Starfield

Overly Dramatic Review in One Sentence

A game that makes you cross an entire galaxy on foot while you battle the same bad guys 6000x, and you have fun while doing it... the first time.

The Actual Review

Game time = 109 Hours
Shattered Space DLC = 16 hours 39 minutes

Gameplay

This game, like all Bethesda games, you find a weapon system that works for you, and then you run around work through the missions. This game plays like the others is very repetitive.

What makes this game a little worse than others is that until the most recent update, you had to traverse the planets you explore on foot with a limited run speed. Yes, you can boost jump, but that is if you have the right gear and so on. With the update you got a land vehicle, however it came out on the new DLC which has a map that isn't very friendly to the vehicle due to the collapsed spaces. You also have randomly floating rocks that stop your vehicle from moving so you have to do these boost jumps to make any forward movement. Lastly, you have to fast travel to your vehicle back at your ship every time. Stupid.

The bosses you run into are fun, but with enough ammo (which because of the 100s of different ammo types finding can be an issue) you can just brute force the kill. I don't think this game offers much variety in that manner.

One of the last complaints I have of the Gameplay is the stealth system. I can have a suppressed weapon, be 50+ meters away from the guy I kill, let alone from the guys near him and they all will know right where I am. It is a completely broken system.

With all of these complaints, I did enjoy the game play. While repetitive, the gameplay loop on both for playing in space or on a planet/station was fun. Using boost packs to jump and shoot from behind cover, making incredible leaps, and just being immersed in the environment was really enjoyable.

I almost forgot one thing that I need to rant about. The stupid temples. Floating in zero G to hit these little floating constellations is just dumb. It makes no sense. Worst part of the gameplay loop in my opinion.

Graphics and Sound

Again, I have to say "Like all Bethesda games" there are some graphical issues. The game engine is dated, and it is showing its age just like Skyrim did when the first remake came out. I think there are like 10 Skyrims so who knows what they look like now and most of them rely on Mods to look good.

Each planet is pretty. The views from space are fun. But the planets are barren and pointless other than landing and running which takes away form the beauty and point of the effort they put in. The cities you go to are unique in there way, but it still feels like an older game because of the engine. The zoom in to have a conversation with someone shows the mouth moving, but it doesn't feel real and didn't when they game first came out.

As for the sound, you do get some cool atmospheric action sounds like in space it sounds different from when you don't have a helmet on. While I didn't like the temples, the swelling of music as you found each of the constellations was really beautiful in your ears... assuming you could get to the constellation in time.

Story and Characters

This game is dialog heavy. There are tons of companions, tons of quests, lots of planets, and just overall a boatload of characters to interact with to give the universe life. Each of them means your camera zooms in, you get to make conversation choices, and it slows the pace of the game down. While I do think conversation choices make the game interesting, especially like in this case where your conversation choice have consequences in that conversation or with that character. It is one of my favorite parts of the game, but it just happens too often and slows the game down, especially in times when you don't care about the story you are involved in. Like certain Side quest.

As for the main characters that you interact with. They are very well fleshed out. I wish that you were more forced to collect your team before exploring the universe as I would have made different choices of companions on my playthrough of the original game if I knew that I could have picked up more characters early on. The romance options for characters are fun, and it is fascinating to see what is "ok" with each character as compared to theirs and your morality. As an explainer, certain conversation choices or actions in game will pop up "____ likes that" or "____ dislikes that" which is common for Bethesda games, but it is always fun to see.

The story is what makes this game worth playing. The sense of mystery and expanse to understand is just huge, and you want to pull it through. Add in the long series side quests like the Crimson Fleet story line or the Ranger story line, you feel like the game is just so big and it is. I still don't have the achievement for landing on 100 plants even though I think that is wrong, but it is crazy how big the universe is and just that sense of "oh crap" does creep in on these missions. How the main story line ends and justifies a "New Game +", called NG+, is the best I have ever seen. Typically, if I were interested in replaying a game, I'd have to start over and just play it again. Some games give you that "New Game +" and you can just start a new game with a higher level character. This one you start with a higher level character, but you also get new conversation options or even main story line choices because of how it moves from each game play. I don't want to spoil that so ending, but it is probably one of the better options for that.

Shattered Space DLC Comments

I wanted to spend a couple of minutes to talk specifically about the DLC that was just released. First off, the game recommends being at least level 35+ to take it on, but in NG+ you are going to be higher than that, so I feel like it should adjust. Because of this, I was at the beginning of my NG+ and was level 60 thinking I'd be ok. Well the bosses were level 85+ and had multiple health pools so it was an issue.

The story for the DLC is interesting, but completely pointless especially when you have Andreja as your companion. As someone from this Coulter, she should have a lot to say about what is happening, but she doesn't. She is no more talkative in this area, which is where she is from, than the other characters do. I went out of my way to grab her thinking that having her as a guide would be a great addition to this DLC. It wasn't. Your choices in the story for the DLC only affect the DLC, and have no far-reaching problems. It is completely isolated. There was a chance to have it have galaxy wide implications, but Bethesda didn't make it that way, which makes the DLC pointless as far as story. It is no different from the Fleet or Crimson storylines. Also, the beginning story is a rip-off of Event Horizon.

Lastly, I finished 95% of the content in 16 hours with most of that being running around the planet to find different landmarks to do some achievements. This leads me to my last complaint. Some achievements require you to be involved in some time based events. I almost missed a quest because I started overhearing the conversation, but didn't finish listening to it. I had to go hunt the guy down to find the quest, which required me to google what the quest was. Also, having to run around the planet to find landmarks for an achievement is just wasteful.

If it were my first playthrough of the game, this DLC would have been great additional content. However, it being a year after the initial release, it just seems phoned in. Also, the fact that it doesn't extend beyond the planet is just a waste especially since they point out that it could.

While looking for graphics for this post, I remembered one more thing. The title of the DLC has no meaning to the game honestly.

My Rating

I like playing this game last year and this last few weeks for the DLC. It was enjoyable, but coming back to play the DLC really showed off how repetitive the gameplay is. The new planet was no different from other planets and overall, just felt like a waste of a year. If you haven't played it, it is a fun game. It is easy for you to immerse yourself in it and really feel the weight of each storyline. There are something's that could have been better, but I am glad that I played it and because of the NG+ system, I'd be more inclined to play though again if I had nothing else on my list. It is worth a playthrough.

Parental Rating

There is violence, but no gore. Romance but no sex or nudity. I think overall my parents would be ok with me playing this game as there is a lot of morality that is pushed in front of you to make large scale choices. Save the few or many type deal.

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