*IMPORTANT BUG WARNING*

During the main quest line mission "All That Money Can Buy", DO NOT complete side missions/switch home ships. Doing so may result in a game breaking bug where Walter becomes inaccessible to the player, preventing any further progression down the quest line. Bugs/glitches are to be expected from a Bethesda title, thirty-three hours in and I've come across my fair share however, game breaking bugs are never acceptable.

Bethesda, please fix.

Disregarding the aforementioned bug, the game can actually be quite fun at times. The game is what you might expect, Skyrim/Fallout but set in space. While the gameplay itself does not stray far from the already well established Bethesda game formula, that is not necessarily a bad thing. There are a few new features such as the ship customization feature, which I personally enjoyed as it is something fresh and different for a Bethesda game.

[COMBAT]
The combat is fun overall, but it isn't anything special. Essentially just Fallout 4 combat just without the VATS system. Sometimes, the hit boxes of stationary objects within the world are horrendously off, resulting in shots that look like they should hit an enemy instead hitting a piece of cover. This can get annoying but overall it isn't a huge deal as you can always get a different angle.

[QUESTS]
I have personally completed the Crimson Fleet, UC Colony and the Free Star Collective quest lines. The Crimson Fleet quest line was quite fun with lots of interesting battles and a decent story. However, the other quests (UC Colony especially) are extremely dialogue heavy. This would be okay if the story was interesting and the dialogue was good, but it is not in my opinion. This results in boredom and hours of essentially playing Cookie Clicker as you skip through dialogue, fast travel and run from dialogue objective to dialogue objective, not fun. I can't speak much on the main story quests as my game is fully bugged out on an early quest and I no longer have the save file to revert to, nor do I want to revert 20 hours of progress if I did.

[PERFORMANCE]
Performance is mixed, my frames have been good for the most part on all medium settings (Nvidia 3070/Intel i5 8600k) however, as you might expect there are plenty of bugs/glitches. I've had multiple freezes, one crash and have managed to get physically stuck in place a few times too. On occasion, multiple dialogues play at the same time and sometimes the NPC pathing will cause them to get stuck or become confused. Mission objectives will sometimes not appear meaning it's off to reddit to find out where to go next for a quest. These bugs are to be expected from Bethesda and can even add a bit of charm to the game. However, just because bugs are expected does not excuse their presence in the first place. This goes without mentioning the game breaking "All That Money Can Buy" bug that I personally encountered, and many other game breaking bugs that have been reported. While overall the game is less buggy at launch than other Bethesda titles that came prior, it is still not the experience that players deserve from a $70 AAA game.

[SUMMARY]
If you enjoy the Bethesda game formula already set by games such as Fallout and Skyrim, have come to expect bugs from Bethesda titles and are interested in the space aspect/setting of Starfield, then you may enjoy the game. However, if you were looking forward to a groundbreaking, nearly bug free new experience from Bethesda due to the LONG development time of the game or any other reason, then I suggest you stay away.

Personally, I feel robbed out of $70 given that my game can no longer be progressed. I'm saddened by this, despite seeing it coming from a mile away due to the development team's track record of buggy games. Fingers crossed that game breaking bugs such as the one I encountered will be patched out, but best not to get your hopes too high when dealing with Bethesda.

Overall a 6.5/10 on the enjoyment scale. Would recommend a purchase once major bugs are resolved.