Edit: If you enjoyed this video, consider watching some of my other long-form reviews, all in a handy playlist! Including Lords of the Fallen, and recently, Robocop Rogue City. ua-cam.com/video/J9loNp-guNc/v-deo.html&ab_channel=Mugthief And remember to subscribe so you don't miss my follow-up video in four years: "Starfield is AMAZING After These Mods!"
The fact that this game is made with a 20 year old engine says Bethesda were just trying push out yet another disappointing game just to make a few bucks. There is no originality and nothing to get excited about. Just another grind fest.
13:17 stumbling upon what? Another fucking draugr dungeon? Skyrim was shallow, boring, lowest common denominator trash. Fallout 3 was not much better and Fallout 4 was even worse. Starfield is just the next stage in Shithesda's evolution. What did y'all expect lmao?
@@AlleyKatPr0that statement is so dumb I can't even understand where you got it. An optimist would see a realist as a pessimist and a pessimist as someone who hates life why would an optimist see a pessimist and think he has a realistic view of the world that's illogical
This review is exactly how I felt after about 60 hours. The more I played the more I realised there was literally no point to anything. Upgrade your ship? Why? Beyond more storage it's pointless. You don't even really need it for travelling. Find loot? No point. There's next to no unique items. Go exploring? Why? There's nothing worth finding outside of the cities. POI are all copy paste down to enemy placement and items. Build an outpost? Why? It's easier to just buy resources from vendors and there's no real point to amassing resources anyway as upgrading is shockingly bad. Go and find more Space Powers? Why? It's boring, tedious and the powers are useless. Every single aspect of this game just gets worse the longer you spend with it. It's a shame. I want to love it but it does everything in its power to stop that happening.
@@ChoppedSuey1235 no. I played for 100 hours. Forcing myself to to try and give this game a chance. I'm not bitter. I've had my monies worth. But honestly I'd seen all it had to offer after about 20 hours.
I just remembered/ realised, when fast travel was introduced in TES IV everyone was upset. Because it makes the player interact with the world less and it is un-immersive. Some people kept repeating, including Bethesda, that you don't have to use it, it isn't forced on you. Well, with Starfield they finally did it. They forced what is technically fast travel onto players. In the worst way possible.
Do you really want to travel between planets in real time? Most of the fast traveling can be avoided, a good compromise is just fast travel from the navigation console. Or just take off every time its a single player game play the way you want, I never use space powers for example.
@@kaydens6964Traveling between planets seamlessly was what I was hoping for before playing the game. The fact that you can’t is a HUUUGE let down. They removed the fun, quirky parts of traveling in Bethesda games. Including the vast, empty planets. The game is too big for its own good. I don’t hate the game. I have 8d 19h 21m of gameplay and most of that time was a chore with waste of time moments.
Bethesda feels like a studio that just gave up, they try new things but whenever they encounter something challenging they just dont bother and cut things out. They isolate themselves in an echo chamber and keep moving forward.
They saw how the community carried Skyrim and made them so much money, this time they decided to provide a blank canvas from the start, because they know the community will fill in the blanks over time. If the modding community wanted, they could sink this game into oblivion by starving it out. That should be a big enough statement to have Todd reevaluate his design choices.
Well it seems like modders are running into obstacles with Starfield. The official creation kit hasn't released yet sure, but just looking at the code and how the game is built has a lot of the modding community scratching their heads and thinking that even with the tools there won't be a whole lot they can do compared to other Bethesda games. So it's looking like not even the modders can swoop in and save the day this time. At least not in the short term.
Most prominent flaw in the game is a lack of sufficient handcrafted dungeons/locations. Once the illusion breaks when you visit the same place three four times in a single sitting.
You'd think that if they can procedurally generate whole worlds they could do it with bases and buildings. They are identical down to enemy and item placements. It's baffling.
@@FlyfishermanMikebruh, procedurally generating complex entities would require math, analytics, actual knowledge of the game engine. you really think that diversity employees at esgthesda have those skills?
There's NO most prominent flaw. The game has countless flaws, and chosing one as the universally worst flaw is dumb. The lack of handcrafted locations in the game is extremely big flaw, but fixing it wouldn't make Starfield a good game, it would still have bad story, lifeless unnamed NPCs with no goal or purpose, immortal named NPCs, boring universe, hundreds of loadingscreens, weird facial expressions, stupid AI, no minimap, and all the planets would probably still feel empty.
@@ivoivic2448You're accusing Bethesda of hiring the wrong people. The problem is Bethesda hasn't hired enough people to make a game larger than Morrowind. Even basic level designers (the sort you would complain about being hired for being legally blind, legally blind, autistic, or in a wheelchair) would be making enough content to fill the belly.
Just a heads up, the vangaurd quest does change one thing while playing the main story. If you complete it right away like I did (I thought I was on main quest for some reason) it will basically remove terrormophes out of your game. I never ran into any, anywhere, other than where you was supossed to for the vangaurd quest. Also joining the pirates makes a part of the main quest easy because they won't attack you (and it breaks a side quest because of the same reason) Also for those that learn this later, none of the 4 main companions will be ok with anything even remotely bad you do, and even if you leave them at home they will still know and yell at you. They also all like and hate the same choices in quests so there is no finding the person that fits your role play
They really dropped the ball on companions. No faction companions? No evil companions?Feel sorry for straight gals playing this, since Barrett is gay, their only option is Sam with his annoying child.
@@joe19912 it's not even neutral options are OK. I didn't pick the experimental microbe because I was thinking oh that creatures are a great food source and kill terror morphs, win win, and all 4 was like "no bad dum dum dummy". If you want to do bad things and not get scolded right away (you will be once you get back to the lodge but hey a break, bring the roBro, he doesn't seem to care either way
@@YuushinfxYou mean you didn’t “trust the science”!? Lol. Looking forward to the mod that allows me to leave Sarah stranded on the planet from her personal quest, only to find a skeleton in a leather jacket later on when I go back.
@@vincer7824this is all silly bs to begin with... The sort of waky stuff that you would see in Fallout 4... It's like Bethesda is trying to make the most family friendly looyer shoter rpg ever... The game don't even have dismemberment, and you don't see anyone cursing. Pay attention to this the go compare with Cyberpunk 2077
If I had to describe Stardfield with only one word, it would be "incompetent". Bethesda knows what to do, how to do it and has enough money and latent to do it.... but they just failed to do it good enough. Btw performance issues and million loading screens are due to their ancient engine. You can upgrade your car with better shocks, better fuel injection, better this or that to make it look and feel more modern but unless you change the engine it is still 2006 Toyota Corolla.
@@wuestenfuchsxy and Skyrim was shallow with poor writing even if it was fun. Bethesda just care about quantity over quality now, nothing you do matters in the world.
@@Hero_Of_Old thats what I mean, it will be just like before. Its not like Skyrim or Fallout were much better then Starfield. Starfield just does not have that interesting exploration, while in other aspects Starfield may even be better.
@@wuestenfuchsxybut oblivion had a ton of fun systems and depth Skyrim didn’t and Moro wind also had more of those systems and ways to interact with the game that oblivion didnt
A lot of people don't realize is that the loading screen is a bigger negative than the time it takes to load. In your example like the God of war walk, the game doesn't take you out of the immersion that you are indeed in that fantastical world. Loading screens on the other hand slams it in your face, that you are in a game instead of a fantastical world. For us people who love to see open world game as our escape from reality, it's bad... It's really bad. That, and the number of loading screens especially in Neon where you go from one shop to the next door shop are 2 loading screens.
In Fallout 4 you start the game fighting cockroaches and raiders, you end the game fighting deathclaws and power armor. In Skyrim you start the game fighting wolves you end the game fighting dragons. In Starfield, you start the game fighting lv1 pirates, you end the game fighting lv70 pirates, with longer health bar.
@@SuperHns. How is it great ? You are on a fetch quest the entire story and you get 0 payoff. The point of the story is to find what the artifacts mean and who created them ? Nothing is answered in the end. Not to mention Constellation is so one sided that interesting aspects such as are they really good when they don't get the option to obtain the artifacts ? Petrov doesn't want to part with his artifact and yet we are forced to steal it then. None of this is followed up on as to who gave the jurisdiction to this team to play as God ? Garbage game
Funny enough, It’s actually the characters and story that I felt was the worst part of the game. Boring and bland all the way through. Lifeless and generic. Nothing had texture or edge. This was the safest most modern storytelling I’ve seen in awhile. Nothing was interesting. It didn’t help that all the things you criticized are true too. Nothing is good in this game. It really just works. That’s it. It’s functional. There is nothing to praise about this game. I worry for TESVI.
In regards to loading screens, let's talk Ryujin and Neon. I thought doing Neon would be less of the loading because it's on a contained smallish city. OMG ebbside is like technically 3-4 different cells, all needing to be accessed by going into the main plaza first. Or Ryjuin needing to go floor to floor, then back to plaza, then to ebbside, then to a planet and then back. I finished Ryujin after UC and Freestar, and I'm now done with game. 130 hours in, and I have nothing left to push on and finish the undercover raider missions or the main missions where i left off. I'd say 130 hours is my moneys worth, but I won't be coming back to this game unless mods completely change the flow. Fallout 4 (which was a big letdown for me) has more replay-ability due to being able to walk in an open world with uninterrupted immersion.
This game would have been acceptable before an indie studio with 11 employees made NMS 7 years ago the fact there is no seamless flying is pathetic and they made sure to hide that fact from us
I have about 45 hours in the game and can only agree. I still enjoy it, but it feels frustrating at times. Also that moment with the "bullet spongey enemies" you referred to it turns out you are not meant to be able to kill them, it's supposed to be a "run for your life" scene... the game just doesn't really convey that very well to you. I tried fighting too until I realised I'd need 5x the ammo.
You can tell towards the end of it what they want, but it is terribly conveyed, and already too late. But the bullet sponges are a general complaint, I think I put a clip in of a level 80 something enemy. Perma-staggered, doesn't do anything, just takes 70 shots. I love the act of shooting guns in the game, and I think I would be fine with health pools even, if they offered something cool in terms of fighting them. Big health + They do nothing makes me contemplate my existence.
@@Mugthief I am only about level 40 so things haven't been too bad in the hp department so far. I still plan to finish out the main quest lines. Or well the factions. There are some real gems in there just a pity you don't get them more often.
Ah yes, people applying “git gud” and “i’ve played more than you” to a game where enemies have the most basic AI, and completely ignoring the five minutes where I speak about the perks. Never change.
@@Mugthief as you say it really did fail on so much... It had Star Wars: KotOR, Mass Effect, Star Trek Online in addition to its own sisters FO, TES and Dishonored and sister studios who weren't consulted for the FPS areas which is saddest of all. 10 years in development for... this. Xbox fans swear we on PS are salty or resentful we got spared this and anyone not adoring Starfield either are "ponies" or want Xbox to fail... really....
Love the clip of you just unloading on Benjamin Bayu after he threatens you and you just can't even damage him. I did the same and its just one of those moments in Starfield where I just laughed because it was so dumb.
That clip keeps going to me walking two feet outside the room and shooting a wall in front of security 20 times, and she reacted with idle chat informing me of a sidequest in the style of "I heard that this person has an issue with this investiagion!". Definitely one of the moments where my eyes went as wide as possible.
@@Mugthief I think the wildest thing is that I ended up going to neon quite often just to use the vendors and nothing ever happened with security and whatnot, after the quest nothing changes.
Heh , after what I did to Rob Hope, I was happy to see Bayu. But no, what a let down. I was like 2-0 baby , this is it! :( Same with the Paradiso board. Instead I got forced to fork out MY MONEY to solve their problems? I got so outraged I shot them all and oh boy was I so disappointed.
There are loads of games just like Starfield from years ago - I think it's odd nobody is accusing them of stealing half of the concept for their game from Outer Worlds. Which is better by far!
I still very fondly remember playing Morrowind. The game had no map markers, just written out directions. Directions that I was often very bad at following, yet each time I made a wrong turn it just turned into a new adventure. Honestly I had a lot of fun with my first play through of Starfield. I just don't see myself coming back to it the same way I have other Bethesda games, and it's for a lot of the reasons mentioned here.
Actually, Starfield is really great. Try doing things other than just the main quest. Make new characters with new traits and builds and it will be like playing a whole new game. Are the planets empty? Yes, but that's by design. When the astronauts went to the moon, there was nothing there, but they certainly weren't bored! You'll find that Starfield is great once you get about 500 hours in. -Bethesda Support Team
This deserves more views, you hit the nail on the head. Ultimately, Starfield isn't an awful game, it can be enjoyable even, but... it just makes me want to play Skyrim for the 15th time, instead of trying to make my own fun in Starfield.
@@Weyland_Punani I completely agree, was just saying that if you really really try to find the fun in the game, there is something there, BUT it's not worth the effort, hence you should just go and play something else
The whole things feels so focus-tested and devoid of any real passion. It's just so bland. Nothing really matters, all the characters are just different shades of nice. There's barely any real difference between the UC and the Freestar collective. Heck, even the pirates are boring. If it wasn't for the bloody squibs, this could have been a t-rated game. People make fun of the guy who's ranting about the pronouns, and while I'd agree they barely register as far as the game's many issues are concerned, they do seem kind of endemic of the whole damn experience. It's nice, it's safe, it's boiler-plate, it is afraid to challenge anyone and to say anything. Whereas Cyberpunk tries to be The Expanse, Starfield is aiming for the standards of Lost in Space. Lost in Space minus the charm.
@@JustFun-ho6qy Exactly! I mean, the first enemy faction you meet in 2077 are the Maelstrom, which replace their whole face with cyberware - talk about engaging world-building. Starfield's pirates on the other hand are "dude in a spacesuit, but red"... like. Okay.
@@mohawkan423023 they didn't just look the part either. They acted and talked scary as well. They were proper intimidating. Whenever the Crimson Fleet leader opens his mouth I'm wondering whether he's related to Conzuela from Family Guy. Nobody in this universe ever gets properly angry. No one ever swears either. I mean Bethesda writing was never all that great, but I don't remember it being that sterile either. Everyone in Starfield seems to be a descendant from Preston Garvey. At least for me personally, the writing was a way bigger issue than the loading screens.
You hit the nail on the head with this review. Ive watched at least 20 reviews and breakdowns of this game and you really articulated everything wrong with it perfectly. Subbed!!
Thanks! It means more than you know, I put a lot of time into it and was very worried that it wouldn't be good enough or worth watching, but comments like yours show me that my opinion still holds some value! ❤
@MugThief Absolutely. Compared to other's synopsis of this game, yours is definetely the most consise. I want to share with you a game I'm currently into. Have you heard of Fear and Hunger? There is a sequel also. If you want to watch one of my favorite and most entertaining videos of all time, watch 'Super Eyepatch Wolf - The Cruelest Game' and let me know what you thought about it later and if you plan on checking the game out 😀
It's been planned as my first halloween special since summer! There will be a deep dive on it on my channel for the end of the month, and I will also be live streaming it every Friday throughout October! And it's impossible to be on the cool side of youtube and not know about Super Eyepatch Wolf, been a fan for many years!
This guy actually argued basically every point with validated references. Talk about doing your homework! I subbed as well, the best review for this dumpster fire.
I paid full price for this game and will never buy another Bethesda game on release. What did it for me, beyond all of the other annoyances, was the sheer number of loading screens you need to go through to get anything done, including just moving around. Even worse is the fact that it's not really a space game at all. You don't actually travel anywhere in your spaceship; you just hang around some planets and shoot stuff. Boring.
I think the problem was in concept. In a galaxy where humanity has already explored a good chunk of the stars, there’s very little left to explore in the same way that you can explore Skyrim or Fallout. The mystery, culturally, just isn’t there by definition.
The outposts could have been used for territorial control. In a way that the player builds an outpost and its defenses and mining / ammo production, and gets some attacks to fend off. This reduces the local enemy factions influence, and helps the player / other faction in some meaningful way. Kind of an alternative to manually clear out enemy outposts.
Excellent review, laid out every point with accompanying video evidence, examples or explanations. Subscribed! 5:40 THIS!!! I'm glad someone addressed this "playing the game wrong" argument 19:40 I'm 100% confident that if God of War 4 had launched with just black screens and dialogue playing to replace all those walking bits, it'd be mentioned in virtually every review as a negative point to the game. 28:52 Also worth mentioning that, in previous BGS titles, having these core abilities from the start served a dual purpose. It got you familiar with the basics of those systems AND it gave the opportunity to explore and get excited about different, potential avenues/specializations of gameplay. I guess I took this for granted but I've recently watched Tragienie playing Skyrim for the first time ever in 2022. Seeing the sheer awe and enthusiasm on his face when "dipping his toes" into every new mechanic made me realize how crucial of a design decision this was in previous BGS games
I don't think the game being in a Sci Fi/Outer Space setting is what hurts exploration. After all, The Outer Worlds does exploration very well.....and all within a single system containing just half a dozen or so planets. Also, whilst not RPG's, both No Man's Sky and Elite Dangerous do space exploration extremely well IMHO.
I tagged Emil and bethesda devs in this on social media Your critique is spot on and these things need fixed so the issues in game design are not repeated in Elder Scrolls and fallout
Starfield was the only game I seen in a while where the only good thing I ever saw people rave about were the physics like it’s always the physics and them with a video of 1000 eggs or something never a gameplay moment or anything it was always just physics
Appreciate you for watching! The thumbnail art might have to go in exchange for something clickbaity, but I at least hope that those who saw it liked it ❤
First time coming across your channel and I was surprised by the low number of subscribers just because of the high production value of your video Well thought out script, good arguments (of course I don’t agree with all of them) and thoughtful use of B-roll throughout the video. Cheers man!
I think my production values have a veeeery long way to go still, and my suscriber count is way higher than I could have dreamed of, but I will take your praise as best I can: With a very big "Thank you". And thank you as well for watching, and leaving such a nice comment!
I work in TV news production so it's hard not to notice the "behind the scenes stuff" even when it's done well like this. I hope you keep making these quality videos :) @@Mugthief
"who let the janitor voice this npc" was so genuinely funny i was crying thank you great vid ^^ Ive been looking for a phrase to sum up about some of the voices i hear, this was it thank you
The world being "cluttered" in an immersive way is understandable if you realize the person responsible for that was a modder for their older games and was known for making home mods with "immersive lived-in" cluttered environments. It's honestly telling how horrible the game design's entire outlook is when you realize they once had the ballistic guns in this game have shell ejection as normal guns do, and it was caught on the early trailers that the double-barrel ejected "whole unused bullets". And, their entire solution for it was instead of replacing the models with the right ejected shell casings, they opted to remove all casing ejection from guns instead and made spent casings disappear inside the gun while naming all ammunition for them "case-less".
Once again, exceptional in depth review. You should ahead of those noisy GIF abusers reviewers in terms of views. One of the few Calm, detailed, and clear reviewers out there.
Todd is a bloody genius. He built a reputable company, made a legendary game, then completely threw in the towel for over 12 years, milking said legendary game into oblivion (pun intended) while producing minimal effort Fallout games and slapping the Bethesda logo on other people's quality games (Doom 2016, Doom Eternal, etc). Then he hyped everyone about this upcoming Starfield thing, enough to sell his company to Microsoft at a massive profit, and then went on producing minimal effort games all the while lying through his teeth. Now that's a fucking businessman!
Good review! Starfield has potential to be waaaaaay better. I have ideas. Right now it is just not replayable for me. If they design quests that make minimal use if space travel, and force you to walk through a detailed map on one planet, that would already be way more fun... and replayable. For example. The quest to kill the mirelurk queen in the castle in fallout 4 is more fun than the vanguard quest to kill the Terramorph 'queen', because of the WAY you go to the fight. In fallout 4 you decide for yourself how to get to the castle, and that is where most of the fun is at. In the vanguard quest, the whole trip to the queen is scripted, broken up by space travel, and there's very little freedom in the experience. So once you've done it... that's it. Done. Over. There's no question like hmm, is there a different way to get to Londinion? So what they should have done is make the whole quest take place on ONE planet, from the initial introduction of Sanon, to finding the Red devils dude, to finding the battle bot etc etc, all on one complex map, like one big junk yard... thereby providing opportunities to have alternate routes and random encounters... stranded travellers, spacer outposts etc...
Exactly. Im a BGS fan and have enjoyed all of their games (including 76). Im enjoying SF for what it is. That said, objectively, it is not an amazing game. Its decent, and like I said, Im enjoying it.”, bit literally having come straight from 200ish hours in BG3, playing SF, once the novelty of “a new Bethesda game!” wore off, its an OK game and I might do one NG+ run for funsies, where as with BG3, I have completed it once solo, have a game with my wife and another friend and then 4 other playthroughs sitting at various points and the new BG3 run I started today, Im STILL running into things that I missed in Act1 in all those other playthroughs and I feel amazed with it still. Previously, with other BGS releases, my wife knew to just write me off for a week or two from doing much of anything else then exploring that new world. Ive had no problem pulling myself out of SF when other things needed doing. Its good, Im enjoying it. It is far from the “9/10 Game of the Year!” Ive seen in marketing.
You can enjoy a mcburger but that doesn't make it good. Heck I even enjoy the cheeseburgers from the vending machine at work. Doesn't make them good though.
I know it's been said before, but if a game expects modders to fix it, or people say "oh, it'll get better with mods", or give a game a pass since it'll improve with mods, it's not a good game.
First time viewer here. Have to say that this is the best review and analysis I've seen of this game so far. No hyperbole or dog-piling, just honest insightful comments and explanations. I enjoyed it very much and look forward to more. 👍
IMO The most important point you make is that other Bethesda games do not restrict the player from playing how they want. That is the core essence of an open world, player choice driven ROLE PLAYING game. Of all the shallow aspects of this game it feels most limited in ones ability to role play outside of a small handful of options they force feed you. And those options rarely make a meaningful difference
I agree, however Fallout 4 (and to a lesser extent, 3) sort of ham fists the “I have to find my son/dad” thing which can throw you out of the roleplaying. Especially with the voice acted protag of 4. But you can ignore that somewhat
Bethesda is the McDonalds of gaming, it was never the best, but it was good, time went by and you realize it went downhill and everytime you revisit it it gets a little worse, but people keep buying it because it was what they grew up with.
The “I had to play 30+ hours to realize there was nothing there and to realize the game design was outdated”. Took me 1 hour and becoming encumbered to realize this is an uninspired, railroady and worse written Bethesda game.
the point where Starfield died for me, and I went from "yeah it's got plenty of flaws, but I'm having more fun than I thought I would" to "this game is horseshit and I wish Steam still allowed refunds after 50 hours" was when I went on a radiant bounty hunt for Freestar and found myself in the exact dungeon I had just cleared to earn the Mantis gear and ship- layout, clutter, dead bodies, audio logs, the whole shebang- but on a completely different star system. They literally just copy-pasted the dungeon. And then another run after that, I got another dungeon that I remembered running with Sarah a handful of hours prior... again, in a completely different star system. So many dungeons are just copy-pasted and that, combined with the completely lacking basebuilding system, really made the cracks show and I realized that Starfield basically just half-asses every system from every Bethesda game that came before it. They got each part right once before, but they couldn't be bothered to even *try* this time, leaving it to modders to fix everything. Ain't no way in hell I'm buying Elder Scrolls 6 now.
Theres literally no reason to cut to a black loading screen in any of the elevators in the game. They're literally bringing you to the next physical floor that is already loaded into the game. Its them refusing to do the elevator animation that they've had in older bethesda games. Same thing with entering a docked ship. I thought for the longest time that docking just teleported you to an interior that was off the map, so thats why the loading screen was there, and you couldnt just physically walk through the airlock. But no. I found out you can fly any ship and just teleport back and fourth inside seamlessly with console commands. They have a loading screen there for no reason. Its all physicalized, They just though that it would look good to cut to black for a couple seconds.
Tip: use the freestar collective radiant quests to grind out any "kill, do dmg, destroy ship" perk leveling requirements. It also arguably offers the best of what the Starfield gameplay loop has to offer. This coming from someone who has 60 hours in the game and all faction quest completed and about 75% through the main quest. Also, max out the boost pack perk to be able to hover in place when aiming down the sights and also activate bullet time. Thats probably the most fun you'll have in combat.
I feel like Starfield is deliberately tedious. Like Bethesda wants players to be bragging about having 400 hours in the game... and 300 of them were spent in loading screens, menus and meaningless redundant tasks to level up a single perk. All that "Kill XX enemies with YY weapon" stuff is such an antiquated video game trope. That's Platinum Trophey/100% requirements for when you have literally nothing else to do in the game. Or to unlock cosmetics and skins.
Liked & Subbed. Great narration and couldn't agree more with the pain points you brought up. I'm surrounded by people that gave this game a 9, and it's just insane to me. Thanks for the validation, haha.
Everything in this game is such a step back. The skill system is a worse version of Fallout's, the combat is bland, the exploration is boring, and the story is a worse version of Mass Effect's with some added multiverse BS. The worst thing about Starfield? The do-gooder leader of the exploration guild and the snake worshiping spy essentially have the same personality.
Travel is the downside of every space game. The reality is that space is largely... empty space. This results in travel being abstracted in absolutely every space game that involves exploration. They all include a fast travel mechanism for that reason, be it "stargates", warp modes, or "space cruise lanes" in Freelancer. They are all essentially the same mechanic - they allow you to abstract or remove the intermediary travel, and condense the content around focal points of the path. There isn't an effective alternative. What starfield does wrong, is accepting this fate too readily, and abstracting the travel out TOO MUCH. You don't even have to point in the right direction, or fly even a little bit. You simply enter the map and click the destination. The travel is abstracted so completely, it's just really a teleporting home mod, much as sailing ship mods in Skyrim. This would be fine if the world on foot was up to Skyrim snuff. But it's not. So basically we have a teleporting home mod, and a tiny foot map. The world is small. And including random procedurally generated mostly empty worlds is no different than random re[eatable missions seen as far back as Anarchy Online. Procedurally generated "random" content (at least until AI takes over game design) is not exploration content. It's farming content. So Starfield as a result, while billed as an exploration game, has very little content to explore.
Im closing in on 400 hours in my first playthrough and my main gripes are: #1 All the glitches and bugs. I cant even do some quests cause they dont show up and im currently stuck with Alejandra as my companion. #2 No enemy upscaling and not much to spend credits on other than buying ships. The game is too easy #3 Not much to do in higher level planet systems and i hate how level 75 is the highest planet level. Im level 72 facing off against level 1-15 enemies sometimes on very hard difficulty. #4 Im so tired of fighting spacers. We need more enemy variety. #5 why the hell does NG+ reset all of your planet surveying? Thats why im not doing a NG+. I love the game but it could of been legendary. They should of made outpost building cost credits and more properties to buy and make resources much much more expensive from vendors. I would also love to have a Bestiary and legendary Fauna and more bounty hunter missions. Enemy upscaling is much needed. They played it so safe with this game. First off Bethesda needs to patch the game. I cant do the UC faction quests cause one mission called War Relics doesnt even show up.
Dear Lord... The Outpost storage is some kind of f'ing joke... I hope I'm just missing something. I had stuff stockpiled in my New Atlantis apartment, but after a major plot point in the main story, that gives reason to build an outpost, I went to collect these resources. Only to find the place completely empty, everything gone. Luckily I had my previous days Exit save, so I just lost a couple of hours progress. I decided to build the outpost preemptively. 1sq m chests hold 150kg, Your pockets hold 260kg, a ship container can hold up to 1200kg?? How much can a 30sq m Outpost container hold? 75kg... I need 40 of these to hold what's on my ship & my pockets (3000kg / units) Yes, I know with skills and research, yada yada...The box I can build at the start, holds twice as much as the Outpost storage containers. Were these chests made by Doctor Who??!! Supposedly you can also link these containers so you can place items in one, and it'll fill the rest. I can't seem to get this to function, perhaps you need to reload the area. Automatic Snapping... Did no one... NO ONE at Bethesda test this?? All containers snap to each other, on 2 sides only. They auto-snap from 10 feet (3m) away. There's no toggle. It is possible to make rows next to each other, in the most cumbersome manner imaginable. Make row 1. Now start row 2, away from row 1, try to line it up, and work backwards to where you actually want the containers. Did I mention, you need to start rows at the highest point? Yep, if the ground rises, you cannot continue building due to collision. Again, this is because of auto-snap. Think about all the things in Bethesda games Modders fix. It makes me truly question the skills and talent of Bethesda's workforce. Look at your avatar's hair... Look at NPC's bulging eyeballs... I've been a fan of Bethesda since; "Wake up. We're here. Why are you shaking?" But seriously, how can individual modders make bigger improvements within days, than your 400 employee studio in 6 years. No Man's Sky is a better game. Yes, they've had 7 years of FREE DLC. But their studio has 25 employees.
The oupost storage is ridiculous. I hold more in my pockets than a box that can fit ten of me inside it. Then again this takes place in a multiverse where we map out entire star systems but not cities. A place where we make calls between spaceships but don’t have cellphones. The place where the club known for drug use and debauchery is highlighted by fully clothed guys with dad bods doing the ”make a sandwich dance.” Welcome to Starfield.
the game can't be better. the core is completely unredeemable. they would have to completely redesign and reimplement both space exploration and planet exploration. that's like 80% of the game.
No so oddly, you are noting so much of my criticisms of the game. I am so disappointed in it. I didn't need Fallout In Space so I'll just stick w/Fallout.
@@MrAyybee2cold I agree, but it only did it better after half a dozen building focused dlc lol. And I don't think Starfield needs infinite storage but I do think they can easily double to capacity across the board on the base storage. And give us more ways to upgrade things. But I'm not worried about the base building getting better.
@@No-One.321 the way settlements and settlers work in FO4 would be perfect for starfield. They could even make it part of the LIST faction. I mention the storage issue because it limits or hinders roleplay outside the lodge ie pirate, hauler etc as in order to store everything you want to keep that’s the only place you can have that doesn’t require 50+ storage containers.
The first reason is that I believe for this to be fair, I shouldn't compare it to completely different games. There are basically no games aside from other BGS titles that do the mix they attempt to do. It isn't fair to compare the shooting of Call of Duty, the Role Playing of CRPG, and the main story of a Narrative Focused game like The last of Us, to a game that tries to combine all that and more. Obviously with games that have a very singular focus, you can find examples that do that one thing brilliantly. Someone who likes other BGS games could hate BG3 for it's setting or combat system, so it doesn't do any good to compare it to that game even if I think it's superior. The second is, that I don't need to go out on escapades to compare the game to others to point out it's flaws, as is obvious by about 47 minutes of this video, it's faults are plain enough to see comparing it to games by the same studio that predate it by 10 to 15 years.
6/10.... 7/10 is a good game. Starfield is mid 5/10 would be "good enough not not be bad" and 6/10 is "not good enough to be good". 5/10s are forgettable and skippable. 6/10 are ok if you got them for free or on sale. 7/10 I would recommend to buy for full price, 8/10 I would be excited to recommend to my friends, 9/10 are simply games that even people who do not play games know and maybe even played like Mario. 10/10 do not exist. ....... in my opinion
@TheKnives777 1 second ago I was playing Starfield until the new cyberpunk 2077 expansion dropped. I started over a new game in cyberpunk, and I was blown away by how the interactions with the characters are versus the dull lifeless boring conversations that I had with Starfield …I can’t even remember a single NPC that I talked to while playing Starfield. In cyberpunk, they move like real people while you’re talking to them, they even look down and brush stuff off of their pants. They are extremely animated, then in Starfield I feel like I’m just talking to a robot.
4:55 is just untrue & relies on a bad faith interpretation of Starfield - if you are ever bored of main/side quests you can definitely just pick star systems at random & find some interesting/surprising content which is not led to by any other quests - i have a feeling most of the review will be like this
13:00 this is all IN Starfield - did you actually play the game?? You can easily find memorable & interesting moments/locations/isolated stories off the beaten path (these are just off the top of my head: The UCS Constant, The Mantis, Tourists Go Home, The Audition, the abandoned casino, all the random encounters, & yes! all the radiant quests, ships you can steal, etc.) - there’s literally so much shit in this game man, the bad faith continues - like, the only truthful criticism you have is that there’s not enough boring walking between these things??? Okay…
I was looking on forums and looking through shops for probably 3 full hours to try to find where to get a working boost pack because I assumed the beginner ones didnt work or didnt come with one. Looking through the keybinds to figure out what I was doing wrong. I didnt find the boostpack sill til two play sessions later when I was working on something completely different. I was about 20 hours into the game before I figured out I needed to spec into the pack skill to unlock its base function. Truly boggles the mind. And you would think I'd have thought of that sooner because I complained to a friend as soon as I saw that you had to unlock the ability to sneak and lockpick. In relation to this. The way upgrades work is also absolutely bizarre. You also have to spec into perks to then be able to research upgrades to then be allowed to work towards building those upgrades which cannot be recycled like in previous games. These scream the fact they couldnt come up with more skills/perks to put into the tree so they just cannibalized other features into it to pad it out.
Starfield is AWESOME! I didnt see any marketing. But I've had nearly 100 hours of fun in this world. The main quest is vanilla. But just exploring, hunting, ship building and doing the side content is so much fun. It's not perfect. But its way more fun than anything ive played except ME:L and BG3. What a great galaxy (with fascinating lore) upon which to build with expansions and DLC. I dont understand people who complain that they feel bored after 100 hours. How many games can give 100 hours before running out of fun?
Did you try talking to NPCs? People dont always yell quests at you. In neon for example, I started chatting to a shop keeper, because I wanted to buy digipicks. And she wasn't really in the mood to sell. I pressed her to tell me what was wrong. Her husband just died, and she doesn't believe the story security told her. So that became a murder investigation. Another vendor, at a bar somewhere (i think mars) told me (after I chatted to her for a while) that actually her ship was stolen. That led to a mission too. And I got a companion out of that one.
That questline is marked in your journal by walking around and overhearing Neon security. It is also not a very good quest. And your other comment doesn't say anything about what I talk about in the review. It doesn't adress any of my concerns, and you simply repeat some positives I said in the video, say you like the main quest less than me, and then complain about people saying they're bored after 100 hours. I never said that, nor spoke about boredom at all. @@RandomWandrer
I got the game and frankly idk what people are talking about when they say it looks terrible. It's not the prettiest game ever but its looks great for a BGS studios game. I think if it set your expectations at a decent level Starfield is great, but it's very much a video gamey video game full of typical BGS quirks. But there's alot of stuff, alot of story and if you choose to engage with what's there rather than pick it apart and look for reasons to hate it, it's a good experience. The mod potential is absolutely vast though, and I feel that this aspect will make or break SF's reputation going forward.
@MugThief You specifically said you have to follow quest markers to find content. I'm saying that's untrue. There is content that nobody send you to, and there are quest that you do not "overhear" from security, but are found by going places nobody sends you and talking to NPCs.
It's objectively a poorly designed game with some very fun elements. It could be fixed with just one big change (the un-immersive fast travel), and a bunch of INTERESTING random encounters while exploring planets. The bare bones are there for a good game, but it just needs more work. Sure, they'll never fix the lackluster boring quests, but at least they could fix the gameplay loop.
I bought an Xbox specifically to play Starfield and the next Elders Scrolls. I quit playing Starfield around 15 hours into the game and I'm no longer really interested in playing Elders Scrolls 6. Something is telling me the next Elders Scrolls will just be a reskinned copy of 5. If XBox wasn't getting Baldur's gate 3 at the end of this year I would have got rid of the console.
13:28 Yeah, that copy-pasted procedural content was the final nail to the coffin of Starfield. Hand crafted dungeons and quests are decent and different from each other but I can't wrap my head around the fact how lazy Bethesda was with their randomized "dungeons" in Starfield. They have like dozen layouts which are circulated. Only loot and enemies change. Boooring. How tough it would have been to make these radiant dungeons just a bit more modular to add even a slight variation?
They took the vastness of space and gave it the depth of a water droplet. This is why Emil needs to be EXCOMMUNICATED from game creation. Utterly black listed until he can actually write something. 25 years and they stepped back 30.
What I find weird is UA-cam suddenly pushing a lot of "Starfield is crap" videos after the Spiderman 2/Gaming Awards and Insomniac Hack. HAHAHAHA. This is too funny.
I mostly agree with a lot of these things but the quest integration section is a bit surface level. The game has actually plenty of quests you can pick up by simply listening to people, and then you'll be sent on a planet and from then things will evolve. I found a few great quests even from these random locations from planets. I have no idea what you mean by "happy placing a sign" when the game has no quests indicators at all. Many quests expand the lore and the universe, and you can find those by exploring. Many quests have random encounters in space based on my choices as well. There are far more consequences than people assume and choices to make. The traits also will affect how you can complete certain quests. Once i was about to get ambushed but since i had a certain trait, i was able to avoid that.
I played 2000h of ollblivion, about 1400h of skyrim, 1000 of fallout 3, 800h of fallout new Vegas, about 600h of fallout 4 and only 100h of starfiled. It's not terrible, but it's just uninteresting. I still have the crimson fleet quest to do, but I just can't bring myself to do it. I could make a list like this with things I think you missed, but I am so bored with it why bother. I have moved on as have most. I have noticed a sharp trend in my drop off time playing bgs games. Each feel more unloved and soulless than the last.
As a lover of Skyrim and No Man's Sky I really thought this might be some kind of marriage between the two. It's probably my fault for doing zero research into the game but when I first got into my ship and realized I couldn't actually fly to my destination I was immediately let down. I then did a quest and landed at New Atlantis. It looked cool but felt soulless. I wandered around the whole city. Entering shops felt like shops in GTA, kinda empty and weird. It all felt very weird. This giant massive city with not much to say for it. After about 10 hours I found myself too bored to continue so I uninstalled it. I'm sure if I paid real money for it I'd have persevered but I got it on game pass so thankfully I didn't have to.
I was really frustrated with Starfield so I came looking for reviews or videos that talk about the same issues I had. This is the first video I've seen that tries to objectively look at the game and talk about its pros and cons, and not just bashing the game and the devs while saying the samethings everyone else knows. Loved the video
Thank you! My intention is always to hopefully bring well-thought out and interesting points, not to simply repeat obvious stuff with different words, doesn’t matter if I’m being positive or negative. I haven’t really watched other videos on Starfield, but I’m glad to hear I’m on the right track!
The fact we can’t take off and land seamlessly it’s the biggest out of game experience. They can easily implement that. Also they could add more to that in combat image getting into a space fight then you land and they chase you. Then you kill and take their ship. That would be so immersive but nope fast travel
They moved from a cohesive and smooth transition style of game play to a boring, time consuming, fish bowl and injecting a load screen simulator then added a running simulator to that. This alienated their own core demographic! We had good AI back in 2005-2007 and 2009 with FEAR and FEAR2 thats 14 - 18years ago!!! And No One has been able to replicate that since! I dont understand how programmers or developers cannot figure out how to do AI. We have games like No Mans Sky and Star Citizen that atleast have a seamless transition why cant Bethesda a AAA Game Studio figure out a Seamless transition
Its kinda funny, most everyone I watched, and I watched a lot of SF reviews, said that they liked the game but rarely anyone said that it was a good game. Its kind of interesting to see. For exploration I think it would have been best to fully develop the "core worlds" by hand and procedurally generate the outer edges of their galaxy. so they could have had lots of good interactions with their world as well as for lategame a sense of the unknown because everything changes up a bit. of course it might drop in quality but they could work on that too. feed their algorythm more pieces of architecture etc... and whabaam done :D
38:36 I did the Vanguard/Terrormorph quest pretty early. Although I still had hundreds of thousands of credits built up I still decided to go into the mines to pay off the scientist's debt by finishing the research (mainly to get xp). Glad I did (even though I didn't need to save the money) because I got a legendary coachman that is OP.
I feel you were overly generous to Berhesda in some ways but that's the beauty of us all sitting down to discuss something subjective. In general I actually loved the way you wrote and presented this wee video essay. I'm subbing for more 😊
45:01 This makes your input that much more useful. A great filmmaker may turn to another artist for advice, but he or she directs their attention on the audience, the entire reason the art was created
I passed on this, because of all the reviews. And I think I will pass Elder Scrolls 6. They've come a long way since Morrowind, and I mean that as an insult.
Edit: If you enjoyed this video, consider watching some of my other long-form reviews, all in a handy playlist! Including Lords of the Fallen, and recently, Robocop Rogue City. ua-cam.com/video/J9loNp-guNc/v-deo.html&ab_channel=Mugthief
And remember to subscribe so you don't miss my follow-up video in four years: "Starfield is AMAZING After These Mods!"
hehehe wishful thinking there but modders come up with some bangers when they get to it tbf
The fact that this game is made with a 20 year old engine says Bethesda were just trying push out yet another disappointing game just to make a few bucks. There is no originality and nothing to get excited about. Just another grind fest.
13:17 stumbling upon what? Another fucking draugr dungeon? Skyrim was shallow, boring, lowest common denominator trash. Fallout 3 was not much better and Fallout 4 was even worse. Starfield is just the next stage in Shithesda's evolution. What did y'all expect lmao?
*A Pessimist is what an Optimist calls a Realist*
Thank you for being a realist for me.
@@AlleyKatPr0that statement is so dumb I can't even understand where you got it. An optimist would see a realist as a pessimist and a pessimist as someone who hates life why would an optimist see a pessimist and think he has a realistic view of the world that's illogical
This review is exactly how I felt after about 60 hours. The more I played the more I realised there was literally no point to anything. Upgrade your ship? Why? Beyond more storage it's pointless. You don't even really need it for travelling. Find loot? No point. There's next to no unique items. Go exploring? Why? There's nothing worth finding outside of the cities. POI are all copy paste down to enemy placement and items. Build an outpost? Why? It's easier to just buy resources from vendors and there's no real point to amassing resources anyway as upgrading is shockingly bad. Go and find more Space Powers? Why? It's boring, tedious and the powers are useless. Every single aspect of this game just gets worse the longer you spend with it. It's a shame. I want to love it but it does everything in its power to stop that happening.
Bro, you are 60 hours in.
You clearly love this game so try and embrace the amazing experience you have had instead of pulling this.
@@ChoppedSuey1235 no. I played for 100 hours. Forcing myself to to try and give this game a chance. I'm not bitter. I've had my monies worth. But honestly I'd seen all it had to offer after about 20 hours.
@@DuggyDarko Well tbh Fallout 4 wasn't a patch on the previous titles so i get ya
@@ChoppedSuey1235nah man, game is just boring copy paste. I can’t even find the reason to play past the first campaign, NG+ is even more boring
@@ChoppedSuey1235Just keep consooooomming!
I just remembered/ realised, when fast travel was introduced in TES IV everyone was upset. Because it makes the player interact with the world less and it is un-immersive. Some people kept repeating, including Bethesda, that you don't have to use it, it isn't forced on you.
Well, with Starfield they finally did it. They forced what is technically fast travel onto players. In the worst way possible.
and there some people out there praising this shit....
Do you really want to travel between planets in real time? Most of the fast traveling can be avoided, a good compromise is just fast travel from the navigation console. Or just take off every time its a single player game play the way you want, I never use space powers for example.
@@kaydens6964Traveling between planets seamlessly was what I was hoping for before playing the game. The fact that you can’t is a HUUUGE let down. They removed the fun, quirky parts of traveling in Bethesda games. Including the vast, empty planets. The game is too big for its own good. I don’t hate the game. I have 8d 19h 21m of gameplay and most of that time was a chore with waste of time moments.
Your first 100 hours and you are still traveling to the first planet😂
@@fotografickyeah dumbass thats exactly what he meant.
Bethesda feels like a studio that just gave up, they try new things but whenever they encounter something challenging they just dont bother and cut things out. They isolate themselves in an echo chamber and keep moving forward.
They saw how the community carried Skyrim and made them so much money, this time they decided to provide a blank canvas from the start, because they know the community will fill in the blanks over time. If the modding community wanted, they could sink this game into oblivion by starving it out. That should be a big enough statement to have Todd reevaluate his design choices.
You’ve seen the community they will do anything for large companies as long as they throw them a cookie every once in awhile.
I hope this game is nothing a year from now. Shit is boring a terrible
Oh the rarity of this user
_Strategic clue_
Literally 1 in every 50 or something has that.
Well it seems like modders are running into obstacles with Starfield. The official creation kit hasn't released yet sure, but just looking at the code and how the game is built has a lot of the modding community scratching their heads and thinking that even with the tools there won't be a whole lot they can do compared to other Bethesda games. So it's looking like not even the modders can swoop in and save the day this time. At least not in the short term.
@@justinwinningham4892already way less popular than baldurs gate lol. Watching the steam player count is fun
When you shot that one Ecliptic soldier for a full minute while explaining difficulty scaling... I felt that.
Most prominent flaw in the game is a lack of sufficient handcrafted dungeons/locations. Once the illusion breaks when you visit the same place three four times in a single sitting.
You'd think that if they can procedurally generate whole worlds they could do it with bases and buildings. They are identical down to enemy and item placements. It's baffling.
@@FlyfishermanMikebruh, procedurally generating complex entities would require math, analytics, actual knowledge of the game engine. you really think that diversity employees at esgthesda have those skills?
There's NO most prominent flaw. The game has countless flaws, and chosing one as the universally worst flaw is dumb. The lack of handcrafted locations in the game is extremely big flaw, but fixing it wouldn't make Starfield a good game, it would still have bad story, lifeless unnamed NPCs with no goal or purpose, immortal named NPCs, boring universe, hundreds of loadingscreens, weird facial expressions, stupid AI, no minimap, and all the planets would probably still feel empty.
To think no man sky did this better than freaking Bethesda. Outstanding move
@@ivoivic2448You're accusing Bethesda of hiring the wrong people. The problem is Bethesda hasn't hired enough people to make a game larger than Morrowind. Even basic level designers (the sort you would complain about being hired for being legally blind, legally blind, autistic, or in a wheelchair) would be making enough content to fill the belly.
Just a heads up, the vangaurd quest does change one thing while playing the main story. If you complete it right away like I did (I thought I was on main quest for some reason) it will basically remove terrormophes out of your game. I never ran into any, anywhere, other than where you was supossed to for the vangaurd quest. Also joining the pirates makes a part of the main quest easy because they won't attack you (and it breaks a side quest because of the same reason)
Also for those that learn this later, none of the 4 main companions will be ok with anything even remotely bad you do, and even if you leave them at home they will still know and yell at you. They also all like and hate the same choices in quests so there is no finding the person that fits your role play
They really dropped the ball on companions. No faction companions? No evil companions?Feel sorry for straight gals playing this, since Barrett is gay, their only option is Sam with his annoying child.
@@joe19912 it's not even neutral options are OK. I didn't pick the experimental microbe because I was thinking oh that creatures are a great food source and kill terror morphs, win win, and all 4 was like "no bad dum dum dummy".
If you want to do bad things and not get scolded right away (you will be once you get back to the lodge but hey a break, bring the roBro, he doesn't seem to care either way
@@YuushinfxYou mean you didn’t “trust the science”!? Lol.
Looking forward to the mod that allows me to leave Sarah stranded on the planet from her personal quest, only to find a skeleton in a leather jacket later on when I go back.
@@vincer7824this is all silly bs to begin with...
The sort of waky stuff that you would see in Fallout 4...
It's like Bethesda is trying to make the most family friendly looyer shoter rpg ever...
The game don't even have dismemberment, and you don't see anyone cursing.
Pay attention to this the go compare with Cyberpunk 2077
@@efxnews4776 Indeed. If they couldn't avoid the "M" rating they should've just went all in on adding some grit.
I’ve literally described Starfield as “Death By A Thousand Cuts: The Game”.
Really enjoyed it but it really is its own worst enemy.
Great review.
If I had to describe Stardfield with only one word, it would be "incompetent". Bethesda knows what to do, how to do it and has enough money and latent to do it.... but they just failed to do it good enough. Btw performance issues and million loading screens are due to their ancient engine. You can upgrade your car with better shocks, better fuel injection, better this or that to make it look and feel more modern but unless you change the engine it is still 2006 Toyota Corolla.
Thank you. I fear the great work Bethesda had previously done is just never gonna happen again...
why? with a consitent gameworld like TES VI will have, it will be just like before.
@@wuestenfuchsxy and Skyrim was shallow with poor writing even if it was fun. Bethesda just care about quantity over quality now, nothing you do matters in the world.
@@Hero_Of_Old thats what I mean, it will be just like before. Its not like Skyrim or Fallout were much better then Starfield. Starfield just does not have that interesting exploration, while in other aspects Starfield may even be better.
@@wuestenfuchsxybut oblivion had a ton of fun systems and depth Skyrim didn’t and Moro wind also had more of those systems and ways to interact with the game that oblivion didnt
@@greasysox for example?
A lot of people don't realize is that the loading screen is a bigger negative than the time it takes to load. In your example like the God of war walk, the game doesn't take you out of the immersion that you are indeed in that fantastical world. Loading screens on the other hand slams it in your face, that you are in a game instead of a fantastical world. For us people who love to see open world game as our escape from reality, it's bad... It's really bad. That, and the number of loading screens especially in Neon where you go from one shop to the next door shop are 2 loading screens.
In Fallout 4 you start the game fighting cockroaches and raiders, you end the game fighting deathclaws and power armor. In Skyrim you start the game fighting wolves you end the game fighting dragons. In Starfield, you start the game fighting lv1 pirates, you end the game fighting lv70 pirates, with longer health bar.
the main story of Starfield is great especially the final missions
@@SuperHns. How is it great ? You are on a fetch quest the entire story and you get 0 payoff. The point of the story is to find what the artifacts mean and who created them ? Nothing is answered in the end. Not to mention Constellation is so one sided that interesting aspects such as are they really good when they don't get the option to obtain the artifacts ? Petrov doesn't want to part with his artifact and yet we are forced to steal it then. None of this is followed up on as to who gave the jurisdiction to this team to play as God ? Garbage game
Someone forgot the tutorial literally gives you Power Armor in FO4
@@SuperHns have you, y'know, played any good rpg or read a book? Like ever?
Fallout4 is a bad example of this and where they started going wrong. They immediately gave you Power Armour and had you fight a Deathclaw.
Funny enough, It’s actually the characters and story that I felt was the worst part of the game. Boring and bland all the way through. Lifeless and generic. Nothing had texture or edge. This was the safest most modern storytelling I’ve seen in awhile. Nothing was interesting. It didn’t help that all the things you criticized are true too. Nothing is good in this game. It really just works. That’s it. It’s functional. There is nothing to praise about this game. I worry for TESVI.
In regards to loading screens, let's talk Ryujin and Neon. I thought doing Neon would be less of the loading because it's on a contained smallish city. OMG ebbside is like technically 3-4 different cells, all needing to be accessed by going into the main plaza first. Or Ryjuin needing to go floor to floor, then back to plaza, then to ebbside, then to a planet and then back. I finished Ryujin after UC and Freestar, and I'm now done with game. 130 hours in, and I have nothing left to push on and finish the undercover raider missions or the main missions where i left off. I'd say 130 hours is my moneys worth, but I won't be coming back to this game unless mods completely change the flow. Fallout 4 (which was a big letdown for me) has more replay-ability due to being able to walk in an open world with uninterrupted immersion.
This game would have been acceptable before an indie studio with 11 employees made NMS 7 years ago the fact there is no seamless flying is pathetic and they made sure to hide that fact from us
Totally pathetic considering how much they had in terms of finance, studio assets, etc…
Starfield sold NMS to me.
No More Sky was piss poor at release and quite some time afterwards. They didnt keep any promises whatsoever.
I have about 45 hours in the game and can only agree. I still enjoy it, but it feels frustrating at times. Also that moment with the "bullet spongey enemies" you referred to it turns out you are not meant to be able to kill them, it's supposed to be a "run for your life" scene... the game just doesn't really convey that very well to you. I tried fighting too until I realised I'd need 5x the ammo.
You can tell towards the end of it what they want, but it is terribly conveyed, and already too late. But the bullet sponges are a general complaint, I think I put a clip in of a level 80 something enemy. Perma-staggered, doesn't do anything, just takes 70 shots. I love the act of shooting guns in the game, and I think I would be fine with health pools even, if they offered something cool in terms of fighting them. Big health + They do nothing makes me contemplate my existence.
@@Mugthief I am only about level 40 so things haven't been too bad in the hp department so far. I still plan to finish out the main quest lines. Or well the factions. There are some real gems in there just a pity you don't get them more often.
Ah yes, people applying “git gud” and “i’ve played more than you” to a game where enemies have the most basic AI, and completely ignoring the five minutes where I speak about the perks. Never change.
@@Mugthief as you say it really did fail on so much... It had Star Wars: KotOR, Mass Effect, Star Trek Online in addition to its own sisters FO, TES and Dishonored and sister studios who weren't consulted for the FPS areas which is saddest of all. 10 years in development for... this. Xbox fans swear we on PS are salty or resentful we got spared this and anyone not adoring Starfield either are "ponies" or want Xbox to fail... really....
Put it down for more then two days and it’ll be hard to come back to it
Love the clip of you just unloading on Benjamin Bayu after he threatens you and you just can't even damage him. I did the same and its just one of those moments in Starfield where I just laughed because it was so dumb.
That clip keeps going to me walking two feet outside the room and shooting a wall in front of security 20 times, and she reacted with idle chat informing me of a sidequest in the style of "I heard that this person has an issue with this investiagion!". Definitely one of the moments where my eyes went as wide as possible.
@@Mugthief I think the wildest thing is that I ended up going to neon quite often just to use the vendors and nothing ever happened with security and whatnot, after the quest nothing changes.
I wanted to shoot the Paradiso board members also but apparently a minor optional quest necessitates immortal NPCs.
Heh , after what I did to Rob Hope, I was happy to see Bayu. But no, what a let down. I was like 2-0 baby , this is it! :( Same with the Paradiso board. Instead I got forced to fork out MY MONEY to solve their problems? I got so outraged I shot them all and oh boy was I so disappointed.
According to Howard, they wanted to do Starfield like, 25 years ago, but the technology wasn't there. Then proceeded to use technology 25 years old.
There are loads of games just like Starfield from years ago - I think it's odd nobody is accusing them of stealing half of the concept for their game from Outer Worlds. Which is better by far!
I still very fondly remember playing Morrowind. The game had no map markers, just written out directions. Directions that I was often very bad at following, yet each time I made a wrong turn it just turned into a new adventure. Honestly I had a lot of fun with my first play through of Starfield. I just don't see myself coming back to it the same way I have other Bethesda games, and it's for a lot of the reasons mentioned here.
Actually, Starfield is really great. Try doing things other than just the main quest. Make new characters with new traits and builds and it will be like playing a whole new game. Are the planets empty? Yes, but that's by design. When the astronauts went to the moon, there was nothing there, but they certainly weren't bored! You'll find that Starfield is great once you get about 500 hours in.
-Bethesda Support Team
Tempted af to pin this ngl
@@Mugthief Hahaha. Do it.
This deserves more views, you hit the nail on the head. Ultimately, Starfield isn't an awful game, it can be enjoyable even, but... it just makes me want to play Skyrim for the 15th time, instead of trying to make my own fun in Starfield.
@@Weyland_Punani I completely agree, was just saying that if you really really try to find the fun in the game, there is something there, BUT it's not worth the effort, hence you should just go and play something else
Its awful by a billion dollar company standards
The whole things feels so focus-tested and devoid of any real passion. It's just so bland. Nothing really matters, all the characters are just different shades of nice. There's barely any real difference between the UC and the Freestar collective. Heck, even the pirates are boring. If it wasn't for the bloody squibs, this could have been a t-rated game. People make fun of the guy who's ranting about the pronouns, and while I'd agree they barely register as far as the game's many issues are concerned, they do seem kind of endemic of the whole damn experience. It's nice, it's safe, it's boiler-plate, it is afraid to challenge anyone and to say anything. Whereas Cyberpunk tries to be The Expanse, Starfield is aiming for the standards of Lost in Space. Lost in Space minus the charm.
@@JustFun-ho6qy Exactly! I mean, the first enemy faction you meet in 2077 are the Maelstrom, which replace their whole face with cyberware - talk about engaging world-building. Starfield's pirates on the other hand are "dude in a spacesuit, but red"... like. Okay.
@@mohawkan423023 they didn't just look the part either. They acted and talked scary as well. They were proper intimidating. Whenever the Crimson Fleet leader opens his mouth I'm wondering whether he's related to Conzuela from Family Guy. Nobody in this universe ever gets properly angry. No one ever swears either. I mean Bethesda writing was never all that great, but I don't remember it being that sterile either. Everyone in Starfield seems to be a descendant from Preston Garvey.
At least for me personally, the writing was a way bigger issue than the loading screens.
You hit the nail on the head with this review. Ive watched at least 20 reviews and breakdowns of this game and you really articulated everything wrong with it perfectly. Subbed!!
Thanks! It means more than you know, I put a lot of time into it and was very worried that it wouldn't be good enough or worth watching, but comments like yours show me that my opinion still holds some value! ❤
@MugThief Absolutely. Compared to other's synopsis of this game, yours is definetely the most consise. I want to share with you a game I'm currently into. Have you heard of Fear and Hunger? There is a sequel also. If you want to watch one of my favorite and most entertaining videos of all time, watch 'Super Eyepatch Wolf - The Cruelest Game' and let me know what you thought about it later and if you plan on checking the game out 😀
It's been planned as my first halloween special since summer! There will be a deep dive on it on my channel for the end of the month, and I will also be live streaming it every Friday throughout October! And it's impossible to be on the cool side of youtube and not know about Super Eyepatch Wolf, been a fan for many years!
@MugThief Awesome. I just started playing. Can't wait to see what you come up with!
This guy actually argued basically every point with validated references. Talk about doing your homework! I subbed as well, the best review for this dumpster fire.
This game feels like drinking a shot of coke diluted in a liter of water
Please get help and please stop putting cocaine in your water
No diluted in catpiss
@JamesChessman what's a shot of cocaine?
One of the best reviews I've seen. Perfectly captures my own experience with the game. Did I have fun? Yes. Was I still disappointed? Yes.
You have to play it for at least 20 years before you can review it and truly appreciate it.
I paid full price for this game and will never buy another Bethesda game on release. What did it for me, beyond all of the other annoyances, was the sheer number of loading screens you need to go through to get anything done, including just moving around. Even worse is the fact that it's not really a space game at all. You don't actually travel anywhere in your spaceship; you just hang around some planets and shoot stuff. Boring.
I downloaded the cracked version and _still_ feel like I deserve a full refund.
😂😂😂 nice one
I think the problem was in concept.
In a galaxy where humanity has already explored a good chunk of the stars, there’s very little left to explore in the same way that you can explore Skyrim or Fallout. The mystery, culturally, just isn’t there by definition.
The outposts could have been used for territorial control. In a way that the player builds an outpost and its defenses and mining / ammo production, and gets some attacks to fend off. This reduces the local enemy factions influence, and helps the player / other faction in some meaningful way. Kind of an alternative to manually clear out enemy outposts.
This made me fear for the fate of Elder Scrolls VI.
Excellent review, laid out every point with accompanying video evidence, examples or explanations. Subscribed!
5:40 THIS!!! I'm glad someone addressed this "playing the game wrong" argument
19:40 I'm 100% confident that if God of War 4 had launched with just black screens and dialogue playing to replace all those walking bits, it'd be mentioned in virtually every review as a negative point to the game.
28:52 Also worth mentioning that, in previous BGS titles, having these core abilities from the start served a dual purpose. It got you familiar with the basics of those systems AND it gave the opportunity to explore and get excited about different, potential avenues/specializations of gameplay. I guess I took this for granted but I've recently watched Tragienie playing Skyrim for the first time ever in 2022. Seeing the sheer awe and enthusiasm on his face when "dipping his toes" into every new mechanic made me realize how crucial of a design decision this was in previous BGS games
I don't think the game being in a Sci Fi/Outer Space setting is what hurts exploration. After all, The Outer Worlds does exploration very well.....and all within a single system containing just half a dozen or so planets. Also, whilst not RPG's, both No Man's Sky and Elite Dangerous do space exploration extremely well IMHO.
I tagged Emil and bethesda devs in this on social media
Your critique is spot on and these things need fixed so the issues in game design are not repeated in Elder Scrolls and fallout
Watching the bullet traces spawn in from above the scope of that rifle the whole video was painful, small detail but very annoying
Starfield was the only game I seen in a while where the only good thing I ever saw people rave about were the physics like it’s always the physics and them with a video of 1000 eggs or something never a gameplay moment or anything it was always just physics
And the physics weren’t even new 😅
Hey man just wanted to say thank you for your hard work, great points and the original thumbnail art is 👏 👏👏
Appreciate you for watching! The thumbnail art might have to go in exchange for something clickbaity, but I at least hope that those who saw it liked it ❤
First time coming across your channel and I was surprised by the low number of subscribers just because of the high production value of your video
Well thought out script, good arguments (of course I don’t agree with all of them) and thoughtful use of B-roll throughout the video. Cheers man!
I think my production values have a veeeery long way to go still, and my suscriber count is way higher than I could have dreamed of, but I will take your praise as best I can: With a very big "Thank you". And thank you as well for watching, and leaving such a nice comment!
I work in TV news production so it's hard not to notice the "behind the scenes stuff" even when it's done well like this. I hope you keep making these quality videos :) @@Mugthief
In the middle of that massive battle to flee from the Starborn and save the Space McGuffin, i got arrested.
"who let the janitor voice this npc" was so genuinely funny i was crying thank you great vid ^^ Ive been looking for a phrase to sum up about some of the voices i hear, this was it thank you
The world being "cluttered" in an immersive way is understandable if you realize the person responsible for that was a modder for their older games and was known for making home mods with "immersive lived-in" cluttered environments.
It's honestly telling how horrible the game design's entire outlook is when you realize they once had the ballistic guns in this game have shell ejection as normal guns do, and it was caught on the early trailers that the double-barrel ejected "whole unused bullets". And, their entire solution for it was instead of replacing the models with the right ejected shell casings, they opted to remove all casing ejection from guns instead and made spent casings disappear inside the gun while naming all ammunition for them "case-less".
Once again, exceptional in depth review. You should ahead of those noisy GIF abusers reviewers in terms of views. One of the few Calm, detailed, and clear reviewers out there.
Agreed. Most videos on the subject focus on being ethier the loudest, the funniest, the most angry or all at once.
Todd is a bloody genius. He built a reputable company, made a legendary game, then completely threw in the towel for over 12 years, milking said legendary game into oblivion (pun intended) while producing minimal effort Fallout games and slapping the Bethesda logo on other people's quality games (Doom 2016, Doom Eternal, etc). Then he hyped everyone about this upcoming Starfield thing, enough to sell his company to Microsoft at a massive profit, and then went on producing minimal effort games all the while lying through his teeth. Now that's a fucking businessman!
Good review! Starfield has potential to be waaaaaay better. I have ideas. Right now it is just not replayable for me. If they design quests that make minimal use if space travel, and force you to walk through a detailed map on one planet, that would already be way more fun... and replayable.
For example.
The quest to kill the mirelurk queen in the castle in fallout 4 is more fun than the vanguard quest to kill the Terramorph 'queen', because of the WAY you go to the fight. In fallout 4 you decide for yourself how to get to the castle, and that is where most of the fun is at. In the vanguard quest, the whole trip to the queen is scripted, broken up by space travel, and there's very little freedom in the experience. So once you've done it... that's it. Done. Over. There's no question like hmm, is there a different way to get to Londinion?
So what they should have done is make the whole quest take place on ONE planet, from the initial introduction of Sanon, to finding the Red devils dude, to finding the battle bot etc etc, all on one complex map, like one big junk yard... thereby providing opportunities to have alternate routes and random encounters... stranded travellers, spacer outposts etc...
Wow, this video was amazing. Can't believe the channel has less than 20k subs. You deserve at least a million!
A very thorough and well-supported critique of the game.
Really good review, I’m also enjoying Starfield alot, but all the criticisms you pointed out I agree with
Exactly. Im a BGS fan and have enjoyed all of their games (including 76). Im enjoying SF for what it is.
That said, objectively, it is not an amazing game. Its decent, and like I said, Im enjoying it.”, bit literally having come straight from 200ish hours in BG3, playing SF, once the novelty of “a new Bethesda game!” wore off, its an OK game and I might do one NG+ run for funsies, where as with BG3, I have completed it once solo, have a game with my wife and another friend and then 4 other playthroughs sitting at various points and the new BG3 run I started today, Im STILL running into things that I missed in Act1 in all those other playthroughs and I feel amazed with it still.
Previously, with other BGS releases, my wife knew to just write me off for a week or two from doing much of anything else then exploring that new world.
Ive had no problem pulling myself out of SF when other things needed doing.
Its good, Im enjoying it. It is far from the “9/10 Game of the Year!” Ive seen in marketing.
You can enjoy a mcburger but that doesn't make it good. Heck I even enjoy the cheeseburgers from the vending machine at work. Doesn't make them good though.
*Reads the thumbnail title* "Oh boy...this is gonna be a LONG one..."
I know it's been said before, but if a game expects modders to fix it, or people say "oh, it'll get better with mods", or give a game a pass since it'll improve with mods, it's not a good game.
First time viewer here. Have to say that this is the best review and analysis I've seen of this game so far. No hyperbole or dog-piling, just honest insightful comments and explanations. I enjoyed it very much and look forward to more. 👍
IMO The most important point you make is that other Bethesda games do not restrict the player from playing how they want. That is the core essence of an open world, player choice driven ROLE PLAYING game. Of all the shallow aspects of this game it feels most limited in ones ability to role play outside of a small handful of options they force feed you. And those options rarely make a meaningful difference
I agree, however Fallout 4 (and to a lesser extent, 3) sort of ham fists the “I have to find my son/dad” thing which can throw you out of the roleplaying. Especially with the voice acted protag of 4. But you can ignore that somewhat
@@Kuhnonthecob the voice acted PC in FO:4 was a terrible design choice NGL.
Bethesda is the McDonalds of gaming, it was never the best, but it was good, time went by and you realize it went downhill and everytime you revisit it it gets a little worse, but people keep buying it because it was what they grew up with.
The “I had to play 30+ hours to realize there was nothing there and to realize the game design was outdated”. Took me 1 hour and becoming encumbered to realize this is an uninspired, railroady and worse written Bethesda game.
the point where Starfield died for me, and I went from "yeah it's got plenty of flaws, but I'm having more fun than I thought I would" to "this game is horseshit and I wish Steam still allowed refunds after 50 hours" was when I went on a radiant bounty hunt for Freestar and found myself in the exact dungeon I had just cleared to earn the Mantis gear and ship- layout, clutter, dead bodies, audio logs, the whole shebang- but on a completely different star system. They literally just copy-pasted the dungeon. And then another run after that, I got another dungeon that I remembered running with Sarah a handful of hours prior... again, in a completely different star system. So many dungeons are just copy-pasted and that, combined with the completely lacking basebuilding system, really made the cracks show and I realized that Starfield basically just half-asses every system from every Bethesda game that came before it. They got each part right once before, but they couldn't be bothered to even *try* this time, leaving it to modders to fix everything. Ain't no way in hell I'm buying Elder Scrolls 6 now.
Theres literally no reason to cut to a black loading screen in any of the elevators in the game. They're literally bringing you to the next physical floor that is already loaded into the game. Its them refusing to do the elevator animation that they've had in older bethesda games. Same thing with entering a docked ship. I thought for the longest time that docking just teleported you to an interior that was off the map, so thats why the loading screen was there, and you couldnt just physically walk through the airlock. But no. I found out you can fly any ship and just teleport back and fourth inside seamlessly with console commands. They have a loading screen there for no reason. Its all physicalized, They just though that it would look good to cut to black for a couple seconds.
Tip: use the freestar collective radiant quests to grind out any "kill, do dmg, destroy ship" perk leveling requirements.
It also arguably offers the best of what the Starfield gameplay loop has to offer.
This coming from someone who has 60 hours in the game and all faction quest completed and about 75% through the main quest.
Also, max out the boost pack perk to be able to hover in place when aiming down the sights and also activate bullet time. Thats probably the most fun you'll have in combat.
Starfield is what you get when devs are working on a game for a salary and not out of passion.
I feel like Starfield is deliberately tedious.
Like Bethesda wants players to be bragging about having 400 hours in the game... and 300 of them were spent in loading screens, menus and meaningless redundant tasks to level up a single perk.
All that "Kill XX enemies with YY weapon" stuff is such an antiquated video game trope. That's Platinum Trophey/100% requirements for when you have literally nothing else to do in the game. Or to unlock cosmetics and skins.
Liked & Subbed. Great narration and couldn't agree more with the pain points you brought up. I'm surrounded by people that gave this game a 9, and it's just insane to me. Thanks for the validation, haha.
Everything in this game is such a step back. The skill system is a worse version of Fallout's, the combat is bland, the exploration is boring, and the story is a worse version of Mass Effect's with some added multiverse BS. The worst thing about Starfield? The do-gooder leader of the exploration guild and the snake worshiping spy essentially have the same personality.
This is a great and well reasoned review. Thanks
Travel is the downside of every space game. The reality is that space is largely... empty space. This results in travel being abstracted in absolutely every space game that involves exploration. They all include a fast travel mechanism for that reason, be it "stargates", warp modes, or "space cruise lanes" in Freelancer. They are all essentially the same mechanic - they allow you to abstract or remove the intermediary travel, and condense the content around focal points of the path. There isn't an effective alternative. What starfield does wrong, is accepting this fate too readily, and abstracting the travel out TOO MUCH. You don't even have to point in the right direction, or fly even a little bit. You simply enter the map and click the destination. The travel is abstracted so completely, it's just really a teleporting home mod, much as sailing ship mods in Skyrim.
This would be fine if the world on foot was up to Skyrim snuff. But it's not. So basically we have a teleporting home mod, and a tiny foot map. The world is small. And including random procedurally generated mostly empty worlds is no different than random re[eatable missions seen as far back as Anarchy Online. Procedurally generated "random" content (at least until AI takes over game design) is not exploration content. It's farming content. So Starfield as a result, while billed as an exploration game, has very little content to explore.
I hope Bethesda is paying attention because this is spot-on.
LUL Bethesda hasn't given a shit in a decade or more 😂
Im closing in on 400 hours in my first playthrough and my main gripes are:
#1 All the glitches and bugs. I cant even do some quests cause they dont show up and im currently stuck with Alejandra as my companion.
#2 No enemy upscaling and not much to spend credits on other than buying ships. The game is too easy
#3 Not much to do in higher level planet systems and i hate how level 75 is the highest planet level. Im level 72 facing off against level 1-15 enemies sometimes on very hard difficulty.
#4 Im so tired of fighting spacers. We need more enemy variety.
#5 why the hell does NG+ reset all of your planet surveying? Thats why im not doing a NG+.
I love the game but it could of been legendary. They should of made outpost building cost credits and more properties to buy and make resources much much more expensive from vendors. I would also love to have a Bestiary and legendary Fauna and more bounty hunter missions. Enemy upscaling is much needed. They played it so safe with this game. First off Bethesda needs to patch the game. I cant do the UC faction quests cause one mission called War Relics doesnt even show up.
A boring game which makes me wonder how bad the next Elder Scrolls will be.
Dear Lord...
The Outpost storage is some kind of f'ing joke... I hope I'm just missing something.
I had stuff stockpiled in my New Atlantis apartment, but after a major plot point in the main story, that gives reason to build an outpost, I went to collect these resources. Only to find the place completely empty, everything gone. Luckily I had my previous days Exit save, so I just lost a couple of hours progress.
I decided to build the outpost preemptively. 1sq m chests hold 150kg, Your pockets hold 260kg, a ship container can hold up to 1200kg?? How much can a 30sq m Outpost container hold? 75kg... I need 40 of these to hold what's on my ship & my pockets (3000kg / units)
Yes, I know with skills and research, yada yada...The box I can build at the start, holds twice as much as the Outpost storage containers. Were these chests made by Doctor Who??!!
Supposedly you can also link these containers so you can place items in one, and it'll fill the rest. I can't seem to get this to function, perhaps you need to reload the area.
Automatic Snapping... Did no one... NO ONE at Bethesda test this?? All containers snap to each other, on 2 sides only. They auto-snap from 10 feet (3m) away.
There's no toggle. It is possible to make rows next to each other, in the most cumbersome manner imaginable.
Make row 1. Now start row 2, away from row 1, try to line it up, and work backwards to where you actually want the containers.
Did I mention, you need to start rows at the highest point? Yep, if the ground rises, you cannot continue building due to collision. Again, this is because of auto-snap.
Think about all the things in Bethesda games Modders fix. It makes me truly question the skills and talent of Bethesda's workforce.
Look at your avatar's hair... Look at NPC's bulging eyeballs...
I've been a fan of Bethesda since; "Wake up. We're here. Why are you shaking?" But seriously, how can individual modders make bigger improvements within days, than your 400 employee studio in 6 years.
No Man's Sky is a better game. Yes, they've had 7 years of FREE DLC. But their studio has 25 employees.
The oupost storage is ridiculous. I hold more in my pockets than a box that can fit ten of me inside it.
Then again this takes place in a multiverse where we map out entire star systems but not cities.
A place where we make calls between spaceships but don’t have cellphones.
The place where the club known for drug use and debauchery is highlighted by fully clothed guys with dad bods doing the ”make a sandwich dance.”
Welcome to Starfield.
the game can't be better. the core is completely unredeemable. they would have to completely redesign and reimplement both space exploration and planet exploration. that's like 80% of the game.
No so oddly, you are noting so much of my criticisms of the game. I am so disappointed in it. I didn't need Fallout In Space so I'll just stick w/Fallout.
This game is worse than Fallout. I would love Fallout in space.
If you don't like space that's fine. But what the hell were you expecting?
Only thing FO4 did better was settlement building and craft able infinite storage containers.
@@MrAyybee2cold I agree, but it only did it better after half a dozen building focused dlc lol. And I don't think Starfield needs infinite storage but I do think they can easily double to capacity across the board on the base storage. And give us more ways to upgrade things. But I'm not worried about the base building getting better.
@@No-One.321 the way settlements and settlers work in FO4 would be perfect for starfield. They could even make it part of the LIST faction.
I mention the storage issue because it limits or hinders roleplay outside the lodge ie pirate, hauler etc as in order to store everything you want to keep that’s the only place you can have that doesn’t require 50+ storage containers.
Do you really think they put 25 years into the making of this game?
Why play nice snd only compare to other Bethesda games? Often feels like Bethesda and Nintendo gets special treatment...
The first reason is that I believe for this to be fair, I shouldn't compare it to completely different games. There are basically no games aside from other BGS titles that do the mix they attempt to do. It isn't fair to compare the shooting of Call of Duty, the Role Playing of CRPG, and the main story of a Narrative Focused game like The last of Us, to a game that tries to combine all that and more. Obviously with games that have a very singular focus, you can find examples that do that one thing brilliantly. Someone who likes other BGS games could hate BG3 for it's setting or combat system, so it doesn't do any good to compare it to that game even if I think it's superior.
The second is, that I don't need to go out on escapades to compare the game to others to point out it's flaws, as is obvious by about 47 minutes of this video, it's faults are plain enough to see comparing it to games by the same studio that predate it by 10 to 15 years.
The score 7/10 was made for this game
6/10.... 7/10 is a good game. Starfield is mid 5/10 would be "good enough not not be bad" and 6/10 is "not good enough to be good". 5/10s are forgettable and skippable. 6/10 are ok if you got them for free or on sale. 7/10 I would recommend to buy for full price, 8/10 I would be excited to recommend to my friends, 9/10 are simply games that even people who do not play games know and maybe even played like Mario. 10/10 do not exist. ....... in my opinion
@@lamebubblesflysohighI'd say the side quest content alone bumps it to at least a 7 but I'm not mad at your take on it
@TheKnives777
1 second ago
I was playing Starfield until the new cyberpunk 2077 expansion dropped. I started over a new game in cyberpunk, and I was blown away by how the interactions with the characters are versus the dull lifeless boring conversations that I had with Starfield …I can’t even remember a single NPC that I talked to while playing Starfield. In cyberpunk, they move like real people while you’re talking to them, they even look down and brush stuff off of their pants. They are extremely animated, then in Starfield I feel like I’m just talking to a robot.
Starfield is designed for people to turn into NPC's playing it
4:55 is just untrue & relies on a bad faith interpretation of Starfield - if you are ever bored of main/side quests you can definitely just pick star systems at random & find some interesting/surprising content which is not led to by any other quests - i have a feeling most of the review will be like this
13:00 this is all IN Starfield - did you actually play the game?? You can easily find memorable & interesting moments/locations/isolated stories off the beaten path (these are just off the top of my head: The UCS Constant, The Mantis, Tourists Go Home, The Audition, the abandoned casino, all the random encounters, & yes! all the radiant quests, ships you can steal, etc.) - there’s literally so much shit in this game man, the bad faith continues - like, the only truthful criticism you have is that there’s not enough boring walking between these things??? Okay…
I swear to god the Starfield discourse has black-pilled me on these youtube game reviewers - they do this shit solely to draw eyes & get clicks
I’m done watching!
I was looking on forums and looking through shops for probably 3 full hours to try to find where to get a working boost pack because I assumed the beginner ones didnt work or didnt come with one. Looking through the keybinds to figure out what I was doing wrong. I didnt find the boostpack sill til two play sessions later when I was working on something completely different. I was about 20 hours into the game before I figured out I needed to spec into the pack skill to unlock its base function. Truly boggles the mind. And you would think I'd have thought of that sooner because I complained to a friend as soon as I saw that you had to unlock the ability to sneak and lockpick.
In relation to this. The way upgrades work is also absolutely bizarre. You also have to spec into perks to then be able to research upgrades to then be allowed to work towards building those upgrades which cannot be recycled like in previous games.
These scream the fact they couldnt come up with more skills/perks to put into the tree so they just cannibalized other features into it to pad it out.
Starfield is AWESOME! I didnt see any marketing. But I've had nearly 100 hours of fun in this world. The main quest is vanilla. But just exploring, hunting, ship building and doing the side content is so much fun.
It's not perfect. But its way more fun than anything ive played except ME:L and BG3.
What a great galaxy (with fascinating lore) upon which to build with expansions and DLC.
I dont understand people who complain that they feel bored after 100 hours. How many games can give 100 hours before running out of fun?
Did you try talking to NPCs? People dont always yell quests at you. In neon for example, I started chatting to a shop keeper, because I wanted to buy digipicks. And she wasn't really in the mood to sell. I pressed her to tell me what was wrong. Her husband just died, and she doesn't believe the story security told her. So that became a murder investigation.
Another vendor, at a bar somewhere (i think mars) told me (after I chatted to her for a while) that actually her ship was stolen. That led to a mission too. And I got a companion out of that one.
That questline is marked in your journal by walking around and overhearing Neon security. It is also not a very good quest. And your other comment doesn't say anything about what I talk about in the review. It doesn't adress any of my concerns, and you simply repeat some positives I said in the video, say you like the main quest less than me, and then complain about people saying they're bored after 100 hours. I never said that, nor spoke about boredom at all. @@RandomWandrer
Booooom
I got the game and frankly idk what people are talking about when they say it looks terrible. It's not the prettiest game ever but its looks great for a BGS studios game. I think if it set your expectations at a decent level Starfield is great, but it's very much a video gamey video game full of typical BGS quirks. But there's alot of stuff, alot of story and if you choose to engage with what's there rather than pick it apart and look for reasons to hate it, it's a good experience. The mod potential is absolutely vast though, and I feel that this aspect will make or break SF's reputation going forward.
@MugThief You specifically said you have to follow quest markers to find content. I'm saying that's untrue. There is content that nobody send you to, and there are quest that you do not "overhear" from security, but are found by going places nobody sends you and talking to NPCs.
Some of the music makes me feel like I'm playing Fallout and it bugs me.
It's objectively a poorly designed game with some very fun elements. It could be fixed with just one big change (the un-immersive fast travel), and a bunch of INTERESTING random encounters while exploring planets. The bare bones are there for a good game, but it just needs more work. Sure, they'll never fix the lackluster boring quests, but at least they could fix the gameplay loop.
they said they had 250,000 lines of dialogue, they never said any of it was good
Bethesda is so used to modders doing their job for them, that they just need to release a skeleton of a game.
I bought an Xbox specifically to play Starfield and the next Elders Scrolls. I quit playing Starfield around 15 hours into the game and I'm no longer really interested in playing Elders Scrolls 6. Something is telling me the next Elders Scrolls will just be a reskinned copy of 5. If XBox wasn't getting Baldur's gate 3 at the end of this year I would have got rid of the console.
Watching you fight that Eclipse guy that you kill at 9:55 is so frustrating and boring. Jesus. I hate how the enemies are in SF.
I love your intelligent and well thought through reviews! Thank you for your time and effort!
13:28 Yeah, that copy-pasted procedural content was the final nail to the coffin of Starfield. Hand crafted dungeons and quests are decent and different from each other but I can't wrap my head around the fact how lazy Bethesda was with their randomized "dungeons" in Starfield. They have like dozen layouts which are circulated. Only loot and enemies change. Boooring.
How tough it would have been to make these radiant dungeons just a bit more modular to add even a slight variation?
Hey Mug! great analysis! thanks a lot and keep these videos comming!
I've never played starfield, but I am glad that I decided to get a PS5 for BG3 than an Xbox for Starfield
They took the vastness of space and gave it the depth of a water droplet.
This is why Emil needs to be EXCOMMUNICATED from game creation. Utterly black listed until he can actually write something.
25 years and they stepped back 30.
What I find weird is UA-cam suddenly pushing a lot of "Starfield is crap" videos after the Spiderman 2/Gaming Awards and Insomniac Hack. HAHAHAHA. This is too funny.
I mostly agree with a lot of these things but the quest integration section is a bit surface level. The game has actually plenty of quests you can pick up by simply listening to people, and then you'll be sent on a planet and from then things will evolve. I found a few great quests even from these random locations from planets. I have no idea what you mean by "happy placing a sign" when the game has no quests indicators at all. Many quests expand the lore and the universe, and you can find those by exploring. Many quests have random encounters in space based on my choices as well. There are far more consequences than people assume and choices to make. The traits also will affect how you can complete certain quests. Once i was about to get ambushed but since i had a certain trait, i was able to avoid that.
I guess the issue is you need to spend SO much time exploring the boring world to even see those quests.
Thank you for an honest review. You saved me many hours of my life.
I played 2000h of ollblivion, about 1400h of skyrim, 1000 of fallout 3, 800h of fallout new Vegas, about 600h of fallout 4 and only 100h of starfiled. It's not terrible, but it's just uninteresting. I still have the crimson fleet quest to do, but I just can't bring myself to do it. I could make a list like this with things I think you missed, but I am so bored with it why bother. I have moved on as have most. I have noticed a sharp trend in my drop off time playing bgs games. Each feel more unloved and soulless than the last.
As a lover of Skyrim and No Man's Sky I really thought this might be some kind of marriage between the two. It's probably my fault for doing zero research into the game but when I first got into my ship and realized I couldn't actually fly to my destination I was immediately let down. I then did a quest and landed at New Atlantis. It looked cool but felt soulless. I wandered around the whole city. Entering shops felt like shops in GTA, kinda empty and weird. It all felt very weird. This giant massive city with not much to say for it. After about 10 hours I found myself too bored to continue so I uninstalled it. I'm sure if I paid real money for it I'd have persevered but I got it on game pass so thankfully I didn't have to.
I was really frustrated with Starfield so I came looking for reviews or videos that talk about the same issues I had. This is the first video I've seen that tries to objectively look at the game and talk about its pros and cons, and not just bashing the game and the devs while saying the samethings everyone else knows. Loved the video
Thank you! My intention is always to hopefully bring well-thought out and interesting points, not to simply repeat obvious stuff with different words, doesn’t matter if I’m being positive or negative. I haven’t really watched other videos on Starfield, but I’m glad to hear I’m on the right track!
The fact we can’t take off and land seamlessly it’s the biggest out of game experience. They can easily implement that. Also they could add more to that in combat image getting into a space fight then you land and they chase you. Then you kill and take their ship. That would be so immersive but nope fast travel
They moved from a cohesive and smooth transition style of game play to a boring, time consuming, fish bowl and injecting a load screen simulator then added a running simulator to that. This alienated their own core demographic! We had good AI back in 2005-2007 and 2009 with FEAR and FEAR2 thats 14 - 18years ago!!! And No One has been able to replicate that since! I dont understand how programmers or developers cannot figure out how to do AI. We have games like No Mans Sky and Star Citizen that atleast have a seamless transition why cant Bethesda a AAA Game Studio figure out a Seamless transition
Its kinda funny, most everyone I watched, and I watched a lot of SF reviews, said that they liked the game but rarely anyone said that it was a good game.
Its kind of interesting to see.
For exploration I think it would have been best to fully develop the "core worlds" by hand and procedurally generate the outer edges of their galaxy. so they could have had lots of good interactions with their world as well as for lategame a sense of the unknown because everything changes up a bit. of course it might drop in quality but they could work on that too. feed their algorythm more pieces of architecture etc... and whabaam done :D
38:36 I did the Vanguard/Terrormorph quest pretty early. Although I still had hundreds of thousands of credits built up I still decided to go into the mines to pay off the scientist's debt by finishing the research (mainly to get xp). Glad I did (even though I didn't need to save the money) because I got a legendary coachman that is OP.
I feel you were overly generous to Berhesda in some ways but that's the beauty of us all sitting down to discuss something subjective. In general I actually loved the way you wrote and presented this wee video essay. I'm subbing for more 😊
45:01
This makes your input that much more useful. A great filmmaker may turn to another artist for advice, but he or she directs their attention on the audience, the entire reason the art was created
underrated channel fr. keep it up you’ll blow in no time for sure!
I passed on this, because of all the reviews. And I think I will pass Elder Scrolls 6. They've come a long way since Morrowind, and I mean that as an insult.