests, characters and locations. Its big but empty. A decent game, but ive had little urge to go back to it after finishing the faction quests and the main story.

 

[dinostar77]

edge magazine gave this a 6

 

[Redlambs]

edge magazine gave this a 6

6-7 is fair. It's not bad as such, but it's very dated and has some very poor design decisions.

If they do a Cyberpunk style makeover, it could be much higher but at the moment it's just okay.

 

[Alock1]

Cyberpunk is miles better. From the writing, combat and world. Starfield is just yeah some different locations you travel to but with mediocre quests, characters and locations. Its big but empty. A decent game, but ive had little urge to go back to it after finishing the faction quests and the main story.

I meant it's better than God of War sorry

 

[Bebe]

6-7 is fair. It's not bad as such, but it's very dated and has some very poor design decisions.

If they do a Cyberpunk style makeover, it could be much higher but at the moment it's just okay.

I'd call it an 8. It's got a great suite of features when it comes to shipbuilding, modding, basebuilding etc, along with competent shooting mechanics and a massive game world to explore. Ship fighting is also fun although it could be expanded quite a bit.

It falls flat on the actual act of exploration and character progression. Main story is typical Bethesda meh, but some of the side content is excellent.

Basically its a 5 or 6 on the RPG front, but I think it's worth an 8.5 as a space action game. Hard for me to say it's below something like Far Cry 6 for example, which is at 76% on opencritic.

 

[RedSky]

edge magazine gave this a 6

Honestly, I think that's generous.

Too many frustrating design choices coupled with poor AI, bad story and bland quests. It's a pretty game to look at and the combat is fun but there's too much wrong with the game to make it a fun experience. It quickly become a chore, the combat fun wares away as you come against dumb AI and repetitive locations.

Perhaps i'm being harsh on the game but there's no chance i'd pay money for it and i'd feel conned if I bought it full price. Luckily I played it via games pass so I can get rid of this shite.

Maybe with some Mods to erase the poor design choices this might be fun, there's talk of people doing Star Wars mods with it and that'd be fun. But the vanilla game is a HARD pass. Just not enough to it.

 

[Nickosaur]

6 is ridiculous. Game has its flaws but it has so much more going for it than that. It's a firm 9 for me after about 60 hours played.

 

[Redlambs]

I'd call it an 8. It's got a great suite of features when it comes to shipbuilding, modding, basebuilding etc, along with competent shooting mechanics and a massive game world to explore. Ship fighting is also fun although it could be expanded quite a bit.

It falls flat on the actual act of exploration and character progression. Main story is typical Bethesda meh, but some of the side content is excellent.

Basically its a 5 or 6 on the RPG front, but I think it's worth an 8.5 as a space action game. Hard for me to say it's below something like Far Cry 6 for example, which is at 76% on opencritic.

It's space action is the worst bit.

6 is ridiculous. Game has its flaws but it has so much more going for it than that. It's a firm 9 for me after about 60 hours played.

No, what is ridiculous this modern thinking that somehow 6 is shite and every game is a 9 or 10.

 

[Bebe]

It's space action is the worst bit.




No, what is ridiculous this modern thinking that somehow 6 is shite and every game is a 9 or 10.

Not sure this is a modern thing, I felt this was the case in the 360/PS3 era. Army of Two sits at 79 on metacritic. Bioshock 2 sits at 88. No idea why those two titles came to mind but I'm quite comfortable in saying that Starfield, relative to the competition today, is an 8 if Army of Two, relative to the competition at the time of it's release, was a 7.9.

Obviously if game journalism made any sense, Fallout 76 would be getting 1s or 2s instead of 5s but for whatever reason, that's the way game reviews have always worked to my recollection.

 

[RedSky]

No, what is ridiculous this modern thinking that somehow 6 is shite and every game is a 9 or 10.

Exactly. In no way should this game be a 9 or 10. It's not game of the year material at all. It'll be a game thrown on the scrap heap until Mods come and rescue it and even then the buzz won't last long. It's just a very forgettable game in a very competitive genre. I can't actually put my finger on one aspect of the game that deserves a 9/10, perhaps the artwork. I was generally impressed with the majority of the artwork with the exception of the abysmal lifeless faces of course.

 

[altodevil]

Still haven't played this. Too busy with Monster Sanctuary NG+

 

[weetee]

Still haven't played this. Too busy with Monster Sanctuary NG+

Can't say you missed much.

 

[amolbhatia50k]

Exactly. In no way should this game be a 9 or 10. It's not game of the year material at all. It'll be a game thrown on the scrap heap until Mods come and rescue it and even then the buzz won't last long. It's just a very forgettable game in a very competitive genre. I can't actually put my finger on one aspect of the game that deserves a 9/10, perhaps the artwork. I was generally impressed with the majority of the artwork with the exception of the abysmal lifeless faces of course.

I’d give it a 7/10

 

[Coxy]

Exactly. In no way should this game be a 9 or 10. It's not game of the year material at all. It'll be a game thrown on the scrap heap until Mods come and rescue it and even then the buzz won't last long. It's just a very forgettable game in a very competitive genre. I can't actually put my finger on one aspect of the game that deserves a 9/10, perhaps the artwork. I was generally impressed with the majority of the artwork with the exception of the abysmal lifeless faces of course.

For me it’s a 9 (just). I don’t know what it is about Bethesda games, but something always draws me in with them.

I acknowledge it’s faults - full of them. For me it’s a noticable downgrade from fallout 4 / Skyrim. But I’m still really enjoying it despite its faults,

 

[Dan]

 

[Kaos]

6/10 is spot on.

I would have been more generous with my own assessment if this game was released in 2016, which it feels like it was. Everything is dated - the wooden character animations, abundance of loading screens, the awkward perk system, the rudimentary approach to space travel and 'exploration'. And all of that would have been forgiven if the writing and character development wasn't so uninspiring, something Bethesda have never been good at.

For me it's just reinforced this idea that Bethesda are a C tier dev shop at best. They really need to work on a new engine and ditch that ancient embryo engine or whatever that turd is called they keep trying to polish, and for feck sake hire some actual writers. Larian are putting them to shame with a fraction of their budget, and they don't have the Microsoft juggernaut backing them either.

Oh and the best thing Microsoft can do is launch Todd Howard into the sun. The guy is an over-memed caricature who's only obsessed with pointless soundbites during game reveals which amount to nothing of substance in the final game.

Also wish Microsoft would take the Fallout license off of them and give it to Obsidian and actually give them time and a bigger budget. New Vegas was unsurprisingly better than anything Bethesda have done with the Fallout universe, and they developed the thing in less than two years.

 

[Alock1]

I think it's clear they spent too much effort focusing on making this game playable for 300 hrs than focusing on the core experience for the first 30.

 

[Van Piorsing]

I think it's clear they spent too much effort focusing on making this game playable for 300 hrs than focusing on the core experience for the first 30.

They'll fix it in Complete Edition, and when Legendary Edition will be released, there should be enough mods from all the brilliant community members to push it to somewhat immersive state, from start to finish.

I'll personally wait for 10th Year Anniversary Edition, so they can add better light bulbs on space stations.

 

[afrocentricity]

For me it’s a 9 (just). I don’t know what it is about Bethesda games, but something always draws me in with them.

I acknowledge it’s faults - full of them. For me it’s a noticable downgrade from fallout 4 / Skyrim. But I’m still really enjoying it despite its faults,

So it call be all these things, but still 9 for you?

 

[Coxy]

So it call be all these things, but still 9 for you?

Yeah? I would rank a few games as a 10 - but that doesn’t make them perfect . Always things can be improved. Starfield is full of faults, but for me, the fun I’m having with it makes it a 9 for me (just). Like I said, something about Bethesda games just really click with me.

Skyrim is my GOAT and Morrowind is probably in my top 10, fallout 4 in my top 20.

 

[Nickosaur]

Yeah? I would rank a few games as a 10 - but that doesn’t make them perfect . Always things can be improved. Starfield is full of faults, but for me, the fun I’m having with it makes it a 9 for me (just). Like I said, something about Bethesda games just really click with me.

Skyrim is my GOAT and Morrowind is probably in my top 10, fallout 4 in my top 20.

Same here. I think so much of the criticism is valid - but I'm also having a blast.

I haven't done any quests in about 5 hours in my current save, just had a personal goal to completely scan a system that I randomly stumbled upon. You get a surprising amount of XP for scanning planets 100% and with a few skill points invested in the scanning perks it's a lot of fun.

Going to pick one of the faction quests to focus on now, possibly the UC/Vanguard. Freestar Rangers was a little dull in terms of plot but have heard Vanguard is excellent.

 

[Salt Bailly]

I'm legit on the fence now as to whether this is worth purchasing a series S for...

 

[Realist81]

I'm legit on the fence now as to whether this is worth purchasing a series S for...

Did you enjoy previous bethesda games? If so then you'll enjoy this, I've done a chunk of the main quest and some of the vanguard quests and I'm having fun so far, the boost pack adds to the combat and I've built quite an arsenal.

 

[amolbhatia50k]

I'm legit on the fence now as to whether this is worth purchasing a series S for...

Definitely no. Unless you’re like a huge fan of Bethesda games (not for their time but just in general)

 

[Salt Bailly]

Did you enjoy previous bethesda games? If so then you'll enjoy this, I've done a chunk of the main quest and some of the vanguard quests and I'm having fun so far, the boost pack adds to the combat and I've built quite an arsenal.

Definitely no. Unless you’re like a huge fan of Bethesda games (not for their time but just in general)

Ffs it's happened again. I am a Bethesda fanboy. Oblivion, Skyrim, fallout 3 and new Vegas are my jam