Starfield - No Man's Bethesda

[CriticalGaming]

Review embargo lifts at some point today as well as the early acess start. This is going to be a game to watch whether it is good or bad so i figured it is time to drop a thread for reviews and our own thoughts and impressions.

There is some concerning news coming out on twitter, like you can only land on a planet 4 times before the game deletes other planets from memory making it impossible to return to previous planets youve been to before. Probably has to go with the random generation and the game not being able to save infinite randknky made things in your game, so i dont know how much of an impact this will have.

Also the invisible wall thing is because planets are really just random tile sets instead of actual worlds. So each planet is the same as a random dungeon in a diablo game in the sense that the game makes a tile set with enemy bases and rng loot but isnt a fully explorable space.

The game unlocks in a couple of hours so the full scope will be known soon.

 

[meiam]

Honestly those random planets are just a waste of development time, my hope is that it'll be like setllement in FO4 and after a quick introduction you'll be able to ignore them all. So while them being limited is worrying, in a way I'm glad they didn't seem to have spent much time on them.

 

[hanselthecaretaker2]

Review embargo lifts at some point today as well as the early acess start. This is going to be a game to watch whether it is good or bad so i figured it is time to drop a thread for reviews and our own thoughts and impressions.

There is some concerning news coming out on twitter, like you can only land on a planet 4 times before the game deletes other planets from memory making it impossible to return to previous planets youve been to before. Probably has to go with the random generation and the game not being able to save infinite randknky made things in your game, so i dont know how much of an impact this will have.

Also the invisible wall thing is because planets are really just random tile sets instead of actual worlds. So each planet is the same as a random dungeon in a diablo game in the sense that the game makes a tile set with enemy bases and rng loot but isnt a fully explorable space.

The game unlocks in a couple of hours so the full scope will be known soon.

Sounds like this one is ripe to be picked apart on youtube like a deer carcass at the wolves’ feeding time.

 

[Dreiko]

For me it's kinda silly to complain about there being loading screens or invisible walls, the focus should be on what is there being fun or not, not whether you can walk across the entire planet or some other silly made up goal that serves no narrative purpose. My understanding is that you can explore entire planets, just panel by panel, but it also doesn't sound like there's much point in doing so because presumably each panel will draw from the same pool of rng whereas going to a different planet would give you a new pool of content to rng from, so it'd be more interesting.


I think too many people are infatuated with silly ideas and mini-goals they make up in their heads in games like this and are forgetting what is really fun about these bethesda style rpgs. Having an epic quest and a ton of loot and making cool choices, that stuff. Not whether you can walk from one end of the planet to the other without having to go on the spaceship.

 

[BrawlMan]

I have no interest in this upcoming disaster. I do not wish to diminish the developers efforts, but I'll be playing the real good video games now and coming out later. Not another open world title with gas lighting hype and a bunch of bugs and glitches, with the usual false promises people keep lapping up and falling into.

 

[Summerstorm]

So far... i have no expectations. Barely heard anything about this game. For the longest time didn't even know what they were making. Hm, when was the last genuine good Bethesda game without any bullshit (And not made by Arkane). Was it Oblivion... which introduced 4.99 Horse-armor fuckery?

Wait have to look Bethesda up... did they develop anything or just publish. Nope just Elder Scrolls and Fallout. So... what are we expecting exactly here? (Well ok, always MIGHT be possible for a huge-IP-driven soulless corporation to turn around i guess.)

So maybe this might be a good platform for the modders to create something, who knows?

 

[hanselthecaretaker2]

What’s funny is this was from over two years ago and they had already called it -

Starfield Is Already Becoming a Victim of Its Own Hype - The Escapist

The public knows almost nothing about Starfield from Bethesda Game Studios, yet the hype and rumors are spiraling out of control already.

www.escapistmagazine.com

 

[CriticalGaming]

Ok so ive been looking into the planet thing. Apparently what happens is each landing zone you make creates an explorable zone on that planet for you. You can make up to four landing zones on a planet at one time. If you make a 5th landing zone the game deletes your oldest landing point. So basically these arent planets you can fully explore as much as they are themed tilesets you spawn randomly with each landing zone. And the game will save up to 4 landing zones at a time. It is jnclear if these will persist between planets or not, but it is also unclear if there is even a reason to revisit planets at all once you are through with them.

 

[hanselthecaretaker2]

 

[CriticalGaming]

 

[BrawlMan]

What’s funny is this was from over two years ago and they had already called it -

Starfield Is Already Becoming a Victim of Its Own Hype - The Escapist

The public knows almost nothing about Starfield from Bethesda Game Studios, yet the hype and rumors are spiraling out of control already.

www.escapistmagazine.com

Not to downplay what they called out, but most people with sense already knew what was going to happen.

 

[CriticalGaming]

 

[Old_Hunter_77]

Thanks, u/CriticalGaming, I was about to do that same.

A couple of months ago I decided to sell my XBox simply to decrease screen time. My feelings about Starfield were simply that as much as I enjoyed Skyrim, I wasn't THAT big into the whole Bethesda thing (I tried Fallout 3 and got bored, I just don't like post-apocalypse stuff). I think Bethesda is cool and all, I'm just like... eh. But the main thing that disinterested was personal taste- running around with guns and shooting things is boring to me personally and "how is the guns" is such a big part of the concern and I don't care.

The thing about the trailers that intrigued me most is space travel and dog fights- you know, the ship stuff. Well I got that sort of thing out of my system with Everspace 2 for now.

The other thing I was kinda meh was just the general aesthetic. The previews looked ok.. I dunno. If it weren't all the hype and media circus it would look like the perfect "it's already on my subscription" game- which of course it is, if you have Gamepass, and I'm happy for the folks that do! For sure if I kept my XBox and subscription I would play it, obviously.

So I think we were all like, yeah, this is gonna be Fallout in space, right? If you like Fallout and space, you're golden. Well, so far, it looks like Fallout in space.

Looking at IGN's summary above, I am most impressed by intriguing side quests and interconnected systems. This suggests room for updates and mods and DLC's that can make the game last for years. I can see myself building a PC in my new home in a year or two and playing it on that.

I am following the Starfield reactions out of amusement. It seems like a fine game, and the internet is making it so much more. We are a silly people.

 

[FakeSympathy]

Starfield reviews are coming out. Most of them agree the game is huge and packed with contents, but they just don't seem to compliment each other. Beginning hours are rough, and it takes a very long time for the game to get enjoyable so I guess Todd/Pete made good on their words. The gun gameplay is really stale, especially considering past FO games had the VATS.

Bugs are there (big shocker!), but at least the game seems stable enough. Overall, the game is good enough for purchase on day 1, but don't expect anything mind-blowing

Personally, I think I'm just gonna wait until Steam Winter Sale

 

[laggyteabag]

So its okay.

The deep-dive at the last Microsoft showcase admittedly really piqued my interest, but these reviews are really bringing the game back into the reality that I always kind of expected the game to settle into: apparent mediocrity.

I wonder if Microsoft are starting to regret their acquisition of Bethesda. Starfield doesn't seem close to being a Redfall, but it definitely doesn't appear to be the critical hit that they were probably depending on, and combined with Redfall, this hasn't been a great showing for Bethesda and Team Green.

EDIT: It has an 88 on Metacritic at the time of writing, so this can hardly be considered a critical failure, but every review that I have watched so far seem to be pretty lukewarm on the game. It seems if you really like Bethesda's previous output, you are probably going to really like this one, but it doesn't seem to be doing much to bring in much of a new audience.

 

[meiam]

So yeah sounds like about what you'd expect, decent but nothing amazing because it tries to many things but you'll get good play time for your bucks. It's easy to say they shouldn't have bothered with some aspect (don't care for settlement, ship customization or RNG planet) but one person pointless side activity might be somebody main reason to play.

Lots of small questions that I have aren't really adresses by these review, are there good money sink, how does the healing system works, is there some sort of replacement for the lack of a magic system, but again those are probably details that most people don't care much for.

I'll probably play it because there the closest things to immersive sim that still get made (also I don't work next week, so what else am I gonna do)

 

[CriticalGaming]

 

[PsychedelicDiamond]

I think the setting of Starfield looks pretty neat. But my experience tells me that I don't enjoy Bethesda games.

 

[hanselthecaretaker2]

View attachment 9574

Gotta wonder, if their score would’ve been more forgiving if BG3 hadn’t come out last month, lol. Kinda shows how much timing can impact people’s perceptions. The sad part is this translates to added pressure on devs to get it done.

 

[Old_Hunter_77]

As I was clicking around youtubes while working I got sucked into this conversation about the game:


It's three women who have different historical experiences with Bethesda games. They start with a mostly positive experience but then get hung up on inventory and menus and the various annoyances. The frustration speaks to my soul lol.

I know it's long but on this day 1 post embargo it's the most revelatory discussion I personally came across.

> I'll probably play it because there the closest things to immersive sim that still get made (also I don't work next week, so what else am I gonna do)

Premature, my dude, it's not even out for most people yet. Also the review are mostly positive actually.
The proof will be in the pudding- is it selling, is it gaining or keeping Gamepass subscribers? I'd be shocked if the answer won't be a resounding success.