Starfield is a masterclass in mediocrity. I struggle to figure out where to even begin with my write-up for this game as its flaws are seemingly unending; from the pathetic performance, subpar systems, unlikeable characters, uninteresting narrative, tepid exploration, braindead AI, endless loading screens, and mostly forgettable soundtrack. This is not the quality I have come to expect from a Bethesda RPG.

Let me start by saying my expectations were not high with Starfield. I understood the limitations with lack of seamlessness and the open world essentially being very large cells, which they are. This is roughly on par with the experience I was expecting from the engine, however what has stunned me is not a single area has excelled in anything compared to what we have seen previously from this studio to justify the same limitations we have had for a decade. Starfield feels more like something that was plucked straight out from 2016, and arguably had it been the reception might have been a lot more positive given what they have managed to achieve with this engine.

By far and large my biggest gripe is the performance. Todd has stated in an interview that the PC version is optimised and that consumers need to upgrade their system to play Starfield and the "next generation" experience it offers. There is absolutely nothing "next generation" about the Creation Engine that justifies just how bad the performance is. I had to tinker for hours to reach a mostly 50-60 FPS experience (with DLSS) which has been excelled in every other release this year without issue. There is no excuse for it, and based on the aforementioned quote I doubt it will ever get addressed as evidently the studio has not recognised the PC performance as an issue.

The main narrative within Starfield is quite frankly worse than something I would expect from ChatGPT, and orders of magnitude more boring and tedious than any other narrative I have seen from the studio previously. Having watched multiple others go through the main quest I quickly determined that it is not something I care at all about doing myself, even by doing so resulting in the acquisition of "powers" (knock-off version of shouts, but fewer of them and less interesting). There are several suggestions to blitz through it to reach the NG+ portion where the "real" game starts, however I would advise against that and instead I strongly recommend ditching Constellation as soon as you can to focus on something like the UC faction narrative which has been much more enjoyable.

Exploration, the element I was probably interested in the most given the scope of the game, is generally pretty poor. You will regularly overcome the hardest locks in the game, to find something like 3,000 credits and a 1,000 value helmet with a modifier. Given how tedious the Digipick minigame is at Master level I would expect something unique or at least of more significant value for each and every one of these. Despite the rewards, you will land somewhere and get a few points of interest, with buildings that seem like they were designed using the outpost system and look like monstrosities as a result. Exploration itself just is not that satisfying compared to their other games.

Speaking of the outpost system this is about 10x more confusing than the settlement system found in Fallout 4, which was not always the most straightforward thing in that game either. There seemingly has been no effort to streamline this aspect, resorting to pop-ups of text dumps when you place something down for the first time once in a while, but it will largely involve trial and error, likely sacrificing resources in the process to surmount the curve ahead of you. This is a horrible way to introduce people to this system and its complexities, somehow an even worse introduction to this system than Fallout 4, and it comes across as they just didn't care.

For a 7 year development cycle, and something that has been 25 years in the making, you have been weighed, you have been measured, and you have been found wanting. Do better Bethesda, because this isn't it.

[b]Starfield[/b] is a masterclass in mediocrity. I struggle to figure out where to even begin with my write-up for this game as its flaws are seemingly unending; from the pathetic performance, subpar systems, unlikeable characters, uninteresting narrative, tepid exploration, braindead AI, endless loading screens, and mostly forgettable soundtrack. This is not the quality I have come to expect from a Bethesda RPG. Let me start by saying my expectations were [u]not high[/u] with Starfield. I understood the limitations with lack of seamlessness and the open world essentially being very large cells, which they are. This is roughly on par with the experience I was expecting from the engine, however what has stunned me is not a single area has excelled in anything compared to what we have seen previously from this studio to justify the same limitations we have had for a decade. Starfield feels more like something that was plucked straight out from 2016, and arguably had it been the reception might have been a lot more positive given what they have managed to achieve with this engine. By far and large my biggest gripe is the performance. Todd has stated in an interview that the PC version is optimised and that consumers need to [u]upgrade their system[/u] to play Starfield and the "next generation" experience it offers. There is absolutely nothing "next generation" about the Creation Engine that justifies just how bad the performance is. I had to tinker for hours to reach a mostly 50-60 FPS experience (with DLSS) which has been excelled in every other release this year without issue. There is no excuse for it, and based on the aforementioned quote I doubt it will ever get addressed as evidently the studio has not recognised the PC performance as an issue. The main narrative within Starfield is quite frankly worse than something I would expect from ChatGPT, and orders of magnitude more boring and tedious than any other narrative I have seen from the studio previously. Having watched multiple others go through the main quest I quickly determined that it is not something I care at all about doing myself, even by doing so resulting in the acquisition of "powers" (knock-off version of shouts, but fewer of them and less interesting). There are several suggestions to blitz through it to reach the NG+ portion where the "real" game starts, however I would advise against that and instead I [u]strongly recommend[/u] ditching Constellation as soon as you can to focus on something like the UC faction narrative which has been much more enjoyable. Exploration, the element I was probably interested in the most given the scope of the game, is generally pretty poor. You will regularly overcome the [u]hardest locks[/u] in the game, to find something like 3,000 credits and a 1,000 value helmet with a modifier. Given how tedious the Digipick minigame is at Master level I would expect something unique or at least of more significant value for each and every one of these. Despite the rewards, you will land somewhere and get a few points of interest, with buildings that seem like they were designed using the outpost system and look like monstrosities as a result. Exploration itself just is not that satisfying compared to their other games. Speaking of the outpost system this is about 10x more confusing than the settlement system found in Fallout 4, which was not always the most straightforward thing in that game either. There seemingly has been no effort to streamline this aspect, resorting to pop-ups of text dumps when you place something down for the first time once in a while, but it will largely involve trial and error, likely sacrificing resources in the process to surmount the curve ahead of you. This is a horrible way to introduce people to this system and its complexities, somehow an even worse introduction to this system than Fallout 4, and it comes across as they just didn't care. For a 7 year development cycle, and something that has been 25 years in the making, you have been weighed, you have been measured, and you have been found wanting. Do better Bethesda, because this isn't it.