I rate Starfield 5.5/10 (An ok if mediocre BGS game that has its moments, but feels like a regression in quality from previous BGS titles).

Starfield as an adventure/RPG is quite poor. Starfield as an FPS is fun. After I finished the bulk of quests, I'm just turning my brain off and enjoying the FPS gunplay, combat in low gravity/zero-g.

That being said, so many features of Starfield leave you scratching your head thinking, "really?" No brainer QOL features from previous Bethesda titles are absent, and the gameplay features they DID use in Starfield are weak/poorly thought out/shoe-horned in/rushed for the deadline.

I'm guessing it was top-down decision making mismanagement that made Starfield feel like a regression in quality instead of playing on strengths found in prior Bethesda games.

There's EM weapons, ship's brig components, contraband/ smuggling system that FEELS like they should have had greater functionality and purpose, but someone met with the dev team for those systems and said "we gotta ship this game, send it as-is." And so you're left with gameplay mechanics that are TECHNICALLY there... but are functionally worthless and don't add to the game in a meaningful way.

That's just one example. I really think the lead developers/project managers made having 1000 procedurally generated planets THE CORE concept of the game, Which means that the rest of the gameplay mechanics are half-baked because they spent the majority of development on having 1000 procedurally generated, uninteresting planets, rather than focusing on exploration/worldbuilding/environmental storytelling, which were the STRONGEST parts of previous BGS titles. There's little reward for players to actually explore!


- Starfield is a mile wide and an inch deep.

-Story, quests & lore feel half-hearted, cut short for time and bland.

-Bethesda created the lore for this game, and chose the most boring time to start your adventure. Colony wars are over! No mechs or armies with weaponized aliens.

The citizens, guards, etc.. from the 2 main factions complain about each other but they're at peace. You can complete all the quests for one faction, join the next and do all the quests, and join the space pirates and do all their quests and it doesn't effect the story at all! I thought BGS would have learned what game mechanics from their previous titles worked well that players enjoyed and implement them in Starfield. I had hoped we'd get something like Skyrim or F:NV where there'd be consequences to your choices (Gain positive reputation with a faction that puts you in poor standing/locks you out from faction questlines and other locations under a faction) but the game world feels Anaemic and unresponsive to Player actions and decisions.

-game systems that seemed to have some purpose somewhere along development but were made completely redundant by full release

(crafting, cooking/food, smuggling contraband,shipbuilding, resource collection/mining, colonies, spaceship fuel/grav jump range, stealth)

- more than half the skills are unnecessary, and quite a lot of grinding is required to level up skil

-Poor U.I

-Powers are pointless; I only use "personal atmosphere" to give myself oxygen because I'm constantly over encumbered hauling only resources and loot to and from my ship

-you'll spend an hour in real time trying to sell 40,000 credits worth of loot to 6 different merchants who only have 5000 credits on hand (and the trade authority vendors, who have 12,000 credits). Selling 3-4 guns will give you every credit the vendor has on hand. You'll Have to find a bench to sit on, wait 48hrs for them to restock. And unlike previous games, a maxxed out commerce skill does NOT give you the option to invest a sum of credits with a vendor to increase their buying capacity.

-Say you want to use ammo as a second currency with vendors; you buy up all the ammo a vendor has, and sell loot to get your credits back. The U.I doesn't speed up the selection of the quantity of ammo/meds/resources you wish to sell like previous Bethesda games, so you can hold down the left thumbstick for half an hour to sell the amount that'll clear the vendor of their credits, or you can give them ALL of a stack of ammo/meds/resources saving you time, but giving the surplus value away to a vendor for free.

-I'd like to use the Bridger grenade launcher, except only some gun shops carry 40mm ammo and between 3-25 at any time. So I spend a bunch of time sitting on a bench and waiting 48hrs for them to restock, buy out all the 40mm and wait another 48hrs. Bleh

-It feels pointless to explore planets. No matter where you land, you're always 500m from the exact same abandoned robotics lab, mining outpost, frozen research station. Seriously, for a 2023 title, I know the layout of every dungeon because there's only like a dozen of them! Enemies spawn in the same places everytime, loot is found in the same places, the 3rd locker down on the left always has credsticks on its shelf.. it's pathetic. Skyrim had hundreds of unique dungeons within one province of Tamriel and STARFIELD with hundreds of empty planets and moons only has a dozen or so dungeons that are found on every planet and moon. You'll know every time where enemies spawn, where keycards spawn, where safes and contraband spawns...

-research base
-underground frozen research base
-mining facility with vats of lava
-the tall research base with the elevator
-abandoned robotics facility (with notes on how the staff were using the robots to deliver coffee)
-deeper mining facility

-you'll face either spacers, crimson fleet pirates, ecliptic mercs, or var'uun heretics at any of the dozen locations. For all intents and purposes, they are completely the same (behaviour in combat)

Whats the point of a big open world if there's nothing interesting inside?

It feels like I bought a tall glass of juice but the waiter drank 75% of it before watering it down and giving it to me for $90 CAD ($110 after tax)

In conclusion, this is a step down in quality from Bethesda compared to previous titles. Bethesda took the best gameplay mechanics from their previous games, removed the QOL mechanics and half assed shoe horned the others into Starfield. It feels like the game is underdeveloped, rushed to completion, overhyped, and absolutely disappointing for a 2023 title from a triple A game studio.

I'd wait a year or two for the game to go on sale.. it wouldn't feel right to pay more than $30 for the game (don't spend $90+ like I did on Starfield!)

That being said, If Bethesda listens to player feedback and provides free, meaningful updates I will update my review accordingly. For the time being, I'm not interested in paying more for additional DLC when the base game at full price feels incomplete.

I rate Starfield 5.5/10 (An ok if mediocre BGS game that has its moments, but feels like a regression in quality from previous BGS titles). Starfield as an adventure/RPG is quite poor. Starfield as an FPS is fun. After I finished the bulk of quests, I'm just turning my brain off and enjoying the FPS gunplay, combat in low gravity/zero-g. That being said, so many features of Starfield leave you scratching your head thinking, "really?" No brainer QOL features from previous Bethesda titles are absent, and the gameplay features they DID use in Starfield are weak/poorly thought out/shoe-horned in/rushed for the deadline. I'm guessing it was top-down decision making mismanagement that made Starfield feel like a regression in quality instead of playing on strengths found in prior Bethesda games. There's EM weapons, ship's brig components, contraband/ smuggling system that FEELS like they should have had greater functionality and purpose, but someone met with the dev team for those systems and said "we gotta ship this game, send it as-is." And so you're left with gameplay mechanics that are TECHNICALLY there... but are functionally worthless and don't add to the game in a meaningful way. That's just one example. I really think the lead developers/project managers made having 1000 procedurally generated planets THE CORE concept of the game, Which means that the rest of the gameplay mechanics are half-baked because they spent the majority of development on having 1000 procedurally generated, uninteresting planets, rather than focusing on exploration/worldbuilding/environmental storytelling, which were the STRONGEST parts of previous BGS titles. There's little reward for players to actually explore! - Starfield is a mile wide and an inch deep. -Story, quests & lore feel half-hearted, cut short for time and bland. -Bethesda created the lore for this game, and chose the most boring time to start your adventure. Colony wars are over! No mechs or armies with weaponized aliens. The citizens, guards, etc.. from the 2 main factions complain about each other but they're at peace. You can complete all the quests for one faction, join the next and do all the quests, and join the space pirates and do all their quests and it doesn't effect the story at all! I thought BGS would have learned what game mechanics from their previous titles worked well that players enjoyed and implement them in Starfield. I had hoped we'd get something like Skyrim or F:NV where there'd be consequences to your choices (Gain positive reputation with a faction that puts you in poor standing/locks you out from faction questlines and other locations under a faction) but the game world feels Anaemic and unresponsive to Player actions and decisions. -game systems that seemed to have some purpose somewhere along development but were made completely redundant by full release (crafting, cooking/food, smuggling contraband,shipbuilding, resource collection/mining, colonies, spaceship fuel/grav jump range, stealth) - more than half the skills are unnecessary, and quite a lot of grinding is required to level up skil -Poor U.I -Powers are pointless; I only use "personal atmosphere" to give myself oxygen because I'm constantly over encumbered hauling only resources and loot to and from my ship -you'll spend an hour in real time trying to sell 40,000 credits worth of loot to 6 different merchants who only have 5000 credits on hand (and the trade authority vendors, who have 12,000 credits). Selling 3-4 guns will give you every credit the vendor has on hand. You'll Have to find a bench to sit on, wait 48hrs for them to restock. And unlike previous games, a maxxed out commerce skill does NOT give you the option to invest a sum of credits with a vendor to increase their buying capacity. -Say you want to use ammo as a second currency with vendors; you buy up all the ammo a vendor has, and sell loot to get your credits back. The U.I doesn't speed up the selection of the quantity of ammo/meds/resources you wish to sell like previous Bethesda games, so you can hold down the left thumbstick for half an hour to sell the amount that'll clear the vendor of their credits, or you can give them ALL of a stack of ammo/meds/resources saving you time, but giving the surplus value away to a vendor for free. -I'd like to use the Bridger grenade launcher, except only some gun shops carry 40mm ammo and between 3-25 at any time. So I spend a bunch of time sitting on a bench and waiting 48hrs for them to restock, buy out all the 40mm and wait another 48hrs. Bleh -It feels pointless to explore planets. No matter where you land, you're always 500m from the exact same abandoned robotics lab, mining outpost, frozen research station. Seriously, for a 2023 title, I know the layout of every dungeon because there's only like a dozen of them! Enemies spawn in the same places everytime, loot is found in the same places, the 3rd locker down on the left always has credsticks on its shelf.. it's pathetic. Skyrim had hundreds of unique dungeons within one province of Tamriel and STARFIELD with hundreds of empty planets and moons only has a dozen or so dungeons that are found on every planet and moon. You'll know every time where enemies spawn, where keycards spawn, where safes and contraband spawns... -research base -underground frozen research base -mining facility with vats of lava -the tall research base with the elevator -abandoned robotics facility (with notes on how the staff were using the robots to deliver coffee) -deeper mining facility -you'll face either spacers, crimson fleet pirates, ecliptic mercs, or var'uun heretics at any of the dozen locations. For all intents and purposes, they are completely the same (behaviour in combat) Whats the point of a big open world if there's nothing interesting inside? It feels like I bought a tall glass of juice but the waiter drank 75% of it before watering it down and giving it to me for $90 CAD ($110 after tax) In conclusion, this is a step down in quality from Bethesda compared to previous titles. Bethesda took the best gameplay mechanics from their previous games, removed the QOL mechanics and half assed shoe horned the others into Starfield. It feels like the game is underdeveloped, rushed to completion, overhyped, and absolutely disappointing for a 2023 title from a triple A game studio. I'd wait a year or two for the game to go on sale.. it wouldn't feel right to pay more than $30 for the game (don't spend $90+ like I did on Starfield!) That being said, If Bethesda listens to player feedback and provides free, meaningful updates I will update my review accordingly. For the time being, I'm not interested in paying more for additional DLC when the base game at full price feels incomplete.