I think I need to clarify two things brought up that I feel I did a poor job wording in the video. 1. When I used the term review bombing I didn’t mean that the people who genuinely bought the game and just didn’t enjoy it (which there were a lot of) were the ones responsible, I would never want anyone to feel like their opinion is invalidated and I in fact was very disappointed in the beginning with Starfield as well. I was referring to two events I saw (that could be false I did not double check) where in one instance several groups of PlayStation fans decided to leave a ton of bad reviews on Metacritic simply because it was an Xbox exclusive and then a second where when the fan base was not thrilled with the predatory micro transactions that happened with the trackers alliance paid mod, which is absurdly priced for so little content, but I don’t think that warrants giving the actual game a 1/10 or 1/5 simply because an optional micro transaction was overpriced. And the second clarification I think I should make is that this really is just my opinion, I don’t gain anything from making a video and lying about how good Starfield is with such a small channel, I just genuinely played for 400 hours and had a good time, I’m still just trying to figure out my voice here on UA-cam and was not expecting so much exposure so quickly! Maybe to a lot of people that’s a damning indictment of my taste but what can I say, I thought the game was a 7/10. Hopefully that clears a little bit of it up and even if you hate Starfield I hope you enjoy the video and stick around! Much love!
I'm actually glad to find a UA-camr who wants to just talk about games. In recent years, the culture war BS has become stifling. The games for me are for me those who aren't, aren't, and I hope their audiences enjoy it. I just wanna go back to enjoying games with the people who enjoy it too. The audience as grown too large and is too diverse for me to believe there is nobody else's I can geek out with. Your channel is a breath of fresh air.
Wow thank you. I hate the culture war bologna, I just love games and like talking about them. I was really nervous about this being my second ever video because of how toxic the discourse around it is haha. But I really like it and felt like I had to defend it!
You might like Tim Caine and Adam Millard.. though they tend to talk about game design rather than review specific games. Myself, I tend to buy older games that are 75% off on steam anyway, so exaggerated hype and hate are pretty much non-issues.
Thank you. Some well said opinions that some of those “bashers” should consider (I’m looking at you Mr Stephens). As a previous “bashing” modder of Skyrim (I always poked fun at BGS and Nexus alike in my mods) I can tell you that after working alongside BGS for the past few years that I have nothing but utter appreciation for their commitment to the worlds they create. I went from someone who continually tried to break their lore into someone who respects it. In my personal opinion, You are right in your comment about BGS being a big ship. Change does happen and will happen, but it must do so thoughtfully to avoid unforeseen issues. Good luck with your channel matey!
No Man's Sky shrinking planets or whatever their formula is, should've been licensed to Starfield. I don't know what NMS does to make that work, but man is it cool to do.
I don't hate Bethesda, or Todd Howard. Oblivion was one of my greatest experiences growing up. But games were all a bit janky back then to a certain extent and we also didn't play anywhere near as many games since Steam wasn't a big thing yet, and games were expensive. Compared to all the games I played at the time, Oblivion was a very unique experience and most of it's flaws could easily be brushed aside due to what it did well. This, however, would become less the case with every new Bethesda release, where the general quality of the games and characteristics that made Morrowind and Oblivion great, would slowly but surely get diluted to the point of non existence, with the only aspect of Bethesda games remaining relatively true being the open hand crafted worlds and the art direction & music. From Skyrim onwards Bethesda games began to act like a AAA developer only with the same AA approach, but not in a good way. The writing, always a meme worthy janky mess in the early games, became genuinely bad and immersion breaking at times. The innovative, unique approach to roleplaying Bethesda had, soon became so simplified and diluted as to not have any identity of its own. Skyrim removed basic RPG stats completely, and Fallout lost it's fairly decent leveling system in 4 to be replaced by an absolutely terrible perk system. But fundamentally it was the writing and the tone of these later games which really ruined it for me. Fallout 4 in particular is the worst offender in this category, due to how the fallout setting is bastardised in order to create a fun theme park for the player with a nonsensical story and one dimensional paper thin characters. Bethesda games always had some quirky sides to them, but they generally took themselves seriously enough that you could get immersed in their worlds, not so much with the later entries. I think Bethesda did something incredible with their early open world games and introduced not only players, but the industry as a whole to that potential, however while the industry caught up and produced some incredible open world games, Bethesda managed to plod along despite major criticisms of each new game due to just how much they managed to sell to their fanbase. It didn't help that Todd was an incredible salesman and hype man, leading to release after release of worse and worse games that gradually eroded all of the goodwill those earlier games had bought Bethesda. 76 was the last straw, and it permanently severed the relationship with the fans, so that when Starfield released, there was no more goodwill left to stem to tide of criticism. I won't be buying ES6. I don't trust Bethesda or Todd Howard to create anything worthy of the series at this point. I don't hate them, I'm just tempering my expectations based on their track record.
That’s fair enough. I hope you’re wrong and they can actually make a worthy elder scrolls game, but I won’t be blindly walking in expecting a masterpiece for sure.
THe other games worked because they had enough gameplay basics and Fallout and Elder Scrolls already were universes with fascinating lore, plus much easier to make a game more realistic and immersive if it's all set on one location you can walk around through, you can also in most of those games put down a waypoint marker or just randomly go wandering and find something interesting. Starfield has a small number of hand crafted locations and quests to actually explore, and even then in some of these places it's still boring and lacking in immersion. Best example is Neon, it feels like family friendly Cyberpunk, no sexy dancers in the nightclub, literally no crime, the "poor" people npcs wear nice clean clothes, there's talk of gang activity but there's only 2 gangs, 1 is 4 people hiding in a bar, and the other you don't even really encounter in the streets until you start the first gang's questline, and then that quest ends with the Strikers just joining up with Neon Security anyway, so you can't roleplay being part of a gang. The only repeatable quests are open system markers of combat encounters you can do, rather bland mission board objectives no matter which faction it's from. I enjoy the game but I've had to use mods and lower expectations to play Starfield without getting pissed off by the shit RPG mechanics. So yah I'm worried about ES 6, but it'll be an easier game for them to get back to making. Starfield is pretty experimental for Bethesda.
15:00 Imho the thing that most of the players were dissapointed about, was lack of handcrafted locations. what's the reason of having 1000 planets that are basically the same soulless uninteresting places with some graphic variations? imagine having 3 solar systems with 3 playable planet each. but each blanet size of 1/3 boston with handcrafted locations. That would cover everything and make me want to explore each and every planet with looking for some easter egs. that would be sooooo great.
it's not that there's a lack of interesting handcrafter POIs, all POIs are handcrafted. The problem is that they're 1. repeated over and over across planets and 2. way too spread out and the time it takes to explore is dilated beyond most players' interest threshold.
The reason is that that's what space exploration is likely going to be like. As a gaming mechanic it's hit or miss. Sorry that you're in the miss category. But for those of us for whom it's a hit, this is a wonderful game.
Nah bro, another small bethesda's glazer going nowhwre. I love bethesda, I loved todd, and my fav Fallout is fallout 3, not new vegas but even tho you have to be able to call for criticism and have a broader view of the topic. After 76, 4 and starfield its completely on point to trash bethesda. Listo a positive point of nowadays bethesda, I can list 3 sins/or crimes they are guilt for
My history with starfield is a bit rough, i love the game to death. But near launch, i was insulted, and ridiculed for liking it, it left a sour taste in my mouth. I started feeling like i was wrong for enjoying it. Ragebait videos left and right, etc, it sounds silly but it lowkey ruined my first playthrough of the game.. I was able to pick it back up months late after the internet drama slowed down and people had found a new target to "criticize". Thats when i fell in love with the game. In the end i learnt that maybe i shoukd just ignore all that negative ragebait videos and form my own opinion lol. Anyways, fantastic video, subbed!
Ragebait gets clicks and makes more money but is an overall detriment to enjoyment so I’m going to avoid it at all costs. Thanks for the sub hopefully I can continue to make more content you enjoy!
There may be an amazing Starfield 2 in 10 years. But Starfield 1 can not be significantly improved. For me it was the dialog and the characters that killed it. I espected Mass Effect trilogy levels and I got Andromeda.
So what? Does every game need to appeal to every player? I didn't get into cyberpunk but you'll never see/hear me complaining about it. It just wasn't my game.
I have been enjoying Starfield. It's the only GamePass game I've purchased (so far) so I can still have it even if I get rid of my subscription. I have been having fun with it. I hope they address the concerns other have, and I can see why there were concerns, but I don't get the hate for it.
There is no conspiracy regarding Starfield. Fallout 76 has had plenty of negative YT vids , yet more people are playing it (on Steam) than Starfield. It does seem that rather than accepting others opinions are different, some who like Starfield have to imagine conspiracies of YT channels and armies of haters criticising Starfield for some reason. The official reviews were all 9 and 10 out of 10 - how come that didn't influence anyone? If anything, that fact suggest how insincere the professional media is. YT has paid shills, too. There are plenty of YT vids and reviews by Bethesda fans, going into detail about what is wrong with Starfield. Analysing the writing, illusion of choice, unimaginitive story, clunky NPCs etc etc It's not a good game, player numbers show it, there is no conspiracy,
I gave Starfield a fair shake, but I gave it up just shy of 20 hours. I just couldn't stand it anymore. All of the handmade content felt vapid, nothing about the writing surprised me, it felt lukewarm. Cyberpunk 2077 with all of its problems nailed parts of the worldbuilding and character writing I got whiplash going between the two. Starfield just felt middle of the road in all aspects.
There are gems in the game insofar as the handmade content, but yeah it is really just a 6.5-7/10 as I said toward the end. Hoping for better games in the future!
@@Berendir I'm pessimistic that these old studios are what they used to be anymore, I'm personally looking elsewhere to find bold writing and experiences that don't feel focus-group-optimized. KCD2 has most of my hope right now, I'm mildly interested about Avowed as well. Although I'm old enough to remember that when Oblivion came out, there was a very vocal minority complaining that it was dumbed down yadda yadda (and I agree to an extent, although I still enjoyed it a lot). The bigger a studio gets the more it has to be "something for everyone" and less "the best thing ever for this small subset of people" and that's fine. It doesn't mean that you have better or worse taste depending on what you like, just more or less niche.
Sorry to say, but at this point it feels like juct copium. Starfield's roleplay system isn't just bad compared to BG series, it's barely on par with indie diabloids from greenlight. Space combat and exploration doesn't just loose in comparasion with no mans sky- it looses to 1984s Elite. Shooting and base building haven't significantly improved since fallout 4. Spaceship craft barely outpaces the one from Spore. This game isn't just unpolished or too thinly spread, it is decades behind the industry standarts in its every single mechanic. They literally made you learn space shouts from space word wall and called it "spaceborn". And sold you a broken gun for real money. In terms of your analogy, Bethesda must perform a perfect U-turn in the middle of Suez canal to deliver at leas acceptable TES6.
@@skyriminspace SOme things aren't subjective, though. NPC animations are objectively bad compared to the standard for about 15 years now. Dialog options are fake, the outcomes make no difference to the world. World interactivity is poor. FIlling a world with a trillion useless objects is not interactivity when you can't open a door or take a lift without the game stopping for a loading screen. It's objective that the writer basically said story and writing quality isn't important, because players don't care for good quality stories. The effort is wasted on them. Luckily for Bethesda, there are enough people who don't care about quality that will buy and "have a blast" with their games.
@@OrangeNash not all games do everything. Try & find a game which does more of the things you want it to, & less of the things you don't want it to. Best of luck!
Great video, with some well thought out and well spoken commentary. Ive played hundreds of hours of F3, F4, and Skyrim. Personally, I just started playing a couple weeks ago and have been loving it. I think it appeals more to the Fallout side of the crowd than the Skyrim side and i think those are the fans that more upset. Regardless the sheer number of things to do and build and complete have been scratching basically every gamer itch I have. I think they did a great job world building too, and creating an aesthetic
@@Berendir I had to check "uploaded in the last week" as a search criteria to see your video. It's the best way I know to bypass the big channels, bypass what the algo WANTS me to see, & actually get some non-polarised commentary on subjects that interest me.
Ugh. The game is objectively bad man. Bad writing, subpar mechanics, no simulation on the background. I just want good games too, and being lenient with every consecutive mistake they make is just dumb. I'd say It IS better to criticize than to be all positive and shit. Image the game we could have had, with seamless travel to space, NPCs routines and theyr own houses, actual factions that we could join, good gunplay and spaceship piloting, a decent ending...
Bethesda got a bit too reliant on modding scene I guess. And Creation Club additions, Skyrim AE are clear examples. In the end - it hit them in the head, when product was so supbar, that vanilla is considered bland without mods, just like Starbound. Mods will fix the game, but it will take a long time and Beth will try to make money out of it.
“Objective” does not mean something that someone doesn’t like-that is “subjective”. It’s not an objectively bad game, it’s a subjectively bad game to some people. Yes, the game has issues, but to paint it as an “objective” disaster isn’t truthful. It does some things right and some things wrong.
@@theitechlab I'm sorry, Im not a native english speaker, but I did meant objectively. Game mechanics ARE watered down. Story IS bad written. Animation IS bad. Those are indeed objectively bad, because those are FACTS, not biased opinions.
Shhh, a video defending Starfield from somebody who genuinely loves Bethesda? Ragebaiters will just react to this and title their videos "This Bethesda FANBOY is being DELUSIONAL DEFENDING STARFIELD!!!" :p Great video by the way, instant sub. Hope the algorithm bless your channel.
I really enjoyed the video and find myself coming from a very similar place in regard to Starfield and BGS. Having played every BGS game since Oblivion extensively, I'd say I'm a pretty big fan of the studio. The points you made echo some of my comments left on other videos about the game--things like art/video games being subjective, Starfield not deserving the amount of hate it gets, and the positive direction I see the studio going in the future. On Starfield, a point made on "PlinyTheWelder"'s video called "Starfield is Great and the Complaints Are Absurd" was also mentioned here and nails why BGS games (including Starfield) are so enjoyable for many people. Starfield isn't the best in any one area, but it takes a bunch of 7/10 systems and ideas and combines all of them in a single package, which no other studio does as successfully as BGS. The sum of the parts is greater than the whole, at least in my opinion. The aesthetic and music are second to none. I LOVE the NASA-punk style they went for, as it is still grounded while feeling futuristic. I love other sci-fi franchises, but Starfield is so unique among them aesthetically and I think they've done a great job. Music wise--it's fantastic, solid Inon Zur. Nothing more to say! The overall gameplay is a lot more satisfying than anything BGS has done in the past. Combat feels great. Space combat is fun. Quests are mostly enjoyable with a few standouts. I think the UC Vanguard questline is one of the best BGS has done. Some of my biggest complaints come from the exploration and procedural generation, along with the ship feeling more like a fast travel sim than a real space-house like they probably wanted. I also think they missed quite a few opportunities with things like the contraband system and the bounties/brig in your ship. Why can't we turn in contraband to the UC/FC and be a "good guy?" Why can't I capture bounties alive and keep them in the brig of my ship for transport? Lots of missed areas there. They also missed big time on having factions treat you differently based on your attire. It'd be awesome if I walked into The Key with a UC spacesuit on and they all started shooting or something. Right now, they don't even make a comment. There are definitely some issues with continuity and characters remembering things you've done (Admiral Logan in the Vanguard questline and Sarah's questline for example). As for my overall opinion on Starfield, I really like the game. I give it a 7 or 7.5/10 overall. I know the game has flaws, and I've got my own list of complaints, but despite those, I still have a lot of fun and have soaked 300 hours in over the past year. Something about the whole package has drawn me in like no other game has, and I can't put my finger on anything specific. It most definitely doesn't deserve less than a 6/10 and no more than an 8.5 or 9/10 in my book. The hate it gets is so bizarre and people act like it was worse than stuff like The Day Before or the Gollum game, which were objectively WORSE in every single metric. It has insane potential and as long as BGS keeps working on the game, I think we'll see a lot of that potential realized. Give it another year or two and we'll be seeing a lot of "Starfield Was Overhated" types of videos I think.
17:35 The number of Bethesda Studio games in the past TEN YEARS.... equals.. the number of skyrim REleases. The have a legacy, an amazing legacy, but today that's the only thing they have(and lots of money). Being hopeful in this case is like being hopeful AC will get as good as it were in the early days.
I waited until this past week before jumping in properly and I am loving it. I am only at level 11 but I am excited and cannot stop playing for hours at a time. I enjoy the difficulty level of digipicks and ship building. I have only scratched the surface. I am for paid mods if it encourages creators to keep making the best possible mods. The only issue I have is the achievements being disabled with some of them, they need to make more paid mods achievement friendly. You don't have to spend $5 on plushies, but some players do. I hope they work on the generative AI elements.
I'm with you bro. I played Skyrim in 2012. It was my first Bethesda game. The amount of freedom and agency they give you is unmatched. Starfield is a good not great game. I've still got a hundred hours in it. There's no space game that allows you the freedom that Starfield does. #FreestarRanger
Well said! I am so tired of dweebs telling me that I shouldn't be enjoying this game. 600+ hours beg to differ. I've been blocking every YT channel that trashed Starfield, because if they're so wrong about this game why would I trust their future advice? I was about to block your channel, too, based on the title, but was pleasantly surprised by your thoughtful analysis.
One of the reasons why I'm hopeful for TES6 is that Elder Scrolls is their most important IP and Todd's last Elder Scrolls game. I think they're going all in for it.
Sorry to say I disagree with all your defences. The gunplay is better but still below standard for a AAA FPS. Not a problem in Fallout 3 because combat wasn’t the crux of the experience: some quests would have no combat and explorative or conversational highlights would be everywhere. Since Skyrim every quest has (for stupid, corporate reasons) been required to include combat. Gunplay far below industry standard used to not be a problem for a Bethesda game; now combat is relied upon so much that it is a problem. Art style and music are entirely subjective, but I think Prey 2017 went a similar direction with its art while being far more creative with it, and Starfield’s music I actually found plain and sometimes ill-fitting. The main theme with the augmented suspension sounds like many other space themes. I didn’t much like FO4’s score either, but I do think Inon Zur did a great job with FO3 and FNV. Ship combat feels bad because the opportunities to advance aren’t signposted, as you said. It also feels bad because fights in space lack sufficient context. They’re random and sprung upon you, causing most players to think of each battle as an annoying obstacle. Traits are good but roleplaying suffers because of underwritten world-building. In games like FNV and Arcanum and KOTOR 2 dialogue options and quest choices are great because they allow you to express stances within very specific, very unique setting-wide conflicts. Factions are in balance - to tilt one this way or that will have lasting consequences. There is no such specificity in Starfield. Without a good conflict, there is nothing intriguing to comment on or side to choose. Therefore I rarely cared about what my character said or did - and that’s without considering how poorly written individual lines of dialogue are.
Something else I’ve got to add. I hate how Bethesda does companions now. They’re more intrusive, they talk to you like you’re a player character rather than a person, and their personal conflicts are expressed with far too much immaturity, as if they’re children. I believe Bethesda borrowed their approach to companions from BioWare, the company most famous for the mechanic. I’ve never much cared for it but BioWare have become worse than ever with childish flirting/arguments (look at the clips from Dragon Age 4) and that’s carried over to Bethesda now. It’s worse here because Bethesda games are more like simulations and you play as a character, not a party, so it feels more intrusive. Compare this with companions in FNV. They will speak professionally, give eye-opening opinions on the setting, won’t address you like you’re a player character (none of the, “this is murder, I’m not taking part in this!” - who TALKS like that?!) and open up to you only when they witness events or areas that trigger their memories or inner demons (instead of telling you they love you once you’ve picked 100 locks in their company). Sadly Obsidian have since dropped this far superior approach and also adopted BioWare’s. Such a shame.
I love Starfield and my only real complaint about shattered space was the final mission. Like wow. What a slap in the face to the fans of the game. I went full serpent mode and I didn’t even get to see the damn thing after siding with it it’s bs man. I just wanted to see a space snake :/
I got fallout 76 yesterday for a few bucks I know it’s been out for a while now so they’ve had a lot of time to fix it after the debacle that was it’s release, but damn 76 is a good game these days and it really highlights how bad starfield is I recommend 76 to people now, it’s really weird but like starfield, you shouldn’t have to wait years for the game to get good
@@Berendir yeah you got a good video here, i agree that starfield didn't deserve the hate it got but man there are some really bad parts in there, hopefully ES6 they take their time and make sure they get it right the first time
I thought this was a measured, valid assessment of where this game is right now. I enjoyed the game to a point but enjoyed Oblivion, Fallout 3 and Skyrim much more. To me, Starfield is just "meh". I can barely remember most of the quests. I enjoyed building ships and bases more than most of the quests. Liked your commentary and just became your 200th subscriber. lol
I really tried to like Starfield, I tried to play it slow and really immerse myself, not skipping dialogue, role played, etc. What killed it for me was when I found out gaining powers was just going into random temples and flying around into balls for a few minutes 😂
I'm enjoying the video's man keep it up, and its awesome you dropped Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth shoutout, that has got to be my favorite Strategy game of all time, and maybe if you get around to Bioware game to have a video of why their games should go back to being more like Dragon Age: Origins & Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, again good job man.
Thank! I am gunna tackle some BioWare games I have some ideas, did you enjoy the longer more in depth breakdown or the shorter more opinion piece? Just trying to find my style and voice really.
I don't hate starfield, it's simply not what I wanted. I wanted more space exploration, and less planet exploration. The loading screens were a huge problem. I love Bethesda and our Lord and Savior God Todd.
the reason i dont wanna give Bugthesda the benefit of the doubt is the same reason i dont give some other games like The Outer Worlds, i gave Stargfield 200+ hours and in the end i didnt feel dissapointed i felt betrayed. i cant exactly point to what it was but thats why.
I've been playing Bethesda games since Daggerfall, which was the very first RPG I played from start to finish, and I loved every second of it. Morrowind was a groundbreaking RPG that immersed me like no other games has ever done, just the sheer amount of detail in every nook and cranny was amazing, I still replay that game every year. Oblivion was also an amazing game, the gameworld was a tad more generic that Morrowind's, but they made up for it with incredible amounts of lore and detail and the combat was better than ever. Fallout 3 was a fantastic game as well, they translated the isometric, turn-based 2D game into an immersive 3D open world shooter really well, in my opinion. Then came Skyrim, and while I love the game, they really dialed down the skill systems, to the point where they didn't matter all that much, which took some of the enjoyment away from the game (For me, at least), but the game still had that signature immersiveness that I've come to know and love in Bethesda games. I liked Fallout 4, even a bit more than Skyrim, and while it was a more casual game than Fallout 3, it still immersed me completely into the gameworld. Then came Starfield, a game I was so hyped for that I bought the big Contellation Edition with the smartwatch. I played it for 50-60 hours and then I didn't want to touch it again, and that amount of time is really, really low for a Bethesda game for me (I have over 500+ hours in every other Bethesda game). I couldn't figure out why the game never really clicked with me, then a few months ago I tried to give it another go and it hit me, Starfield didn't immerse me like any of their other games. And I know why it didn't, because they could never make a game like Starfield as detailed and immersive, as their previous games, because it'a simply too big. Starfield reminds me a bit of Daggerfall, I love Daggerfall, but it also suffers a bit from the same problem, and that is that the game is simply too big and it hurts the immersion. I don't think Starfield deserves as much hate as it has gotten, not even close. But I also think Starfield is the first Bethesda game, that doesn't have the "magic" of their other titles. I don't blame them for trying something like Starfield, but I would urge them to move on, because I don't think Starfield's problems are fixable, because the very foundation of the game is a hindrance to making it an immersive Bethesda game. Bethesda's games have always felt handcrafted, like there was something interesting in every corner and the procedural nature of the planets in Starfield prevent that.
Bethesda Derangement Syndrome began with Morrowind. You can find the exact same criticism for every BGS game since 2002. Just replace the old name with Starfield. 😂 Bethesda “fans” invent expectations that no game can meet, and rage when it falls short. Hatetubers prey on them for ad revenue. It’s a vicious cycle that is still only representative of a fraction of all gamers. SF is doing great despite the “popular” discourse.
Great strawman. Maybe people criticise the games because there is plenty to be critical of, only Bethesda not only ignores all criticism, but they keep changing things or removing things people didn't complain about until all that is left are tings worthy of criticism. By dismissing all criticism as "Bethesda Derangement Syndrome" you are yourself perpetuating the same attitude that has got Bethesda in this situation in the first place, Toxic Positivity. Oh and you're completely delusional if you think Starfield is doing great, case in point, Skyrim has 21k average players on Steam, Fallout 4 has 13k, and Starfield has 8k, barely more than Fallout 76. You can also see this with the modding community around Bethesda games. Skyrim and Fallout 4 blow Starfield out of the water, and I'm not even even talking about total mods obviously, I'm talking about daily mod production from the community, where Skyrim has 4 times the number of mods uploaded over the same period. Even Oblivion manages to not be too far behind Starfield, and that's a game from 2006. BG3 63k... Elden Ring 34k... Heck even Sekiro and Dark Souls 3 manage to have nearly 6k each... I'm not saying you can't enjoy the game, or should like it because others like me are critical of it. But I am saying you are flat out delusional if you think this game is doing well, and I am telling you that you are perpetuating the same mentality that got Bethesda in this mess when you strawman genuine criticism towards these games.
@@JumboCod91 I see where you are coming from but there is definitely a weird kind of obsessive hate that a lot of youtubers seem to have for Starfield. I don't recall seeing any other game that people would play for hundreds of hours and then release like a 4 hour video on youtube slamming every aspect of it. Like is that really the content you want to be making? Is that what you wanted to do for weeks of your life? Or are you only doing it because of $$$$? I agree that Starfield is not doing fine but I really do think the game gets too much hate. It's really not so bad, I have about 170 hours into it and have enjoyed it for the most part.
@@mannahchatA whole grifter economy has grown out of UA-cam that farms this kind of rage engagement. Sure Starfield deserves its fair share of criticism but the outrage is definitely inflamed artificially for profit. They do the same thing for most games that manage to draw any criticism. Starfield was just an exceptionally lucrative target.
I obviously can't speak for everyone but it's hard to hate a dev team just because they didn't meet your expectations. Hating something and feeling disappointed at something are two different things. All it did for me was make me more skeptical towards them. I am also aware that youtube is sort of where nuances goes to die. Mostly when it comes to media, something is either a masterpiece or trash. Starfield falling somewhere in-between leaves it in an awkward spot. I do appreciate more positivity though, I just don't agree. Video games being art even though it's true they are also products, it's understandable that people would be upset when they wasted their money. They have too many cooks in the kitchen and one thing I don't see brought up enough is the lack of direction the game suffers from, not to mention a lot of the systems don't flow together. The proc gen isn't even the main issue either the lack of variety within the proc gen is what kills it. Games like NMS use it too, and look at how varied their worlds are. We are lacking lot's of interesting landscapes, we have hills but no mountains, canyons, rivers, biomes, etc. Starfield is a mid game, that doesn't deserve the hate but at the same time I wasted 100 dollars too, and I would have loved to not spend it on that game.
You summed up pretty much all of what I think of the game incredibly well haha. I don’t see anything I disagree with in what you wrote here. I think the fact that I played it on Game Pass which I woulda paid for anyway maybe did soften the blow of the game for me. I didn’t lose that much of an investment on it like some others and that’s a perspective I should have taken into consideration for sure.
@@Berendir I probably should have done the same, but I honestly thought it would be my game of the year. Sadly that was far from the truth. I didn't mean that I disagree with your whole video, just aspects that you considered good, I considered okay at best. For example the world building could be cool, but we don't experience it, we come after all the cool stuff has happened. The gun play was just okay for me, nothing crazy, an improvement over their previous titles, but that's not saying much. Not to mention they might have taken a step forward in gunplay but took two steps back in melee. I also disagree in trying to defend starfield, I don't think it's a hill worth dying on. Mostly with how you stated the shitty business practices BGS has been doing. However consider me a subscriber, I would rather people talk about things they love in gaming, rather then things to just generate clicks. You also have a good commentary voice.
@ I really appreciate the nice comment! This is the thing I want most from this channel too, actual conversation about what’s good and what’s bad. Learning from other perspectives!
Commenting for the algorithm. I'm skeptical of Bethesda to the point that I'm definitely not going to be preordering anything from them, but I'm still hanging on to some hope that they'll turn the ship around.
Thanks for making it this video. I liked Starfield Never played anyother BSG game. I am not buying the DLC as $30 is a joke But I certainly hope the next DLC is amazing as then I will have two to play 👨🚀
There's a reason for the saying "Nothing travels faster then bad news". People don't really linger on the good and the positive. Not for long. And people don't really talk about it either, it doesn't spark discussions. Negativity does. But I know the feeling. I kinda stopped watching movie/tv reviews some time ago. Just got tired of all the negativity, deserved or not. Can't they just start talking about shows and movies they like instead?
I've been following (& playing) Starfield since the beginning. There was a wave of negativity shortly after release which thankfully died down as viewers lost interest, & then the generally positive fan-oriented channels started popping up in my recommendeds. Shattered Space brought a new wave of predictable "it still sucks" videos, but as expected they have died off again & the balanced takes are coming back.
I thought Starfield was fine but the one thing I resent it for, and what is probably the most bafflingly obviously terrible game design decision I've ever encountered, is that it gives you a jetpack (a mechanic that will stay with you throughout the game) and as soon as you use it to do the obvious fun thing--jump as high as you can--you land and it tells you you sprained your ankle. it's like if you started Super Mario Bros. and the first time you tried jumping a text box popped up saying "Mario is getting on in years and we don't know how well the cartilage in his ankles is going to hold up. Be careful with him." and you're like... "oh. it seemed like this was going to be fun, but never mind. rather than spending my life playing video games I'm going to study accounting or something."
10:20 I'm sorry Man but the weak gun immersion was the one thing that unsatisfied me about Starfield most. compare Starfield VSS vintorez (AKA old world hunting rifle) with basic 308. rifle from Fallout 4. In Fallout after shot You can literally feel the impact, camera jump and the sound was the best. don't get me wrong, I like the weapon design. but still, I'd love to se some good old fashion Gore we know from fallout series, just how cool it would be to see someone head blown up in the zero gravity area ;) About the rest I just love the format where you are not bitching around about "Todd Haward Bad" just like everyone else does. I can totally relate to your expirience of bethesdas games being the safe space and huge inspiration for creative work. It's good to see that someone does remember that Todd is a human being too ;) Starfield was a huge dissapointment to me, but they seems to taking their lessons from it already. Handcrafted dlc, vehicle, Fallout NV remake, ihmo they are listening to the audience, which is good.
Yeah, Starfield wasn’t everything I wanted it to be, but I’m not ready to give up on Bethesda. I think if you subtract the micro transaction bull, which may be just the producers forcing the devs to do, there’s a studio that does want to make a great game! And yeah, the gun play wasn’t the most immersive but it was definitely the best technical iteration of combat Bethesda has put forward in a long time. Mature games do need to bring back all the gore though, on that we both heavily agree.
I played it first day on gamepass. I was genuinely excited to play and I hadn’t watched any reviews on it at that point. I had fun at first but I think that was just because of the excitement of all the unknown possibilities. I felt like the loading screens between take off and space were lame but I didn’t hate it. I thought the idea of using in-game screenshots as loading screen pictures was clever and interesting. I don’t think I’d ever seen that before. My biggest punch to the gut was when I got to the first big city and realized there was no map. Just random looking pics of icons that I don’t know and some hazy background. That’s when everything just sorta fell off and didn’t seem interesting anymore. Like, if you can’t get one of the most basic things right, and I hadn’t seen anything new up to that point, what is there to expect? This was my first real experience with this franchise and I lost interest within the first 10 hours. I can only hope that they listen to valid criticism and learn from their mistakes. "The customer is always right, in matters of taste,"
I think the trend of trashing bethesda has come about simply because it is so easy to do it. Many of the bugs and glitches that people laugh at in Starfield have been in their games going back as far as Morrowind and Oblivion. Some of these things haven't been fixed in 22 Years, so i severely doubt that they will ever be fixed. Some of these issues seem to be deeply rooted in the engine itself, which they stubbornly refuse to change. It also doesn't help that Bethesda has started to habitually lie to their fans and customers. There is the bait and switch of the duffle bag, the "there will only be cosmetics in the F76 shop" lie, the Nuka Cola Dark debacle, Fallout 76 alone is a nigh neverending well for these examples. But to be more current, Todd, in his function as spokesperson and face of Bethesda, said in multiple interviews that Starfield was "Well optimized for PC" mere weeks before they released a huge optimization patch, proving that he lied yet again. I'm at a point where I just assume the opposite of what he says and sadly, more often than not, I end up being correct in my assumptions. The problem isn't that Bethesda games have gotten worse in and of themselves. But they've gotten significantly and dramatically worse when compared to the competition. "It's a huge world, so there's gonna be bugs" was a fair argument at the time of Oblivion. It was an OK argument when Fallout 3 came out. But the competition isn't asleep at the wheel. Halo 2 is 10 years older than Fallout 4, yet it has by far and away the better gun mechanics and comparing it to Halo 4, still a game 2 years older than F4, would just be meanspirited. As the open world goes, I've never fallen through the map of Witcher 3, Ghost of Tsushima, either of the Horizon games or even indie games like Satisfactory, yet I've plummeted into the void multiple times in Starfield. Making fun of Bethesda is so easy because I can boot up Skyrim right now, a game they spent a decade working on after the release to port it to every system under the sun and i can get it to crash to windows in under 5 minutes without going to some extreme lengths because even after a decade of working on it, they're still either unwilling or incapable to bugfix the game.
I agree with a lot you said here. The thing for me that I think a lot of people won’t agree with is that, even though Bethesda has so many problems and their design formula and technical fidelity is dated, I still think their games are fun, and when I have these issues they don’t really bother me. But obviously I am in the minority in this and I understand that. Just because I’m ok with it doesn’t make it acceptable and I definitely am viewing every new announcement from Bethesda with a more cynical eye.
@@Berendir It's ok young Padawan, you will get there some day too. In all seriousness though, I've got nothing against your optimizm because unlike the hardcore fanboys, you don't blindly defend the game just because it says Bethesda on the tin and seem interested in an honest discussion of the topic. I agree with you that the games are fun. I've got more hours in Skyrim and F4 than I care to admit publically. But my tollerance for Bethesda's "quirks" has decreased as I've played other games. Plus, like I said above, it REALLY doesn't help their case that they keep lying to me over and over. I think Bethesda is ultimately headed for an enourmous crash if they stay the course. Maybe not with Elder Scrolls 6, but if that keeps having the same issues and problems as their last few games, then they're in deep. It takes a while to genuinely upset gamers. (Not the loudmouths who throw a hissyfit about some near invisible hairs on Eloy's chin, but the actual gaming populous) The backlash to Starfield and F76 was their warning shot. If you want to be optimistic, hell yeah. go for it. I sincerely hope it works out in your favor. But 2 decades of pattern recognition tell me it won't.
@@timokampwerth1996 I appreciate the conversation and niceness :) I hope you enjoyed the video too even if we have different viewpoints! I tried to make it entertaining at least for even those who wouldn’t agree with me haha.
I saw people complaining there weren't ENOUGH bugs and jank! That is NOT TOO MANY, NOT ENOUGH. Considering this, 'engines' limitations it sure seems to be able to do a lot, including multiplayer and now a pretty decent vehicle mechanic. I really enjoyed Starfield, and thought it was a return to form. More quests, more factions, more role playing options, traits that matter. The 'loading screens' are so short, it's not a massive issue. And come on. I can make ANY ship, nearly any shape, and it lands, flies, can be taken into space combat. Are we that spoiled we can't appreciate that?
Couldn't agree more. Could the game have been better? Sure, but the same could be said about any game. It's still good enough for me to sink hundreds of hours in with no regrets.
Two thing that always comes to my mind about Bethesda's games are the following: 1. What came before 2. What it does and how well compared to others. The best way to illustrate the 1at is: Fallout 4 was released after New Vegas, F76 after 4, Starfield after 76. NV did Bethesda's Fallout dirty by being more respectful towards fans of RPGs and Fallout. But have to credit Fo3 for being a solid ENOUGH foundation as isometric to 3D game. 3 crawled so NV could jog (technical state is hell of a setback) 3 suffered from BAD writing and simplifications or misunderstandings about the world of Fallout. Fo4 while improving on some aspects of the gameplay and adding in something new...half-assed the job. The gunplay tho was improved was still behind the industry. The settlement building felt like a gimmick. They learned nothing from NV, Roleplay was even more dumped down, EVEN compared to 3!!! But modders will fix anything (I think this was the point where they realised fully, that they can get away with anything and get more money from and with modding) Inbetween they released another Skyrim. Then they had the bright idea to 76. People wanted multiplayer...and the monkey paw curled.They forgot how much modding helped them with the previous titles and misunderstood what people wanted. Add in their greed and you get what we got. And what did they learn from 76 or Fo4 or Skyrim toaster edititon or other studios? Just HYPE it and they will EAT it. Space travel with charcter background and Dragonborn shout, it's Todds dream game etc. That is where the 2nd point comes in. We need to disect the gameplay parts and look at it as separate part and then as the whole. "Why should I play Starfield?" RPG + shooter + space game, yes? We have better games in all of them. Just as you said it, this is the only game where you can do all of this but they are not fulfiling for many. We have better games with different combinations and focuses. No Man Sky for explorers. Star citizens for rich idiots and regular ones. Space engineers for builders. Then X4, elite dangerous, freelancer bla bla bla... Many of these are SANDBOX RPGs that do not box themselfs in much unlike regular ones, like SF. If you cannot offer the people something over the THEM your game will suffer. The best comparison is still imo is No Man Sky: lies, broken and shalow game at launch. And it somehow became the no. 1 go to if we talk about redemption stories (although it is still mostly positive on steam because it can't escape it's own design, like proced. generation.
I agree with a lot of what you said here, I really hope Bethesda can just see that despite a “successful” game in terms of profit and critical reception that they can adapt and give the fans what we really want.
@@BerendirThe next DLC(s) will tell us more about the direction they want to follow. They like to do one great dlc for their games but it is like... only one. Future will tell
A rare pro Starfield video. I've seen so many multi-hour long videos on why the game is bad. Breaking down every aspect of the game and analyzing why each doesn't work. And I agree with all of it. Of the few pro Starfield videos, including your own, the praise is all opinion and anecdotal. You can enjoy the game all you want, I'm not gonna rip into your joy. However, one critical thing you gloss over is perhaps the most important. The content-to-money/monetization aspect. It went from "harmless" add-ons to actually affecting the artistic merit and design of their games. Quests a la carte? Factions cut out of the game and walled off?!? Bethesda will never make a good game again because they want low-effort cash. That's why they cut out a main player in the Va'ruun. The lame ass empty temples with one Starborn to shoot at that repeats 240 times? Yep, that's gonna be a DLC too! Starfield is a $70 developer kit with the actual game coming out in increments. And the actual game? The DLC? Is terrible.
I wouldn't count on them improving Starfield where it counts, meaningful content. I don't think the will is there, nor the competence, so long as Emil continues to hold his position of influence. I think they're cooked as a big player studio with him. I personally love a lot of things in Starfield, and almost have 400 hours in it, but I have numerous issues I have with it. You named a few big ones, but how the hell do you make a galactic-wide game, as an exploration-centric company, with a large focus on ships, and give us so little to do in space? WTF!! We can literally fly from one planet to another in real time, yet despite all that real estate, you only fly in near orbit of planets and moons. It's largely a glorified fast travel device with shooting/looting/docking mini games. Regardless, I've had moments of great fun with the game, especially ship building, but it's too half baked for them to fix. However, it's a great canvas for big conversions and total overhaul mods (that star wars mod looks dope!). Those are the only two areas to be hopeful in. Hopefully BGS proves me wrong, as the game has so much potential.
I agree, my hope for the future of Starfield kinda revolves more around the hope for the modding scene to make something really cool, but yeah I also played like 400 hours and had a good time. I’d say all the hand crafted content and quests are really worthwhile and it’s when you start to get into the more procedural generation stuff that it starts to get stale. I would also like to see Emil not be the lead designer on the next elder scrolls, but he and Todd go all the way back to the blood moon expansion of Morrowind so I can’t see him not being heavily involved. He is a solid writer he has written a fair few of my favorite quests I just don’t think as a lead designer he is the right choice.
@@Berendir I think the main quest/hook (multiverse thing) is the best one they've ever done which kept my interest until the very end, and even on my second playthrough. Unfortunately, it ends up very shallow, but when a story gives so many hours of compelling content, I can't shit on it because of a bad ending. I would never have read more than two Steven King novels if I had that mindset lol I like a lot of the handcrafted stuff too. There's a lot to find and do in most locations. I like all the quests we can stumble upon from NPC dialogue. I just really dislike how centralized every major settlement is. New Atlantis (Jemison) is a beautiful setting with so much room for people to branch out. Who is going to live in the Well, or even a high rise, when you have so much fertile soil and a perfect climate a few meters away. I can understand resource limitations for handcrafted locations, but they should have at least built settlements outside New Atlantis with roads leading to the city. It doesn't make sense otherwise. They could have made them ruins due to the Terrormorph thing to save on manpower, regardless for immersion sake it should have been bigger. I really liked the Free Star, Ryujin and UC questlines. I prob liked Ryujin most as we stayed in one location for the most part (FUXX Neon's loading screens though lol). The double agent thing with the Crimson Fleet was fun too, it just really sucked that we couldn't be truly heinous pirates. There are lot of little gems, like the world leaders you find in that remote location, won't spoil anything, among others. We also got Andreja, prob their best NPC next to Nick Valentine. Anyway, I'm rambling on and on, but like you, I hope they stick with it, as there's nothing like Starfield, but at least it can be converted into something grander through modders. I appreciate the video. An honest criticism with a hopeful aspect.
@@Berendir As someone who really, really likes starfield..... I hope they don't make "Starfield II". I'd rather they just keep adding infinite DLC's in the same mould as Shattered Space, maybe expand ship building, expand outposts, expand the POI system. & just spend developer resources making Starfield the best thing it can be. Also, the development cycles of mainline Bethesda games are soooooooooo long. I genuinely feel bad for the Elder Scrolls & Fallout fans!
"Every game has awful parts & great parts, as all art does. Everyone is entitled to their opinion...." Dude, already far too nuanced for the average starfield hater. 😂
While I will probably buy Starfield when the price drops, the main concern is that the modders don't have much interest in the game. If they say the game isn't worth creating mods for, that make me very hesitant.
"Modders dont have much interest in the game" I don't understand where exactly this statement came from, and I keep hearing it as well; dont get me wrong, I'm not trying to defend the game; It has some serious flaws, but for a game that starfield turn out to be, (pretty mid) people are actually quite interested in modding and making mod for it, just because some big time modders weren't interested, doesn't mean the whole community don't care. last I checked starfield had nearly around 10k mods for it available at nexsus, sure this game never going to be as legendary as skyrim or fallout 4 in term of modding, but c'mon man, at least give it a little time, it's been only a year since starfield came out; skyrim been out for 12 years and fallout 4 for 9. Starfield currently have Bearley 7k active players on steam, let's compare it with another RPG that we all love, The Witcher 3, which right now, has around 15k active players on steam; let's forget the fact that's it's been out for nearly a decade, and it have less total amount of mod compared to starfield. (both are in the list of top moded game in nexsus) this year CDPR realesed the official modding tool (red kit) for Witcher 3, and also BGS did released the creation kit for starfield, red kit was actually released sooner (I think a couple of month sooner) and even in that time period the witcher 3 community which has clearly a bigger player base still didn't manage to make as much as mods as starfield community did. (Don't exactly remember the number, but I know for a fact that it was less.) Anyway, cheers mate, sorry for making it too long, have a good day!
@@mehrshad7980 You can't really compare it to the Witcher though. A very different kind of game from a different company. Modding was never much a thing in comparison. Unlike Starfield, not very many went around saying that the Witcher 3 would become ten times better once the modders did their thing. What people talked about, was the game itself. Not how it could be fixed in the future with mods. The conversation wasn't about how CDPR had created a sandbox for modders to fill up. Unlike with Starfield. Even before Starfield released, people were talking about just how crazy amazing it would eventually become once modders got their hands on it. The expectations, the hype. Because of how massive Bethesda's modding community is and the various precedents of earlier titles. The situation here is totally different compared to Witcher 3. Baldur's Gate 3 has like only 1k more mods then Starfield. So why aren't you comparing it to that one? Released around the same time too. Also has 160 million more downloads too. See what happens when you cherrypick which titles to compare it to? No, other Bethesda titles are the ones you need to compare the modding activity to. Because what people are saying, is that the modding community for Bethesda in particular has little interest in modding Starfield. Allegedly. Which is why I think a much better metric is to look at the daily and weekly mod updates as some other commenter mentioned. The game has been out for a year. More then enough time for the mod community to pick up plenty of steam. Enough that you should be able to draw some comparisons. So how does Starfield daily/weekly/monthly modding activity stack up against other Bethesda titles? Since we are talking about the Bethesda modding community. Not CDPR's. And obviously, earlier titles will still have a higher activity. But like I said, a year. Enough so that the monthly activity at least shouldn't be that massively different. If Starfield is comparable in popularity with the modders that is. Remember, BG3 released only a month earlier, has 1k more total mods, and around 160 million, million, more downloads. That's an active modding community. Starfield should have been better then BG3. Or at least been doing similar. Considering the hype around modding Starfield. This isn't to say the two should really compare, just saying that if Starfield really was all that popular to mod, it should have been pulling similar numbers considering the legacy Bethesda has when it comes to mods.
24:30 TES6 is going to be another “popular” massive disappointment, because of Bethesda Derangement Syndrome and RageTubers chasing ad revenue. Yet, the game will be good and will sell very well, justifying further investment. And by that time, Starfield will probably be looked at fondly by many people.
It is funny how Fallout 4 is now viewed so fondly. People absolutely trashed it when it came out and said it was unredeemable. Now it's considered one of the best RPG's of all time 😂
I might just get starfield if there's a sale so I can understand the discourse at an appropriate level. What I don't understand is that how come nobody seems to be talking about starfields plot. Until your video I have not heard a single plotpoint about the game. It didn't incite anything in it's viewers.
I just didn’t want to make the video super long, I wanted to see how a shorter video would be received, I won’t spoil it for you if you are interested in playing, but I enjoyed the main plot! I think people don’t talk about it because Bethesda games are kinda known for ignoring the main plot and doing all the side content instead haha. Consider buying a month of pc game pass for like 15 dollars and playing it that way, save yourself the 70 USD and then if you really like it grab it on sale if it ever is marked down!
I understand where you’re coming from in expressing how modders are a big part of Bethesda games, but that should not at all be an excuse for Bethesda to stick to the terribly outdated creation engine. Sticking to the engine of the game solely for the sake of modders feels very lazy and puts the work on other people to make the game actually good. Modders are absolutely an important part of Bethesda games, no one will deny that, but sticking to an out dated engine for the sake of modders feels like an excuse for the studio to simply not update their games effeciently. If I am paying full price for a game, it better be good on its own. personally I am tired of having to install a whole mod-list to compensate for a large studio’s development shortcomings.
Fair enough, my only argument would be the switch to any other engine would add a lot more development time to an already long cycle and the loss of a large part of the modding community would overall be detrimental to the lifespan of their games. But there are really good arguments for them changing and I agree the creation engine is not the best engine in the game, but for what Bethesda tries to do I think it’s perfectly serviceable.
Adding on to this, I feel like Bethesda never actually learns their lesson with games and when they do, it’s only the extremely obvious lessons. I refuse to believe that no one internally, during the development of Fallout 4, did not point out how limiting the player to only four dialogue options would detract from the RPG experience players were to expect in a Fallout title. Bethesda seems very willing to sacrifice RPG features for the sake of ‘streamlining’ their game which makes me feel like Bethesda is shifting away from their core audience. It should not have taken players to tell Bethesda that character customization in Starfield (such as character origin choices and traits) was something that RPG players would want out of an RPG, these developers at Bethesda are supposedly RPG nerds themselves. Like the entire gaming industry, it feels like Bethesda has succumb to the market and is more concerned with delivering a profit to the company/shareholders as quickly as possible and that developing passionate love project games has come second.
Bethesda soured its reputation not just with the failed promises but with what I've come to learn with how they treat people who work under them. There's no goodwill that I can comfortably latch onto even if there is so much quality and passion from individual devs and composers because the issue with Bethesda is systematic cronyism with those who are in-house rather than third parties who put their livelihood in their care. Other than that, the hype that Todd builds every time he's on stage only ever became more disingenuous the more I saw of it, as well as how the company consistently exploits recognisability and nostalgia. The Fallout show gave me a clear view of their morals within their characters, their immaturity in both humour and legacy, and how they revere brands and names so much to the point of obsession
Some seriously valid points here, and perhaps I have a bit of Stockholm syndrome haha, but I can admit that I am on the verge of falling into the cynicism that Bethesda is earning. Which will be a rather sad day for me indeed.
I agree with all of your points. I liked the base game and Shattered Space. My only critique of shattered space is that it I does not have enough immersive content to be a $30 DLC. That was a faction side quest at best. I think if it was priced at $10, I couldn’t complain at all.
after seeing the writing get worse in every single title after Oblivion, I have my doubts. But I hope you’re right. Friendly reminder to all that the FO4 next gen update is still broken.
Those Starfield is the absolute worst game that I’ve ever played that I was actually waiting for. It’s your opinion and I’m not gonna blast you for it.
I just started shattered space and I’m really enjoying the more hand-crafted environments. If they can take these environments and add skyrims level of quest choices and tiny details ES:VI will be great
Sorry, I was liking it up until in 11:10 when you said the worldbuilding is good. I respect that it's your personal opinion, but I definitely can't accept it. The wolrdbuilding of this game infamous. Anyone that has ever read any sci-fi novel can tell how terribly simple, shallow and childish the starfield "lore" is. It feels like they made a quick draft in the first meeting about it and then never developed it further. Just compare it with mass effect... If you go to any school and ask 4th graders to write a one pager about a scifi story I am sure they will come up with far more interesting settings. And the factions.... Oh God. Maybe for me this is easy because I am not from the USA and might have some more objectivity, but isn't it obvious that the freestar and UC are exactly the republicans and the democrats??? What the hell? How can they think this is imaginative at all, ot that this lore can be interesting for the vast majority of players, who are not from the USA??? (It's imperialist and racist as f**k, btw). And varrun is pathetic. The idea of a smaller mysterious faction with advanced technology is good -- it's a scifi standard, they didn't invent the wheel here --, but it's just not relatable at all in a story that it's supposed to happen hust 200 years in the future. Why do they all have russian accent and their names are so alien? Why are they organized in "houses"? How could all their strange cultural traits, eg a completely new language, develop in just 200 years??? It doesn't make any sense. It feels like they thought "well, now we make a new faction and put many strange things on the them, you know, so they feel exotic and mysterious". That's it, varrun is not really a coherent fictional faction, instead it's a half-cooked fiction of a faction. Overall, starfield world building is just a child's draft of a scifi story. And I am 300h into the game. So yes the game has something good in it that still keeps me opening it from time to time. But I know it's a scam, an empty shell, the fiction of playing a sci-fi game, when you are actually playing a disjointed, incoherent, unrelatable stack of sci-fi cliches stolen from other IPs.
what's there to defend? it's bland nothingness? Did you forget this was *"The Game we've been wanting to make for 25 years"* according to Todd Howard? 25 years of dreams, hopes, and ambitions; and the best they can do is make launch day No Mans' Sky look fantastic? Starfield is empty and there's no drive to explore it. The environments are depressingly desolate, the towns are lack luster, and the NPCs only exist to fill out the streets and buildings. With the way NPCs "behave" in Starfield it's no wonder Fallout 76 was released without any, and didn't have them *_FOR TWO WHOLE YEARS_* Your reasons for it being "not all bad" might have worked 13 years ago if this game came out back then, but it didn't. These "pros" were already the INDUSTRY STANDARD 13 years ago. Theme parks are filled to the BRIM with activities and things to experience. The Bethesda ride is over. Defunct. Decommissioned. Starfield is whatever the opposite of a theme park is. I've played bugthesda games for well over a decade now. Starfield is nothing like it's predecessors, and not in a good way. I personally had high hopes for this game, and figured they couldn't do worse than FO76. Boy, was I wrong. The people who made Morrowind, Oblivon, Skyrim good are no longer part of BGS. The folks who made Fallout 4, Fallout 76, and Starfield pale in comparison and the end results prove it.
While I can agree that Starfield isn’t what I expected or hoped for, I can’t just say it has no redeeming qualities. I played it for almost 500 hours and really enjoyed myself most of the time. Maybe I just have poor taste, but I feel like there is a lot of good here too. The UC Vanguard quest line for example is I think behind only the oblivion Dark Brotherhood in terms of well written faction quest lines. The crimson fleet quest line was also fantastic and I would say most of the handcrafted content is actually great and it’s the procedurally generated stuff that kinda starts to get boring after a while.
Long Take - Starfield has no bones bro, it can't be redeemed like Cyberpunk. Cyberpunk had some gameplay issues and mostly technical issue, even after the broken launch it continued to stay relevant and popular, because the character, story, worldbuilding, dialogue, combat, style and overall feel of the game was visceral , real and quite unique from anything that had come out before. It didn't hurt that Cyberpunk is the Current Crysis in terms of somehow being the Best Graphical Looking game out there whilst also being seamless and immersive in a massive open world that draws comparison to GTA. The moment to moment gameplay is light years ahead of Starfield. And on Top of that, came Phantom liberty which somehow just made the whole experience one of the best spy thrillers out there, better than movies that release in the genre these days, and all with top tier voice acting and gameplay improvements. Starfield is vanilla, bland and uninspiring to most, I don't hate it per se, but it doesn't intrigue me at all. Fallout 4 for all its flaws, has fallout lore to back it up and its gory and weird. Starfield feels safe and it dosen't have teeth. You will see the same thing in Veilguard, from what I can tell. The days of Old Bethesda might be gone, I dont know, Oblivion and Skyrim still live rent free in my heart, but after fallout 76 and starfield they are not the top dog anymore, and their games cannot be "okay" because people still hold them to high standards. They need to get their shit together, because a lot of new players have emerged to take the title.
I’d argue against your point on Cyberpunk 2077. I’d argue it was fairly vanilla on launch and didn’t keep a lot of the promises made by CD Projekt Red, but was made much much better by the 2.0 update and phantom liberty release. Which was nearly 3 years after the original launch of the game. I’m not saying Starfield is Cyberpunk 2077 or will have a complete overhaul like it, I’m just saying I wouldn’t say Cyberpunk was the absolute gem it is today prior to the 2.0 update. But yes, the last few Bethesda releases have paled in comparison to their peers and they do need to correct course for future releases. My argument isnt necessarily that Starfield is a magnificent game, more just that it’s an ok game and doesn’t deserve the coverage it gets as one of the worst titles of the 2020’s. I hope I’m able to convey that decently in the video and my responses to the comments! Thanks for watching and commenting and I hope you enjoyed the video!
I enjoyed your analysis of the game's strengths and weaknesses, and how future games could be shaped by its reception! Here's my two cents, and hopefully if nothing else this comment will give you a small boost in the algorithm: I didn't hate Starfield at all. I booked a week off work to play it during the early access period and I certainly didn't have a miserable time. The shipbuilder was more fun than it had any right to be, boarding ships after destroying their engines was a pretty unique experience (especially in the unfortunately rare zero-G situations), and the Crimson Fleet questline was decent. But after about 40 hours I quit the game one day and just never picked it back up again. Nothing about the game really captivated me. The reasons why I rapidly lost interest in Starfield are also the reasons I don't have much hope that I'll enjoy future BGS releases. When I played Oblivion and Skyrim they instantly raised the bar for me in terms of what games could be. They were immersive and open and rich with lore. Each BGS release since then has moved further away from the things I enjoyed about those games, to focus on aspects that I don't care about. Fallout 4 ruined roleplay opportunities with its voiced protagonist, and focused on being a better shooter than Fallout 3 (I really don't enjoy shooters). Fallout 76 was an MMO. And Starfield has basically no immersive qualities or charm. NPCs have no daily routine, you can land your ship in the middle of the night and the same NPCs are in the same place waiting to service your ship and sell you a weird cube of synthetic food and deliver their one line of dialogue. Two of the three hub cities are just boring. New Atlantis has no interesting NPCs and the boring buildings are so spread out that you have to walk a mile just to discover that the next one is a coffee shop or a museum dedicated to a time period that honestly sounds a lot more fun than the one you're playing in. Neon is what you'd get if you asked the writers of Paw Patrol to make a Cyberpunk 2077 sequel with no budget. (At least Akila City is visually quite interesting, and thematically fun - a wild west frontier town in space is exactly the stuff this Firefly fangirl needs). And of course there's the thousand planets with nothing on them that makes them worth visiting. But I'd still have hope for the studio's future games if it weren't for the biggest problem of all: they aren't improving fast enough and the industry has left them behind. I'm not one of these "the engine is OLD and that's BAD" types. Game engines don't need to be thrown out every couple of years. The Creation engine is uniquely good for sandbox RPGs of the type BGS makes, and it's uniquely good for modding. But it isn't being developed fast enough to deliver games that can hold their own in this generation. It's not just that Starfield feels clunky and ugly when compared to the likes of Cyberpunk 2077 and Horizon Forbidden West. It feels clunky and ugly compared to modded Skyrim. Modders have taken the engine from Skyrim SE and added libraries and frameworks to it to allow for amazing graphical capabilities, fluid and visceral combat, dynamic animations, parkour/fun traversal, and much more. Starfield feels like a step backwards compared to what modders on a shoestring budget have been able to achieve in the same time period. (I don't want to be uncharitable here, because the Creation Engine in Starfield has been developed a lot, but a lot of the development has been focused on Starfield's unique components like the planetary procgen, the spaceflight, and the shipbuilder.) If they keep this engine for TES VI (and they will) how badly behind will it be by the time the game is released? And it's not just a matter of the engine. Since Skyrim, CDPR and Larian have upped the ante massively in terms of storytelling and worldbuilding and atmosphere. Red Dead Redemption 2 and Horizon Forbidden West feature devastatingly good stories. Breath Of The Wild's emergent gameplay is ridiculously fun. The RPG space has become crowded with truly excellent works of art, and games like Starfield and Dragon Age Veilguard and Star Wars Outlaws that would have been good enough for a seat at the table 10 years ago just aren't making the cut anymore. And I don't think BGS in their current state have it in them to pull themselves up to today's standards. By the time TES VI releases, it will have been 20 years since Skyrim was released. The talent behind Morrowind and Oblivion is largely gone. I would love to be proven wrong but I think without a lot of soulsearching there's no way BGS can make another game that's worth taking a week off work for.
There is nothing intrinsically bad about Bethesda, but it is their attitude towards criticism that makes them a "Bad" developer. People who hate them have long left the conversation. Those who are critical and complain, are those people who actually used to love Bethesda games and have gradually come to despise Bethesda for their complete disregard for valid criticism.
Hopefully the feedbacks will improve starfield or atleast give a road map for starfield 2. It's still one of my favorite games this gen. Loading screens are no big deal to me i just want the planets to improve
Yeah bro not to dog on you but this whole video is that coping things people talk about. By all means love the game, do you. There are folk who think The Room was a great movie. That's fine. But when you got to ship combat and the defense was IF you use these certain perks and IF you use ALL these mechanics THEN it becomes good, bro, you walked right past the point and didn't even see it. And I have no idea how you thought the world building wasn't a whole hot mess but again, you do you. But more importantly it's incredibly asinine to preface your video by trying to just label every critical opinion as being fabrication of influencers. All that does is give you an imaginary and completely unprovable excuse to blame so that you can conveniently ignore all of it as a lump sum. People aren't grouping up in those influencer circles to be told what to think, they're doing it because they already agree with that person and they like the confirmation and validation they get from it. And that's true on BOTH sides of the fence. It's not influencer based, it's a tribal clique society where like minds gather in herds around what they already believe to be true.
Unpopular opinion: Leaning into paid mods could be how Bethesda saves AAA gaming. Hear me out. There is a common theory that AAA games have gotten too big, too corporate, and AA games are where creativity still persists. So.. what if Starfield became the new Steam, just a blank-slate repository that anyone can add smaller projects comparable to AA games , perhaps say a third the size, with a pricing structure that tempt decent sized companies like Obsidian as well as smaller companies that do not yet have any name recognition. Perhaps "Third party DLC" would be a better name. To make this work, it would just need a few changes to the structure of Starfield. Two of those changes were already demonstrated by Obsidian in New Vegas: no unkillable NPCs and allowing your choices to rule you out of content in a single playthrough, at least until the unity, if you go that route. Other changes would be to deemphasise the main story to be just one among many, and introduce rules that allow multiple main stories, multiple starting points added by DLC rather than that mining tutorial start. That could just be a story you stumble into at any point in your adventuring. Main stories can be just like faction quests with a few subtle differences. When you start up the game, you may have included DLC for several possible main stories but as you play you could rule them out, by killing some vital NPC or proceeding in one main story past some critical and obvious point.. but unlike faction quests, main stories have to be designed that once all other main stories have been culled away by your game progression, the single remaining one must have a well defined end, even if it is a bad one. (New Vegas implemented this by having one single unkillable NPC, with a decent explanation of why they were unkillable. In Starfield a holographic CEO is just one possible solution.)
While I appreciate your guise of attempting to give a balanced response, it fell flat for me. Especially when you referred to the negative player scores as "review bombing." When you have thousands of people that paid money for a game and didn't enjoy it and left a legitimate negative review. It is corpos and shills who try to label this as some kind of concerted, malicious attack. Player reviews exist to allow people to share their opinions of a game, something which people value more now than ever since people have become aware about games journalists and reviewers being given financial incentives by publishers to write misleading reviews. Dismissing all these negative player reviews under such a negative term as "bombing" makes you seem like you genuinely think that people shouldn't share how a game made them feel unless it's positive.
Maybe I worded it poorly, I’m referring to a wave of PlayStation fans who did review bomb the game on release as it was a Xbox exclusive, and then once more when they release the trackers alliance paid mod which was overly expensive. I don’t deny peoples dislike and disappointment for the game, I too was disappointed with a lot of it, I more dent the idea that it’s a 3/10 or 1/5 game when in reality it’s just very mid.
I think I need to clarify two things brought up that I feel I did a poor job wording in the video. 1. When I used the term review bombing I didn’t mean that the people who genuinely bought the game and just didn’t enjoy it (which there were a lot of) were the ones responsible, I would never want anyone to feel like their opinion is invalidated and I in fact was very disappointed in the beginning with Starfield as well. I was referring to two events I saw (that could be false I did not double check) where in one instance several groups of PlayStation fans decided to leave a ton of bad reviews on Metacritic simply because it was an Xbox exclusive and then a second where when the fan base was not thrilled with the predatory micro transactions that happened with the trackers alliance paid mod, which is absurdly priced for so little content, but I don’t think that warrants giving the actual game a 1/10 or 1/5 simply because an optional micro transaction was overpriced. And the second clarification I think I should make is that this really is just my opinion, I don’t gain anything from making a video and lying about how good Starfield is with such a small channel, I just genuinely played for 400 hours and had a good time, I’m still just trying to figure out my voice here on UA-cam and was not expecting so much exposure so quickly! Maybe to a lot of people that’s a damning indictment of my taste but what can I say, I thought the game was a 7/10. Hopefully that clears a little bit of it up and even if you hate Starfield I hope you enjoy the video and stick around! Much love!
I'm actually glad to find a UA-camr who wants to just talk about games. In recent years, the culture war BS has become stifling. The games for me are for me those who aren't, aren't, and I hope their audiences enjoy it. I just wanna go back to enjoying games with the people who enjoy it too. The audience as grown too large and is too diverse for me to believe there is nobody else's I can geek out with. Your channel is a breath of fresh air.
Wow thank you. I hate the culture war bologna, I just love games and like talking about them. I was really nervous about this being my second ever video because of how toxic the discourse around it is haha. But I really like it and felt like I had to defend it!
You might like Tim Caine and Adam Millard.. though they tend to talk about game design rather than review specific games.
Myself, I tend to buy older games that are 75% off on steam anyway, so exaggerated hype and hate are pretty much non-issues.
100%.
Thank you. Some well said opinions that some of those “bashers” should consider (I’m looking at you Mr Stephens). As a previous “bashing” modder of Skyrim (I always poked fun at BGS and Nexus alike in my mods) I can tell you that after working alongside BGS for the past few years that I have nothing but utter appreciation for their commitment to the worlds they create. I went from someone who continually tried to break their lore into someone who respects it. In my personal opinion, You are right in your comment about BGS being a big ship. Change does happen and will happen, but it must do so thoughtfully to avoid unforeseen issues. Good luck with your channel matey!
Appreciate the kind words!
No Man's Sky shrinking planets or whatever their formula is, should've been licensed to Starfield. I don't know what NMS does to make that work, but man is it cool to do.
I don't hate Bethesda, or Todd Howard. Oblivion was one of my greatest experiences growing up. But games were all a bit janky back then to a certain extent and we also didn't play anywhere near as many games since Steam wasn't a big thing yet, and games were expensive. Compared to all the games I played at the time, Oblivion was a very unique experience and most of it's flaws could easily be brushed aside due to what it did well. This, however, would become less the case with every new Bethesda release, where the general quality of the games and characteristics that made Morrowind and Oblivion great, would slowly but surely get diluted to the point of non existence, with the only aspect of Bethesda games remaining relatively true being the open hand crafted worlds and the art direction & music. From Skyrim onwards Bethesda games began to act like a AAA developer only with the same AA approach, but not in a good way. The writing, always a meme worthy janky mess in the early games, became genuinely bad and immersion breaking at times. The innovative, unique approach to roleplaying Bethesda had, soon became so simplified and diluted as to not have any identity of its own. Skyrim removed basic RPG stats completely, and Fallout lost it's fairly decent leveling system in 4 to be replaced by an absolutely terrible perk system. But fundamentally it was the writing and the tone of these later games which really ruined it for me. Fallout 4 in particular is the worst offender in this category, due to how the fallout setting is bastardised in order to create a fun theme park for the player with a nonsensical story and one dimensional paper thin characters. Bethesda games always had some quirky sides to them, but they generally took themselves seriously enough that you could get immersed in their worlds, not so much with the later entries.
I think Bethesda did something incredible with their early open world games and introduced not only players, but the industry as a whole to that potential, however while the industry caught up and produced some incredible open world games, Bethesda managed to plod along despite major criticisms of each new game due to just how much they managed to sell to their fanbase. It didn't help that Todd was an incredible salesman and hype man, leading to release after release of worse and worse games that gradually eroded all of the goodwill those earlier games had bought Bethesda. 76 was the last straw, and it permanently severed the relationship with the fans, so that when Starfield released, there was no more goodwill left to stem to tide of criticism.
I won't be buying ES6. I don't trust Bethesda or Todd Howard to create anything worthy of the series at this point. I don't hate them, I'm just tempering my expectations based on their track record.
That’s fair enough. I hope you’re wrong and they can actually make a worthy elder scrolls game, but I won’t be blindly walking in expecting a masterpiece for sure.
THe other games worked because they had enough gameplay basics and Fallout and Elder Scrolls already were universes with fascinating lore, plus much easier to make a game more realistic and immersive if it's all set on one location you can walk around through, you can also in most of those games put down a waypoint marker or just randomly go wandering and find something interesting. Starfield has a small number of hand crafted locations and quests to actually explore, and even then in some of these places it's still boring and lacking in immersion. Best example is Neon, it feels like family friendly Cyberpunk, no sexy dancers in the nightclub, literally no crime, the "poor" people npcs wear nice clean clothes, there's talk of gang activity but there's only 2 gangs, 1 is 4 people hiding in a bar, and the other you don't even really encounter in the streets until you start the first gang's questline, and then that quest ends with the Strikers just joining up with Neon Security anyway, so you can't roleplay being part of a gang. The only repeatable quests are open system markers of combat encounters you can do, rather bland mission board objectives no matter which faction it's from. I enjoy the game but I've had to use mods and lower expectations to play Starfield without getting pissed off by the shit RPG mechanics. So yah I'm worried about ES 6, but it'll be an easier game for them to get back to making. Starfield is pretty experimental for Bethesda.
15:00 Imho the thing that most of the players were dissapointed about, was lack of handcrafted locations. what's the reason of having 1000 planets that are basically the same soulless uninteresting places with some graphic variations? imagine having 3 solar systems with 3 playable planet each. but each blanet size of 1/3 boston with handcrafted locations. That would cover everything and make me want to explore each and every planet with looking for some easter egs. that would be sooooo great.
it's not that there's a lack of interesting handcrafter POIs, all POIs are handcrafted. The problem is that they're 1. repeated over and over across planets and 2. way too spread out and the time it takes to explore is dilated beyond most players' interest threshold.
The reason is that that's what space exploration is likely going to be like. As a gaming mechanic it's hit or miss. Sorry that you're in the miss category. But for those of us for whom it's a hit, this is a wonderful game.
I'm sure nobody will have a problem with me defending Bethesda :)
Nah bro, another small bethesda's glazer going nowhwre.
I love bethesda, I loved todd, and my fav Fallout is fallout 3, not new vegas but even tho you have to be able to call for criticism and have a broader view of the topic. After 76, 4 and starfield its completely on point to trash bethesda. Listo a positive point of nowadays bethesda, I can list 3 sins/or crimes they are guilt for
Well, certainly anyone actually interested in a two-sided discourse on the topic will be on board. 😂
Naaah Theirs plenty of that. Id rather have this kind of vid to watch@@mascamuelassmith8088
My history with starfield is a bit rough, i love the game to death. But near launch, i was insulted, and ridiculed for liking it, it left a sour taste in my mouth. I started feeling like i was wrong for enjoying it.
Ragebait videos left and right, etc, it sounds silly but it lowkey ruined my first playthrough of the game..
I was able to pick it back up months late after the internet drama slowed down and people had found a new target to "criticize". Thats when i fell in love with the game.
In the end i learnt that maybe i shoukd just ignore all that negative ragebait videos and form my own opinion lol.
Anyways, fantastic video, subbed!
Ragebait gets clicks and makes more money but is an overall detriment to enjoyment so I’m going to avoid it at all costs. Thanks for the sub hopefully I can continue to make more content you enjoy!
My favorite youtuber uploaded again!
There may be an amazing Starfield 2 in 10 years. But Starfield 1 can not be significantly improved.
For me it was the dialog and the characters that killed it. I espected Mass Effect trilogy levels and I got Andromeda.
Love to see more people talking positively!
Definitely following this closely :)
Tried Starfield. Despite all the shiney stuff, it was just plain. I fell asleep playing, not because of being tired but just bored.
So what?
Does every game need to appeal to every player?
I didn't get into cyberpunk but you'll never see/hear me complaining about it. It just wasn't my game.
@@skyriminspaceso he's expressing his opinion and your expressing your disagreement it's what a comment section is for
@@thedarkderp2520 yep, I agree.
I have been enjoying Starfield. It's the only GamePass game I've purchased (so far) so I can still have it even if I get rid of my subscription. I have been having fun with it. I hope they address the concerns other have, and I can see why there were concerns, but I don't get the hate for it.
There is no conspiracy regarding Starfield. Fallout 76 has had plenty of negative YT vids , yet more people are playing it (on Steam) than Starfield. It does seem that rather than accepting others opinions are different, some who like Starfield have to imagine conspiracies of YT channels and armies of haters criticising Starfield for some reason. The official reviews were all 9 and 10 out of 10 - how come that didn't influence anyone? If anything, that fact suggest how insincere the professional media is. YT has paid shills, too.
There are plenty of YT vids and reviews by Bethesda fans, going into detail about what is wrong with Starfield. Analysing the writing, illusion of choice, unimaginitive story, clunky NPCs etc etc It's not a good game, player numbers show it, there is no conspiracy,
I gave Starfield a fair shake, but I gave it up just shy of 20 hours. I just couldn't stand it anymore. All of the handmade content felt vapid, nothing about the writing surprised me, it felt lukewarm. Cyberpunk 2077 with all of its problems nailed parts of the worldbuilding and character writing I got whiplash going between the two. Starfield just felt middle of the road in all aspects.
There are gems in the game insofar as the handmade content, but yeah it is really just a 6.5-7/10 as I said toward the end. Hoping for better games in the future!
@@Berendir I'm pessimistic that these old studios are what they used to be anymore, I'm personally looking elsewhere to find bold writing and experiences that don't feel focus-group-optimized. KCD2 has most of my hope right now, I'm mildly interested about Avowed as well.
Although I'm old enough to remember that when Oblivion came out, there was a very vocal minority complaining that it was dumbed down yadda yadda (and I agree to an extent, although I still enjoyed it a lot). The bigger a studio gets the more it has to be "something for everyone" and less "the best thing ever for this small subset of people" and that's fine. It doesn't mean that you have better or worse taste depending on what you like, just more or less niche.
@@nuodso you nailed it there buddy. I wish more people would realise this.
Sorry to say, but at this point it feels like juct copium. Starfield's roleplay system isn't just bad compared to BG series, it's barely on par with indie diabloids from greenlight. Space combat and exploration doesn't just loose in comparasion with no mans sky- it looses to 1984s Elite. Shooting and base building haven't significantly improved since fallout 4. Spaceship craft barely outpaces the one from Spore.
This game isn't just unpolished or too thinly spread, it is decades behind the industry standarts in its every single mechanic. They literally made you learn space shouts from space word wall and called it "spaceborn". And sold you a broken gun for real money.
In terms of your analogy, Bethesda must perform a perfect U-turn in the middle of Suez canal to deliver at leas acceptable TES6.
I have been known to be a copium enjoyer in my short time on this earth.
@@Berendirholding an unpopular opinion doesn't involve copium! 😂
Some people just don't understand how subjective taste works, & that's fine.
@@skyriminspace SOme things aren't subjective, though. NPC animations are objectively bad compared to the standard for about 15 years now. Dialog options are fake, the outcomes make no difference to the world. World interactivity is poor. FIlling a world with a trillion useless objects is not interactivity when you can't open a door or take a lift without the game stopping for a loading screen.
It's objective that the writer basically said story and writing quality isn't important, because players don't care for good quality stories. The effort is wasted on them. Luckily for Bethesda, there are enough people who don't care about quality that will buy and "have a blast" with their games.
@@OrangeNash not all games do everything.
Try & find a game which does more of the things you want it to, & less of the things you don't want it to. Best of luck!
Great video, with some well thought out and well spoken commentary. Ive played hundreds of hours of F3, F4, and Skyrim. Personally, I just started playing a couple weeks ago and have been loving it. I think it appeals more to the Fallout side of the crowd than the Skyrim side and i think those are the fans that more upset. Regardless the sheer number of things to do and build and complete have been scratching basically every gamer itch I have. I think they did a great job world building too, and creating an aesthetic
100%!
This is my exact opinion on the game and I’m glad I can finally share it with someone
I’m glad the algorithm decided to show it too you!
@@Berendir I had to check "uploaded in the last week" as a search criteria to see your video.
It's the best way I know to bypass the big channels, bypass what the algo WANTS me to see, & actually get some non-polarised commentary on subjects that interest me.
@ yeah I’m a fairly small channel so sometimes the algorithm isn’t so nice.
@Berendir if you've picked up 256 subs from 2 videos as your channel page suggests, I think you'll be a lot bigger quite soon brother!
Ugh. The game is objectively bad man. Bad writing, subpar mechanics, no simulation on the background. I just want good games too, and being lenient with every consecutive mistake they make is just dumb. I'd say It IS better to criticize than to be all positive and shit. Image the game we could have had, with seamless travel to space, NPCs routines and theyr own houses, actual factions that we could join, good gunplay and spaceship piloting, a decent ending...
Bethesda got a bit too reliant on modding scene I guess. And Creation Club additions, Skyrim AE are clear examples.
In the end - it hit them in the head, when product was so supbar, that vanilla is considered bland without mods, just like Starbound. Mods will fix the game, but it will take a long time and Beth will try to make money out of it.
“Objective” does not mean something that someone doesn’t like-that is “subjective”. It’s not an objectively bad game, it’s a subjectively bad game to some people.
Yes, the game has issues, but to paint it as an “objective” disaster isn’t truthful. It does some things right and some things wrong.
@@theitechlab I'm sorry, Im not a native english speaker, but I did meant objectively. Game mechanics ARE watered down. Story IS bad written. Animation IS bad. Those are indeed objectively bad, because those are FACTS, not biased opinions.
Shhh, a video defending Starfield from somebody who genuinely loves Bethesda? Ragebaiters will just react to this and title their videos "This Bethesda FANBOY is being DELUSIONAL DEFENDING STARFIELD!!!" :p
Great video by the way, instant sub. Hope the algorithm bless your channel.
I really enjoyed the video and find myself coming from a very similar place in regard to Starfield and BGS. Having played every BGS game since Oblivion extensively, I'd say I'm a pretty big fan of the studio. The points you made echo some of my comments left on other videos about the game--things like art/video games being subjective, Starfield not deserving the amount of hate it gets, and the positive direction I see the studio going in the future.
On Starfield, a point made on "PlinyTheWelder"'s video called "Starfield is Great and the Complaints Are Absurd" was also mentioned here and nails why BGS games (including Starfield) are so enjoyable for many people. Starfield isn't the best in any one area, but it takes a bunch of 7/10 systems and ideas and combines all of them in a single package, which no other studio does as successfully as BGS. The sum of the parts is greater than the whole, at least in my opinion.
The aesthetic and music are second to none. I LOVE the NASA-punk style they went for, as it is still grounded while feeling futuristic. I love other sci-fi franchises, but Starfield is so unique among them aesthetically and I think they've done a great job. Music wise--it's fantastic, solid Inon Zur. Nothing more to say! The overall gameplay is a lot more satisfying than anything BGS has done in the past. Combat feels great. Space combat is fun. Quests are mostly enjoyable with a few standouts. I think the UC Vanguard questline is one of the best BGS has done.
Some of my biggest complaints come from the exploration and procedural generation, along with the ship feeling more like a fast travel sim than a real space-house like they probably wanted. I also think they missed quite a few opportunities with things like the contraband system and the bounties/brig in your ship. Why can't we turn in contraband to the UC/FC and be a "good guy?" Why can't I capture bounties alive and keep them in the brig of my ship for transport? Lots of missed areas there. They also missed big time on having factions treat you differently based on your attire. It'd be awesome if I walked into The Key with a UC spacesuit on and they all started shooting or something. Right now, they don't even make a comment. There are definitely some issues with continuity and characters remembering things you've done (Admiral Logan in the Vanguard questline and Sarah's questline for example).
As for my overall opinion on Starfield, I really like the game. I give it a 7 or 7.5/10 overall. I know the game has flaws, and I've got my own list of complaints, but despite those, I still have a lot of fun and have soaked 300 hours in over the past year. Something about the whole package has drawn me in like no other game has, and I can't put my finger on anything specific. It most definitely doesn't deserve less than a 6/10 and no more than an 8.5 or 9/10 in my book. The hate it gets is so bizarre and people act like it was worse than stuff like The Day Before or the Gollum game, which were objectively WORSE in every single metric. It has insane potential and as long as BGS keeps working on the game, I think we'll see a lot of that potential realized. Give it another year or two and we'll be seeing a lot of "Starfield Was Overhated" types of videos I think.
100 percent next year we will be getting “is Starfield actually good ?” Videos lol
17:35
The number of Bethesda Studio games in the past TEN YEARS.... equals.. the number of skyrim REleases.
The have a legacy, an amazing legacy, but today that's the only thing they have(and lots of money). Being hopeful in this case is like being hopeful AC will get as good as it were in the early days.
Leaving a thoughtful and respectful comment. 😅
Haha it’s not been as bad as I anticipated, but that can change as soon as people start seeing the video.
I waited until this past week before jumping in properly and I am loving it. I am only at level 11 but I am excited and cannot stop playing for hours at a time. I enjoy the difficulty level of digipicks and ship building. I have only scratched the surface.
I am for paid mods if it encourages creators to keep making the best possible mods. The only issue I have is the achievements being disabled with some of them, they need to make more paid mods achievement friendly. You don't have to spend $5 on plushies, but some players do.
I hope they work on the generative AI elements.
I'm with you bro. I played Skyrim in 2012. It was my first Bethesda game. The amount of freedom and agency they give you is unmatched. Starfield is a good not great game. I've still got a hundred hours in it. There's no space game that allows you the freedom that Starfield does. #FreestarRanger
Well said! I am so tired of dweebs telling me that I shouldn't be enjoying this game. 600+ hours beg to differ. I've been blocking every YT channel that trashed Starfield, because if they're so wrong about this game why would I trust their future advice? I was about to block your channel, too, based on the title, but was pleasantly surprised by your thoughtful analysis.
One of the reasons why I'm hopeful for TES6 is that Elder Scrolls is their most important IP and Todd's last Elder Scrolls game. I think they're going all in for it.
Sorry to say I disagree with all your defences. The gunplay is better but still below standard for a AAA FPS. Not a problem in Fallout 3 because combat wasn’t the crux of the experience: some quests would have no combat and explorative or conversational highlights would be everywhere. Since Skyrim every quest has (for stupid, corporate reasons) been required to include combat. Gunplay far below industry standard used to not be a problem for a Bethesda game; now combat is relied upon so much that it is a problem.
Art style and music are entirely subjective, but I think Prey 2017 went a similar direction with its art while being far more creative with it, and Starfield’s music I actually found plain and sometimes ill-fitting. The main theme with the augmented suspension sounds like many other space themes. I didn’t much like FO4’s score either, but I do think Inon Zur did a great job with FO3 and FNV.
Ship combat feels bad because the opportunities to advance aren’t signposted, as you said. It also feels bad because fights in space lack sufficient context. They’re random and sprung upon you, causing most players to think of each battle as an annoying obstacle.
Traits are good but roleplaying suffers because of underwritten world-building. In games like FNV and Arcanum and KOTOR 2 dialogue options and quest choices are great because they allow you to express stances within very specific, very unique setting-wide conflicts. Factions are in balance - to tilt one this way or that will have lasting consequences. There is no such specificity in Starfield. Without a good conflict, there is nothing intriguing to comment on or side to choose. Therefore I rarely cared about what my character said or did - and that’s without considering how poorly written individual lines of dialogue are.
Something else I’ve got to add. I hate how Bethesda does companions now. They’re more intrusive, they talk to you like you’re a player character rather than a person, and their personal conflicts are expressed with far too much immaturity, as if they’re children.
I believe Bethesda borrowed their approach to companions from BioWare, the company most famous for the mechanic. I’ve never much cared for it but BioWare have become worse than ever with childish flirting/arguments (look at the clips from Dragon Age 4) and that’s carried over to Bethesda now. It’s worse here because Bethesda games are more like simulations and you play as a character, not a party, so it feels more intrusive.
Compare this with companions in FNV. They will speak professionally, give eye-opening opinions on the setting, won’t address you like you’re a player character (none of the, “this is murder, I’m not taking part in this!” - who TALKS like that?!) and open up to you only when they witness events or areas that trigger their memories or inner demons (instead of telling you they love you once you’ve picked 100 locks in their company). Sadly Obsidian have since dropped this far superior approach and also adopted BioWare’s. Such a shame.
Finally someone with a different take on Starfield 😊
I love Starfield and my only real complaint about shattered space was the final mission. Like wow. What a slap in the face to the fans of the game. I went full serpent mode and I didn’t even get to see the damn thing after siding with it it’s bs man. I just wanted to see a space snake :/
I got fallout 76 yesterday for a few bucks
I know it’s been out for a while now so they’ve had a lot of time to fix it after the debacle that was it’s release, but damn 76 is a good game these days and it really highlights how bad starfield is
I recommend 76 to people now, it’s really weird
but like starfield, you shouldn’t have to wait years for the game to get good
Its becoming kinda a theme for developers to release a kinda sucky game and slowly make it fun after a few years of updates.
@@Berendir yeah you got a good video here, i agree that starfield didn't deserve the hate it got
but man there are some really bad parts in there, hopefully ES6 they take their time and make sure they get it right the first time
I thought this was a measured, valid assessment of where this game is right now. I enjoyed the game to a point but enjoyed Oblivion, Fallout 3 and Skyrim much more. To me, Starfield is just "meh". I can barely remember most of the quests. I enjoyed building ships and bases more than most of the quests. Liked your commentary and just became your 200th subscriber. lol
Thanks! I really appreciate it :)
@@Berendir No problem. I like your presentation style. You're not screaming and ranting. It's like semi ASMR for videogames. 👍🙂
I really tried to like Starfield, I tried to play it slow and really immerse myself, not skipping dialogue, role played, etc.
What killed it for me was when I found out gaining powers was just going into random temples and flying around into balls for a few minutes 😂
I'm enjoying the video's man keep it up, and its awesome you dropped Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth shoutout, that has got to be my favorite Strategy game of all time, and maybe if you get around to Bioware game to have a video of why their games should go back to being more like Dragon Age: Origins & Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, again good job man.
Thank! I am gunna tackle some BioWare games I have some ideas, did you enjoy the longer more in depth breakdown or the shorter more opinion piece? Just trying to find my style and voice really.
@Berendir I would say I like both, I would say it depends on the subject of the video, because some things just deserve more time then others.
I don't hate starfield, it's simply not what I wanted. I wanted more space exploration, and less planet exploration. The loading screens were a huge problem. I love Bethesda and our Lord and Savior God Todd.
May God Howard bless us in the future and silence the haters.
Good video man, just subbed
Thank you for the kind words!
the reason i dont wanna give Bugthesda the benefit of the doubt is the same reason i dont give some other games like The Outer Worlds,
i gave Stargfield 200+ hours and in the end i didnt feel dissapointed i felt betrayed. i cant exactly point to what it was but thats why.
I've been playing Bethesda games since Daggerfall, which was the very first RPG I played from start to finish, and I loved every second of it. Morrowind was a groundbreaking RPG that immersed me like no other games has ever done, just the sheer amount of detail in every nook and cranny was amazing, I still replay that game every year. Oblivion was also an amazing game, the gameworld was a tad more generic that Morrowind's, but they made up for it with incredible amounts of lore and detail and the combat was better than ever. Fallout 3 was a fantastic game as well, they translated the isometric, turn-based 2D game into an immersive 3D open world shooter really well, in my opinion. Then came Skyrim, and while I love the game, they really dialed down the skill systems, to the point where they didn't matter all that much, which took some of the enjoyment away from the game (For me, at least), but the game still had that signature immersiveness that I've come to know and love in Bethesda games. I liked Fallout 4, even a bit more than Skyrim, and while it was a more casual game than Fallout 3, it still immersed me completely into the gameworld.
Then came Starfield, a game I was so hyped for that I bought the big Contellation Edition with the smartwatch. I played it for 50-60 hours and then I didn't want to touch it again, and that amount of time is really, really low for a Bethesda game for me (I have over 500+ hours in every other Bethesda game). I couldn't figure out why the game never really clicked with me, then a few months ago I tried to give it another go and it hit me, Starfield didn't immerse me like any of their other games. And I know why it didn't, because they could never make a game like Starfield as detailed and immersive, as their previous games, because it'a simply too big. Starfield reminds me a bit of Daggerfall, I love Daggerfall, but it also suffers a bit from the same problem, and that is that the game is simply too big and it hurts the immersion.
I don't think Starfield deserves as much hate as it has gotten, not even close. But I also think Starfield is the first Bethesda game, that doesn't have the "magic" of their other titles. I don't blame them for trying something like Starfield, but I would urge them to move on, because I don't think Starfield's problems are fixable, because the very foundation of the game is a hindrance to making it an immersive Bethesda game. Bethesda's games have always felt handcrafted, like there was something interesting in every corner and the procedural nature of the planets in Starfield prevent that.
"It's a conspiracy, the downvotes prove it" Nice try.
Bethesda Derangement Syndrome began with Morrowind. You can find the exact same criticism for every BGS game since 2002. Just replace the old name with Starfield. 😂 Bethesda “fans” invent expectations that no game can meet, and rage when it falls short. Hatetubers prey on them for ad revenue. It’s a vicious cycle that is still only representative of a fraction of all gamers. SF is doing great despite the “popular” discourse.
Great strawman. Maybe people criticise the games because there is plenty to be critical of, only Bethesda not only ignores all criticism, but they keep changing things or removing things people didn't complain about until all that is left are tings worthy of criticism. By dismissing all criticism as "Bethesda Derangement Syndrome" you are yourself perpetuating the same attitude that has got Bethesda in this situation in the first place, Toxic Positivity. Oh and you're completely delusional if you think Starfield is doing great, case in point, Skyrim has 21k average players on Steam, Fallout 4 has 13k, and Starfield has 8k, barely more than Fallout 76. You can also see this with the modding community around Bethesda games. Skyrim and Fallout 4 blow Starfield out of the water, and I'm not even even talking about total mods obviously, I'm talking about daily mod production from the community, where Skyrim has 4 times the number of mods uploaded over the same period. Even Oblivion manages to not be too far behind Starfield, and that's a game from 2006. BG3 63k... Elden Ring 34k... Heck even Sekiro and Dark Souls 3 manage to have nearly 6k each...
I'm not saying you can't enjoy the game, or should like it because others like me are critical of it. But I am saying you are flat out delusional if you think this game is doing well, and I am telling you that you are perpetuating the same mentality that got Bethesda in this mess when you strawman genuine criticism towards these games.
@@JumboCod91 I see where you are coming from but there is definitely a weird kind of obsessive hate that a lot of youtubers seem to have for Starfield.
I don't recall seeing any other game that people would play for hundreds of hours and then release like a 4 hour video on youtube slamming every aspect of it. Like is that really the content you want to be making? Is that what you wanted to do for weeks of your life? Or are you only doing it because of $$$$?
I agree that Starfield is not doing fine but I really do think the game gets too much hate. It's really not so bad, I have about 170 hours into it and have enjoyed it for the most part.
@@mannahchatis it that weird for UA-camrs to make videos to get views?
@@mannahchatA whole grifter economy has grown out of UA-cam that farms this kind of rage engagement. Sure Starfield deserves its fair share of criticism but the outrage is definitely inflamed artificially for profit. They do the same thing for most games that manage to draw any criticism. Starfield was just an exceptionally lucrative target.
It seems you don't understand the term "evolution"
If TES6 is just gonna be Starfield: Tamriel Edition, then no, Bethesda is done.
I obviously can't speak for everyone but it's hard to hate a dev team just because they didn't meet your expectations. Hating something and feeling disappointed at something are two different things. All it did for me was make me more skeptical towards them. I am also aware that youtube is sort of where nuances goes to die. Mostly when it comes to media, something is either a masterpiece or trash. Starfield falling somewhere in-between leaves it in an awkward spot. I do appreciate more positivity though, I just don't agree. Video games being art even though it's true they are also products, it's understandable that people would be upset when they wasted their money. They have too many cooks in the kitchen and one thing I don't see brought up enough is the lack of direction the game suffers from, not to mention a lot of the systems don't flow together. The proc gen isn't even the main issue either the lack of variety within the proc gen is what kills it. Games like NMS use it too, and look at how varied their worlds are. We are lacking lot's of interesting landscapes, we have hills but no mountains, canyons, rivers, biomes, etc. Starfield is a mid game, that doesn't deserve the hate but at the same time I wasted 100 dollars too, and I would have loved to not spend it on that game.
You summed up pretty much all of what I think of the game incredibly well haha. I don’t see anything I disagree with in what you wrote here. I think the fact that I played it on Game Pass which I woulda paid for anyway maybe did soften the blow of the game for me. I didn’t lose that much of an investment on it like some others and that’s a perspective I should have taken into consideration for sure.
@@Berendir I probably should have done the same, but I honestly thought it would be my game of the year. Sadly that was far from the truth. I didn't mean that I disagree with your whole video, just aspects that you considered good, I considered okay at best. For example the world building could be cool, but we don't experience it, we come after all the cool stuff has happened. The gun play was just okay for me, nothing crazy, an improvement over their previous titles, but that's not saying much. Not to mention they might have taken a step forward in gunplay but took two steps back in melee. I also disagree in trying to defend starfield, I don't think it's a hill worth dying on. Mostly with how you stated the shitty business practices BGS has been doing. However consider me a subscriber, I would rather people talk about things they love in gaming, rather then things to just generate clicks. You also have a good commentary voice.
@ I really appreciate the nice comment! This is the thing I want most from this channel too, actual conversation about what’s good and what’s bad. Learning from other perspectives!
Commenting for the algorithm. I'm skeptical of Bethesda to the point that I'm definitely not going to be preordering anything from them, but I'm still hanging on to some hope that they'll turn the ship around.
Yeah, I can definitely be wrong about them. But I can hang in there just a little longer.
Thanks for making it this video.
I liked Starfield
Never played anyother BSG game.
I am not buying the DLC as $30 is a joke
But I certainly hope the next DLC is amazing as then I will have two to play 👨🚀
this is the first video that truly 100% gets how i feel. I'm so tired lf all these hate videos.
There's a reason for the saying "Nothing travels faster then bad news". People don't really linger on the good and the positive. Not for long. And people don't really talk about it either, it doesn't spark discussions. Negativity does.
But I know the feeling. I kinda stopped watching movie/tv reviews some time ago. Just got tired of all the negativity, deserved or not. Can't they just start talking about shows and movies they like instead?
@kopicat2429 because talking about things they like gets a fraction of the views compared to talking about things they hate.
I've been following (& playing) Starfield since the beginning. There was a wave of negativity shortly after release which thankfully died down as viewers lost interest, & then the generally positive fan-oriented channels started popping up in my recommendeds.
Shattered Space brought a new wave of predictable "it still sucks" videos, but as expected they have died off again & the balanced takes are coming back.
I thought Starfield was fine but the one thing I resent it for, and what is probably the most bafflingly obviously terrible game design decision I've ever encountered, is that it gives you a jetpack (a mechanic that will stay with you throughout the game) and as soon as you use it to do the obvious fun thing--jump as high as you can--you land and it tells you you sprained your ankle.
it's like if you started Super Mario Bros. and the first time you tried jumping a text box popped up saying "Mario is getting on in years and we don't know how well the cartilage in his ankles is going to hold up. Be careful with him." and you're like... "oh. it seemed like this was going to be fun, but never mind. rather than spending my life playing video games I'm going to study accounting or something."
10:20 I'm sorry Man but the weak gun immersion was the one thing that unsatisfied me about Starfield most. compare Starfield VSS vintorez (AKA old world hunting rifle) with basic 308. rifle from Fallout 4. In Fallout after shot You can literally feel the impact, camera jump and the sound was the best. don't get me wrong, I like the weapon design. but still, I'd love to se some good old fashion Gore we know from fallout series, just how cool it would be to see someone head blown up in the zero gravity area ;)
About the rest I just love the format where you are not bitching around about "Todd Haward Bad" just like everyone else does. I can totally relate to your expirience of bethesdas games being the safe space and huge inspiration for creative work. It's good to see that someone does remember that Todd is a human being too ;) Starfield was a huge dissapointment to me, but they seems to taking their lessons from it already. Handcrafted dlc, vehicle, Fallout NV remake, ihmo they are listening to the audience, which is good.
Yeah, Starfield wasn’t everything I wanted it to be, but I’m not ready to give up on Bethesda. I think if you subtract the micro transaction bull, which may be just the producers forcing the devs to do, there’s a studio that does want to make a great game! And yeah, the gun play wasn’t the most immersive but it was definitely the best technical iteration of combat Bethesda has put forward in a long time. Mature games do need to bring back all the gore though, on that we both heavily agree.
I played it first day on gamepass. I was genuinely excited to play and I hadn’t watched any reviews on it at that point. I had fun at first but I think that was just because of the excitement of all the unknown possibilities. I felt like the loading screens between take off and space were lame but I didn’t hate it. I thought the idea of using in-game screenshots as loading screen pictures was clever and interesting. I don’t think I’d ever seen that before.
My biggest punch to the gut was when I got to the first big city and realized there was no map. Just random looking pics of icons that I don’t know and some hazy background. That’s when everything just sorta fell off and didn’t seem interesting anymore. Like, if you can’t get one of the most basic things right, and I hadn’t seen anything new up to that point, what is there to expect?
This was my first real experience with this franchise and I lost interest within the first 10 hours.
I can only hope that they listen to valid criticism and learn from their mistakes. "The customer is always right, in matters of taste,"
You Should probably try it out again then... cities have maps, vehicles can be used for exploration.. all sorts of stuff is new and better
22:45 nice
I think the trend of trashing bethesda has come about simply because it is so easy to do it. Many of the bugs and glitches that people laugh at in Starfield have been in their games going back as far as Morrowind and Oblivion. Some of these things haven't been fixed in 22 Years, so i severely doubt that they will ever be fixed. Some of these issues seem to be deeply rooted in the engine itself, which they stubbornly refuse to change.
It also doesn't help that Bethesda has started to habitually lie to their fans and customers. There is the bait and switch of the duffle bag, the "there will only be cosmetics in the F76 shop" lie, the Nuka Cola Dark debacle, Fallout 76 alone is a nigh neverending well for these examples. But to be more current, Todd, in his function as spokesperson and face of Bethesda, said in multiple interviews that Starfield was "Well optimized for PC" mere weeks before they released a huge optimization patch, proving that he lied yet again. I'm at a point where I just assume the opposite of what he says and sadly, more often than not, I end up being correct in my assumptions.
The problem isn't that Bethesda games have gotten worse in and of themselves. But they've gotten significantly and dramatically worse when compared to the competition.
"It's a huge world, so there's gonna be bugs" was a fair argument at the time of Oblivion. It was an OK argument when Fallout 3 came out. But the competition isn't asleep at the wheel.
Halo 2 is 10 years older than Fallout 4, yet it has by far and away the better gun mechanics and comparing it to Halo 4, still a game 2 years older than F4, would just be meanspirited.
As the open world goes, I've never fallen through the map of Witcher 3, Ghost of Tsushima, either of the Horizon games or even indie games like Satisfactory, yet I've plummeted into the void multiple times in Starfield.
Making fun of Bethesda is so easy because I can boot up Skyrim right now, a game they spent a decade working on after the release to port it to every system under the sun and i can get it to crash to windows in under 5 minutes without going to some extreme lengths because even after a decade of working on it, they're still either unwilling or incapable to bugfix the game.
I agree with a lot you said here. The thing for me that I think a lot of people won’t agree with is that, even though Bethesda has so many problems and their design formula and technical fidelity is dated, I still think their games are fun, and when I have these issues they don’t really bother me. But obviously I am in the minority in this and I understand that. Just because I’m ok with it doesn’t make it acceptable and I definitely am viewing every new announcement from Bethesda with a more cynical eye.
@@Berendir It's ok young Padawan, you will get there some day too.
In all seriousness though, I've got nothing against your optimizm because unlike the hardcore fanboys, you don't blindly defend the game just because it says Bethesda on the tin and seem interested in an honest discussion of the topic.
I agree with you that the games are fun. I've got more hours in Skyrim and F4 than I care to admit publically. But my tollerance for Bethesda's "quirks" has decreased as I've played other games. Plus, like I said above, it REALLY doesn't help their case that they keep lying to me over and over.
I think Bethesda is ultimately headed for an enourmous crash if they stay the course. Maybe not with Elder Scrolls 6, but if that keeps having the same issues and problems as their last few games, then they're in deep. It takes a while to genuinely upset gamers. (Not the loudmouths who throw a hissyfit about some near invisible hairs on Eloy's chin, but the actual gaming populous) The backlash to Starfield and F76 was their warning shot.
If you want to be optimistic, hell yeah. go for it. I sincerely hope it works out in your favor. But 2 decades of pattern recognition tell me it won't.
@@timokampwerth1996 I appreciate the conversation and niceness :) I hope you enjoyed the video too even if we have different viewpoints! I tried to make it entertaining at least for even those who wouldn’t agree with me haha.
@@Berendir Well, what's the fun in a discussion if everyone had the same opinions? ;)
I saw people complaining there weren't ENOUGH bugs and jank! That is NOT TOO MANY, NOT ENOUGH. Considering this, 'engines' limitations it sure seems to be able to do a lot, including multiplayer and now a pretty decent vehicle mechanic.
I really enjoyed Starfield, and thought it was a return to form. More quests, more factions, more role playing options, traits that matter. The 'loading screens' are so short, it's not a massive issue.
And come on. I can make ANY ship, nearly any shape, and it lands, flies, can be taken into space combat. Are we that spoiled we can't appreciate that?
Man I wish I could be as happy as you
Couldn't agree more. Could the game have been better? Sure, but the same could be said about any game. It's still good enough for me to sink hundreds of hours in with no regrets.
Two thing that always comes to my mind about Bethesda's games are the following:
1. What came before
2. What it does and how well compared to others.
The best way to illustrate the 1at is: Fallout 4 was released after New Vegas, F76 after 4, Starfield after 76. NV did Bethesda's Fallout dirty by being more respectful towards fans of RPGs and Fallout. But have to credit Fo3 for being a solid ENOUGH foundation as isometric to 3D game. 3 crawled so NV could jog (technical state is hell of a setback) 3 suffered from BAD writing and simplifications or misunderstandings about the world of Fallout.
Fo4 while improving on some aspects of the gameplay and adding in something new...half-assed the job. The gunplay tho was improved was still behind the industry. The settlement building felt like a gimmick. They learned nothing from NV, Roleplay was even more dumped down, EVEN compared to 3!!! But modders will fix anything (I think this was the point where they realised fully, that they can get away with anything and get more money from and with modding) Inbetween they released another Skyrim.
Then they had the bright idea to 76. People wanted multiplayer...and the monkey paw curled.They forgot how much modding helped them with the previous titles and misunderstood what people wanted. Add in their greed and you get what we got. And what did they learn from 76 or Fo4 or Skyrim toaster edititon or other studios? Just HYPE it and they will EAT it. Space travel with charcter background and Dragonborn shout, it's Todds dream game etc.
That is where the 2nd point comes in. We need to disect the gameplay parts and look at it as separate part and then as the whole.
"Why should I play Starfield?" RPG + shooter + space game, yes? We have better games in all of them. Just as you said it, this is the only game where you can do all of this but they are not fulfiling for many. We have better games with different combinations and focuses. No Man Sky for explorers. Star citizens for rich idiots and regular ones. Space engineers for builders. Then X4, elite dangerous, freelancer bla bla bla... Many of these are SANDBOX RPGs that do not box themselfs in much unlike regular ones, like SF. If you cannot offer the people something over the THEM your game will suffer. The best comparison is still imo is No Man Sky: lies, broken and shalow game at launch. And it somehow became the no. 1 go to if we talk about redemption stories (although it is still mostly positive on steam because it can't escape it's own design, like proced. generation.
I agree with a lot of what you said here, I really hope Bethesda can just see that despite a “successful” game in terms of profit and critical reception that they can adapt and give the fans what we really want.
@@BerendirThe next DLC(s) will tell us more about the direction they want to follow. They like to do one great dlc for their games but it is like... only one. Future will tell
A rare pro Starfield video.
I've seen so many multi-hour long videos on why the game is bad. Breaking down every aspect of the game and analyzing why each doesn't work. And I agree with all of it.
Of the few pro Starfield videos, including your own, the praise is all opinion and anecdotal. You can enjoy the game all you want, I'm not gonna rip into your joy. However, one critical thing you gloss over is perhaps the most important.
The content-to-money/monetization aspect. It went from "harmless" add-ons to actually affecting the artistic merit and design of their games. Quests a la carte? Factions cut out of the game and walled off?!?
Bethesda will never make a good game again because they want low-effort cash. That's why they cut out a main player in the Va'ruun. The lame ass empty temples with one Starborn to shoot at that repeats 240 times? Yep, that's gonna be a DLC too!
Starfield is a $70 developer kit with the actual game coming out in increments. And the actual game? The DLC? Is terrible.
I wouldn't count on them improving Starfield where it counts, meaningful content. I don't think the will is there, nor the competence, so long as Emil continues to hold his position of influence. I think they're cooked as a big player studio with him.
I personally love a lot of things in Starfield, and almost have 400 hours in it, but I have numerous issues I have with it. You named a few big ones, but how the hell do you make a galactic-wide game, as an exploration-centric company, with a large focus on ships, and give us so little to do in space? WTF!! We can literally fly from one planet to another in real time, yet despite all that real estate, you only fly in near orbit of planets and moons. It's largely a glorified fast travel device with shooting/looting/docking mini games.
Regardless, I've had moments of great fun with the game, especially ship building, but it's too half baked for them to fix. However, it's a great canvas for big conversions and total overhaul mods (that star wars mod looks dope!). Those are the only two areas to be hopeful in. Hopefully BGS proves me wrong, as the game has so much potential.
I agree, my hope for the future of Starfield kinda revolves more around the hope for the modding scene to make something really cool, but yeah I also played like 400 hours and had a good time. I’d say all the hand crafted content and quests are really worthwhile and it’s when you start to get into the more procedural generation stuff that it starts to get stale. I would also like to see Emil not be the lead designer on the next elder scrolls, but he and Todd go all the way back to the blood moon expansion of Morrowind so I can’t see him not being heavily involved. He is a solid writer he has written a fair few of my favorite quests I just don’t think as a lead designer he is the right choice.
@@Berendir I think the main quest/hook (multiverse thing) is the best one they've ever done which kept my interest until the very end, and even on my second playthrough.
Unfortunately, it ends up very shallow, but when a story gives so many hours of compelling content, I can't shit on it because of a bad ending. I would never have read more than two Steven King novels if I had that mindset lol
I like a lot of the handcrafted stuff too. There's a lot to find and do in most locations. I like all the quests we can stumble upon from NPC dialogue.
I just really dislike how centralized every major settlement is. New Atlantis (Jemison) is a beautiful setting with so much room for people to branch out. Who is going to live in the Well, or even a high rise, when you have so much fertile soil and a perfect climate a few meters away.
I can understand resource limitations for handcrafted locations, but they should have at least built settlements outside New Atlantis with roads leading to the city. It doesn't make sense otherwise. They could have made them ruins due to the Terrormorph thing to save on manpower, regardless for immersion sake it should have been bigger.
I really liked the Free Star, Ryujin and UC questlines. I prob liked Ryujin most as we stayed in one location for the most part (FUXX Neon's loading screens though lol). The double agent thing with the Crimson Fleet was fun too, it just really sucked that we couldn't be truly heinous pirates.
There are lot of little gems, like the world leaders you find in that remote location, won't spoil anything, among others. We also got Andreja, prob their best NPC next to Nick Valentine.
Anyway, I'm rambling on and on, but like you, I hope they stick with it, as there's nothing like Starfield, but at least it can be converted into something grander through modders.
I appreciate the video. An honest criticism with a hopeful aspect.
Starfield was a huge waste of potential lol there will not be a Starfield 2
You think? It sold really well so I imagine they’ll give it one more go after Fallout 5
@@Berendir As someone who really, really likes starfield..... I hope they don't make "Starfield II".
I'd rather they just keep adding infinite DLC's in the same mould as Shattered Space, maybe expand ship building, expand outposts, expand the POI system. & just spend developer resources making Starfield the best thing it can be.
Also, the development cycles of mainline Bethesda games are soooooooooo long. I genuinely feel bad for the Elder Scrolls & Fallout fans!
"Every game has awful parts & great parts, as all art does. Everyone is entitled to their opinion...."
Dude, already far too nuanced for the average starfield hater. 😂
While I will probably buy Starfield when the price drops, the main concern is that the modders don't have much interest in the game. If they say the game isn't worth creating mods for, that make me very hesitant.
"Modders dont have much interest in the game" I don't understand where exactly this statement came from, and I keep hearing it as well; dont get me wrong, I'm not trying to defend the game; It has some serious flaws, but for a game that starfield turn out to be, (pretty mid) people are actually quite interested in modding and making mod for it, just because some big time modders weren't interested, doesn't mean the whole community don't care. last I checked starfield had nearly around 10k mods for it available at nexsus, sure this game never going to be as legendary as skyrim or fallout 4 in term of modding, but c'mon man, at least give it a little time, it's been only a year since starfield came out; skyrim been out for 12 years and fallout 4 for 9.
Starfield currently have Bearley 7k active players on steam, let's compare it with another RPG that we all love, The Witcher 3, which right now, has around 15k active players on steam; let's forget the fact that's it's been out for nearly a decade, and it have less total amount of mod compared to starfield. (both are in the list of top moded game in nexsus) this year CDPR realesed the official modding tool (red kit) for Witcher 3, and also BGS did released the creation kit for starfield, red kit was actually released sooner (I think a couple of month sooner) and even in that time period the witcher 3 community which has clearly a bigger player base still didn't manage to make as much as mods as starfield community did. (Don't exactly remember the number, but I know for a fact that it was less.)
Anyway, cheers mate, sorry for making it too long, have a good day!
@@mehrshad7980 You can't really compare it to the Witcher though. A very different kind of game from a different company. Modding was never much a thing in comparison. Unlike Starfield, not very many went around saying that the Witcher 3 would become ten times better once the modders did their thing. What people talked about, was the game itself. Not how it could be fixed in the future with mods. The conversation wasn't about how CDPR had created a sandbox for modders to fill up. Unlike with Starfield.
Even before Starfield released, people were talking about just how crazy amazing it would eventually become once modders got their hands on it. The expectations, the hype. Because of how massive Bethesda's modding community is and the various precedents of earlier titles. The situation here is totally different compared to Witcher 3.
Baldur's Gate 3 has like only 1k more mods then Starfield. So why aren't you comparing it to that one? Released around the same time too. Also has 160 million more downloads too. See what happens when you cherrypick which titles to compare it to?
No, other Bethesda titles are the ones you need to compare the modding activity to. Because what people are saying, is that the modding community for Bethesda in particular has little interest in modding Starfield. Allegedly.
Which is why I think a much better metric is to look at the daily and weekly mod updates as some other commenter mentioned. The game has been out for a year. More then enough time for the mod community to pick up plenty of steam. Enough that you should be able to draw some comparisons. So how does Starfield daily/weekly/monthly modding activity stack up against other Bethesda titles? Since we are talking about the Bethesda modding community. Not CDPR's. And obviously, earlier titles will still have a higher activity. But like I said, a year. Enough so that the monthly activity at least shouldn't be that massively different. If Starfield is comparable in popularity with the modders that is. Remember, BG3 released only a month earlier, has 1k more total mods, and around 160 million, million, more downloads. That's an active modding community.
Starfield should have been better then BG3. Or at least been doing similar. Considering the hype around modding Starfield. This isn't to say the two should really compare, just saying that if Starfield really was all that popular to mod, it should have been pulling similar numbers considering the legacy Bethesda has when it comes to mods.
The game has an active modding community tho, just like any other BGS titles. It's not a "dead modding community" as some people claim it to be.
24:30 TES6 is going to be another “popular” massive disappointment, because of Bethesda Derangement Syndrome and RageTubers chasing ad revenue. Yet, the game will be good and will sell very well, justifying further investment. And by that time, Starfield will probably be looked at fondly by many people.
It is funny how Fallout 4 is now viewed so fondly. People absolutely trashed it when it came out and said it was unredeemable. Now it's considered one of the best RPG's of all time 😂
I might just get starfield if there's a sale so I can understand the discourse at an appropriate level. What I don't understand is that how come nobody seems to be talking about starfields plot. Until your video I have not heard a single plotpoint about the game. It didn't incite anything in it's viewers.
I just didn’t want to make the video super long, I wanted to see how a shorter video would be received, I won’t spoil it for you if you are interested in playing, but I enjoyed the main plot! I think people don’t talk about it because Bethesda games are kinda known for ignoring the main plot and doing all the side content instead haha. Consider buying a month of pc game pass for like 15 dollars and playing it that way, save yourself the 70 USD and then if you really like it grab it on sale if it ever is marked down!
I understand where you’re coming from in expressing how modders are a big part of Bethesda games, but that should not at all be an excuse for Bethesda to stick to the terribly outdated creation engine. Sticking to the engine of the game solely for the sake of modders feels very lazy and puts the work on other people to make the game actually good. Modders are absolutely an important part of Bethesda games, no one will deny that, but sticking to an out dated engine for the sake of modders feels like an excuse for the studio to simply not update their games effeciently. If I am paying full price for a game, it better be good on its own. personally I am tired of having to install a whole mod-list to compensate for a large studio’s development shortcomings.
Fair enough, my only argument would be the switch to any other engine would add a lot more development time to an already long cycle and the loss of a large part of the modding community would overall be detrimental to the lifespan of their games. But there are really good arguments for them changing and I agree the creation engine is not the best engine in the game, but for what Bethesda tries to do I think it’s perfectly serviceable.
Adding on to this, I feel like Bethesda never actually learns their lesson with games and when they do, it’s only the extremely obvious lessons. I refuse to believe that no one internally, during the development of Fallout 4, did not point out how limiting the player to only four dialogue options would detract from the RPG experience players were to expect in a Fallout title. Bethesda seems very willing to sacrifice RPG features for the sake of ‘streamlining’ their game which makes me feel like Bethesda is shifting away from their core audience. It should not have taken players to tell Bethesda that character customization in Starfield (such as character origin choices and traits) was something that RPG players would want out of an RPG, these developers at Bethesda are supposedly RPG nerds themselves. Like the entire gaming industry, it feels like Bethesda has succumb to the market and is more concerned with delivering a profit to the company/shareholders as quickly as possible and that developing passionate love project games has come second.
When road to challenger?
Bethesda soured its reputation not just with the failed promises but with what I've come to learn with how they treat people who work under them. There's no goodwill that I can comfortably latch onto even if there is so much quality and passion from individual devs and composers because the issue with Bethesda is systematic cronyism with those who are in-house rather than third parties who put their livelihood in their care.
Other than that, the hype that Todd builds every time he's on stage only ever became more disingenuous the more I saw of it, as well as how the company consistently exploits recognisability and nostalgia. The Fallout show gave me a clear view of their morals within their characters, their immaturity in both humour and legacy, and how they revere brands and names so much to the point of obsession
Some seriously valid points here, and perhaps I have a bit of Stockholm syndrome haha, but I can admit that I am on the verge of falling into the cynicism that Bethesda is earning. Which will be a rather sad day for me indeed.
I agree with all of your points. I liked the base game and Shattered Space. My only critique of shattered space is that it I does not have enough immersive content to be a $30 DLC. That was a faction side quest at best. I think if it was priced at $10, I couldn’t complain at all.
after seeing the writing get worse in every single title after Oblivion, I have my doubts. But I hope you’re right.
Friendly reminder to all that the FO4 next gen update is still broken.
I hope I’m right too. We’ll see I guess.
Bethesda PR Department will contact you soon.
Hope for the studio is hard to have I love BGS games but the soul is just gone now
Those Starfield is the absolute worst game that I’ve ever played that I was actually waiting for. It’s your opinion and I’m not gonna blast you for it.
I just started shattered space and I’m really enjoying the more hand-crafted environments. If they can take these environments and add skyrims level of quest choices and tiny details ES:VI will be great
Yeah I thought shattered space was a good attempt to answer what the community was asking for!
Sorry, I was liking it up until in 11:10 when you said the worldbuilding is good. I respect that it's your personal opinion, but I definitely can't accept it. The wolrdbuilding of this game infamous. Anyone that has ever read any sci-fi novel can tell how terribly simple, shallow and childish the starfield "lore" is. It feels like they made a quick draft in the first meeting about it and then never developed it further. Just compare it with mass effect...
If you go to any school and ask 4th graders to write a one pager about a scifi story I am sure they will come up with far more interesting settings.
And the factions.... Oh God. Maybe for me this is easy because I am not from the USA and might have some more objectivity, but isn't it obvious that the freestar and UC are exactly the republicans and the democrats??? What the hell? How can they think this is imaginative at all, ot that this lore can be interesting for the vast majority of players, who are not from the USA??? (It's imperialist and racist as f**k, btw). And varrun is pathetic. The idea of a smaller mysterious faction with advanced technology is good -- it's a scifi standard, they didn't invent the wheel here --, but it's just not relatable at all in a story that it's supposed to happen hust 200 years in the future. Why do they all have russian accent and their names are so alien? Why are they organized in "houses"? How could all their strange cultural traits, eg a completely new language, develop in just 200 years??? It doesn't make any sense. It feels like they thought "well, now we make a new faction and put many strange things on the them, you know, so they feel exotic and mysterious". That's it, varrun is not really a coherent fictional faction, instead it's a half-cooked fiction of a faction.
Overall, starfield world building is just a child's draft of a scifi story.
And I am 300h into the game. So yes the game has something good in it that still keeps me opening it from time to time. But I know it's a scam, an empty shell, the fiction of playing a sci-fi game, when you are actually playing a disjointed, incoherent, unrelatable stack of sci-fi cliches stolen from other IPs.
Bethesda has never made a game that I would play for free, let alone pay for. Emil is a trash writer and that is on full display here
what's there to defend? it's bland nothingness? Did you forget this was *"The Game we've been wanting to make for 25 years"* according to Todd Howard? 25 years of dreams, hopes, and ambitions; and the best they can do is make launch day No Mans' Sky look fantastic?
Starfield is empty and there's no drive to explore it. The environments are depressingly desolate, the towns are lack luster, and the NPCs only exist to fill out the streets and buildings. With the way NPCs "behave" in Starfield it's no wonder Fallout 76 was released without any, and didn't have them *_FOR TWO WHOLE YEARS_*
Your reasons for it being "not all bad" might have worked 13 years ago if this game came out back then, but it didn't. These "pros" were already the INDUSTRY STANDARD 13 years ago.
Theme parks are filled to the BRIM with activities and things to experience. The Bethesda ride is over. Defunct. Decommissioned. Starfield is whatever the opposite of a theme park is.
I've played bugthesda games for well over a decade now. Starfield is nothing like it's predecessors, and not in a good way. I personally had high hopes for this game, and figured they couldn't do worse than FO76. Boy, was I wrong. The people who made Morrowind, Oblivon, Skyrim good are no longer part of BGS. The folks who made Fallout 4, Fallout 76, and Starfield pale in comparison and the end results prove it.
While I can agree that Starfield isn’t what I expected or hoped for, I can’t just say it has no redeeming qualities. I played it for almost 500 hours and really enjoyed myself most of the time. Maybe I just have poor taste, but I feel like there is a lot of good here too. The UC Vanguard quest line for example is I think behind only the oblivion Dark Brotherhood in terms of well written faction quest lines. The crimson fleet quest line was also fantastic and I would say most of the handcrafted content is actually great and it’s the procedurally generated stuff that kinda starts to get boring after a while.
Long Take - Starfield has no bones bro, it can't be redeemed like Cyberpunk. Cyberpunk had some gameplay issues and mostly technical issue, even after the broken launch it continued to stay relevant and popular, because the character, story, worldbuilding, dialogue, combat, style and overall feel of the game was visceral , real and quite unique from anything that had come out before. It didn't hurt that Cyberpunk is the Current Crysis in terms of somehow being the Best Graphical Looking game out there whilst also being seamless and immersive in a massive open world that draws comparison to GTA. The moment to moment gameplay is light years ahead of Starfield.
And on Top of that, came Phantom liberty which somehow just made the whole experience one of the best spy thrillers out there, better than movies that release in the genre these days, and all with top tier voice acting and gameplay improvements.
Starfield is vanilla, bland and uninspiring to most, I don't hate it per se, but it doesn't intrigue me at all. Fallout 4 for all its flaws, has fallout lore to back it up and its gory and weird. Starfield feels safe and it dosen't have teeth.
You will see the same thing in Veilguard, from what I can tell. The days of Old Bethesda might be gone, I dont know, Oblivion and Skyrim still live rent free in my heart, but after fallout 76 and starfield they are not the top dog anymore, and their games cannot be "okay" because people still hold them to high standards. They need to get their shit together, because a lot of new players have emerged to take the title.
I’d argue against your point on Cyberpunk 2077. I’d argue it was fairly vanilla on launch and didn’t keep a lot of the promises made by CD Projekt Red, but was made much much better by the 2.0 update and phantom liberty release. Which was nearly 3 years after the original launch of the game. I’m not saying Starfield is Cyberpunk 2077 or will have a complete overhaul like it, I’m just saying I wouldn’t say Cyberpunk was the absolute gem it is today prior to the 2.0 update. But yes, the last few Bethesda releases have paled in comparison to their peers and they do need to correct course for future releases. My argument isnt necessarily that Starfield is a magnificent game, more just that it’s an ok game and doesn’t deserve the coverage it gets as one of the worst titles of the 2020’s. I hope I’m able to convey that decently in the video and my responses to the comments! Thanks for watching and commenting and I hope you enjoyed the video!
I also hate bg3 with everything in me, turn based trash
I enjoyed your analysis of the game's strengths and weaknesses, and how future games could be shaped by its reception! Here's my two cents, and hopefully if nothing else this comment will give you a small boost in the algorithm:
I didn't hate Starfield at all. I booked a week off work to play it during the early access period and I certainly didn't have a miserable time. The shipbuilder was more fun than it had any right to be, boarding ships after destroying their engines was a pretty unique experience (especially in the unfortunately rare zero-G situations), and the Crimson Fleet questline was decent. But after about 40 hours I quit the game one day and just never picked it back up again. Nothing about the game really captivated me.
The reasons why I rapidly lost interest in Starfield are also the reasons I don't have much hope that I'll enjoy future BGS releases. When I played Oblivion and Skyrim they instantly raised the bar for me in terms of what games could be. They were immersive and open and rich with lore. Each BGS release since then has moved further away from the things I enjoyed about those games, to focus on aspects that I don't care about. Fallout 4 ruined roleplay opportunities with its voiced protagonist, and focused on being a better shooter than Fallout 3 (I really don't enjoy shooters). Fallout 76 was an MMO. And Starfield has basically no immersive qualities or charm. NPCs have no daily routine, you can land your ship in the middle of the night and the same NPCs are in the same place waiting to service your ship and sell you a weird cube of synthetic food and deliver their one line of dialogue. Two of the three hub cities are just boring. New Atlantis has no interesting NPCs and the boring buildings are so spread out that you have to walk a mile just to discover that the next one is a coffee shop or a museum dedicated to a time period that honestly sounds a lot more fun than the one you're playing in. Neon is what you'd get if you asked the writers of Paw Patrol to make a Cyberpunk 2077 sequel with no budget. (At least Akila City is visually quite interesting, and thematically fun - a wild west frontier town in space is exactly the stuff this Firefly fangirl needs). And of course there's the thousand planets with nothing on them that makes them worth visiting.
But I'd still have hope for the studio's future games if it weren't for the biggest problem of all: they aren't improving fast enough and the industry has left them behind. I'm not one of these "the engine is OLD and that's BAD" types. Game engines don't need to be thrown out every couple of years. The Creation engine is uniquely good for sandbox RPGs of the type BGS makes, and it's uniquely good for modding. But it isn't being developed fast enough to deliver games that can hold their own in this generation. It's not just that Starfield feels clunky and ugly when compared to the likes of Cyberpunk 2077 and Horizon Forbidden West. It feels clunky and ugly compared to modded Skyrim. Modders have taken the engine from Skyrim SE and added libraries and frameworks to it to allow for amazing graphical capabilities, fluid and visceral combat, dynamic animations, parkour/fun traversal, and much more. Starfield feels like a step backwards compared to what modders on a shoestring budget have been able to achieve in the same time period. (I don't want to be uncharitable here, because the Creation Engine in Starfield has been developed a lot, but a lot of the development has been focused on Starfield's unique components like the planetary procgen, the spaceflight, and the shipbuilder.) If they keep this engine for TES VI (and they will) how badly behind will it be by the time the game is released? And it's not just a matter of the engine. Since Skyrim, CDPR and Larian have upped the ante massively in terms of storytelling and worldbuilding and atmosphere. Red Dead Redemption 2 and Horizon Forbidden West feature devastatingly good stories. Breath Of The Wild's emergent gameplay is ridiculously fun. The RPG space has become crowded with truly excellent works of art, and games like Starfield and Dragon Age Veilguard and Star Wars Outlaws that would have been good enough for a seat at the table 10 years ago just aren't making the cut anymore. And I don't think BGS in their current state have it in them to pull themselves up to today's standards. By the time TES VI releases, it will have been 20 years since Skyrim was released. The talent behind Morrowind and Oblivion is largely gone. I would love to be proven wrong but I think without a lot of soulsearching there's no way BGS can make another game that's worth taking a week off work for.
I hear Bethesda is…. Bad.
Just the worst
There is nothing intrinsically bad about Bethesda, but it is their attitude towards criticism that makes them a "Bad" developer. People who hate them have long left the conversation. Those who are critical and complain, are those people who actually used to love Bethesda games and have gradually come to despise Bethesda for their complete disregard for valid criticism.
Hopefully the feedbacks will improve starfield or atleast give a road map for starfield 2. It's still one of my favorite games this gen. Loading screens are no big deal to me i just want the planets to improve
Yeah bro not to dog on you but this whole video is that coping things people talk about. By all means love the game, do you. There are folk who think The Room was a great movie. That's fine. But when you got to ship combat and the defense was IF you use these certain perks and IF you use ALL these mechanics THEN it becomes good, bro, you walked right past the point and didn't even see it. And I have no idea how you thought the world building wasn't a whole hot mess but again, you do you.
But more importantly it's incredibly asinine to preface your video by trying to just label every critical opinion as being fabrication of influencers. All that does is give you an imaginary and completely unprovable excuse to blame so that you can conveniently ignore all of it as a lump sum. People aren't grouping up in those influencer circles to be told what to think, they're doing it because they already agree with that person and they like the confirmation and validation they get from it. And that's true on BOTH sides of the fence. It's not influencer based, it's a tribal clique society where like minds gather in herds around what they already believe to be true.
Unpopular opinion: Leaning into paid mods could be how Bethesda saves AAA gaming.
Hear me out. There is a common theory that AAA games have gotten too big, too corporate, and AA games are where creativity still persists. So.. what if Starfield became the new Steam, just a blank-slate repository that anyone can add smaller projects comparable to AA games , perhaps say a third the size, with a pricing structure that tempt decent sized companies like Obsidian as well as smaller companies that do not yet have any name recognition. Perhaps "Third party DLC" would be a better name.
To make this work, it would just need a few changes to the structure of Starfield. Two of those changes were already demonstrated by Obsidian in New Vegas: no unkillable NPCs and allowing your choices to rule you out of content in a single playthrough, at least until the unity, if you go that route.
Other changes would be to deemphasise the main story to be just one among many, and introduce rules that allow multiple main stories, multiple starting points added by DLC rather than that mining tutorial start. That could just be a story you stumble into at any point in your adventuring.
Main stories can be just like faction quests with a few subtle differences. When you start up the game, you may have included DLC for several possible main stories but as you play you could rule them out, by killing some vital NPC or proceeding in one main story past some critical and obvious point.. but unlike faction quests, main stories have to be designed that once all other main stories have been culled away by your game progression, the single remaining one must have a well defined end, even if it is a bad one. (New Vegas implemented this by having one single unkillable NPC, with a decent explanation of why they were unkillable. In Starfield a holographic CEO is just one possible solution.)
Someone else who sees the mad potential.
Dont you feel embarrassed to be publicly coping like this
Not even a little bit :)
lol deluded
dead game, trash game
Ya mammy
While I appreciate your guise of attempting to give a balanced response, it fell flat for me. Especially when you referred to the negative player scores as "review bombing." When you have thousands of people that paid money for a game and didn't enjoy it and left a legitimate negative review. It is corpos and shills who try to label this as some kind of concerted, malicious attack. Player reviews exist to allow people to share their opinions of a game, something which people value more now than ever since people have become aware about games journalists and reviewers being given financial incentives by publishers to write misleading reviews. Dismissing all these negative player reviews under such a negative term as "bombing" makes you seem like you genuinely think that people shouldn't share how a game made them feel unless it's positive.
Maybe I worded it poorly, I’m referring to a wave of PlayStation fans who did review bomb the game on release as it was a Xbox exclusive, and then once more when they release the trackers alliance paid mod which was overly expensive. I don’t deny peoples dislike and disappointment for the game, I too was disappointed with a lot of it, I more dent the idea that it’s a 3/10 or 1/5 game when in reality it’s just very mid.