Recent reviews by JakeOberon99

★ ★ ★ ★ ★ - me

Fabledom is by far one of the most beautiful, relaxing, and enjoyable games I've ever played. Whilst in Early Access until full release this week, it was also by far the best Early Access entry I've ever played too, with regular updates, and a very well-established variety of features.

From the graphics and art style, to the cute and minute-to-minute details in the gameplay itself, I haven't felt this well-catered for thematically since we last had a Discworld game... way back on the PS1! For a more modern comparison, imagine Kingdoms of Amalur having a meet-cute with Tropico, but with a far better support-cycle, and you have the joy that is Fabledom!

I haven't played a city builder this attentively in such a long time, and I think it's a great throwback to the old days of Will Wright's Maxis, with all of my favourite genre trademarks of Terry Pratchett, the Fable series, or the Settlers, thrown in too.

It is very VERY clear throughout the whole development cycle and play-through of the current core objectives, that this game is being made and updated with a lot of love, every item has a well-themed and humorous description, with an amazing (occasionally voiced) narration to accompany it. I really don't want to spoil the little details, as they're such an engaging part of the game for me, but you can find them elsewhere if you need to know more before you buy.

There are still some mechanics and occasional bugs that crop up every now and then, BUT- like I said, until this weekend, this was an Early Access title, and the patches and hotfixes are consistent, not to mention the content additions, which never fail to make the game a more enjoyable experience. And it really is the evident ongoing love going into this game by its developers that keeps you patient for the next patch when the odd bug does happen.

If ongoing development isn't your thing, I'd just say wait until the next major release mark happens, but, as someone who played Stardew Valley from the very beginning, I'd say there's a great experience to be had getting into a game like this early on, when you can see the good in it before it becomes popular, as you get to play witness to a very unique experience of growth, and almost feel like a proud parent when it becomes as celebrated as you think it should be.

Small honourable mention to NerdCubed for introducing me to this game via a livestream that came up on Youtube a couple of weeks ago!

Starfield is a sometimes enjoyable, but extremely half-baked and disappointing attempt at a new IP. Morrowind did better twenty-plus years ago. A solid 5/10 that leaves me asking how so much integral content was left on the cutting room floor, and why so much of the programming was outsourced to other studios (read the credits) at the last minute. It spreads itself wide- but thin- and therefore successfully delivers on very little.

Second to this, not only is there nothing groundbreaking to offer in terms of gameplay (it's actually a step back from FO4), but the storylines and worldbuilding scream of unused potential, which you only have to look at the concept art to realise. I've seen a lot of people calling the game's world 'sterile' and I think it's because it lacks the sense of the 'awe' inherent to space, and lacks twofold the amount of worldbuilding needed to sustain an RPG of any scale.

Starfield is a game I thought would be a favourite- it's space, it's an RPG, and it's by Bethesda. I want to love it in so many ways- but I can't help but feel something hasn't gone right, or that there are huge swathes of ideas and content that were originally planned, then omitted halfway into development for largely bureaucratic reasons. The Starborn storyline mechanic came so out of left field in so many ways, that it felt like a watered-down version of the 'Dragonborn' idea had been shoe-horned into a space game in the final hour of crunch time.

I think to begin with, one of the things that space-based IPs and media often capitalise on, are the themes of hope and optimism, perseverance, or humanity being in awe of space. And it's important to note that Starfield tells us it wants to be part of that.

So, when one of the first things I was reminded of when I arrived at The Lodge was Star Trek's messages of exploration, furtherment of mankind, and peace, my hopes went up! On the surface, I really thought Constellation (the main player faction) would therefore have that 'feel' and yet... I think it only does when we're told it should by the visual design, not because the faction functions as such in-game.

I also think, that despite being an RPG, the basis of the Starborn plotline, and the NG+ mechanic, meant that the choices we get to make had less value in the long term, cemented for me by the fact there are only four major companions in a world a lot larger than Skyrim or Fallout, and therefore only so many 'lives' my character can live, especially because those companions all belong to the same major faction, and have no tangible impact on other questlines, factions, or replays.

From that same view, exploring the 'worlds' of Star Trek, No Man's Sky, Firefly, Prey, Subnautica, Stargate et al revolves around making discoveries, meeting new people (or species) and learning from them- it gives our character purpose, leads to conflict and resolution, but also plays hugely into the imagination of what's 'out there'.

For me, Starfield is falling flat on this: space is now host to a shallow McGuffined history (which our character is somehow unaffected by until now?) full of recent war and conflict (The accidental extinction of Earth, UC vs Freestar, The Crimson Fleet, the Terrormorphs), or... transporting cargo (the bulk of NPC ships and the many many fetch n carry quests), and I very rarely felt any sense of achievement or discovery from making connections or being able to reach further away planets- which is the overall goal of upgrading our ship, and raising money and XP to do that therein.

It has, in essence, ignored space (or arguably, sci-fi) so that it could play into repeating the same mundane traps humanity has in the real world, despite the fact we are meant to be the 'chosen one' and part of an elite group of explorers. In some ways I missed 'a settlement needs your help'- and I can only think of one small side-quest where I felt like I was playing any part of humanity's further settlement of space (Eleos Retreat).

Despite Constellation supposedly being a group for explorers and optimists, from the get-go the premise just felt hugely lacking and contradictory to me. People don't believe the group exists... yet they also have a huge building in the major capital of the game's world/society? Not to mention, a very conspicuous satellite in orbit of that capital, where almost everyone has a spaceship and can see it? They're explorers... but only have that 'secret' presence: no fleet, no ranks, and no off-world research outposts of their own, nor any obvious previous impact on the fate of humanity, or any real 'achievements' (e.g. discovering new planets and life etc) which might make us feel part of 'something bigger'.

The reason this bugs me isn't only because of other space and exploration franchises or games (Prey and Subnautica are two brilliant games that excel at storytelling within this genre, and are a great example of what this game could've been thematically), but because of Bethesda's own IPs in comparison to Starfield!

Fallout has a central message of perseverance, not just against a literal nuclear holocaust, and the fact we're all 'survivors', but also alongside other survivor's opposing ideologies, the consequences of choices, the power of technology, and how we should manage life when sharing it with other species (mutants, deathclaws, and frickin robots/synths!)

Starfield really could have done this too, and I'm shocked that all the lore and storytelling Fallout 4 has (despite being the least RPG RPG of the series...) accomplishes a hundred times more when conveying the experiences of perseverance, exploration, and humanity, than Starfield even *tries* to do.

Much of this has already been covered by others- but the endless nameless 'citizens/settlers' with no interactions, the lack of working society, roles, and distinct cultures (just the vaults and their inhabitants of Fallout 4 had larger programmed social structures and routines!), the lack of unique personalities or diaries/letters/npc routines outside of a questline, the lack of cultural differences (other than one or two characters wearing a cowboy hat instead of being in navy space cop uniform) that we've previously grown to love in Fallout and The Elder Scrolls really adds to just how shallow this game feels.

And then there are all of Skyrim and Fallout's (named!) residents in the towns, the leaders we help, the shopkeepers who we can get to know and are different in every settlement, and all the guilds and consequences they have with the universe around our character (Why oh why doesn't the UC Vanguard ever recognise the fact we worked with SysDef / eliminated the Crimson Fleet?)

I see a lot of talk about how much Cyberpunk and No Man's Sky have been improved upon since launch... but Bethesda should've done better. CD Projekt Red was still an indie studio when they began development on CP77, and Hello Games was founded to make NMS, Bethesda meanwhile have been making RPGs longer than some of its players have been alive! They have the skill and pedigree, and it just doesn't show up here, despite it being heavily exploited to market the game.

Jokes aside, there's a reason they got away with re-releasing Skyrim so many times, because it was a good game and people therefore kept buying it. For a long time, it set a new standard for how an RPG should play and feel. I don't think that can happen with Starfield in its current state, because this £60/$75 AAA feels like an early access a lot of the time.

At launch, even Fallout 4 had 12 permanent companions, and 16 fleshed-out factions. Skyrim had 8, and 40 (albeit not all joinable) respectively. They felt like immersive and lasting worlds of their own, despite any flaws. I bring this up not because every Bethesda game is going to or should be 'the same', but because it genuinely staggers me how their first new IP in 25 years doesn't even try to match or compete with much older ones in order to establish itself!