The review I originally wrote was too long for Steam, I never even knew it had a character limit for this. So here's the shorter version.

Introduction

I’m going to quickly put it out here that so far in ~100 hours or so, I’ve been having a blast. This doesn’t mean that the game is without fault, absolutely not, but it’s just a short entrée to the rest of this review.

Tl;dr, if you liked previous Bethesda adventures and have at least some affinity for space, Starfield is your cup of tea. This game hasn’t really innovated anything, and that’s both its greatest strength and its biggest weakness. But this is how previous games were too, and many of us saw past the weakness and loved the ♥♥♥♥ out of the previous titles too.

I’ve seen a lot of mixed feelings in the time since the September 1st early release. There’s some genuine hate which I am baffled about, but there are also many cases of overhyping, misinformation, as well as just overly high expectations for something that could’ve clearly been avoided. On the plus side, when there is praise, it’s heartwarming and loving.

My advice, for anyone still reading: just play the damn game and find out for yourself. If you don’t want to pay $70 here on Steam, the game is also on Gamepass, and I’m sure there’s some there’s some other [cough] ways you can try the game out. Stop looking at YouTube videos with clickbait thumbnails or reading posts that are clearly meant to incite something negative. It’s really, really easy to get lost in the ocean of negativity and criticism that the internet is today.

Quick comparison

I’ve seen this game compared to the usual space contenders nowadays, primarily Elite: Dangerous, No Man’s Sky, and Star Citizen. It has also been judged as such. But let’s get one thing straight: yes, there are similarities because it’s a space-themed game. But that’s… about it. Starfield is its own thing. However, if you do want a comparison to other related games, here’s a quick overview that might help:

Starfield is:
- Fallout 4 gunplay, but improved greatly, with some No Man’s Sky elements
- A Skyrim-in-space kind of mission experience
- An Elite: Dangerous-level wallpaper generator with how pretty some vistas are

Starfield is not:
- A simulator like Elite: Dangerous
- A sprawling story where the entire galaxy is at stake and you’re the hero of it all a la Mass Effect
- A super-intricate and extremely-detailed story like Baldur’s Gate 3 (some people keep comparing SF and BG3 but it’s literally apples and pears)
- A completely free experience like No Man’s Sky

I can keep going about the things that it’s not, but that’s because my head is spinning at this point from all the honestly sometimes wild comparisons I’ve seen so far. It is its own thing, and that’s the best mindset to approach the first proper single-player Bethesda title since 2016.

The good, the bad, and the jank (this section is heavily condensed from my original text)

The good:
- The scale. Plenty of interesting locations, both in space and planetside. Plenty of planets with still enough variation.
- The actual visuals for locations and props. Be it the coffee cup, the desk the cup is on, the outpost the desk is in, or the planet the outpost is on, fidelity-wise it's all absolutely top-tier.
- Random encounters. Both Skyrim and Fallout 4 had them, now you have them in space. I’ve encountered a tourist ship, a teacher, an insurance salesman, a singing ranger, and many, many others in space jumping from system to system, and that’s one of the strengths of the world just like with locations: it feels lived in.
- Gun variety and gunplay. Smooth, fast, responsive.

The jank:
- The usual Bethesda stuff. The AI pathing, which I will get into later, causes some pretty funny moments. Sometimes the physics just don't work and it's the funniest ♥♥♥♥. People are complaining about bugs a lot but from all the bugs I have seen, 90% of them fall under the "usual" Bethesda stuff, and by comparison, this is genuinely the most polished Bethesda game at launch.

The bad:
- The game is vast, but on occasion, it does feel a bit shallow. Not because there isn’t much to do, but because many planetary POIs are just too close-by or don’t make sense.
- The lack of "evil" full companions; by full I mean with fleshed-out dialogue or possibly a romance option. The current roster (Sarah, Sam, Barrett, and Andreja) are basically the same goody-two-shoes people where a single misstep (read: murder) will cost you their entire trust in an instant. There are some pirates you can recruit down the line, but they are simply crewmates and not full companions. If you want to roleplay a pirate or anyone with slightly darker motivations, you're ♥♥♥♥ out of luck if you want a proper companion. You can be the biggest ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ in the galaxy, as long as you don't take anyone with you from Constellation.
- This brings me to my next point, and that is that, despite me expecting it since it's a Bethesda game, the story feels quite forced at times. It's a fun story, but they just really push it. There is no leeway in how you go about it, unlike with Fallout 4 for example where you had four factions to genuinely choose from (yes that system had flaws too but it was better than this). Constellation is this game's Minutemen except you can't just leave them to rot.
- Non-existent stealth and stealth missions. The Ryujin questline is a letdown in the practicality of the missions. I know that the mechanics for stealth are there, properly, but the (enemy) AI makes it really, really difficult to do. Stealth archers, beware. There are mods that adjust a few values and make stealth a lot better, but those don’t fix the AI being the problem most of the time, only their detection.
- Skills/perks: at least half the perks in this game are absolutely useless unless you have perks points to spare. More than once I’ve found myself with a skill point thinking “What’s the least useless perk to spend this on?” as opposed to “Oh no, there are so many good options.” Some of the useless ones become more useful if you’re playing on higher difficulties, but that’s just a few.

As a closer on this section I’d like to really ask what brand of glue some people were huffing when they full-well knew that 1) Bethesda was making this, 2) they were using (an iteration of) Creation Engine, and 3) they had watched the Starfield Direct, and still chose to very vocally keep the stick in their ass with statements like “ooga booga loading screens” and “unga bunga why no space sim”. I hope y’all clickbait mfers pillows are never cold on any side.

Conclusion

Despite all these shortcomings, I have found myself enjoying this game a lot, more than I even expected. I have a dozen side quests open, and I’m still working my way through the main ones. I get distracted left and right with POIs, surveys, interesting NPCs, or the views. 100 hours in 10 days is crazy for me, and the fact I haven’t burned out of it in the slightest speaks volumes to those who know me. Easy GOTY for me.

This game, like almost any game, is like a relationship. You can be happy despite sometimes hating your partner’s guts. No matter how perfect any relationship might truly seem, there’s always faults, which sometimes could be a short 5-second stare down, or a divorce-level argument that you still get resolved. In the end, you see past any faults, shortcomings, or negatives, and just love them for who they are.

Bethesda did a great job with this game. I’m glad that the spirit of their previous games lives on just as much in both the good and the bad with Starfield.

Remember: just try the game first before bandwagoning on whatever critic is ripping this game a new one. If you like or love it, I’d love to hear about your experiences. If you don’t like it, great, then it’s not for you, refund it and also share your experience as to why.

Y’all have a good one.

The review I originally wrote was too long for Steam, I never even knew it had a character limit for this. So here's the shorter version. Introduction I’m going to quickly put it out here that so far in ~100 hours or so, I’ve been having a blast. This doesn’t mean that the game is without fault, absolutely not, but it’s just a short entrée to the rest of this review. Tl;dr, if you liked previous Bethesda adventures and have at least some affinity for space, Starfield is your cup of tea. This game hasn’t really innovated anything, and that’s both its greatest strength and its biggest weakness. But this is how previous games were too, and many of us saw past the weakness and loved the shit out of the previous titles too. I’ve seen a lot of mixed feelings in the time since the September 1st early release. There’s some genuine hate which I am baffled about, but there are also many cases of overhyping, misinformation, as well as just overly high expectations for something that could’ve clearly been avoided. On the plus side, when there is praise, it’s heartwarming and loving. My advice, for anyone still reading: just play the damn game and find out for yourself. If you don’t want to pay $70 here on Steam, the game is also on Gamepass, and I’m sure there’s some there’s some other [cough] ways you can try the game out. Stop looking at YouTube videos with clickbait thumbnails or reading posts that are clearly meant to incite something negative. It’s really, really easy to get lost in the ocean of negativity and criticism that the internet is today. Quick comparison I’ve seen this game compared to the usual space contenders nowadays, primarily Elite: Dangerous, No Man’s Sky, and Star Citizen. It has also been judged as such. But let’s get one thing straight: yes, there are similarities because it’s a space-themed game. But that’s… about it. Starfield is its own thing. However, if you do want a comparison to other related games, here’s a quick overview that might help: Starfield is: - Fallout 4 gunplay, but improved greatly, with some No Man’s Sky elements - A Skyrim-in-space kind of mission experience - An Elite: Dangerous-level wallpaper generator with how pretty some vistas are Starfield is not: - A simulator like Elite: Dangerous - A sprawling story where the entire galaxy is at stake and you’re the hero of it all a la Mass Effect - A super-intricate and extremely-detailed story like Baldur’s Gate 3 (some people keep comparing SF and BG3 but it’s literally apples and pears) - A completely free experience like No Man’s Sky I can keep going about the things that it’s not, but that’s because my head is spinning at this point from all the honestly sometimes wild comparisons I’ve seen so far. It is its own thing, and that’s the best mindset to approach the first proper single-player Bethesda title since 2016. The good, the bad, and the jank (this section is heavily condensed from my original text) The good: - The scale. Plenty of interesting locations, both in space and planetside. Plenty of planets with still enough variation. - The actual visuals for locations and props. Be it the coffee cup, the desk the cup is on, the outpost the desk is in, or the planet the outpost is on, fidelity-wise it's all absolutely top-tier. - Random encounters. Both Skyrim and Fallout 4 had them, now you have them in space. I’ve encountered a tourist ship, a teacher, an insurance salesman, a singing ranger, and many, many others in space jumping from system to system, and that’s one of the strengths of the world just like with locations: it feels lived in. - Gun variety and gunplay. Smooth, fast, responsive. The jank: - The usual Bethesda stuff. The AI pathing, which I will get into later, causes some pretty funny moments. Sometimes the physics just don't work and it's the funniest shit. People are complaining about bugs a lot but from all the bugs I have seen, 90% of them fall under the "usual" Bethesda stuff, and by comparison, this is genuinely the most polished Bethesda game at launch. The bad: - The game is vast, but on occasion, it does feel a bit shallow. Not because there isn’t much to do, but because many planetary POIs are just too close-by or don’t make sense. - The lack of "evil" full companions; by full I mean with fleshed-out dialogue or possibly a romance option. The current roster (Sarah, Sam, Barrett, and Andreja) are basically the same goody-two-shoes people where a single misstep (read: murder) will cost you their entire trust in an instant. There are some pirates you can recruit down the line, but they are simply crewmates and not full companions. If you want to roleplay a pirate or anyone with slightly darker motivations, you're shit out of luck if you want a proper companion. You can be the biggest asshole in the galaxy, as long as you don't take anyone with you from Constellation. - This brings me to my next point, and that is that, despite me expecting it since it's a Bethesda game, the story feels quite forced at times. It's a fun story, but they just really push it. There is no leeway in how you go about it, unlike with Fallout 4 for example where you had four factions to genuinely choose from (yes that system had flaws too but it was better than this). Constellation is this game's Minutemen except you can't just leave them to rot. - Non-existent stealth and stealth missions. The Ryujin questline is a letdown in the practicality of the missions. I know that the mechanics for stealth are there, properly, but the (enemy) AI makes it really, really difficult to do. Stealth archers, beware. There are mods that adjust a few values and make stealth a lot better, but those don’t fix the AI being the problem most of the time, only their detection. - Skills/perks: at least half the perks in this game are absolutely useless unless you have perks points to spare. More than once I’ve found myself with a skill point thinking “What’s the least useless perk to spend this on?” as opposed to “Oh no, there are so many good options.” Some of the useless ones become more useful if you’re playing on higher difficulties, but that’s just a few. As a closer on this section I’d like to really ask what brand of glue some people were huffing when they full-well knew that 1) Bethesda was making this, 2) they were using (an iteration of) Creation Engine, and 3) they had watched the Starfield Direct, and still chose to very vocally keep the stick in their ass with statements like “ooga booga loading screens” and “unga bunga why no space sim”. I hope y’all clickbait mfers pillows are never cold on any side. Conclusion Despite all these shortcomings, I have found myself enjoying this game a lot, more than I even expected. I have a dozen side quests open, and I’m still working my way through the main ones. I get distracted left and right with POIs, surveys, interesting NPCs, or the views. 100 hours in 10 days is crazy for me, and the fact I haven’t burned out of it in the slightest speaks volumes to those who know me. Easy GOTY for me. This game, like almost any game, is like a relationship. You can be happy despite sometimes hating your partner’s guts. No matter how perfect any relationship might truly seem, there’s always faults, which sometimes could be a short 5-second stare down, or a divorce-level argument that you still get resolved. In the end, you see past any faults, shortcomings, or negatives, and just love them for who they are. Bethesda did a great job with this game. I’m glad that the spirit of their previous games lives on just as much in both the good and the bad with Starfield. Remember: just try the game first before bandwagoning on whatever critic is ripping this game a new one. If you like or love it, I’d love to hear about your experiences. If you don’t like it, great, then it’s not for you, refund it and also share your experience as to why. Y’all have a good one.