Starfield is absolutely NOT Fallout or Skyrim in space.

The foundation of this game is centered around exploration. However, unlike Bethesda's previous games, while performing a mundane fetch quest for instance, you can discover new locations, quests, and points of interest along the way. This provides a genuine sense of discovery amid the mundanity of such a basic quest while providing additional exploration and questing. Starfield, however, relies heavily on fast travel to connect you to what are essentially "instanced" locations in the game world. This fast travel negates the exploration and discovery that was one of the key elements of success of the older titles.

Starfield's quests are ultimately quite bad. Some of them show promise of greatness only to fall apart. The UC faction quest starts strong with a very Alien-esque intro with a motion sensor tracking a very powerful alien. This was genuinely very fun. As the quest progresses it just turns into: go here, talk to dude, go here, talk to dude, go here, follow dude then talk to dude some more, talk to other dude, kill some dudes, go back and talk to dude, find dude then talk to dude, go get dude, kill some dudes along the way, and on and on. Ultimately you are given some decisions to make that don't change the outcome aside from the responses you get.

Shooting is good... for a Bethesda game. Compared to many others it's just passable. Combat overall is hampered by the brain-dead enemy AI. Human-type enemies are often content to just stand there and let you shoot them. Alien animal-type enemies just run up to you and attack, even if they can sling rocks or spit poison at you from a distance. Melee weapons are all the same no matter what you wield.

Companions are boring and beyond lame. Their AI tends to have them stupidly walk in front of you while you're actively firing at enemies. Ultimately, I dismissed all of my companions to play solo. Sarah didn't like that. That's fine. I was also tired of their inane chatter.

How did I get 150 hours in this game? Coming across locations for the first time was truly interesting and warranted thorough exploration. Coming across the same exact locations time and time again is immersion breaking especially when these locations feature the exact same enemy and item placement. The only thing in these locations that get switched up and randomized are the item containers.

Starfield is a middling at best game that makes you realize how good other games are by comparison. Towards the end of my 150 hours of play I could only hope to find more of Starfield's elusive "good" content. After coming across the same exact "Deep Mine" for perhaps the 10th time, I was done. No more. Relying so heavily on procedural generation for exploration was a massive mistake by the devs.

What? You want a numerical score? OK.

4 / 10.

Starfield is absolutely NOT Fallout or Skyrim in space. The foundation of this game is centered around exploration. However, unlike Bethesda's previous games, while performing a mundane fetch quest for instance, you can discover new locations, quests, and points of interest along the way. This provides a genuine sense of discovery amid the mundanity of such a basic quest while providing additional exploration and questing. Starfield, however, relies heavily on fast travel to connect you to what are essentially "instanced" locations in the game world. This fast travel negates the exploration and discovery that was one of the key elements of success of the older titles. Starfield's quests are ultimately quite bad. Some of them show promise of greatness only to fall apart. The UC faction quest starts strong with a very Alien-esque intro with a motion sensor tracking a very powerful alien. This was genuinely very fun. As the quest progresses it just turns into: go here, talk to dude, go here, talk to dude, go here, follow dude then talk to dude some more, talk to other dude, kill some dudes, go back and talk to dude, find dude then talk to dude, go get dude, kill some dudes along the way, and on and on. Ultimately you are given some decisions to make that don't change the outcome aside from the responses you get. Shooting is good... for a Bethesda game. Compared to many others it's just passable. Combat overall is hampered by the brain-dead enemy AI. Human-type enemies are often content to just stand there and let you shoot them. Alien animal-type enemies just run up to you and attack, even if they can sling rocks or spit poison at you from a distance. Melee weapons are all the same no matter what you wield. Companions are boring and beyond lame. Their AI tends to have them stupidly walk in front of you while you're actively firing at enemies. Ultimately, I dismissed all of my companions to play solo. Sarah didn't like that. That's fine. I was also tired of their inane chatter. How did I get 150 hours in this game? Coming across locations for the first time was truly interesting and warranted thorough exploration. Coming across the same exact locations time and time again is immersion breaking especially when these locations feature the exact same enemy and item placement. The only thing in these locations that get switched up and randomized are the item containers. Starfield is a middling at best game that makes you realize how good other games are by comparison. Towards the end of my 150 hours of play I could only hope to find more of Starfield's elusive "good" content. After coming across the same exact "Deep Mine" for perhaps the 10th time, I was done. No more. Relying so heavily on procedural generation for exploration was a massive mistake by the devs. What? You want a numerical score? OK. 4 / 10.