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Starfield | Review Thread

What scores do you think StarfieId will get?

  • 40-45%

    Votes: 3 0.5%
  • 45-50%

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • 50-55%

    Votes: 1 0.2%
  • 55-60%

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • 60-65%

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • 65-70%

    Votes: 2 0.3%
  • 70-75%

    Votes: 5 0.8%
  • 75-80%

    Votes: 15 2.3%
  • 80-85%

    Votes: 81 12.5%
  • 85-90%

    Votes: 241 37.3%
  • 90-95%

    Votes: 243 37.6%
  • 95-100%

    Votes: 55 8.5%

  • Total voters
    646
  • Poll closed .

Dacvak

No one shall be brought before our LORD David Bowie without the true and secret knowledge of the Photoshop. For in that time, so shall He appear.
Looks like Starfield probably isn’t for me. I’m not a fan of most Bethesda games, with the exception of a few Fallouts. Seems like a lot of the fun comes from the explorative story and characters, which makes sense.

Combat looks fine but not exceptional. Planetary exploration seems to be plagued by the rinse-and-repeat soullessness of procedurally generated environments. Inventory management actually looks like a step back from Fallout. And it seems like the game is rather slow-paced, at least in the beginning. Plus, no maps? Not even for the bespoke crafted areas? What the shit is that.

And while the individual characters seem pretty expansive, even for a Bethesda game, the direct and inevitable comparison to BG3’s behemoth plot/character dynamics probably won’t do Starfield any favors.

Ship creation, space battles, boarding enemy crafts, and the overall story seem great, though. Plus the game is absolutely gorgeous, and I’m sure it sounds fantastic too.

I still remain nonplussed by Starfield, but that’s not surprising since most Bethesda games just aren’t for me. Either way, it’s a Game Pass game, so I’ll definitely check it out. I hope it lives up to the expectations of diehard fans, though.
 

rofif

Can’t Git Gud
I understand, also to be clear, I've never subscribed to GP and buy every game I play.

I'm just trying to see things from a kid/teen living today with limited money perspective. If I was a 12 years old today with limited money for gaming, GP would probably be godlike. My nephew is 12, a huge gamer and GP allows him to try and play games he would not been able to buy if GP wasn't a thing.

Does GP lower the quality of games created by devs? I don't know, maybe, but it seems to me that things are still the same, if a medium or small sized studio keeps releasing shit, GP won't save them long term and they'll bite the dust at some point.

A market with only subscription services as a way to get games? Ok I'm with you, it's bad. But right now, GP is a fine addition to the traditional "Buy the game you want" market.
When I was 12, there I was collecting monthly game magazine with tons of demos and always 1-2 full versions of games.
So I had plenty to read, play, test, explore and so on.

Kids dont have that now, so GP maybe is a good entry
 

Montauk

Member
NMS doesn't have the RPG elements and story usually found in a Bethesda game, people don't just want NMS space exploration, they want that with Bethesda RPG elements. NMS alone becomes boring and repetitive after a while. I have 80 hours in it and reached the center of the galaxy, it really gets tiresome.

The comparisons to NMS are inane, beyond the setting.

I’m sure if you spoke to Hello Games themselves they’d instantly say the comparison is nonsensical.

Aside from anything else, NMS isn’t an RPG!
 

Tomeru

Member
So is this the grown-up version of no man sky? I mean I think that Sean Murray's role model is Todd. That's the vibe I get.
 

Dzab

Member
You can't leave reviews before the game releases or before you start playing the game so no, that was not the case with Street Fighter 6.

Capcom had server issues at launch (after the game had unlocked for everyone) and there was also confusion in terms of how to create a CapcomID account etc in order to get access to the online side of the game.

Adding DRM for people who have already purchased your product is abhorrent and should never be done, it's a perfectly valid issue to raise.

How to make sure your game doesn't end up with negative reviews on steam - Release a good game, make things work as they should do and treat your paying customers well (and not like they are criminals). It's really not too much to ask.
I didn't say it was reviewed before it was released, I said it was negatively reviewed at launch because of the "late launch". Yes, that was the case. People were mad that the game was available in some regions, but not theirs. Japan was already playing the game so people were complaining, instead of reading that the rest of the world servers were not up yet or unlocked. It wasn't a global release, it wasn't the most clear thing ever no but still. People were using VPNs (Aus, NZ) to play and try to get around the unlock time, then complaining about it as some features were not available. That's why online was not available, or 'had issues', CapcomID etc.
My point is that people will take something, run with it, bomb the game or the opposite way around. Of course there are plenty of times that games deserve it, but you can't say they deserve it EVERY time and there are 'no exceptions' lol, that is impossible. People literally bomb games because a character is black, or gay and say it's 'woke'. If it's not a valid criticism about the game itself, it shouldn't contribute towards a score. Wouldn't you at least agree with that?

Yeah adding DRM after purchase is dumb.
 

Fess

Member
Saw a compilation of international IGN reviews, 7 | 9 | 9.5 | 10 | 10. They need a network score like how Gamereactor does it, creating an average with all scores adding up the math, that way a 10/10 can sit beside a 7/10 without either score overshadowing the other, the network IGN score in this case would be: 9.1.
 

Red5

Member
Having RPG elements in a game does not gimp the space exploration part or the seamlessness/immersion part. Those are 2 very different things, and one has no bearing on the other one.

I know, I would've loved for them to have the NMS exploration system instead of the limited one they have. My reply was pointing out that NMS is not a good replacement for Starfield since it lacks one of the main appeals of having a main quest, storyline, characters, companions and other RPG elements.
 
Yeah, it's funny watching the spin. It's got the same open critic score as Forbidden West and Spiderman, yet many can't resist calling it a disappointment or are making excuses as to why it isn't even higher.
I was not part of gaf when those games launched but did people creat 3 or 4 threads each day saying they were incapable of eat, shit, fuck and sleep because they never felt so hyped before and asking what people would do when they start playing the games?
 
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manlisten

Member
I mean it's pretty much exactly what I expected going by the reviews. The funny thing is they pretty much said without saying during the direct, that the exploration wouldn't necessarily be seamless (e.g. "you can explore an area around your ship," or "we stitch together a block of terrain and place points of interest." You just have to read between the lines. Seems more like a beefed up Outer Worlds or even OG Mass Effect. That's good with me.
 

Moochi

Member
I think this is confirmation that if you take the performance pressure away from studios, you get a subpar release. This has happened so many times since Gamepass. It happens in television too--look at Star Trek: Discovery getting funded for 5 seasons sight unseen, and Amazon's Lord of the Rings.
 

Heisenberg007

Gold Journalism
The glitch content is already delivering.
Yeah, I'm already seeing lots of bugs images and videos on the Internet.

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Agent_Nobody

Gold Member
It means the exploration is an illusion and not what many expected/wanted it to be. Personally, I think that's the biggest shortcoming of the game.

Alanah Pearce showed the limitations of space exploration. Then when you want to land on/visit planets, it is mostly just you clicking on a map; you're not actually flying to it.

Edit: here is her video.


Thing is we already knew there would be no manual landing on planets or manual travelling between systems for months, so the sudden surprised pikachu reactions are a bit late.
 
Game is sitting at 88 on MC and people are acting like it's a disappointment. Some of you are delusional.
Review threads are mostly shit. But context and expectations are relevant here.

This game has been hyped for years, and the buildup has been absolutely insane the last few weeks. The same people saying it was a game of the generation contender and definitely getting 95+ and saving Xbox the last few weeks are the same ones now acting like 88 is a great score and always was, and everyone is trolling who is disappointed or surprised it is that low. The hyperbole goes both ways.
 

Stooky

Member
Except those almost all came from fans not happy about no ps5 version. They tried to add unrealistic expectations to the game. Even phil said it wouldn't turn around sales. Especially since it is a pc centric game and community.
nah go check those starfield/ bethesda acquisition threads. it came from both sides
 
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Man xbox really can't catch a break. Even a game scoring in the high 80s is seen as a failure. I guess it was too hyped and is the biggest xbox exclusive in a long time. Its probably gonna settle into the mid 80s too. The biggest negative for me is getting a 7 from gamespot and IGN. Didn't expect that at all.
 
NMS doesn't have the RPG elements and story usually found in a Bethesda game, people don't just want NMS space exploration, they want that with Bethesda RPG elements. NMS alone becomes boring and repetitive after a while. I have 80 hours in it and reached the center of the galaxy, it really gets tiresome.
No man’s sky is one of the shittiest shallow and boring games I’ve played in recent memory. And I’m tired of seeing it compared to this game.
 

Heisenberg007

Gold Journalism
Thing is we already knew there would be no manual landing on planets or manual travelling between systems for months, so the sudden surprised pikachu reactions are a bit late.
Yeah, hardcore gamers / forum dwellers like us knew about this. I doubt the casual gamers would know about this.

Either way, this is an important thing that should be a part of every review. I like Alanah's video and how she doesn't just "tell us" but "show" exactly how it is so people can make up their own minds whether they like this or not.
 

Gideon

Member
NMS doesn't have the RPG elements and story usually found in a Bethesda game, people don't just want NMS space exploration, they want that with Bethesda RPG elements. NMS alone becomes boring and repetitive after a while. I have 80 hours in it and reached the center of the galaxy, it really gets tiresome.
no man sky is a indie dev mate, bethesda has thousands of developers they could and should have done better.
 
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My main takeaway from this is... 87 is a good score (even though it'll most likely end in the low 80s when all is said and done), but Microsoft kinda needed it to do better. There's also the fact that the biggest outlets gave it a 7/10, which is basically mediocre in the gaming review score curve. So, not the silver bullet some were expecting
I think its pretty obvious that Bethesda is no longer an elite developer. Fallout 4 was a decent enough game but was a let down to expectations. Fallout 76 was an utter disaster but I brushed it off as their first live service game. I thought for sure Starfield would knock it out of the park like Skyrim given all the resources and 8 years of development time. It failed to do that

on a side note, I don't understand why Bethesda hasn't changed engines. There are obvious limitations it sets. Games shouldn't have loading screens going in and out of buildings!
 

marjo

Member
I was not part of gaf when those games launched but did people creat 3 or 4 threads each day saying they have never ever seem so much hype and asking what people would do when they start playing the games?
95% of those were joke threads making fun of the initial thread. I'd say the hype level for Spiderman and Forbidden West were similar.
 

spawn_reborn

Neo Member
This game is nowhere near being a 10. People who gave it a 10 have decided to turn a blind eye to a bunch of shit.

Also sus as fuck that after so much shit about how open world games should be, Starfield being basically a menu based type of exploration somehow gets away at some of these places?
Have you played or are you going off IGN US review?
 

Montauk

Member
Review threads are mostly shit. But context and expectations are relevant here.

This game has been hyped for years, and the buildup has been absolutely insane the last few weeks. The same people saying it was a game of the generation contender and definitely getting 95+ and saving Xbox the last few weeks are the same ones now acting like 88 is a great score and always was, and everyone is trolling who is disappointed or surprised it is that low. The hyperbole goes both ways.

As I said, they do it to themselves.

The thing I don’t get is that this process has happened many times before. Yet seemingly the insane hype culture seems to have only gotten worse over the years.

Do any of these guys ever learn anything from repeatedly seeing this happen?
 

LiquidMetal14

hide your water-based mammals
I swear this is some of you people's first time in a review of the high profile game you should be informed that lots of times the initial score is actually not as good as the score as things settled. And to have a truly nine or 10 game means it's exceptional and almost without flaw and this game is far from that. Can I be surprised if it ends up being less favorable even than it is now so don't get caught up too much in the score just because the game you might have interest in isn't given a free Passover everything or combed over by the reviewers. The reviews that are the most constructively critical or the ones you want to read not the ones that are going to tell you what you want to hear.

That Bethesda gameplay and feel worked a long time ago and I think based on just the expectation and I don't think the exclusivity thing helped but just based on those things I feel like it was always set up to fail in the eyes of even the most staunch fans. So it's going to go in the same pile as any other game that was probably overhyped and be a decent average game at the end of the day. It's not a bad game and that's the takeaway not because it needs to be amazing. This game isn't one of those types based on everything that I think a lot of us have already seen. So any 10 out of 10 or anything like that you should automatically be separating that and throwing it in the garbage as far as I'm concerned.
 
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X-Wing

Member
Now, even though I don't have any problems with the review scores it's always mind boggling to me that reviews from places like Windows Central and XboxEra are taken into consideration for score aggregation. We know those reviews aren't unbiased, so why include them?
 

DeaDPo0L84

Member
no man sky is a indie dev mate, bethesda has thousands of developers they could and should have done better.
This point is lost on a lot of SF defenders. "SF will crush NMS, the scope and scale will be massive!", ehhhh maybe not. But yes it has a functional story and lets you make choices, so I guess that trumps those things for some. The hope was this would essentially be NMS with a good storyline and modern additions like updated graphics and a good combat loop, but maybe next time.
 

Red5

Member
no man sky is a indie dev mate, bethesda has thousands of developers they could and should have done better.

Mate, excusing Bethesda wasn't the point of my reply, the point is that NMS is not a substitute for Starfield, since people want a Bethesda RPG with space exploration and NMS isn't it. NMS is just space exploration.
 

SpiceRacz

Gold Member
Review threads are mostly shit. But context and expectations are relevant here.

This game has been hyped for years, and the buildup has been absolutely insane the last few weeks. The same people saying it was a game of the generation contender and definitely getting 95+ and saving Xbox the last few weeks are the same ones now acting like 88 is a great score and always was, and everyone is trolling who is disappointed or surprised it is that low. The hyperbole goes both ways.

88 is a really good score any way you look at it.
 
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