Starfield

 PC
User Score
5.6

Mixed or average reviews- based on 5711 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 2,635 out of 5711
  2. Mixed: 612 out of 5711
  3. Negative: 2,464 out of 5711
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  1. Skyblade799
    Sep 8, 2023
    5
    60 hours in, and it may be the first Bethesda game I don't finish. It's... unfortunately just average. So average I'd call it often boring.

    Exploration is disjoint, and all of the planets require you to walk 300-1000 meters (minutes of walking) with absolutely nothing to do but hold move, press jump, and occasionally scan or use a random tree. Most of the areas you find are empty caves    60 hours in, and it may be the first Bethesda game I don't finish. It's... unfortunately just average. So average I'd call it often boring.

    Exploration is disjoint, and all of the planets require you to walk 300-1000 meters (minutes of walking) with absolutely nothing to do but hold move, press jump, and occasionally scan or use a random tree. Most of the areas you find are empty caves or abandoned buildings with no one in them, or random "nature" structures (which while neat, get old quick with nothing to do with them). This is just what you do in No Man's Sky, which isn't a good thing. You can't avoid this; all too many mainline quests, side quests, and all power/ability unlocks require you walk these barren planets. No longer will you go from point A to B and find C,D,E,and F in-between or as a branch from that... you'll go from A, find nothing for minutes except "random" ore plants and fauna (No Man's Sky style "random" — basically just copy pastes), and reach B, and that's it.

    Combat is decent, and the weapons are plentiful and entertaining, but unfortunately enemy variety is very poor. There are other types of enemy than bandit or regular human, but you will almost never see them. Even when you do, most enemies have awful AI. I rarely ever see the robots, and I've only seen alien enemies in dungeons a total of.... once so far. None of the human enemies have any special abilities or items; just skin and weapon damage type changes (you don't even get the variety spells provided skyrim mages/summoners). It's a huge drop in variety from Fallout or Elder Scrolls so far, and while there "may" be more, they are far too rare for no reason. The lack of variety makes it become stale.

    Tutorials are awful, and menu guidance is bad. Did you know you could switch which direction you rotate items you are dragging around with shift? I didn't. You know what I bet? I suspect that most people don't even realize that the cover aim system from fallout 4 still exists. It was not explained there either, and 99% of people online don't seem to know that either Fallout 4 or this even has cover shooting mechanics (hint: get right behind the flat cover... now aim at it). The tutorial story also last very long compared to Skyrim (it's over after the dragon) or fallout (out of the vault/intro shack? Feel free to leave). Here I'm multiple main story missions in and I don't have powers, and I'm only pushing it now just to unlock them at some point.

    Ship combat is not very good (and its issues show when playing on very hard). Effectively just a stat check if there are no asteroids for cover (do you have the piloting/thruster.lock-on skills in the passive tree required to make the ship combat actually work? Do you have a good enough ship?). With ground combat you can take enemies well above your level or area, but in ship combat that is not the case with many fights. A lot of limits here too: Got a ship crew? Want to assign them? Need more crew space. Got more space? Still need a higher level social perk. Want to have them in a second ship for a fleet? Not possible. Also costs the most credits for the part of the game with the least content so far, as though you can steal ships, you can't seemingly swap their parts to other ships like you can just equip new guns on the ground.

    See this massive skill tree? You're going to spend a lot of time taking basic requires game perks to even play, such as: security/lockpicking level, basic ability to use ship movement mechanic (required to use better ships too), basic ability to use ship aiming/vats mechanic, basic carry weight (you start with the least of any Bethesda game), the stealth meter (seriously, the stealth meter at all). Mix this in with boring or completely useless perks like without flavor like "scanner range, mine extra ore, environmental resistance, grav drive fuel so you have to go through less fast travel menus... etc, and it gets frustratingly boring. Basic upgrades to crew member cap or the ability to put outposts on most special planets is locked behind over 12 skills points in the social and science trees... I just don't understand how we got there. Any of the fallout games legitimately have better perks and don't take basic mechanics and pretend they are perks. The basic mechanic ones could be fine if there were a ton of new special mechanics to unlock later on, but no, it's primarily disabled or limited existing mechanics. At least half of the tree is nonsense.

    It's just... so aggressively flawed. It's not a terrible game and I do enjoy various parts of it, but this year is filled with so many excellent games it's absurd. There's no reason to pay so much for something that's this average (unless you are or are in dire need of an open world game I guess). Just get one of those other games and skip this for a steep sale.    … Expand
  2. MSB1
    Sep 7, 2023
    5
    Starfield wanted to be Fallout 4 and Skyrim mixed with No Man's Sky and completely failed at all of it. Instead you get an average, soulless game that gets the bad parts of all three of those games and nothing of what made them good/great. And this is on top of classic Bethesda bugs, glitches, and performance issues that they will never fix. The modding community is literally the only hopeStarfield wanted to be Fallout 4 and Skyrim mixed with No Man's Sky and completely failed at all of it. Instead you get an average, soulless game that gets the bad parts of all three of those games and nothing of what made them good/great. And this is on top of classic Bethesda bugs, glitches, and performance issues that they will never fix. The modding community is literally the only hope this game has, because it's a massive flop at this point in all ways.… Expand
  3. Pecone
    Sep 7, 2023
    5
    Where do I begin? I was so excited when I saw the last gameplay presentation and I thought, finally! It's a good space exploration RPG! Boy, was I wrong.

    After spending about 20 hrs with this trash, I gotta say, this is the worst game I have played in a while. Boring fetch quests that don't make any sense. Time consuming boring tasks for the sake of extending the boring, uninspired,    Where do I begin? I was so excited when I saw the last gameplay presentation and I thought, finally! It's a good space exploration RPG! Boy, was I wrong.

    After spending about 20 hrs with this trash, I gotta say, this is the worst game I have played in a while.
    Boring fetch quests that don't make any sense. Time consuming boring tasks for the sake of extending the boring, uninspired, empty gameplay. Did I mention that there are no vehicles while exploring planets!???!?!?!? That’s right, we don’t have the technology to have a vehicle to move around and explore when landing on a different planet. Insane! You have run on foot, your O2 runs out in 30 sec and you have to walk everywhere, it is beyond dumb! You walk for 10-15 min until you see something or find something useful. Major waste of time, just to inflate their gameplay numbers.

    Horrible NPCs and enemy/friendly AI.
    NPCs would get stuck in the environment all the time. They would float and clip through the floors or ceilings. Glitches, bugs and crashes all the time. Missing basic PC features, such as HDR support, FOV slider, Texture quality setting. Outdated graphics/animations.

    The lighting appears to be broken in most closed spaces, especially the ones underground. It will get dark, almost gray/tan and then when you move a bit it will get very bright. It is definitely broken.

    And there is the matter of the loading screens, oh boy. Pretty much every door you open will result in a loading screen. I am not joking. Let me tell you, you open a lot of doors in this game and pretty much every single one would trigger a loading screen.

    The sound design appears to be pretty good, but that's about it.

    The game was misrepresented in a huge way. They basically lied to us when they said you can go anywhere, explore everything...that's not true at all. You only have a set of points where you can jump with your ship, and for planet exploration, they are empty worlds with 5 randomly created creatures here and there...all buildings you encounter are all copy/paste the same design, no deviation whatsoever. Horrible.
    On top of everything the game will constantly CTD, with no errors. This game took them how many years to make???? What a joke.

    There is literally nothing of substance here. Boring, uninspired quests, ugly characters, horrible face animations, bad PC performance...and I can go on and on.

    Bottom Line, don’t buy this game! It isn’t worth your time or money. If you get on gamepass, I would say try it and see if this is your cup of tea. But as it stands, it has a lot of issues, horrible bugs/glitches, bad performance, boring, time consuming, unfun gameplay, fetch quests that don’t make any sense, except to waste your time.    … Expand
  4. AlfaMode
    Sep 7, 2023
    5
    "I, like many gamers, thought of a game where we could look up at the sky and fly into space where you could view the galaxy with complete freedom. In this space RPG, you can create any character and explore the universe the way you want."
    - Todd Howard
    7 years of development. Budget 220 million dollars. 500 developers. Huge support from Microsoft. We got it... The worst Bethesda Game    "I, like many gamers, thought of a game where we could look up at the sky and fly into space where you could view the galaxy with complete freedom. In this space RPG, you can create any character and explore the universe the way you want."
    - Todd Howard

    7 years of development. Budget 220 million dollars. 500 developers. Huge support from Microsoft. We got it... The worst Bethesda Game Studios game.
    There is no spirit of exploration and adventure because there is no open space, and the same research points are very similar on planets. In Elden Ring, like Zelda, has a spirit of adventure and exploration. Those games don't have "thousands" of lines of dialogue, "thousands" of planets. You are always wondering "what is there?". And starfield can't offer you that. CTRL+C location that you have already cleared. All of the Bethesda games, this game has the most boring main story and sometimes illogical. It's 2023 and the studio still hasn't gotten rid of loading screens in 7 years of development. Almost every action is a loading screen. Maybe in the future the game will become more interesting with a survival mode and mods. Now, this is a boring grind on empty planets.

    Only for good shooting, excellent interior design and equipment I put 5/10    … Expand
  5. JahirtRuiz
    Sep 7, 2023
    5
    I'm a lover of RPGs, and Fallout... but I have to admit that this game is unplayable, The loading screens are just stupidly annoying... I couldn't continue playing after 1hr... is just impossible for me.

    the only good thing is that I can go back to No Man´s Sky, and enjoy a real space game, without the **** LOADING SCREENS.
  6. Bloubul1
    Sep 7, 2023
    6
    The more I played the worse it got. I initially gave it an 8 out of 10, now I am down to 6 out of 10. It is just...empty. I think if they added more (intelligent) alien races to discover, vehicles like hover craft or dune buggies to explore planet surfaces, and flying in the atmosphere - the exploration part would have been much better. Also, why can't I swim under water? It is soThe more I played the worse it got. I initially gave it an 8 out of 10, now I am down to 6 out of 10. It is just...empty. I think if they added more (intelligent) alien races to discover, vehicles like hover craft or dune buggies to explore planet surfaces, and flying in the atmosphere - the exploration part would have been much better. Also, why can't I swim under water? It is so immersion breaking.… Expand
  7. JohnyOakman
    Sep 7, 2023
    5
    Instead of innovating the Bethesda formula, they stick to what they know and don’t add any new ideas. Almost all features are things that have been seen in Fallout and Skyrim. Main story is boring, where missions are repeating the same action over and over. Special powers you get are rehashed shouts from Skyrim. Combat is slightly improved with gun handling but also lacking features thatInstead of innovating the Bethesda formula, they stick to what they know and don’t add any new ideas. Almost all features are things that have been seen in Fallout and Skyrim. Main story is boring, where missions are repeating the same action over and over. Special powers you get are rehashed shouts from Skyrim. Combat is slightly improved with gun handling but also lacking features that other Bethesda games have had in the past (sneak takedowns, executions, and guards being alerted to gunfire/attacks). The gameplay is pretty much Fallout 4 without VATS.
    The exploration in this game in my opinions fails in comparison to their other games. In Skyrim or fallout you can see something in the distance and walk there. In starfield, every planet might have 3 or more locations that are worth going to but to get there you need to fast travel between those locations and fast travel between planets. Everything feels segmented to where it shouldn’t even be called an open world.
    Facial animations are dated and companions are lifeless and seem to have no personality.
    The Choices you make seem to have little impact to the world around you. Everything just seems boring and bland.
    The side quests are hit and miss with some having genuinely interesting stories and lore. For a Bethesda game it is passable as a good rpg where you can sink a lot of time into. But they seem stuck in the past. Since Fallout 4, we have had other game studios make more interesting games where the rpg genre boundaries are pushed (Witcher 3, Baldurs Gate 3, and even Cyberpunk). I loved Skyrim and Fallout 4, but in 2023, Bethesda doesn’t seem like the industry pushing company that they used to be.    … Expand
  8. Vorlog
    Sep 7, 2023
    5
    I'm not a fan-boy. I play on all platforms. This game is just not enjoyable. Hopefully, modders can salvage it in a year or 2.
  9. coltsr2
    Sep 12, 2023
    7
    Starfield has some great moments BUT... has some major and glaring issues that often spoil the game.. First off...How is this supposed to be a space based adventure with your own spaceship, when you cant even fly the spaceships properly? We are unable to fly on and off, or even over the surface of the planets? Hell even the far lower budget indie developers 'No mans Sky' at least lets youStarfield has some great moments BUT... has some major and glaring issues that often spoil the game.. First off...How is this supposed to be a space based adventure with your own spaceship, when you cant even fly the spaceships properly? We are unable to fly on and off, or even over the surface of the planets? Hell even the far lower budget indie developers 'No mans Sky' at least lets you land and take off from planets and fly around them! But Starfield's space exploration is a bit of a scam, a gimmick, a fake, a charade, a thin veneer, its pure snake oil sold to us by Todd Howard the snake oil salesman.
    Starfield has no real space exploration at all, just one base/mine/space station per planet, with fast travel cutscenes and loading scenes masquerading as space travel, the whole space exploration element is all a giant let-down!. instead we get the same irritating repetitive over and over cutscenes of the landings and take-offs..and that's it! Awful!
    Why even bother with the planets anyway if that's the best they could do with all the money they had and giant dev team? Its a joke, an insult to our intelligence and betrayal of what Todd Howard promised! They should of just kept it all on one planet, with different biomes and simply called it Planetfield! Whilst i enjoyed some of the planets in starfield, most are barren and continued nothing much to the game.

    And why so many Cutscenes? they are everywhere, Take off your ship = animated cutscene,...land your ship = animated cutscene, Fly to the nearest planet = animated cutscene, get out of your space ship chair = animated cutscene, get out of your spaceship = black screen cutscene, get back in your ship = black screen cutscene, get back into your chair = animated cutscene cutscene, Walk through a door black screen cutscene, Everything is cutscenes! I half expected a nice trip on the monorail/metro, looking out of the windows as I travelled between districts, but no...all i got was..you guessed it another fast travel black screen Cutscene! Compare that to the awesome real monorail in Star citizen!
    As for the planets, they may as well be non existent like ive said.., often just empty barren and nothing to do, with simplistic graphics, its a pointless waste of time even wanting to explore them!..there is nothing to explore! They are ultimately as fake as the games title. Fast travel to a planet you are presented with a few options, land on the designated area with the base, city, mine etc, or land on the planet somewhere miles away and be presented with zero options other than to mine pointless materials. So in effect each planet is just a staging post/backdrop for the missions. No exploration at all.
    Procedurally generated worlds can be boring and repetitive, even when done well. They need Procedurally generated bases, cities, missions etc. Now that would of been cool.
    No HDR options or even basic gamma or brightness options, so for me at least many of the interiors ended up looking very bright, foggy and often felt like I was in a smoke filled night club in most of the interior spaces! But thankfully the modding community was soon able to offer fixes for this on day one of official release! BUT Why should it be left up to the modders to sort these blaring issues out on day one of release?
    I've also added a custom ini to increase the field of view to 90, instead of the restrictive default of 70. As for the cities in the game, they are cartoon looking, low textured, like New Atlantis, which is a very basic, cartoon looking, small city with a scattering of useless NPC's walking or sitting around, and whats with the odd looking fake trees, and rubbish pools of fake looking water with cartoon water lily's in? As for all the cafe's, and shops, they are just empty facades with no real life in them.
    Missions are often ridiculous and boring.
    ive given it a 7..due to the effort put into some of the bases and ideas. It could of been a 10 if they kept to their promises. Its a real shame because you can see a lot of effort HAS gone into certain parts of the game.
    If Todd Howard was a used car salesman, he would walk you around an amazing Ferrari at his car showroom, waffle off all the great specs to get your interest level up, then quickly get you to sign the paper work for the expensive purchase, then when you are walked to the handover room, you would be given an old clapped out pickup truck with a Ferrari badge 'sticky taped' to the bonnet!    … Expand
  10. DavidFCorreia
    Sep 7, 2023
    5
    5/10
    In resume: This game is souless.
    How can a game that has been in development for more than ten years (they market more, don't they?) be a science fiction space adventure and the first thing we notice is that they don't include "space travel" or "space exploration"? Are you kidding me? You can't take off or land on a planet. Loading Screens everywhere. Even the advertasing    5/10
    In resume: This game is souless.

    How can a game that has been in development for more than ten years (they market more, don't they?) be a science fiction space adventure and the first thing we notice is that they don't include "space travel" or "space exploration"? Are you kidding me? You can't take off or land on a planet. Loading Screens everywhere.
    Even the advertasing exploration is not true, you can't explore fully a planet, an invisible wall and a message appears after you walk some Km.
    The planets being proceedal generated is acceptable (at some point) but the copy and past of outposts and caves and bs on a planet is abismal. And I'm not talking about 5 occasions, is dozens apon dozens... Don't forget there are thousand of planets...

    It's awful how little immersion there is. developed for more than ten years, but where? What did you do with the money and time?
    Why is this game so empty? We know that most of space is empty, therefore I won't discuss about the planets, which are assumed to be empty. The cities, though? The cities are deserted, dead, and devoid of life. No one is concerned if you shoot. Police won't intervene. This is advertising has a RPG. An RPG should, at the very least, have strong exploration, be immersive and soulful.
    There are nothing in this game that will pull you to this world. The first missions I did after I was "released" in space were the most ridiculous missions, you know that ones that are there to fill the game with bs? Yeah... My thought was "this is going to be the entire of the game will it not?". Ridiculous.
    I will not talk about bugs of course...

    Man, this is bad. This people need to stop with this bs, for real.

    (The 5 out of 10 is because the game is a good shooter, the graphics are ok, city design and "zones" are good and ship costumization is good).    … Expand
  11. PenetratorGod
    Sep 7, 2023
    5
    I can't be your Constellation member...

    Starfield system requirements are exaggerated even for today AAA games, despite the game outdated engine. Starfield is also a great example of how AAA game developers today dont value optimization. While developing this game, they didnt think about anyone with average and above average systems. Until Starfield, I had never seen a game that    I can't be your Constellation member...

    Starfield system requirements are exaggerated even for today AAA games, despite the game outdated engine. Starfield is also a great example of how AAA game developers today dont value optimization. While developing this game, they didnt think about anyone with average and above average systems. Until Starfield, I had never seen a game that aggressively imposed such high system requirements.

    You cannot make a successful game by ignoring a player base that makes up a large part of the world. You cant assume that every PC gamer has, or has to have, a RTX 4090/7900 XTX and a system of its caliber. It is unrealistic for game developers to expect every PC gamer to have a high-end system. Because even the graphics your game offers dont match your requirements. There are dozens of games released 10 years ago that look much better than Starfield. Great graphics alone do not make a game good. Graphics are not a priority for every gamer.

    Even if Starfield is the best looking game in the world, it cant be a good game with this optimization and content. I dont want to see games with high graphics on the outside but empty inside. You can impress gamers who dont understand games with just graphics, but games are more than that and real gamers know that. But no game released without optimization in this way has ever been successful.

    Even though there are so many examples and Bethesda had similar problems in their previous games, they never learned a lesson. Not to mention the bugs and glitches, it was already expected to be released this way. Classic Bethesda always makes technically broken games. Bethesda didnt try to make a good and memorable game.

    Their only concern was to make a game that didnt live up to expectations with astronomical requirements in order to make more money for their sponsors, the computer parts manufacturers. They want todays PC gamers to have higher systems so that more next gen games with terrible optimizations can be developed. Otherwise they cant reduce the cost and time of development or sell new graphics cards and CPUs. I dont respect or support these goals of companies.

    There is a lot to criticize about the content of the game, but for me the gameplay is more important and since the game is currently unplayable due to optimization, there is no need to talk about other aspects.
    Bethesda needs to stop using the Creation Engine as soon as possible. We have seen another game that turned into a disaster because of this engine. Bethesda just dont want to see it.

    Starfield will probably be playable after a few years of updates, DLCs and expanded mod support, until then, goodbye...    … Expand
  12. ruimilk
    Sep 8, 2023
    5
    I cannot recommend this game right now, don’t waste your money on it @ full price.

    It baffles me how Bethesda can screw up this much, this could have been a GOTY. --> The bad Let’s start with the obvious: the game is full of bugs, not “Skyrim launch” level of bugs but a lot of bugs nevertheless. A game of this magnitude is expected to have them, but please don’t go on the media    I cannot recommend this game right now, don’t waste your money on it @ full price.

    It baffles me how Bethesda can screw up this much, this could have been a GOTY.

    --> The bad

    Let’s start with the obvious: the game is full of bugs, not “Skyrim launch” level of bugs but a lot of bugs nevertheless. A game of this magnitude is expected to have them, but please don’t go on the media bragging about having “so few bugs”. They are common, they are everywhere, from visual bugs to quest bugs, even whole ship fleets missing that prevent you to move on with your quest (fixed after game restart).

    Second, the game has KOTOR (2003) space travel mechanics. With so many examples on the market (Elite Dangerous, NMS, etc.) it’s amazing how they couldn’t implement an in/out atmosphere landing. It’s just cut scenes all over the place: for landing, for docking, even riding the freaking metro. You cannot fly on the planet surface, you cannot fly into the planet, all you can do is a cut-scene here, a cut-scene there. Want to move around and explore the planet? Get ready to run marathons. No ground vehicles, no flying, just running - you’ll obviously end up just fast traveling everywhere. And the loadings… They are fast on NVME’s, but almost every door, everything you do is a freaking loading screen that cuts the immersion.

    Third, they screwed up big on the map, inventory & management. Moving items from your character to the companion requires about 5/6 actions, one of them being to open a dialogue with them. They did it right on Fallout and Skyrim, no excuses here. The map is a huge mess, I’m 30+ hours in and still doesn’t feel right, it’s not intuitive, it’s confusing, lacks consistency and the game has no minimap.

    Moving on, space combat is “ok”, a hugely simplified version of Elite Dangerous combat/ship maneuverability, still, more satisfying than the shooting mechanics on ground. Speaking of it, the weapons feel & effects are hugely unsatisfying. Nothing wrong with the weapons stats, types, etc., there is a lot of gun variety, they simply couldn’t do what (for example) Battlebit did, a game made by half-a-dozen friends where the weapons just feel amazing. NPC AI is a joke, the game feels way too easy on normal and the NPC intelligence doesn’t scale with it. Be ready to deal with bugged enemies aiming at the ground, hiding in plain sight or aliens running indefinitely into walls.

    The RPG side of it is Fallout 4 level of fail, you don’t have freedom to do anything out of the rulebook. Try to shoot shop people? Immortal. Try to shoot anything that’s not a pure enemy or random generated outpost, bullets don’t affect them. Dialogue options? Vague and weak. Persuasion mechanics are a mess, all feels superficial like a big roller-coaster ride.

    Last but not least, the performance. I can’t complain here because thankfully I have a really good setup, but folks that aren’t this fortunately will have a shock with the game lack of optimization. And it’s not like you’ll find the best graphics ever, not even close. The textures are outdated, the face animations too, the game doesn’t even stretch its legs to scale with GPU/CPU power. I’m running everything on ultra @ 1440p and the game only uses 5GB of VRAM, so much untapped power. Graphics aren’t that important, but it’s the cherry on the top of everything I just stated.

    --> The good

    The soundtrack is amazing, Interstellar meets 2001 Space Odyssey, a pleasure to listen to it on max volume.
    Awesome quest variety and factions.
    Game is stable, never had a single crash.
    The crafting / ship customization is awesome.
    The feel of the game overall is “ok”, I’m getting immersed in the story, but I just get kicked out of it every 5 minutes because of the things stated above.

    --> Conclusion

    Bethesda left the hard work to the modders. A 200+ million project, hundreds of people working on it, a veteran studio with all the funding they could have asked for, it’s like they f***ed up on purpose and I’m mad about it because Bethesda did a lot of my favorite games, ever, and I used to LOVE this company. So – many – rookie – mistakes.

    Personally, I think they were graphically held-back by the Xbox Series S, since it is a Xbox/PC exclusive they had to make it work on that damn calculator (and we can see the results). Also, the game is 100% a console port, there are no native PC mechanics, which aren’t that difficult to implement on a single-player game…

    The game is “ok” but could have been a masterpiece and it makes me mad because of the lost opportunity. Perhaps one day it will, when everything is just properly refined. Just wait for the price to drop, wait for the patches to fix everything, wait for the godsend modders to do their magic.

    Get a grip, Todd    … Expand
  13. psylife
    Sep 7, 2023
    5
    There is a fundamental lack of creativity and risk taking here. The game is disappointing, not because it fails at materializing its vision, but because of how poor the vision is in the first place.

    Technically speaking, there is no space exploration to be found anywhere, rather an endless concatenation of ad nauseum loading screen, and fetch quests. Bethesda has a problem, where are    There is a fundamental lack of creativity and risk taking here. The game is disappointing, not because it fails at materializing its vision, but because of how poor the vision is in the first place.

    Technically speaking, there is no space exploration to be found anywhere, rather an endless concatenation of ad nauseum loading screen, and fetch quests.

    Bethesda has a problem, where are the talents ? Where are the visionaries and innovators ?    … Expand
  14. Tailed-Raven
    Sep 7, 2023
    5
    Same old bethesda game on a larger scale pretty disappointing, Nothing really new with mid space exploration.
  15. Melsitos
    Sep 7, 2023
    5
    El combate entretenido y poco mas. La exploración deplorable, gráficamente muy normalito y la historia aburrida. De rendimiento horroroso, menos mal que la comunidad como siempre salvando con los mods los juegos de Bethesda. (mod de dlss que te da la vida en cuanto a rendimiento).
  16. Mitch_91
    Sep 7, 2023
    6
    Starfield Review - A Disappointing Space Odyssey
    Starfield, Bethesda Game Studios' long-awaited space RPG, has finally hit the shelves. Unfortunately, this galactic adventure has left much to be desired, earning a lackluster 6 out of 10.
    The Bad: 1. Endless Loading Screens: Starfield is plagued by excessively frequent loading screens that disrupt the flow of the game. The frequent    Starfield Review - A Disappointing Space Odyssey
    Starfield, Bethesda Game Studios' long-awaited space RPG, has finally hit the shelves. Unfortunately, this galactic adventure has left much to be desired, earning a lackluster 6 out of 10.
    The Bad:
    1. Endless Loading Screens: Starfield is plagued by excessively frequent loading screens that disrupt the flow of the game. The frequent interruptions detract from the overall experience.
    2. No Seamless Travel: Despite the vastness of its universe, Starfield fails to deliver seamless travel between planets and space stations. Instead, players are forced to endure more loading screens when traveling between celestial bodies, making the game feel disjointed.
    3. Buggy Mess: Bethesda's reputation for releasing buggy games remains intact with Starfield. The game is riddled with technical issues, ranging from game-breaking bugs to bizarre graphical glitches. These problems are inexcusable for a studio of Bethesda's caliber.
    4. Encumbrance System: Starfield's encumbrance system is frustrating and punitive, making inventory management a chore. It stifles exploration and detracts from the enjoyment of the game.
    5. Missing Maps: Starfield lacks comprehensive maps for its various planets and locations, leaving players feeling lost and disoriented in its sprawling universe. This absence of navigational aids hampers the overall experience.
    6. Missing Vehicles: While the game's universe offers the potential for exciting vehicle-based exploration, Starfield falls short in delivering a variety of vehicles for players to enjoy. This lack of diversity in transportation options limits the sense of adventure.
    The Mediocre:
    1. Ambitious Universe: Starfield's universe is indeed vast and visually impressive. However, it's ultimately a beautiful but hollow shell, lacking the depth and interactivity that would truly make it shine.
    2. Immersive Worldbuilding: While the game's lore and worldbuilding are extensive, they don't make up for the lackluster storytelling and underdeveloped characters. The potential for a rich narrative is squandered in favor of a generic space opera.
    3. Spaceflight Mechanics: While spaceflight controls are serviceable, they lack the depth and challenge that would have made them truly engaging.
    4. Repetitive Side Content: Starfield's side activities quickly become monotonous, offering little in the way of variety or excitement. The universe may be vast, but it often feels empty and devoid of meaningful content.
    In summary, Starfield is a game that promised to be an epic space adventure but falls disappointingly short. The loading screens, lack of seamless travel, and numerous technical issues hinder what could have been an immersive experience. Coupled with a frustrating encumbrance system, missing maps, and a lack of diverse vehicles, Starfield's flaws far outweigh its few redeeming qualities. It's a missed opportunity, and one can't help but feel that Bethesda could have done better. Maybe future patches will fix these problems and make the game, what it should have been to begin with.    … Expand
  17. Soulcast
    Sep 8, 2023
    7
    Juego con mucha paja sin sustancia... demasiadas pantallas de carga para todo, "viajes" espaciales hechos sin ganas, varias misiones no hay por donde cogerlas de lo simples que son, narrativa y expresiones de los npc muy cuestionables.

    ¿1000 planetas para qué? menos cantidad y mas calidad. La historia no está mal, los diseños de las naves molan, el gunplay está muy bien. Experiencia    Juego con mucha paja sin sustancia... demasiadas pantallas de carga para todo, "viajes" espaciales hechos sin ganas, varias misiones no hay por donde cogerlas de lo simples que son, narrativa y expresiones de los npc muy cuestionables.

    ¿1000 planetas para qué? menos cantidad y mas calidad.

    La historia no está mal, los diseños de las naves molan, el gunplay está muy bien. Experiencia bethesda.    … Expand
  18. ActuallyAnnnoye
    Sep 12, 2023
    5
    This is a spoiler-free review.

    The Motto For this game should be "Getting Moar for Less". When we usually hear the term "Getting Moar for Less", we usually imagine a product whose value outpaces its price. But when that product becomes a Bethesda game named Starfield, you can be guaranteed the consumer will be paying more and getting less compared to other AAA games of this genre.    This is a spoiler-free review.

    The Motto For this game should be "Getting Moar for Less".

    When we usually hear the term "Getting Moar for Less", we usually imagine a product whose value outpaces its price. But when that product becomes a Bethesda game named Starfield, you can be guaranteed the consumer will be paying more and getting less compared to other AAA games of this genre.

    Starfield is not a good game, not because it isn't an update or an improvement on Bethesda's production process. It would be a lie or a misrepresentation for me to say that Bethesda has not upgraded the visuals as well as the quality of the game. I haven't had any bugs, crashes, or anything to undermine Bethesda on the data integrity of Starfield. The visual aesthetics are sometimes breathtaking and sometimes sterile, but that is the stylization of the game not a shortcoming of the game's refinement.

    No, where Starfield completely falls off the rails, is when the game is running and you the player actually pay attention to the presentation formulated in front of you. Starfield is a 2005 game created with all the technology and graphical fidelity of a contemporary title. This wouldn't be a problem if Bethesda Softworks created timeless classics worth revisiting, but they don't. Bethesda's stories, how they are told, and what is depicted are all middling, milquetoast and tame.

    Let me give an example, let's judge how Bethesda goes about interaction between characters to progress the story and create immersion between player and their companions. Not to name names, but a better game company allows companions to banter between themselves allowing you; the voiceless protagonist to listen in on a conversation that defines key characteristics about your companions as well as keeps you immersed in your travels between objectives. Bethesda on the other hand has you pull anybody you want to know about aside and commence a flurry of inquiries you must choose from. Your responses feel less spontaneous or thought-provoking, and more robotic and interrogating. You are asking query after query as your companion cycles through each one like a bad chat GPT. If you don't interact with that companion you will never hear from them. This relationship is a one-way street, or more like a semantic cul de sac. You spit out a random question at any random time, it cycles around generic answers till you ask everything possible on the presented screen. Conversations with your crew are as organic as polyurethane.

    With interactions so robotic they could make the Terminator blush, you would think the combat in the game would be the saving grace for Bethesda's would be cosmic opus. Well don't hold your breath, the combat in Starfield is mindnumbling bland. It is so bland that it should count as a blemish against Bethesda because they refuse to put real time and effort into making it better. Weight, sound, impact, Bethesda was really focused on making a space sim because none of those things seem to have any value in Starfield's combat. The banal spongy lifeless AI, paired with your dull uninspired guns, that look interesting but handle like dead wood, beckon you to turn the game off and do anything else to feel life. The lifelessness of Starfield's combat must be an homage to the dark void that is space because no professional Video game company should be proud of this presentation.

    Last but certainly not least, we must talk about the scope of this world. This isn't a space game, this is a Bethesda game about Space. This game wasn't built around you exploring the unknown. This game wasn't about using the technology and advances of space-age mankind. This game is about taking the cues, beats, and gimmicks Bethesda has used before and recycling them again. Space is just a complex loading screen, your quest takes you to an assortment of vaults, and the cities are just populated settlements. Fallout 76 was their test realm, Starfield is the 1.0 release.

    Usually, creating a subpar product whether objective or subjective in critique was something we as a gaming community ignored. But Microsoft, Bethesda's parent company saw fit to raise the price of Starfield to 70 dollars. Starfield for 70 dollars is a travesty. The sad fact is I think MS knows that Starfield is a poor representation of a next-generation product, and I think cynically this mediocre offering was purposely presented to bolster the player base of the game pass. Either way, Starfield can't be suffered as an actual Space exploration game.

    In closing; Starfield is a claustrophobic, cramp, mundane experience, with feeble combat, wooden narrative, and anemic immersion. To play Starfield and to laud it with praise is to validate Bethesda for being a great game company because they say so, not because they earn it. If gamers start to put up with this quality of game design the floors the limit for the future.    … Expand
  19. Splatz
    Sep 10, 2023
    5
    Do not buy this game, its a buggy mess with characters wandering off during dialogue screens, vibrating and flickering cause they get stuck on something making it so bad the game should have en epilepsy warning. Sometimes your follower will get stuck and when you go to talk to another npc where your follower has is supposed to be part of the dialogue, the screen will start teleporting backDo not buy this game, its a buggy mess with characters wandering off during dialogue screens, vibrating and flickering cause they get stuck on something making it so bad the game should have en epilepsy warning. Sometimes your follower will get stuck and when you go to talk to another npc where your follower has is supposed to be part of the dialogue, the screen will start teleporting back and forth because of the stuck follower. The base building and cargo shipment system seems completely redundant, which was one of the things i was most excited about for the game. Theres very little point in even having a base besides the upgrading benches you can find in the lodge anyway. Theres barely any customization, you have 4 pre set shapes of rooms you can have, instead of building your own shaped house, you only have the option to choose a square or a circle and connect to the same looking square and circle shaped rooms. The next issue is resource gathering, i went all out on resource gathering on the skill tree, which turned out to be completely pointless because even fully specced into it, going to the various cities and buying out the resources from vendors (which by the way costs close to nothing) turned out to be about 50 times faster than grinding it yourself. This also made the cargo transportation system you can have completely pointless too. The combat is equal to a 2005 FPS game and theres no mob variety at all. The main quest was miserable for 95% of it and the first half of it was basically doing the same quest 20 times over and over again, even 2 of the quests taking you to a location with identical building, identical mobs and an identical underground bunker location. Only during the last 3-4 hours of the main story did the quests get somewhat interesting. Those are just some of the issues, the game has a lot of problems, the potential is there after 4-5 patches or letting modders do their thing. All in all its just an okay game, nothing special and wouldnt recommend anyone buying it until it goes on sale.… Expand
  20. Canliberk
    Sep 11, 2023
    5
    Playing this game makes me want to play other games.

    It is like a combination of Fallout 4, Mass Effect and No Man's Sky, but taken all the mediocre aspects of each game. Combat / Exploration / Looting worked much better on Fallout 4. Space Theme and world building was much better on Mass Effect series Space exploration / combat was much better on No Mans Sky. Performance is    Playing this game makes me want to play other games.

    It is like a combination of Fallout 4, Mass Effect and No Man's Sky, but taken all the mediocre aspects of each game.

    Combat / Exploration / Looting worked much better on Fallout 4.
    Space Theme and world building was much better on Mass Effect series
    Space exploration / combat was much better on No Mans Sky.

    Performance is sadly not good at the launch state. UI is clunky and gets in the way too much. Graphics are good - not masterpiece but good.    … Expand
  21. thimolor
    Sep 12, 2023
    5
    Soulless piece of crap. There is nothing to care about Starfields "vast" world. Dialogue is silly and the NPC's interactions are laughable. Graphics are not so great and gameplay feels really old and all the menus are created by someone who does not care about usability. I just feel ripped off by Bethesda.
  22. Zukku
    Sep 10, 2023
    5
    I do not understand the hype. I understand that a lot of people are hating on it, just to do it. But here is a review from a totally personal perspective.
    First of all - you are REQUIRED to have an SSD or you will have a terrible time. Lagging, stuttering, audio issues etc. A 1070 TI is MINIMUM.
    And worst of all - it does not even look or perform that good. Outside of that - the story is    I do not understand the hype. I understand that a lot of people are hating on it, just to do it. But here is a review from a totally personal perspective.
    First of all - you are REQUIRED to have an SSD or you will have a terrible time. Lagging, stuttering, audio issues etc. A 1070 TI is MINIMUM.
    And worst of all - it does not even look or perform that good. Outside of that - the story is okay. One of the better Bethesda main quests. Sidequests are okay, but everything space flight/combat is a copy of Elite Dangerous but just worse.
    My experience has been full of issues and mediocore gameplay. I will wait for more mods to spice it up and get back into it. Right now - hold off and buy on a sale.    … Expand
  23. Himmellaeufer
    Sep 10, 2023
    5
    Cancellation after a little over 10h of playing time and that's my reason:- Modular structure of the "levels" (rooms/planets/sections, etc.) resulting from it...

    - ... Long loading times (freedom / feeling of travel is lost) - Navigate a lot in menus - Facial expressions / gestures of the characters horrible - Overall, no good staging and camera work in conversations - Not a good story,    Cancellation after a little over 10h of playing time and that's my reason:- Modular structure of the "levels" (rooms/planets/sections, etc.) resulting from it...

    - ... Long loading times (freedom / feeling of travel is lost)
    - Navigate a lot in menus
    - Facial expressions / gestures of the characters horrible
    - Overall, no good staging and camera work in conversations
    - Not a good story, typical Bethesda food
    - Spaceships land far away from their actual targets, why? As a result... a lot of walking!
    - No vehicles or animals to move on over 1000 planets (crazy enough)
    - An Outer Worlds (Obsidion - Fallout New Vegas) already offered more decision-making possibilities! Not to mention the titles of other manufacturers
    - Exploring the generated planets will be quite boring
    - The game doesn't manage to surprise me


    I can only emphasize positively:

    + Solid soundtrack but not quite as good as Skyrim
    + Good gunplay
    + Beautiful art design
    + Good speakers

    Unfortunately, all elements in the game are only average. If you value story and dialogue, you should resort to the Mass Effect Series or Baldurs Gate 3. There is a better space experience in Everspace 2, Star Citizen or Elite Dangerous.
    No man Sky also offers a lot from Starfield, was only there before and continues to work better.

    Little has happened since Skyrim, but I spent hundreds of hours there and loved it. Somehow Bethesda seems to have stopped me. The development is progressing too slowly or my expectations were far too high. Spaceships, planets and SiFi.. a dream, unfortunately burst for me :/    … Expand
  24. TeezyWeezy
    Sep 12, 2023
    5
    The game is ok but not really something you would expect in 2023 from one of the biggest game developers. It's a good game but sadly not really a big enough improvement for what was promised and kinda expected.
  25. cquint
    Sep 12, 2023
    5
    "I'm sorry, but this RPG isn't on the same level as other Bethesda games. It's only better than Fallout 76, which is a disaster in itself. It offers many hours of gameplay, but menu navigation disrupts immersion, there's an excess of endless dialogues, characters that seem like cartoons, and a lack of character customization options without Fallout's SPECIAL system. In the end, it's just"I'm sorry, but this RPG isn't on the same level as other Bethesda games. It's only better than Fallout 76, which is a disaster in itself. It offers many hours of gameplay, but menu navigation disrupts immersion, there's an excess of endless dialogues, characters that seem like cartoons, and a lack of character customization options without Fallout's SPECIAL system. In the end, it's just another game that revolves around managing the character's inventory, which can be a hassle. I'm playing it through a subscription, but I wouldn't really buy it for more than $10. We'll have to hope that modders can improve the game because if it depends on Bethesda, it's not going well. The visuals are dated, and the game feels sluggish and clunky."… Expand
  26. Arby
    Sep 10, 2023
    5
    It's definitely a Bethesda game and the scope and size of the game is massive and enjoyable but it is let down by the constant need to fast travel and the small map sizes on the planets. To me these definitely limit the feeling of starfield being a space exploration game since I really don't feel like I am exploring the systems.

    You can't have multiple spaceships down on the ground at the    It's definitely a Bethesda game and the scope and size of the game is massive and enjoyable but it is let down by the constant need to fast travel and the small map sizes on the planets. To me these definitely limit the feeling of starfield being a space exploration game since I really don't feel like I am exploring the systems.

    You can't have multiple spaceships down on the ground at the same time which limits your ability to transfer items between ships and the pacing of the levelling abilities seems weird, you have lots of research projects but can't do alot of them until you level up and really focus on trying to unlock those abilities at the cost of being able to play the game.

    I also have a couple bugs where characters mouths move before they speak, frame rate drops during combat, cargo issues with space ships.    … Expand
  27. MZM
    Sep 11, 2023
    5
    It is just a mid game no more .. they promise us that you can do what ever you want and this is just a big lie .. Bethesda will never change
  28. PeriUrban
    Sep 11, 2023
    5
    In a futuristic world where the wheel and mobile phones were never invented, you will click to travel instantly halfway across the galaxy. You will climb into your cockpit once, maybe twice, before learning that you can simply click and go! Except if you are docked.

    Yes, you can travel from the middle of the wilderness of one planet to the landing zone on another planet with just a    In a futuristic world where the wheel and mobile phones were never invented, you will click to travel instantly halfway across the galaxy. You will climb into your cockpit once, maybe twice, before learning that you can simply click and go! Except if you are docked.

    Yes, you can travel from the middle of the wilderness of one planet to the landing zone on another planet with just a flick of the wrist and a twitch of the index finger, but if you are docked to some space station forget it!

    You are a nobody, a lowly newb miner with a possibly interesting background that has nothing to do with mining, but for “reasons” you will be sent to retrieve a mysterious artefact that displays “gravitational anomalies”, y’know, like in Star Trek. You will have a cinematic.

    A man turns up to gift you his ship and take your place in the mine. He too has had a cinematic, and so he knows all about the mysterious gravity things. You will ask yourself, “If this guy knew I was going to have a cinematic, wouldn’t it have been polite for him to say something about that before letting me have my pixels rearranged?”

    His chums in the secret society will give you a room in their hidden base, which is cleverly disguised as a base in plain sight. They will chat to you as if you’ve always been there, and send you on missions to find more of the weird artefacts.

    Funnily enough, although they are a society of explorers it appears they have done precisely no exploring, leaving that onerous task to you, the hero.

    So, you will discover strange alien sites featuring gravitational anomalies. You will discover them many times. You will explore the full extent of the procedurally generated tile that magically appears around you. Mysteriously, the caves and bases you find on all these many, many, many, many planets and moons will all be made of the same stuff, right down to the tea trays, pens and toilet paper.

    You will find innumerable weapons and suits and helmets and medpacks and resources and junk, and you will click and click and click on your many and varied storage places. There’s storage on you, in your companion, in another companion, in your locker on your ship, in the cargo hold on that ship, in the cargo hold on another ship - so many places to lose your loot!

    You will get powers you remember from Skyrim, and pretend they are new.

    The map will be a field of dots showing no detail. Even the cities will be mapless. You will remember that the mobile phone hasn’t been invented, so obviously no maps! And no taxis or bicycles, because the wheel isn't a thing. Just a train that never moves until propelled sideways by cut scene.

    You will enjoy loading screens. Many times.

    You will shoot the same bad guys. Many times.

    You will shoot or avoid the same weird creatures. Many times.

    You will scan bushes and trees. Many times.

    You will have epic space battles. A couple of times.

    You will hardly role play at all. Unless you start rolling dice IRL.

    NPCs will ignore any behaviour you care to engage in, but they will look at you sideways no matter what you do.

    There are cities. Or are they towns? At least one of them is just a town. OK, one of them is definitely a city. It has skyscrapers and everything. Markers will appear amongst those skyscrapers, leading you believe your quest lies above your head, but the only thing that lies is the quest marker.

    On planets you will see buildings in the distance that your scanner labels “unknown”, despite the fact that they are obviously buildings. But then you remember - no mobile phones = no maps.

    Other “unknown” features will turn out to be wrinkles in the topographies of otherwise largely flat terrains.

    The vast universe will be yours to explore, and you will never notice that assets and concepts have been repeated almost infinitely. You will never see the workings of the procedural algorithms, because they are so cleverly done. Except when you do, which will be always.

    You will conclude that the appearance of plenty is better than actual plenty, because you will be happy to be enjoyed so completely by Todd and his investors. You will think of Skyrim and swallow your overdraft, and you will be happy. Yes. Very happy.    … Expand
  29. MablePooHead
    Sep 11, 2023
    5
    Vanilla Starfield: Garbage 0/10
    Modded Starfield: GOTY. 10/10

    Total: 5/10
  30. w4r10ck1604
    Sep 12, 2023
    5
    There is so much that is so dissapointing in the Fast-Travel-Simulator ´23

    - the Inventory management is horrible - the facial animations are pretty ugly - the german snych is not lipsynch - the walking speed on pc, makes me mad. you can run, you can walk, you can sprint! but you don´t match the speed of the other npc´s - the loading screens.... - the whole fast travel system    There is so much that is so dissapointing in the Fast-Travel-Simulator ´23

    - the Inventory management is horrible
    - the facial animations are pretty ugly
    - the german snych is not lipsynch
    - the walking speed on pc, makes me mad. you can run, you can walk, you can sprint! but you don´t
    match the speed of the other npc´s

    - the loading screens....
    - the whole fast travel system makes me furious. the game is wasting my time.
    open the map, select the destination "loading screen", open the map again, select the landing point
    "loading screen" exit the ship "loading screen", enter a building "loading screen" do the quest. fast
    travel back to your ship. and restart the loading screen simulation!

    - the world is empty.... in a universe with over 1000 Planets.... there are only 4 cities...

    - the npc´s in the cities are dumb like bread!

    - it´s so performance hungry and idk why?

    - dungeons and outposts repeat

    overall i am glad this game is on gamepass... i would get mad if i spent 70 Bucks for this thing!    … Expand
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Awards & Rankings

30
#30 Best PC Game of 2023
3
#3 Most Discussed PC Game of 2023

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
85

Generally favorable reviews - based on 75 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 65 out of 75
  2. Mixed: 10 out of 75
  3. Negative: 0 out of 75
  1. Riot Pixels
    Jan 28, 2024
    76
    There's a lot of flaws in space in Starfield. But that does not prevent me from exploring our galaxy again and again.
    Read full review
  2. LEVEL (Czech Republic)
    Jan 22, 2024
    80
    I fell in love with Starfield. It's my cup of sci-fi and I can't wait to spend the next thirty, fifty, maybe seventy hours here. I enjoy the exploration, the shootouts, the art style, the ship building, and the diverse worlds. I gratefully acknowledge the good optimization and the absence of major bugs. But I can't overlook the flaws. There are bad animations, ugly faces and repetitive moments.[Issue#329]
  3. RPGamer
    Oct 23, 2023
    60
    In a year dominated by sequels to franchise favorites, there was a hope that Starfield would carve its own path to success. While the team at Bethesda should be commended for taking such a big swing, there’s no denying that the game doesn’t feel like a cohesive work. Maybe continued support and future sequels will make something more meaningful out of a work that is clearly deeply enamored with both science fiction and space exploration. Unforunately, this first launch has had far more mixed results than desired.
    Read full review
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