Starfield promises an endless universe for you to discover, and a myriad of stories to tell, but its world and main narrative are as empty as space itself.
Photo by Padraig Treanor on Unsplash.
A New Frontier
Starfield stands out from the crowd as the first new intellectual property developed by Bethesda Game Studios (Bethesda) in 25 years. Though just like Elder Scrolls and Fallout, it is the standard role playing game (RPG) experience fans have have grown to expect for better and for worse.
Bethesda is notorious amongst the gaming community for creating both legendary and bug-filled titles. Given the less than positive reception for their last release, Fallout 76, concerns were raised on whether or not Starfield could stick the landing.
Though I cannot speak for the experiences of others, and the various glitches being shared online, I found myself encountering few issues during my playthrough of Starfield on the Xbox Series X. An unforeseen but welcome surprise.
The issues I encountered were minor inconveniences as opposed to game breaking; latency issues, textures failing to load, slight rubber-banding. It's the same song and dance I've become accustomed to for most releases.
One Small Step
The combat in this game feels solid and impactful. In my opinion, it is amongst the best Bethesda has released so far when it comes to first person shooters. Weapon accuracy at the very least gives me an excuse to say It's my guns performance that's bad, not me.
The various star powers that you unlock through temples are the most appealing aspects to Starfield's sandbox, from lifting enemies with zero gravity to summoning my alternate self to aid me in firefights. Though not all star powers are created equal, with some overpowered and others completely useless.
Though the means of acquiring said powers are anything but exciting as the player must be subjected to a glorified 'jump through the hoop' minigame, where often the hoops don't register or sometimes don't even spawn.
Boots on the ground combat has its fair share of memorable moments, though it was in space where I found Starfield shines the brightest.
Although it sounds exciting, racing around asteroid fields and fighting spacers and pirates in dog fights is too simplistic for my taste. There is also a distinct lack of activities to do whilst in space, outside of fighting ships and transporting cargo.
In game photo of ship in orbit, Starfield.
Space combat includes the targeting system from Fallout as a perk you can acquire to target specific aspects of a ship. With it you can destroy the engines of enemy ships and board them, stealing their ship if you so choose. These can lead to intense zero gravity gunfights, or interesting moments for negotiation at key points in certain side-quests.
The other aspect of space warfare lies with its ship building which, while costly, is one of the few systems in the game where you can truly let your creativity run wild. It is amazing to see the various ship builds created by the community, both the awesome and the crazy. Though get ready for a lengthy grind if you wish to pilot any B or C class ships.
Finally, the world of Starfield is very interesting. I enjoyed my adventures with the games various factions, especially the quest given to you by the United Colonies.
Outside of the game, the plethora of lore behind Starfield is both rich with detail and fascinating to explore, more so than the games main narrative. In this, Bethesda once again excels in creating memorable and unique universes, as they often do for all their games.
Sarah Disapproves
However, as previously said, the game contains faults. Starfield is an ambitious title, but it often flies too close to the sun and falls short in many ways.
A common sentiment online is that the first several hours of the game are boring and uninteresting. The plot, in my opinion, is the biggest contributing factor in this. It is uninspired and lazy in order to advance the story.
It was only much later on when the plot finally started to pick up and the themes they were exploring finally came into fruition.
However up to that point, I often found myself just ignoring the story altogether and pursuing side quests out of curiosity. Whilst there were a few memorable stories such as Mantis, First Contact, and my personal favourite Entangled, what really struck me was how little of an impact these stories had in the world.
You can expose the CEO of a company for doing something illegal, and nothing changes. You can do a favour for a shopkeeper and their attitude towards you remains the same; they will speak to you in the same condescending tone as before.
There is no satisfying endgame with these missions, and a distinct lack of consequence. Which is a shame because I find that some of the stories told here are, in many ways, better than the main story itself.
Another part of the story I felt unsatisfied with lies with the companions you travel with. Starfield, like Fallout, allows you to appoint certain characters as travelling companions who will accompany you while you explore planets and complete objectives.
By exploring planets and completing quests as a pair, you can earn the chance to speak with them at a more personal level and learn more about their personality, their backstory, and even form a romantic connection with them.
In game photo of character in bar, Starfield.
For me, I found the characters to be not only generic and uninteresting, but also lack any functional distinction between them.
Progressing with a character is dictated by appealing to their morals and ethics. You can improve your affinity with them by selecting choices they will either like, dislike, or love.
All the companions want you to act as a morally good person, with very slight and subtle differences between them. There is a distinct lack of variation.
Characters like Sarah and Barret favour persuasion to avoid conflicts, whilst others like Sam Coe and Andreja enjoy seeing criminals being brought to justice. There is no inherently evil companion, nor a morally grey one, which is disappointing to see in an RPG like Starfield.
All the characters aforementioned are members of Constellation, the main faction you will be joining for the story. With no companions from other factions such as the Crimson Fleet, you are left with only four characters of some narrative significance to explore the settled systems with.
The only other options available to you are NPC's that you can recruit throughout your journey and assign as your travel companion, who have as much personality as a piece of cardboard.
Whilst you can brave the settled systems alone, it is generally not encouraged because the items that you will be looting may easily cause you to get overburdened by all the weight, which is very easy to lose track of in a game where you can pick up practically any object you see. Like it or not, Starfield is a team effort, even when you have to do all the heavy lifting.
The only thing nearly as boring as the story are the various planets you can explore, which serves as a major aspect of the game but often failed to maintain my interest.
Before you explore a planet, you must first travel to the planet, which is one of the most tedious tasks in starfield when travelling through uncharted systems.
If Anthem wins the award for the longest loading screens, Starfield takes first place for the most amount of loading screens.
For every ship you enter; for every planet you take off from, from every system you 'grav-jump' to, and for every part of a planet you try to land on, you will always be greeted with a loading screen. So much so that you will start to see them in your dreams when you sleep at night.
You will find this game described as a 'loading screen simulator', and it is far from an exaggeration. In a world where exploration is the name of the game, these frequent pauses can encourage you to avoid any planet that is not absolutely necessary for a quest because of how annoying it can get.
Though I can't say your missing out on much by neglecting to explore one of the many procedurally generated planets of Starfield. It is a badge this game wears proudly, with over one thousand planets just waiting for you to be the first to set foot upon. Here, Starfield boasts quantity but forgets about quality.
Zero Gravity, Zero Content
In game photo of character exploring planet, Starfield.
Many people were disappointed when they found that you couldn't simply fly to a planet in a similar fashion to No Mans Sky. Rather you must select a part of the planet and load in.
To their credit, the technology to select a point on the planet and generate an otherwise unique environment with biology, creatures, and structures seamlessly with little to no crashes is very impressive.
However, once you have landed on a planet, the gameplay can end up being very dull.
I mention 'points' on a planet because you load into was is essentially a small map. You can as far as the eye can see, at least until you stumble upon its invisible borders.
People have voiced their frustrations on the matter, saying that the game provides an illusion of exploration. However, I cannot say with certainty whether the gameplay would be any more invigorating even with the ability to explore a whole planet unrestricted. This is for a variety of reasons.
First, points of interest are spread far out. There is no efficient means of travelling to these points. No space rovers or land vehicles that you can use to quickly travel to your desired structure, mine, or outpost. Instead, your only option is to walk or more accurately jump your way to your destination with your boost pack.
Here I was expecting a fantasy sci-fi RPG shooter, and instead I stand before Bethesda's latest 'strand-type' game.
The next point being that activities on these planets are both repetitive and boring. To pass the time whilst reaching points of interest you may occasionally mine ores and minerals with your cutter, scan organic life and biomes, and perhaps fight off some aliens or enemy ships that have landed along the way.
After exploring several systems, the truth became crystal clear. Once you've seen one planet, you've pretty much seen them all.
Some planets will undoubtedly be more interesting than others, particularly those that hold more narrative significance. More specifically the many cities in this game, such as Akila City and Neon, which boasts unique settings and personality.
Be warned, for behind the various doors you open to enter shops and complexes lies even more loading screens.
I mentioned previously that the combat in this game is fairly engaging and fluid, and by far the best gunplay performance Bethesda has released thus far. Though it doesn't mean the combat sandbox is without flaws.
In game photo of character aiming weapon, Starfield.
Starfield's armoury offers 45 weapons, 8 melee weapons and 11 types of ordnance. These weapons come in different tiers, offering various attachments and modifications to influence their performance.
Some weapons, however, are merely variations of others, with different attachments or perks that somewhat differentiate them enough to be considered as an entirely different gun.
Most of the 'unique' weapons to pursue are simply reskins, or rather recolours, of weapons that already exist with different attachments. Some armour sets have unique aesthetics, like the Mantis armour, or the various Starborn sets you can acquire.
I just ponder why weapons couldn't get the same treatment? I don't find myself jumping up and down receiving Keelhauler as I would receiving Vex Mythoclast back when I was playing Destiny in 2014.
In addition, melee weapons are very weak in this game, so trying to make a melee build is very restrictive and punishing to the player.
There is a lack of distinction and variety between daggers and blades. You would think a small dagger would be faster but deal less damage and a sword would be slower but deal more damage, but they function exactly the same.
These weapons are amongst the most valuable rewards players will chase, whether its completing a quest or through exploration. In my opinion, the game is just not rewarding enough to warrant the amount of time and effort it demands from players.
I enjoy solving its lockpick puzzles, and it's one of the better lockpicking minigames I've seen in recent memory. Except it's incredibly disheartening when you endeavour to crack open an expert level lock, practically giving yourself a migraine in the process, to discover nothing except some minerals and a 'digipick'.
The game boasts plenty of things to do, but nothing of inherent value.
To Infinity... and Not Much Else
It's been a while since the Xbox Series X had a significant exclusive that drew the attention of the internet. Redfall released earlier this year and followed true to its name by quickly falling into obscurity after a disastrous launch.
Starfield presented the opportunity to show players that the Xbox parent company, Microsoft, was still in contention with its rival competitors when it came to quality exclusives.
While this isn't a bad game by any means, it also isn't outstanding in any significant way. The space warfare and ship building can be enjoyable at times, but that alone isn't enough to compensate for some of the game's shortcomings.
Above all, it is a Bethesda RPG from the ground up, and long-time fans will find enough content to delve into and mod. If you own an Xbox Series X, this is likely to be the best exclusive you can expect for a while.
In Starfield the universe is your oyster; the only thing standing in your way is a loading screen.
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