Starfield Review
From the creators of Elder Scrolls and Fallout, Starfield is Bethesda Game Studios first new game universe in 25 years. Marketed as "the next generation role-playing game set amongst the starts", Starfield players will embark on an exciting journey to answer mankind's greatest mystery. Starfield is also the first game using Bethesda's new Creation Engine 2 - which Todd Howard has confirmed has improved physics, AI, graphic and ambient functionality. I was extremely hyped for this game. Bethesda games are some of my favorite and Fallout in space is my all time nerd fantasy. I've put a little under 100 hours into the game (which is kinda low I know, sue me I have a full time job still) and am really excited to share my experience with you. There are minor spoilers ahead, so beware if you haven't played the game already.
Before we talk about the game itself, let's take a look at the new engine since we're all nerds here. Proprietary engines are always hard to get technical specifications on since that would basically give away any competitive edge the engine has, but we can take a high level look at the new features and look at some test out some of their claims. First off, Creation Engine 2 (the new engine, duh) was created specially for Starfield and Elder Scrolls 6 - although it sounds like the latter was more of an afterthought - and boasts improved AI fidelity, beefed up graphics systems cooked by in-house AMD engineers and fidelity improvements for both AI and environments. While Starfield has more hand crafted quests than any other Bethesda title, with over 1000 planets to fill, the developers had to rely on procedural generation to fill in the gaps. Creation Engine 2 does a fantastic job with terrain generation, but falls short when it comes to procedural building and "dungeon" creation.
While the planets are beautiful, unique and make players want to explore as much as they can, after awhile the buildings and landmarks that are encountered become obviously redundant. I even ran into a couple building that had the same loot drops in the same areas - handy for farming but not at all immersive. It's hard to determine if this is an engine limitation or a developer oversight, but it's worth mentioning all the same.
AI on the other hand, is very well done. Walking through cities feels like walking through a real city with people going about their days as you would expect. NPCs will greet you and make friendly (or sometimes no so friendly) conversation when interacted with or looked at for too long and each "hero zone" has a unique feel to it. The ambient AIs are also very well done, with different factions acting and reacting in different ways to both the player and the environment.
The graphical improvements really shine in the character creator but at least in my opinion fall short in game. I do have a mid-range gaming laptop so I'm not expecting too much, but to me it looked worse than Cyberpunk 2077. I also have a NVIDIA card which was not optimized for at launch.. something that doesn't make sense to me since according to steam, 85% of players use NVIDIA graphics cards. Todd Howard also made some.. at best out of touch and at worst disrespectful comments about players needing to "upgrade their devices" which is a typical capitalist response when to comes to optimization. It shouldn't be on players to shell out thousands every year to keep up with ever increasing in price hardware, but rather the developers to create a game that is accessible to the majority of players on the market. That's not even to mention the fact that these drives use unsustainable raw materials to function, making them a finite resource. My overall impression of the new engine is meh - you can tell it was created at the same time as the game so it needs more time to cook. It'll only get better from here though... right?
Now that we got the nerd shit out of the way, let's talk gameplay! Starfield is super unique and gives players a TON of different ways to play. Each mission has a couple different ways to approach - if you want to try and be diplomatic, sneaky, or outright murderhoboey, the game accommodates all play styles. There are several main factions that you will encounter while exploring the universe - each dripped to the player during the main quest, which is super helpful for first time players - that are hand crafted and extremely well done. Each of these quests have multiple outcomes and the player will be tasked with making the final decision in all of them. These decisions have lasting consequences in universe - but not really in a meaningful way.
The first faction quest I completed with the Crimson Fleet - UC Sysdef mission chain. Check out the next section for the full story, for right now just know that I sided with the Crimson Fleet. I was expecting major repercussion and was ready to not be able to use the major landing sites... but aside from news broadcasts, nobody seemed to care. I even joined the UC Vanguard after - they did mention the whole pirate thing a couple times, but it didn't really effect my ability to do anything and everyone was ready to trust me right away. I mean, who in their right minds lets someone join their militia when they have one of their high ranking generals prisoner on a captured capital ship?? I get why the developers were afraid to do harsh lockouts, but it would have added so much more depth to the game.
The main repercussions from these decisions happen in follower affinity. Each of the followers has an opinion about all the decisions you make and will make it known how you stand with them. But even that seemed rather basic to me, and more, just about all of them had the same opinions on the all of the decisions. For example, Sarah was not happy with me siding with the Fleet which makes sense from UC girl, but she was with me during the Crimson Fleet quest and didn't say anything on the time, and even helped gun down UC officers on the Vigilance during the last mission. Again I understand why the developers made this choice but I don't think we should shy away from locking content and/or implementing real consequences.
Mechanically the game is very fun and adds several levels to player freedom, with the different weapon types, the boost pack, drugs, and even the cutter adding unique mechanics to the players tool belt. I'm a rifle/pistol guy so my play style is hit hard and move in fast and close for the kill, while I've seen others take the Iron Man approach flying around and blasting baddies from the sky. Zero-g environments add a further level of fun and complexity to the game but unfortunately in very underutilized.
Ship building and flying was a let down for me. As a long time Star Citizen player, the whole menu travel that Starfield was built around was a bitter disappointment. Travel feels like an afterthought, being able to fast travel anywhere from the menu as long as you're not encumbered makes using your ship basically pointless unless you're into role-playing. There are some incredible ground environments would make for epic cinematic fly overs, but all we get are procedural cutscenes - and that's not even half the time. Even traveling from planet to planet is lame. I don't want or need to be able to fly under power from planet to planet, but I shouldn't have to open a menu to set a target. Even using the scanner method, you have to use the map to travel between systems and it's just dorky. There could have been something added to make it more immersive. I want a game to focus on gameplay, not super high fidelity graphics that a majority of the players won't even be able to appreciate.
A little ways into the main quest, the player starts getting powers from the alien temples they find. These are similar to shouts in Skyrim and give an additional tool for players to use. Powers can increase combat ability, mobility, longevity and can help in stealth situations. They're cool, but forgettable and leveling them is an annoying grind. You have to visit temples and hope they roll the power you want to level. I feel like with most skills and progression, they should be tied to how often and well you use them.
Speaking of skills (terrible transition), I really like how they progress. As you level up and pick your first skill in the tree, you have to complete certain challenges using the skill to unlock the next skill level. This makes sense both logically and gameplay-wise, in real life you have to practice and really understand what you're doing before you can move on to more advanced techniques, and Starfield matches this energy well. What doesn't really fit well with model is research. Once you learn a skill, you have to spend resources to unlock it. I can kinda see where they're coming from - in capitalism you have to pay to unlock skills by going to school right? But in games it feel more like an extra level of grind and fetch.
The best part of the game though, are the world and random events you come across. These are unique encounters and range from eating with a sweet grandmas, becoming a thought-to-he-dead superhero, to deciding what to do with a semi-sentient AI. Since not all encounters are hostile, the beginning of these encounters can drive paranoia and may lead you to doing something rash. You have to choose how to respond and there are sometimes consequences you have to deal with. These events are extremely fun and diverse, leading to some of the coolest experiences on the game.
Starfield's story follows the player - a miner - who is tasked by an exploration guild called Constellation to investigate a set of mysterious artifacts. Starfield also boasts several big, handcrafted faction quests on top of the main mission which puts the player right in the middle of galactic politics..
The faction quests are huge, have multiple endings, and are extremely fun. I want to walk through my favorite to give a bit of an example - the UC Sysdef vs Crimson Fleet quest chain. As a chaotic neutral, I found myself kidnapped by the government and held on a dingy ship after getting pinched trying to rob an ATM. I was introduced to a bunch of agents who told me I could either go undercover for them posing as a pirate wanting to join the Crimson Fleet, or go to jail. My character is a trader so I asked about credits and was promised a fat reward for my hard work so I tentatively accepted, although the encounter and way they were speaking to me left a sour taste in my mouth. My character has no love for the UC so the whole duty and honor bullshit didn't really do anything for me. After meeting with the pirates, I was given my first pirate mission which was to kill a nark. I honestly tried approached it diplomatically and get homeboy to leave but he resisted and I was forced to defend myself. The pirates were thrilled, but Sysdef chewed my ass out even through they gave me NO GUIDANCE aside from do what it takes to gain their trust. Between that and my earlier treatment by UC, I was still a bit flamed and decided at the end of the quest line to side with the fleet. An epic battle, seriously DOPE mission recovering Kryx's Legacy, two of my favorite weapons and a fat payout at the end made it all worth it. The characters you interact with during this mission have a decent amount of variety and diversity to them. The two main UC characters compliment each other nicely - the serious but maybe a little to trusting leader is complimented by his un-trusting yet professional partner. There are more pirate characters you interact with and while some border on cringe edgy, most are unique and well written. I was a little afraid of the leader at first - before realizing this game doesn't have actual consequences - and followed his no looting rule very stringently. The other faction quests share the same qualities - diverse characters, interesting locations, and epic world building.
Even small seemingly mundane outposts can sometimes have surprising and rich stories and while the main quest started out fun and interesting, it soon falls into a repetitive fetch quest trap. Interacting with the artifacts at first is very mysterious and cool but after cutting them out of the same rock formation 5 times, it looses it's grandeur. Same with getting the powers at the alien temples - something that on paper seems impossible to make lame. To be honest I don't even bother with the main quest anymore. Maybe I'll finish it when I get bored of everything else. I do like the NG+ concept. Jumping (or whatever you want to call it) to a new reality as a reset is a really cool idea and is pretty unique. It will probably get a little receptive, but if you take your time and play slow, you won't run into that.
Overall, Starfield is set to become a Bethesda classic. You can spend hours looting, exploring and fighting in a unique universe filled with endless choices and diverse characters. While the game falls short when it comes to immersion, optimization, and doesn't really bring anything new to the table, it has endless potential. A DLC has already been announced and with the amount of updates Skyrim got - going back to 2012- I think we can expect Bethesda to keep improving on what they've built. On top of that, the modding community is extremely active which gives players the freedom to further customize their game experience. If you're a Bethesda fan, casual single-player gamer, or a sci-fi fan, this game is a must play.