Review
Played on: PC & Xbox Series X
Released: 2023
Bethesda Games Studio's RPG releases bear a lot of weight to them in the gaming industry. Carrying a massive fan base alongside each release. From Oblivion to Fallout 3, from Skyrim to Fallout 4. In the last quarter of last year, we received a brand-new RPG series called Starfield, and just before Christmas I finished my initial play. Though, I suspect I’ll return over and over for side-missions!
Just like the developers earlier RPG releases, Starfield is a slow burner at the start. Beginning rather subtle, you start your journey in a mine, only to build itself upwards and beyond after you’re attacked by space pirates on the planet surface. Developing into a massive and immersive world, where you play as a key role to the mysteries of the universe.
Bethesda Games Studio's RPG releases bear a lot of weight to them in the gaming industry. Carrying a massive fan base alongside each release. From Oblivion to Fallout 3, from Skyrim to Fallout 4. In the last quarter of last year, we received a brand-new RPG series called Starfield, and just before Christmas I finished my initial play. Though, I suspect I’ll return over and over for side-missions!
Just like the developers earlier RPG releases, Starfield is a slow burner at the start. Beginning rather subtle, you start your journey in a mine, only to build itself upwards and beyond after you’re attacked by space pirates on the planet surface. Developing into a massive and immersive world, where you play as a key role to the mysteries of the universe.
When that Bethesda magic kicks in you end up drowning hours into exploring, interacting with characters shoot outs on the ground, fighting aliens or partaking in massive spaceship battles.
There’s something for everyone here. Be it you prefer full-on action, or enjoy a stealthy approach. Or, how about being a smart negotiator and persuading people in your direction? You can attack through classic, ballistic weapons, or high-tech energy weapons, combined into great variety through a bunch of discoverable Starborn abilities. There are many approaches to each situation, bringing a lot of variety to how Starfield can be played.
There’s something for everyone here. Be it you prefer full-on action, or enjoy a stealthy approach. Or, how about being a smart negotiator and persuading people in your direction? You can attack through classic, ballistic weapons, or high-tech energy weapons, combined into great variety through a bunch of discoverable Starborn abilities. There are many approaches to each situation, bringing a lot of variety to how Starfield can be played.
The same goes for how many choices there are to levelling up you preferred skillsets. While I prefer the Oblivion/Skyrim approach to leveling skills, you simply level them automatically when using them, Starfield has a slightly different approach. Once you use a skillset numerous times, be it running to the end of your breath, reloading often, using a specific weapon type or hacking into devices, you gain the option to level it further. You're required to complete a set amount of that skill to level it further.
The atmosphere and experience changes from intense space battles, through the vastness of traversing a planet surface, all the way to claustrophobic indoor shoot-outs. Even leaning into some creepy experiences too. Buzzing, futuristic cities, high-tech laboratories, abandoned mines and hauntingly empty space stations, there's a ton of variety and the attention to detail is extremely well done.
Interactions range from friendships and love, to anger and unfairness. You can bond allies as well as make enemies from the characters you meet. There’s no given decision, you make your own journey as to how you interact and behave towards everyone. There are many distinctly different experiences to be had in its world, you just need to let yourself sink in and take the time to explore.
Starfield is a visually pretty package. It’s not straight out, in your face, with amazing graphical effects from the get-go. Just like the story, it opens up and delivers some breathtaking environments as you progress. The more you sink into its world, the more you notice and appreciate the impressive attention to detail. There’s a clear inspiration from NASA in the space tech and spaceship interiors, while at the same time has that unique Bethesda Game Studio vibe.
There's a ton of variation in exterior landscapes, with deserts, snow and grass covered planets, while at the same time it dives deep into the smaller detail on interior locations. Sure, there's repetition, but with this kind of vast scope I can understand why. There are many colour tones and environmental styles of both indoor and outdoor locations, including a daylight cycle, making every place you visit feel refreshing.
For my playthrough I alternated between playing on my Nvidia 3070 based gaming laptop and my Series X. For a 30fps game, the Xbox version is smooth and responsive, with a sharp 4K image quality. However, for my gameplay style focusing on traditional shooter weapons, I wanted the higher framerate the PC version offers.
Setting my graphics setting to the Series X equivalent and lowering the resolution to a comfortable 1440p, allowing the framerate to hover somewhere between 60-90fps for my VRR TV. I played the PC version with an Xbox controller and the save file seamlessly synced between the Xbox and PC, very neat!
Character animations and faces are vastly improved visually from Fallout 4, although not top of the class compared to other massive releases, it's an impressive feature for such an open world RPG with so many characters. Sure, there’s repetition in hairstyles and faces, but its’ vastly upgraded compared to the developers previous releases. I found the character design of the main characters charming and my custom-made space explorer looked excellent next to them.
Gameplay, especially when it comes to movement flow and weapons handling, is largely upgraded when compared to Fallout 4. Clearly, they've had input from Id Software under their Bethesda publisher!. The gunplay feels incredible smooth, responsive and with great visual feedback and cool reload animations. Especially indoor firefights feel as if they are from a shooter rather than an RPG.
Character animations and faces are vastly improved visually from Fallout 4, although not top of the class compared to other massive releases, it's an impressive feature for such an open world RPG with so many characters. Sure, there’s repetition in hairstyles and faces, but its’ vastly upgraded compared to the developers previous releases. I found the character design of the main characters charming and my custom-made space explorer looked excellent next to them.
Gameplay, especially when it comes to movement flow and weapons handling, is largely upgraded when compared to Fallout 4. Clearly, they've had input from Id Software under their Bethesda publisher!. The gunplay feels incredible smooth, responsive and with great visual feedback and cool reload animations. Especially indoor firefights feel as if they are from a shooter rather than an RPG.
Same goes in general for the immersion. Gravity on planet surface will change the way objects fall to the ground and physics behave. Stealth gameplay also has proper depth and is well suited for those that want to take that route.
I found the main story interesting, with a lot of unexpected turns, although I felt the cohesiveness of the massive scope of the main story a little disorderly to follow, making some of the smaller side-missions feel a little disconnected. Then again, this is about choices and immersion, where you choose to dig deep into whatever you enjoy in the world.
I found the main story interesting, with a lot of unexpected turns, although I felt the cohesiveness of the massive scope of the main story a little disorderly to follow, making some of the smaller side-missions feel a little disconnected. Then again, this is about choices and immersion, where you choose to dig deep into whatever you enjoy in the world.
The swaps from indoor to outside exploring work well, but spaceship battles feel disconnected from the rest of the game. They're fun to take part in, with a lot of visual and sound immersion, but they feel like a separate experience to the rest of the game. A lot of this comes to the fact that you can't battle it out or fly yourself over planet surfaces, they're only featured in outer space, which again requires a loading screen to reach.
Which brings me to my main gripe with the game. While many Bethesda Game Studios RPGs have been hampered by the flow of switching between interior and exterior areas, recall the slow load times in Skyrim and Fallout 4 on consoles, Starfield has another problem. Rest assured the loading is fast, thanks to speedy hard drives on my PC and Xbox Series X/S, but there are so very, very many of them. In and out of buildings, landing and taking off from planets, in and out of your spaceship, moving between rooms in large buildings etc.
Which brings me to my main gripe with the game. While many Bethesda Game Studios RPGs have been hampered by the flow of switching between interior and exterior areas, recall the slow load times in Skyrim and Fallout 4 on consoles, Starfield has another problem. Rest assured the loading is fast, thanks to speedy hard drives on my PC and Xbox Series X/S, but there are so very, very many of them. In and out of buildings, landing and taking off from planets, in and out of your spaceship, moving between rooms in large buildings etc.
They're literally everywhere and break the momentum and atmosphere. Making locations feel disconnected, regardless if they’re in the next room or you’re jumping from one solar system to the other. There's a vast universe, but it's all parted into far too many loading screens.
Although I absolutely enjoyed my playthrough, and I understand the focus on making a vast universe to play in, I would’ve preferred a tighter focus on fewer locations and a connected space travel immersion. Less planets and areas, with a higher frequency of unique places to explore. Space flight over planet surfaces and aliens, more nasty aliens to fight!
Starfield is a title that requires patience and time to become fully immersed and to truly appreciate, but the reward when you do so are limitless incredible experiences. Digging in deep to its worlds, characters and exploring is absolutely worth the many hours you can put into this.
Although I absolutely enjoyed my playthrough, and I understand the focus on making a vast universe to play in, I would’ve preferred a tighter focus on fewer locations and a connected space travel immersion. Less planets and areas, with a higher frequency of unique places to explore. Space flight over planet surfaces and aliens, more nasty aliens to fight!
Starfield is a title that requires patience and time to become fully immersed and to truly appreciate, but the reward when you do so are limitless incredible experiences. Digging in deep to its worlds, characters and exploring is absolutely worth the many hours you can put into this.
It’s a wonderful experience to play, a beautiful sci-fi experience both in atmosphere and visuals, rolled into one massive, familiar Bethesda Game Studio RPG. They've successfully established a third RPG series that I can't wait to see more of.
