Starfield Review Summary

Compelling stories, characters, and freedom: The game offers compelling stories through main quests, side missions, and faction storylines, enhanced by well-developed characters, excellent voice acting, and meaningful dialogue choices. The narrative is further enriched by plot twists, moral dilemmas, and a sense of freedom, allowing players to shape their own path and experience a personalized journey. Modding capabilities add even more content and customization options.

Visually stunning, immersive space exploration: The game delivers stunning visuals, detailed environments, and a captivating art style, creating a deeply immersive space exploration experience. The soundtrack and sound design further enhance the atmosphere, while ship customization and space combat provide engaging gameplay features. The game's overall aesthetic and attention to detail contribute to a sense of wonder and discovery.

Extensive and engaging ship building: Ship building is a major highlight, offering extensive customization options and creative freedom. Players can design unique ships, modify their components, and decorate the interiors, creating a personalized home base in space. The ability to acquire ships through various means, such as purchasing or capturing them, adds another layer of depth to the gameplay experience.

Rewarding progression and freedom: The game provides a rewarding sense of progression through its skill system, adjustable difficulty settings, and diverse gameplay options. Players can enjoy a casual-friendly experience with plenty of replay value, freedom to explore, and opportunities to experiment with different playstyles. The game's engaging core loop and satisfying progression system make it easy to get lost in the experience.

Varied and engaging quest design: The game offers a variety of well-designed quests, including faction missions and side quests, that provide engaging content and unique experiences. Players appreciate the lack of game-breaking bugs and the availability of companions to recruit. The game's overall design and attention to detail contribute to an enjoyable and immersive experience.

Repetitive, unrewarding procedural generation: Procedural generation leads to repetitive environments, identical structures, and a lack of unique points of interest, making exploration feel pointless and unrewarding. Many reviewers found planets to be empty, lifeless, and lacking handcrafted details, with the same locations and enemy types repeated across different star systems. This significantly diminishes the sense of discovery and immersion.

Weak, unengaging main storyline: The main questline and overall narrative are criticized for being unengaging, shallow, and predictable, lacking compelling conflicts or meaningful choices. Many reviewers found the story boring, nonsensical, and forgettable, with a weak beginning and an unsatisfying ending. This significantly detracts from the overall player experience and replayability.

Technical issues and clunky UI: The game suffers from numerous technical issues, including bugs, glitches, poor optimization, and long loading screens. The UI and inventory management are clunky and unintuitive, making navigation and resource management tedious and frustrating. These issues detract from the overall player experience and immersion.

Uninspired, unbalanced combat: Combat is often described as uninspired, unbalanced, and lacking depth, with enemies being bullet sponges and weapons feeling weak or ineffective. The AI is poor, with enemies exhibiting repetitive behaviors and failing to utilize cover or tactics. These issues make combat feel tedious and frustrating, diminishing the overall enjoyment of the game.

Game feels unfinished, disappointing: Many reviewers express disappointment with the game's overall design and execution, feeling that it falls short of expectations and fails to deliver on its potential. Some reviewers feel that the game is unfinished, outdated, or lacks innovation, making it a less compelling experience compared to other titles in the genre.

Engaging faction quests, weak main story: The game features a main storyline about exploring artifacts, but faction quests provide more compelling narratives and choices. Players can join various factions like pirates, space military, or corporations, each offering unique questlines and experiences separate from the main story, similar to Skyrim.

Unique New Game Plus mechanic: The game features a New Game Plus mode that allows players to retain skills and XP while replaying the story. This mode is integrated into the lore and universe, offering some unique effects on gameplay and dialogue. However, it resets items and quest progress, which may not appeal to players focused on collection and crafting.

Limited and repetitive exploration: Exploration feels limited and repetitive, with similar structures, planets, and landscapes. Space travel is relegated to menu interactions, and planet exploration feels boring and pointless. The game lacks immersion and a satisfying survival aspect.

Improved shooter mechanics: The game is a shooter with level-up mechanics and character customization. Gunplay has been improved, offering high-quality shooting and combat with a wide array of weapons and customization options.

Clumsy and grindy skill system: The game features a skill system that requires completing challenges to unlock the next level, which can be frustrating. Some skills feel mandatory, while others are unnecessary, and the order in which skills are acquired influences the player's experience.

Inconsistent, demanding performance: Many reviewers report inconsistent performance, including frame rate drops, stuttering, lag, and crashes, even on systems meeting or exceeding recommended specifications. Some attribute these issues to poor optimization, especially in densely populated areas. However, some reviewers with powerful PCs report smooth performance, and others note improvements since launch due to patches and driver updates.

Frequent, short loading screens: The game features frequent loading screens when transitioning between areas, entering buildings, fast traveling, and engaging in space-related activities. While some players with high-end PCs and SSDs report short loading times (1-5 seconds), others experience longer delays, especially on lower-spec machines and consoles. Some reviewers find the loading screens disruptive to immersion, while others consider them tolerable or even necessary.

Performance improved by updates: The game's performance has been improved by patches and the addition of features like DLSS and FSR. However, some reviewers note that DLSS may not work properly or that FSR image quality is lacking. Some reviewers also mention the delayed addition of certain features.

Creation Engine 2 limitations: Several reviewers criticize the Creation Engine 2, citing its dated feel, poor optimization, and unsuitability for a space-faring open-world game. Some claim the engine's limitations are evident in various aspects of gameplay. These reviewers suggest the engine should have been retired after Skyrim.

Crashes with Creation mods: Some reviewers have reported crashes and instability when using Creation mods. This can lead to infinite loading screens and require a reinstall of the game. This suggests that the game may not be fully optimized for modding.

Wait for sale or use Game Pass: Many reviewers suggest waiting for a sale or using Game Pass before purchasing due to the high price and perceived lack of content or technical issues. Some feel the game is mediocre or not worth full price, while others recommend it despite flaws, especially if discounted. Some reviewers express regret for purchasing the game at full price, while others feel it's worth the cost.

Compared to other space RPGs: Many reviewers compare the game to other space RPGs, such as No Man's Sky, Mass Effect, and Skyrim. Some reviewers suggest that the game is similar to Fallout or Skyrim in space, while others feel that it does not live up to the standards of those games. Some reviewers recommend other space RPGs over this game.

Game needs mods to be playable: Many reviewers suggest that the game requires mods to fix bugs, improve the UI, or add missing features. Some reviewers state that the game is not up to Bethesda standards without mods. This point is important because it highlights a significant issue with the base game and suggests that players may need to rely on the modding community to fully enjoy the game.

Recommended for Bethesda fans: Many reviewers recommend the game to fans of Bethesda games, particularly Fallout and Skyrim. Some reviewers feel that the game is a must-play for Bethesda fans, while others suggest that only hardcore Bethesda fans will enjoy it. Some reviewers feel that the game is not as good as previous Bethesda titles.

Enjoy exploration and slow pace: Some reviewers recommend the game to those who enjoy exploration and a slow pace. Some reviewers state that the game has something for everyone. This point is not very specific and does not provide actionable feedback.

Polarizing reception, unmet expectations: Many reviewers acknowledge the game's flaws and the negative reception it received at launch. Some feel the criticism is overblown, while others believe the game was released prematurely or that Bethesda has abandoned it. Some reviewers also express disappointment with the current state of the gaming industry and the reactions to large game titles.

Extensive modding enhances gameplay: The game has robust modding support, with a dedicated community creating mods that improve visuals, fix issues, add content, and customize the experience. Many reviewers feel that modding is essential to get the most out of the game and address its shortcomings, with some even believing that Bethesda relies on modders to enhance their games.

Unique NASA-punk space RPG: The game is a space RPG with a NASA-punk aesthetic, blending elements of science fiction and grounded technology. The game's lore is extensive, drawing inspiration from the Fermi paradox and real-world aerospace concepts. Reviewers have mixed opinions on the setting, with some appreciating its unique style and others finding it bland or lacking in extraterrestrial life.

Vast scope, shallow depth: The game's scope is vast, but some reviewers find it lacking in depth and substance, with repetitive planets and shallow systems. Loading screens and transitions between planets can disrupt immersion. However, some reviewers still find the core gameplay loop enjoyable despite these flaws.

Familiar Bethesda gameplay loop: The game follows the established Bethesda formula of exploration, combat, collection, and crafting, similar to their Fallout and Elder Scrolls series. Reviewers note familiar elements such as the open-world structure, side quests, and overall gameplay loop. Voice acting is generally solid, and the game has a distinct Bethesda charm.