So, I really tried to embrace the game and really tried to keep my expectations in check but boy, the game dropped the ball. To spare you folks a wall of text, I'll summarize it in points:

- the game is basically a mix of Skyrim and Fallout in space but worse. They took Skyrim's shout system and idea of making you some super powerful being, mixed it with Fallout's gunplay, pulled a space skin over it and you got yourself Starfield.

- the story is average and unoriginal. Not going to spoiler anything here but the main story and the faction stories are all just meh. Surface level writing.

- the pacing is all over the place, making the early game painful and exhausting but the endgame endurable. By the time you feel comfortable with the game it's already over.

- factions are unoriginal as they have always been in previous games and are among the few things you can actually do before running out of meaningful quests.

- choices don't really matter and have barely any impact (you can just lie to other factions and they believe you right away and pretend you didn't blow up a navy's fleet a couple days before)

- visuals are partially great and partially last gen. The lighting makes the game look great but the assets like foliage and human models are certainly not living up to the modern standard

- space flight / fight is terrible and generic at best. Unless you're really into travelling from one dead rock to another to destroy random ships, this feature is completely obsolete.

- ship building lacks preview features to see what the ship looks on the inside while constructing

- exploration is boring after visiting dead planets for the 100th time. Calling this intentional is a bad excuse because procedually generated content always sucks when nothing hand-crafted adds flavor to it.

- building is a major downgrade compared to previous games. Buildings are no longer made up from single pieces but instead you gotta puzzle together premade building parts that adapt to whatever you are snapping to it.

- the PC performance is a bad joke even when being beyond the recommended specs (Ryzen 5 5600x and a RTX 4070ti are not enough for stable 1440p 60fps, no matter what settings you're on, LOL)

- no DLSS support which could have been a savior for RTX 4000 card users with DLSS 3. Instead people have to use a paid mod to get frame generation which would have made the experience endurable. I blame the AMD deal for it.

- most of the solar systems are empty and rely on procedually generated maps and events. These locations are just generic dungeons and locations which hold no notable loot. The only important places are all tied to quests.

- no black hole. I've been to every single solar system to figure that out. So the most exciting and terrifying entity of our galaxy is NOT in this game. The hell?

- the perk system is feature-locking the gameplay and enforcing to play the game in certain ways one may not like. You even have to unlock the ability to pick pocket and sneak which have been default abilities in previous games.

- inventory management in this game is a nightmare and requires you to filter out stuff while outside or keep adding storage containers to your outpost to store a fraction of it

- the gore is lame. I had at least expected stuff like cracking open a helmet and see a frozen/bloated face inside but nope, nothing. No blood. The only fun thing you can do is blowing up folks jetpacks

- one of the major factions (House Va'ruun) that has been involved in the game's lore is not available at all and only a couple random renegades can be found and fought.

- the weapon upgrade system is one big chore as you have to research new parts at the research terminal which is just another grinding chore.

- many planets have straightup wrong atmospheres and landscapes. Io is a planet sized volcano and guess what? The surface ingame is an icy moon instead. Venus is a blazing planet with fiery storms. The surface in the game is just a normal moon surface. What the hell? They couldn't even be bothered to get the solar system with the most abundance of reference material right. The amount of mistakes, errors and lack of quality make this game an insult to any consumer.

- surprisingly few bugs compared to their previous games

- the way they introduced NG+ is fun, allowing you to skip the main story part right to the finale to do the final and only interesting part of the story over and over again.

---
Overall, this game launched in a poorly optimized state and I'm pretty sure the long delay was only to cut all the unfinished stuff because there is no way they thought it would be a great idea to ship a game with 4/5 dead landscape and call it a great experience. This is a game, not a simulation ffs.

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UPDATE: 01.12.2023
--------------

So since Bethesda's marketing team has tried to tell me that I'm playing the game wrong and that there is so much fun to be discovered in doing the same thing again and again and again, I think after another 50 hours spent in this game should be enough to say that the guy obviously doesn't play his own game. Contraband smuggling is worthless and the peanuts you get from selling them isn't worth the trouble. Side quests are meaningless and offer nothing exciting to discover. Hell, destroying and looting every ship at Deimos' shipyard is more profitable and entertaining than doing anything else the game has to offer.

The game is bland and empty. If you wanna tell me that's because of realism: Gaben Newell made a pretty strong statement regarding this in a recently released documentary -->
I don't play games because of realism. If I want realism, I go buy stuff at the grocery store. I play games because I want to have fun, not to experience realism. Meaning you should have never relied on real space as a reference in the first place and you should have started coming up with a game-worthy interpretation of space instead.

So, I really tried to embrace the game and really tried to keep my expectations in check but boy, the game dropped the ball. To spare you folks a wall of text, I'll summarize it in points: - the game is basically a mix of Skyrim and Fallout in space but worse. They took Skyrim's shout system and idea of making you some super powerful being, mixed it with Fallout's gunplay, pulled a space skin over it and you got yourself Starfield. - the story is average and unoriginal. Not going to spoiler anything here but the main story and the faction stories are all just meh. Surface level writing. - the pacing is all over the place, making the early game painful and exhausting but the endgame endurable. By the time you feel comfortable with the game it's already over. - factions are unoriginal as they have always been in previous games and are among the few things you can actually do before running out of meaningful quests. - choices don't really matter and have barely any impact (you can just lie to other factions and they believe you right away and pretend you didn't blow up a navy's fleet a couple days before) - visuals are partially great and partially last gen. The lighting makes the game look great but the assets like foliage and human models are certainly not living up to the modern standard - space flight / fight is terrible and generic at best. Unless you're really into travelling from one dead rock to another to destroy random ships, this feature is completely obsolete. - ship building lacks preview features to see what the ship looks on the inside while constructing - exploration is boring after visiting dead planets for the 100th time. Calling this intentional is a bad excuse because procedually generated content always sucks when nothing hand-crafted adds flavor to it. - building is a major downgrade compared to previous games. Buildings are no longer made up from single pieces but instead you gotta puzzle together premade building parts that adapt to whatever you are snapping to it. - the PC performance is a bad joke even when being beyond the recommended specs (Ryzen 5 5600x and a RTX 4070ti are not enough for stable 1440p 60fps, no matter what settings you're on, LOL) - no DLSS support which could have been a savior for RTX 4000 card users with DLSS 3. Instead people have to use a paid mod to get frame generation which would have made the experience endurable. I blame the AMD deal for it. - most of the solar systems are empty and rely on procedually generated maps and events. These locations are just generic dungeons and locations which hold no notable loot. The only important places are all tied to quests. - no black hole. I've been to every single solar system to figure that out. So the most exciting and terrifying entity of our galaxy is NOT in this game. The hell? - the perk system is feature-locking the gameplay and enforcing to play the game in certain ways one may not like. You even have to unlock the ability to pick pocket and sneak which have been default abilities in previous games. - inventory management in this game is a nightmare and requires you to filter out stuff while outside or keep adding storage containers to your outpost to store a fraction of it - the gore is lame. I had at least expected stuff like cracking open a helmet and see a frozen/bloated face inside but nope, nothing. No blood. The only fun thing you can do is blowing up folks jetpacks - one of the major factions (House Va'ruun) that has been involved in the game's lore is not available at all and only a couple random renegades can be found and fought. - the weapon upgrade system is one big chore as you have to research new parts at the research terminal which is just another grinding chore. - many planets have straightup wrong atmospheres and landscapes. Io is a planet sized volcano and guess what? The surface ingame is an icy moon instead. Venus is a blazing planet with fiery storms. The surface in the game is just a normal moon surface. What the hell? They couldn't even be bothered to get the solar system with the most abundance of reference material right. The amount of mistakes, errors and lack of quality make this game an insult to any consumer. - surprisingly few bugs compared to their previous games - the way they introduced NG+ is fun, allowing you to skip the main story part right to the finale to do the final and only interesting part of the story over and over again. --- Overall, this game launched in a poorly optimized state and I'm pretty sure the long delay was only to cut all the unfinished stuff because there is no way they thought it would be a great idea to ship a game with 4/5 dead landscape and call it a great experience. This is a game, not a simulation ffs. -------------- UPDATE: 01.12.2023 -------------- So since Bethesda's marketing team has tried to tell me that I'm playing the game wrong and that there is so much fun to be discovered in doing the same thing again and again and again, I think after another 50 hours spent in this game should be enough to say that the guy obviously doesn't play his own game. Contraband smuggling is worthless and the peanuts you get from selling them isn't worth the trouble. Side quests are meaningless and offer nothing exciting to discover. Hell, destroying and looting every ship at Deimos' shipyard is more profitable and entertaining than doing anything else the game has to offer. The game is bland and empty. If you wanna tell me that's because of realism: Gaben Newell made a pretty strong statement regarding this in a recently released documentary --> I don't play games because of realism. If I want realism, I go buy stuff at the grocery store. I play games because I want to have fun, not to experience realism. Meaning you should have never relied on real space as a reference in the first place and you should have started coming up with a game-worthy interpretation of space instead.