You leap forward on your ship’s Grav Drive, and you have reached the remnant of the abandoned wonder of The Old World, centuries later. Still standing and welcoming an explorer who had seen the stars expand beyond what their forefathers would have believed to be possible, Doing nothing, but taking in the sight of history.
Starfield is Bethesda at its best. A game that has Space Operas, Bounty Hunting, and even Space Cowboys wrapped into a game that has even me, a seasoned Bethesda fan, shocked at what the magicians in Maryland have come up with after 10 years.
It has been a joy playing this game, and while there are some faults here and there, there’s no doubt that this game is going to be one of the greatest.
Presentation
When we first drop into the city of New Atlantis, the game’s first location, you be greeted with the sights of advancement, not only within the in-game lore-wise, but also seeing the graphical improvements that Bethesda has made since Fallout 76. Everything looks much clearer and the terrain feels more varied than before, which helps along with their new mechanics but we’ll get to that.
The locations you visit feel larger than life, with the added notion that things around it are also persistently there (something you might have seen in Fallout 76). Like, if you leave a Sandwich on the floor of a Mars base, and go on a questline, you will see it there after you return, still loaded for you to either keep it there still or consume. And while this was traded for framerate for the console version, I don’t mind trading it for something this niche on a proprietary engine.
In the Character creation, which is done after the tutorial, where you design a would-be Explorer and add a new background selection that helps your character get perks in the first level and also choose a Trait, where you can benefit and even hinder your playthrough and create those interesting stories around your Captain.
Now, without going into detail, the storyline for Starfield might be one of the few story-based games that tie its bows of plotlines quite well, with interesting quests within both main and sides that have that rather fascinating outcomes that even I didn’t expect them to go for at times.
It’s super engaging and has that freeformness that I feel we haven’t seen since Oblivion, where everything flows well with what you do within the universe.
Audio is quite of a treat as well, the orchestral tone of the background music definitely makes the dynamic music feel alive, crescendos during big discoveries or intense combat makes it feel like you’re an explorer of the unknown.
And like any Bethesda game, their cast of characters and voices are incredibly well done, with your companions ranging from the likes of Sara Morgan (Voiced by Y’shtola in Final Fantasy XIV, Emily O’Brian), Sam Coe (Elias Toufexis, aka Mr. Adam Jensen himself) and even Barrett (voice by Barry Wiggins, who had a role in a small sci-fi indie show called Star Trek), bringing their unique voice in this space adventure and would gladly accept their company along our adventure.
Gameplay
A lot of the elements for the gameplay loops have been changed for Starfield, which differs from the likes of the Elder Scrolls and Fallout, like your traversal mechanics are overhauled to include Ship Exploring and Combating, with the random encounters now even appearing in space as well. Its open-endedness feels (to me at least) like playing Fallout 3 for the first time, like you won’t expect anything and it sells the notion that you really are exploring the unknowns of the galaxy.
Though my only complaint about exploring the vastness of Space is the in-game surface map is a bit awful. But I guess it is on purpose since Constellation is a exploring group and creating a map outline for this many locations would be a pain. But at least the addition of Scanners ( also kind of like the VATS system in Fallout) does help navigate toward places not that cumbersome. So it’s a bit of a balancing act.
The movement did get a very important addition that I love and probably had made the dev team work many cycles to get it to work on their Creation Engine, and that is the ability to ledge onto surfaces and get to climb ladders (!?!) in locations and outposts.
But really, the new movement makes traversing so much better and helps sell the scales of the planets being this huge, with the old motto of “You see that mountain, you can climb it” now in full force.
Combat, however, is an interesting topic. On the ground, it is your standard affair of shooting, sneaking, and melee combat that you will be familiar with (with a special surprise that I’ll get to later on), but the Ship combat is by far one of the most exciting things to be added in the Bethesda lineup in recent times.
Like, think Star Wars Squadron but slower and more involved with you having to switch between your power nodes towards what you might need, so more power on the cannons/laser but less maneuverability and shield? Or vice versa? Your choice.
And after all that jazz, you can kick back and enjoy the slower things in life with the game’s building tools and create an Outpost on a distant planet (you can colonize Pluto if you want) or even modify your ship to be one big homage to Sci-Fi or a cozy fleet that you added a ladder to because you can now.
Though searching for elements to research and build these items does feel tedious at times, it does help to make you explore the Planets for these pieces to create. All in all, these elements combined together make it fun to play Starfield and I’m glad to see how it flows well with one another.
Content
Starfield is huge. Like, if you’re not rushing through the main story campaign and do side stuff like dismantling Space Piracy or debt collecting across the galaxy, there is a lot to do in the confines of Space. Like it took me 30 hours to get towards the end for this review and then we roll credits…
… Well that was the plan. Unlike the previous Bethesda games (or even like in Fallout New Vegas where the game ends after the final quest), Starfield kicks you into New Game Plus after that, which I can’t say much, but it was an interesting out-of-body experience for those wanting to play more Starfield, that’s for sure.
But all in all, nearly all of the Quest chains that you’ll go through feels more in-depth and more branching than Skyrim or Fallout so you won’t have any issues finding stuff to do.
Personal Enjoyment
I shall put on my fanboy beanie, and say that I do love the stuff that Bethesda has made (even ESO and Fallout 76) and Starfield reminds me of playing Fallout 3 for the first time after getting a PC. The wonderment of not knowing what was in store had me engaged for long sessions and knowing that I have missed even some major quest points that my friends have gotten, makes me interested in playing the game even more.
Between this and Baldur’s Gate 3, it is amazing that two of my favorite genres of RPG are getting the main spotlight in this year of amazing games.
Verdict
Starfield is the return of Bethesda at its finest, with a game that explores the unknown with how it plays and lands what it wants to achieve with its own brand of RPG style. The story and systems of this game will charm anyone who wants to join the Bethesda or even the Xbox camp for the first time. And it’s a pretty decent pick for our 2nd ever game to get a 10 out of 10.
So set course for the Stars, as they await.
Played on Xbox Series S with some help from PC, Review copy (PC) provided by the publisher.
Starfield
The return of Bethesda at its finest, with a game that explores the unknown with how it plays and lands what it wants to achieve with its own brand of RPG style.
- Presentation 10
- Gameplay 10
- Content 10
- Personal Enjoyment 10