The REAL Problem With Starfield Isn't Starfield

I'm 50, but I'll be the first to admit that I find the rhythm of Starfield's play to be... relaxing. Almost soothing. No it's not a perfect game, but it's a game I definitely enjoy.

I am at almost 600 hours in Starfield and it continues to entertain me. Always a new surprise over the next ridge. And it was that way from the start. I got off the train, saw the woman mopping the floor, and stopped to talk to her. A cute little quest, the first of many, many more. From Spacers to Space Frog, never a dull moment.

Starfield is just such a comfortable game to me, I can spend hours on each planet just walking around scanning and mining, looting outposts, and doing the occasional randomly generated side quest from time to time. A lot of people may find it boring to explore in this game, and I get it, but to me it’s fun. I just love seeing all the different biomes and creatures, just the overall atmosphere of the game is what keeps me playing.

My favorite was a video that claimed the long promotional video for Starfield that came out not long before its release was "deceptively edited" to give the impression that we would have flight controls while landing on the planet, then proceeded to show the footage from said video where it showed the unedited landing sequence from start to finish exactly as it appears in game.

I lack the english skills to articulate, but in short: Bethesda fans should absolutely demand better, when one looks at what the competition puts out, and it's a shame they don't.

I adopted this mentality of "I want to play what the devs want to create and hope that they are able to realize everything they want to us to see". As soon I learned to think about games that way, I started to have way more fun playing games.

You said the same exact thing I thought originally: "If you combined Elite Dangerous and Starfield you would have the perfect game." I love them both!

Completely agree with your take. Starfield hit the spot for me. I'm about 110 hours in, finished the main campaign and feel as though I still have 100s of hours ahead of me. I love spending time decking out my houses/penthouse, I love spending time working out the outpost system (although some room for improvements here) and I am obsessed with ship building! The level of customisation is incredible. I'm really keen to finish all the faction quests and continue doing more random side quests. I also love how you can randomly explore any place and if you don't give yourself an agenda, but just do whatever is interesting within your immediate vicinity, it's super fun and adventurous. [Spoiler ahead] My only qualm is NG+. If all of my above mentioned ship building and outpost building was to be reset I would be devastated. I also really don't care for becoming some combat god with all of the powers maxed out. For that reason, I'm ignoring that aspect of the game and implementing the mind frame that my player fell too in love with his original universe to skip across to the next.. which to be honest there was actually dialogue options to role play that mind set too... so I'm ultimately still okay with this.

i totally agree with you! i have been having a blast playing the game. yes, i think there are areas for improvement - like enemy AI, landers, more info on what stuff does (i still have no idea what my alien DNA trait actually does!) - but the stuff people complain about, like not actually flying to a star/planet/moon - which drove me away from elite and NMS - i don't miss. thanks for this vid!

Starfield absolutely doesn't hold up against any modern Space Sim... because it's not one. Starfield is an entry in an surprisingly rare genre of RPG, the Space-centric Sci-fi ARPG. It's a genre that doesn't see a lot of entries, but Starfield shares genre with classics like the Knights of the Old Republic 1 & 2 and, more recently, the Mass Effect Trilogy. Those are the kind of game from which Starfield takes the bulk of its DNA. And when you stack Starfield up against KotOR and ME, you get a much better picture of where it succeeds and fails, rather than the false comparisons to E:D, NMS, or SC. When stacked up against others of its actual genre, Starfield pushes the boundaries of the genre in absolutely incredible ways. It represents a massive technical leap forward for the genre. Mass Effect's lackluster planetary exploration, expanded. KotOR's idea of a hero ship, expanded. Space combat, expanded. I could go on, but while it doesn't knock it out of the park in every category, it deserves a huge amount of credit for how far it has pushed the boundaries of its genre.

You hit the nail on the head as far as people's issues with the game. Thanks. So many rage bomb reviews.

As I see it, the problem isn't how good Starfield is-not awesome, but worth the price and decently fun-but that we can all see how much better it could have been if they'd done more development work. The map has a thousand planets, I bet even more will appear with DLC... imagine if each and every one had at least one side quest with that magnificent Bethesda environmental storytelling. "Entangled" is a masterpiece of a level, and the Starborn twist reveal, from "High Price to Pay" through "Unearthed" gave me chills. And of course, we once again have to talk about the Creation engine being a stone around Bethesda's neck. We've all seen people do stuff with Skyrim and Fallout 4 in the Unreal Engine. Bethesda's talented game devs are being held back by outdated tools and have been for over a decade now.

I'm 45. I've played a LOT of games. STARFIELD IS GREAT! It's just enormous, and those who bother to play the hell out of it instead of semi-speed-running, should really enjoy it. Yeah it's full of bugs, but few are really annoying, much less game-breaking. Yes Elite: Dangerous will kick its arse in terms of ship flying and combat, but I get around that by just flying less than planned, and focusing on other things. It WOULD be great if Starfield and Elite were combined! But all the Starfield hate is WAY blown out of proportion. I play an evil kleptomaniac psychopath in my Starfield videos, and I have an absolute blast doing so. I'm also sure that with future updates and DLC the game will become even better, and once modding is fully implemented... it should be S-tier. P.S. the death of Sean and my wife in Fallout 4 still haunts me! 😂

Starfield brought me back to gaming after 30 years. I’m approaching 400 hours and I’m tired of the hate. Thanks for this!

I had 0 expectaions for this game. I wasn't planning on buying it. After falloet 4 and 76 I was pretty much done with Bethesda. Then my GPU started acting up. And I decided the 6700xt was going to be the best new GPU in my price range. It came with Starfield. I've been playing since early access and have nearly 500 hours in it. It's not the best game of all time, it has some annoying things, but it's fun. I like exploring the universe. Ship building is so addictive. I haven't even started using mods yet.

As a long time Bethesda fan, Starfield fell completely flat for me. I don't think it's a bad game. But it's absolutely not the game I expected. I don't think the world/lore isn't remotely interesting. In Fallout and Elder Scrolls, the lore and environment makes the lackluster writing work because my brain fills in the details. I'm genuinely glad people enjoy the game. And I hope Bethesda takes people's criticism to heart. We all want amazing Bethesda games.

This is it: "Just because you want a piece of media to be something it isn't, doesn't mean it should have been what you wanted it to be!" [12:32] I believe we should stop treating games as mere products to be consumed, and treat them more as people with specific strengths, flaws, quirks and requirements. Sometimes there's going to be a person that seems to not be liked by a large group of players, and that can colour your experience of that person, but if you gave that person a chance, they might surprise you and be a really great friend. And if you gave them a proper chance, met with them on their level without preconceived notions, and you still feel like you can't hang with that person, then that's perfectly fine as well! No person is universally liked by everyone, but that shouldn't be the failing of the person. I know the comparison is a bit messy, but I hope you get my meaning. I absolutely love Starfield! Great video! 👍

One thing I really appreciate about the game is that it never actually tells you who or what made the artifacts and the temples and stuff. It's not important, they just exist. Maybe they were made by an intelligent life form, maybe they were made by a higher power, or maybe they're just a natural part of the universe, like rocks and light. Also, I have to say, I really do not mind not having to land on planets myself. I haven't played Elite, but in No Mans Sky it never felt particularly good anyway, just a bit janky, and I do not miss having to zoom around a planet because the place I need to get to is on the other side. Always just annoyed me.

No matter if you disagree or agree with him, you gotta admit this video is really well made. But yeah, I experienced all this when Cyberpunk came out. It felt like no one wanted to judge that game off of what it actually is, but rather would they wanted it to be. To be fair to the Cyberpunk case, the marketing painted it as something it wasn't.

Great video. Always felt like I was living in my own pocket of reality when it came to my enjoyment of this game. Much of the complaints I see don't actually feel like legitimate criticisms. They feel more like pouting and projection, which is why discourse around this game feels so alien and off putting. Think you hit the nail square on the head