Starfield Review

Overview

Starfield, here we are the next big game single player experience from Bethesda Game Studios, and the big blockbuster game for Xbox to close out the year. The position that the studio find themselves in is quite a predicament, where their brand and image is still in a stage of recovery after the disastrous release of Fallout 76 (why am I still getting hate meme). Coupled with the fact that Starfield was to be the follow up big release for Xbox coming off the back of Redfall. To say the stakes were high for Starfield is an understatement.

Thankfully, in my eyes Starfield is the homerun that both Bethesda and Xbox needed. Starfield is an odd feeling game where it feels ambitious and outdated simultaneously. Starfield takes many forms, and includes many features, some that will wow you and others that are beginning to show their age. Ultimately, Starfield doesn't reinvent the wheel, but instead provides an experience that is to me the culmination of all of Bethesda's learnings from their 20+ years of marrying many of the best aspects from The Elder Scrolls and Fallout universes. To some this may feel outdated, and in some respects I'd say, you're right. But with that said Starfield feels like a love letter to that familiar feeling and DNA that I feel made us fall in love with these games in the first place. Starfield is a game that when showcased back in June looked to be an extremely ambitious title, aiming to tackle various components of the Sc-Fi space exploration experience. When everything is clicking together, and you're in sync with the game Starfield is a game that feels like it is another immersive universe that Bethesda have created. However, Starfield's greatest strength is also its greatest weakness, as the sheer scope of Starfield's universe feels like it is fighting against you at times through it's fragmented exploration that has you filtering through menus to fast travel to each destination, which can provide a polarizing experience even to those who have been in love with the Bethesda formula from the get go.

So after 100 hours how do I feel about Starfield? Well, in that span of time I've become a ranger, a pirate, gotten married, stopped a space alien outbreak, and built a some crazy ships, become a storyteller to the media, and worked for a megacorp to name a few things. There is a wealth of activities, quests, and experiences to be had.

Starfield is a game that I have more fond memories of then negative ones. It is a slow burn that slowly opens up and exposes you to its vast universe the more you engage with it. It is a game that shoots for the stars and when it hits the right notes shines as bright as bright as one. You may not love it straight away and I believe this is due to what I'd call a calibration period where you're settling into the world, the various systems. It makes sense why people would bounce off this game however, as I feel Starfield is Fallout in space, but it also isn't. It's core forms of exploration, building mechanics or combat, set Starfield apart for better or worse, and whilst you may not click with all of them, I feel Starfield as an overall video game is greater than the sum of all its parts, ladies and gentlemen welcome to my review of Starfield.

(little intro)

Story

Main Story

So we'll kick this review off by discussing the story and universe for Starfield where much like any other BGS game you take control of a customizable character who is working in the mines when one day they discover an ancient relic known as an artefact, upon this discovery the player is inducted into the team of adventurous explorers known as Constellation, and the journey of collecting the artefacts and understanding their meaning begins. The main questline for Starfield is overall pretty decent, it has moments that really shine, and other moments that can feel a little weak. One welcomed return here in Starfield is the focus on choices with many of there quests, where actions felt won and earnt based on your character and the skills invested. Starfield's story is interesting when it wants to be, with some missions that really standout and one mission in particular that felt like something out of Titanfall. But I do feel that the story also does come with some moments that can feel a little dull, and also feel like a boilerplate side quest more than something that should be a part of the main storyline. With that being said, Starfield's world and universe didn't spring to life for me from progressing through the main story, but more the lore, the history, factions and side quests played into fleshing out and populating the Settled Systems.

Faction quests Side Quests

Starfield like any BGS game fleshes out and expands upon it's broader universe and current conflicts through the use of factions. Factions in Starfield are used as a driver to provide insight on many of the different major players and perspectives of prominent figures in the Settled Systems. But on top of this these factions are very much indicative of the lifestyles that inhabit many of these various cities of these factions. The role that you play in these questlines are all distinct and make you feel like your actions have an impact on the world, and you're making a difference. I loved many of the different faction quests here from the Space Pirate adventures of the Crimson Fleet, to living like a Space Cowboy on Akila with the Freestar Collective. Another thing that I loved about the faction quests is that they too, similar to the main questline also come with choices which can impact how people reflect upon your actions and they can greatly diverge the questline in a particular direction based on how you played a particular mission

On top of the stellar faction quests comes the side quests, which provide more intimate micro-stories that flesh out many of the smaller settlements, and cities within the settled systems. The way that you also acquire these quests too is quite fascinating you can stumble upon something randomly, or even much like in previous BGS games have people come up to you and talk to you which will give you an activity, will can lead you down a rabbit hole of questlines. It is something to me that is familiar but weirdly refreshing. Starfield explores a diverse set of stories that are scattered across the far reaches of the settled systems, where you can pick up an audio log that guides you to a secret outpost, to helping a stranded fleet of people on a ship make contact with people on the planet below or grav jump to another galaxy. There are also companion quests, much like what you'd expect if you're familiar with Fallout or Elder Scrolls. I feel like many of the main cast here in Starfield that you get to know really well, have quite compelling backstories, that will send you off into interesting side adventures, and have there own interesting implications, depending on how you proceed with them. But honestly, the world of Starfield, the Settled Systems, are full of interesting stories, dilemmas and ideas that make you awe in the grounded space future of humankind, whilst the game tries to predict its own curiosities of its future within these settled systems. There is something special about landing in a major or minor city and that sense the atmosphere that tells a story within itself of what type of place this environment will be, but more on that later.

Gameplay

Approaches to Combat

Gunplay

Starfield's combat feels the most fluid and fun that it has ever been within a Bethesda Game. The gunplay, in particular feels a lot more weighty and impactful based on the particular weapon required, and the sheer variety of weapons available throughout your playthrough are crazy. From the techy shotguns like the Shotty to the more old world weapons that resemble things like the Ak-47. There are tons of different weapons that provide an added dimension to the combat, and I remember reading a couple of months ago, that ID studio had helped Bethesda to some degree here with the combat, and it could be felt throughout my playthrough. It feels like the team had taken many of the aspects of Fallout 4's gunplay, arguably one of the more strong components of that game, and have built on that heavily here, with some returning features, where you can peak out from corners to shoot enemies. Another aspect to the gunplay that again I feel is built upon the foundations of Fallout 4, it is the mods that can be applied to weapons in Starfield, because there are a large variety of mods that allow you the tailor the weapon to your playstyle or approach, for example adding scopes, or making a rifle semi-automatic or full burst. There are tons of different mods, and different damage types that work proficiently against different types of enemies. Speaking of the enemies, this is the side of combat that does feel a bit on the weaker side. The NPC's in this game are fairly standard for what you'd expect in a Bethesda game. They can catch you out and kill you and if you go to planets early where the wildlife over-levels you, they will deck you every time. But most of the average combat encounters that you'll run into in Starfield are fairly easy given, how lenient the enemies feel at times. But I feel that the enemies feel this way due to how well the combat feels, where it feels like one aspect of the combat feels really well polished, and the other side feels like it is still at a middling level.

Melee-Combat

The Melee-combat in Starfield from what I did experience is decent, from what I experienced there isn't anything like melee takedown or finishers, or any forms of dismemberment like in Fallout. I feel like some melee weapons feel better than others in terms of feelings where blades do feel like the do feel a bit flimsy and do feel like they're made out of plastic. However, the feeling of swinging your fists and attacking various different aliens and humans. It can feel really satisfying, two standouts to me are the axes and the good old fists. I didn't put any skills into improving melee combat, so that could also be a factor that I can't really speak to, but overall I think that the core combat on the ground is pretty satisfying, and if you couple the melee combat with different aspects of stealth you're able to deal extra damage, or provides an alternative method of dodging combat entirely.

Ship Combat

One new domain that Bethesda have stepped into with regards to combat here in Starfield is the new ship combat, which I'm not going to lie for the first 10 hours I really wasn't clicking with the space combat, it felt a clunky and awkward to navigate. But the more that I engaged with the combat, customized my ship and explored the Settled Systems, space combat became one aspect of the game that I genuinely loved. The ship management aspect of Starfield is divided into two parts, the resource management side and the building and ship building side. When piloting your ship in Starfield you'll be provided a finite amount of resources that you'll have to distribute and redistribute on the go, where you may need to put resources into your lasers and missiles when in combat, or putting points into shields or grav jumping if the situation heads south. The space combat in Starfield once you do get a feel for it, is a ton of fun and it does open up more and more with skills that you can apply to piloting or through building and evolving your ships which comes with a ton of different practical usages. I'll be honest, I grew to love the space combat of in Starfield the more I engaged with it, and after doing a particular factions storyline, it felt like a ton of different modules become available to further blow the lid off the different ways you can build and tailor your ships. For all of Starfield's faults that you may find in its exploration, I do feel that these zones that you explore in space whether it is docking and exploring massive abandoned space frighters or dogfighting with a bunch of space pirates, these moments independently are a ton of fun, but I'm getting a head of myself here, and we'll touch on this more shortly.

Persuasion Mechanic

The new Persuasion Mini-game is a great addition where you can enter a dialogue with different NPC's you guessed it persuade them to give you information, call a truce, or pay you more. The influence Persuasion has on the choices makes it feel worth attempting when you can. The mini game itself is also quite fun to engage with as you'll be given a range of dialogue options to select from to fill the bar of points required to persuade the person. You'll be given dialogue options worth more points and that have a colour spanning from green, orange, and red and this will dictate the level of difficulty or chance of failure that dialogue option has. However, one awesome thing that I feel Starfield does with this system is that it let's you play to the temperament of the person you're trying to persuade, if you understand the type of person you're trying to persuade you can feel more confident attempting the harder dialogue options and having them work in your favour. Some examples of this from my experience was being a hostage negotiator and convincing the bank robbers to stand down and turn themselves in, and convincing space pirates to leave stop looting a mining outpost. There are plenty of opportunities in available where you're able to flex your silver tongue and produce a much quicker or more effective outcome, and sometimes shorten the process to get to your objective.

There really is no shortage of methods to approach combat, and situations that come your way in Starfield and each particular option comes with its own responses and reactions, that often do carry some sort of convince or disadvantage, making how you build your character feel important, and whilst it may not feel as narrow as bespoke as some other RPG's I do feel like it is a good balance for what Bethesda game tend to operate within.

Gameplay Systems

Character Creation

Backstories and Traits

Kicking things off for the gameplay systems, we'll dive into the overhaul to character creation. The Character Creation in Starfield is probably the most detailed creator out of any Bethesda game to date in terms of features you can use to mold your character. However, on the RPG front this does feel like an amalgamation of many of the character building aspects of Bethesda's prior works. You'll firstly be told to pick a class much like in Oblivion this will give your character particular proficiencies in a particular skill set. Some of these classes span from being a Netrunner, Space Scondural, or a Ronin. These classes in of themselves also do provide provide their own checks at times too, albeit rarely. The second big component that factors into your character creation, is three traits that you can pick. Most of these traits are pretty diverse where you can own a dream home that comes with a hefty debt, meet your parents, or have an adoring fan constantly obsess and follow you around. Starfield's ability to let you create and tailor a character strikes a good balance between providing you enough to make your character feel unique, but it doesn't give you everything, encouraging you to evolve through other means and re-experience the game through other means.

Skills

That brings me to the skills in Starfield, where I'd say that the Classes take influence from Elder Scrolls, the skill trees take influence from Fallout, but more importantly Starfield's skill trees feel like a response to Fallout 4's middling skill tree progression. If there was one thing that I felt in Fallout 4 really demotivated me from replaying it, that would be how Bethesda handled the skill tree system, essentially allowing you to practically unlock every ability in a single playthrough.

Here in Starfield, there are an overwhelming amount of skill trees that are divided into different broad categories that you can tailor to your play style. Where this gets interesting is how you unlock or level up a skill. For example, you can invest a skill point into lockpicking, and this will allow you to unlock the most basic of locks, but you'll need to actually use this skill before you can upgrade this skill and unlock harder safes. This system feels like a perfect middle ground for progression between Fallout's perk based system and the Elder Scrolls, level up through usage system.

The skills themselves in Starfield do feel like they provide useful abilities that do have a meaningful upgrade and use case to the player. They all contribute to a bunch of different playstyles and ways that you want to approach scenarios. There's melee and weapon combat with different proficies tied to different weapons you choose to use. There's also different social related perks that allow you to meet speech requirements and avoid conflicts that way, alongside stealth and theft, and picklocking skills which can help you bypass enemies too. The skills and upgrades in Starfield always felt meaningful to me, providing an actual functional uses and really made your character feel like a certain type of character. For example, I picked space scoundrel and I wanted to play as some Han Solo type of character and my perk choices, particularly early on reflected that with a heavy emphasis on piloting and ship skills, and using speech to navigate situations. There are a lot of different types of character types that you can play as in Starfield and I do feel like this sense of identity that makes your character and build feel special is the approach to skills, and I feel that Bethesda has hit the nail on the head here.

Ship-building

So earlier I discussed the ship combat and said that ships in Starfield are divided into two separate components ship combat and resource management which revolves around the exploration, and then there's the ship building component which is its own entirely different mechanic and dynamic that plays a part into the overall Starfield experience and that's what we'll be getting into now. So how is the ship building in Starfield? To me, it was one of the most addictive parts of the experience. This continuous shopping around for new parts, exploring new locations, looting new ships and trying to customize, modify, and squeeze that extra little piece of juice out of my ship was one of the greatest parts of the experience.

But it isn't just the individual components of the ships that you can assemble to make your space travels go smoothly, but also your crew, spanning from members of Constellation, other companions that you can meet out in the settled systems. Another great spot if you're looking for an extra set of hands, are the various different bars scattered across the settled systems, which have people always in need of a job that can be staffed to work at your various outposts or your ship.

The ships in Starfield are comprised of many different components that you're juggling spanning from the habs which house people, to cargo hold's which will be the main place that you will be storing a lot of your loot. The mixing and matching, little upgrades, and sheer level of expression that you can put into your ship is astounding. Throughout my playthrough I would be exploring places like the Starfield subreddit to see what different creations people had made, and I've seen some cool looking ships inspired from Star Wars and Cowboy Bebop, to more bulky or abstract ships that completely dominate in combat. The ship building aspect of Starfield can feel overwhelming at first, but trust me the more that you start to play around and upgrade your engines, and grav drive, you're able to explore more of the far reaches of the settled systems, and

Outposts

Starfield sees the return of Outposts it feels like Bethesda have gone all in on the foundations and sandbox that they established with settlements in Fallout 4. Here in Starfield, the outposts feel like they provide a more practical and meaningful use case that transforms the game from a space exploration RPG to more a base building sim so some extent. These outposts that you build will have you collecting resources to build new facilities within your outposts. It feels like a much more simplistic version of something like Satisfactory where you're mining resources to produce and further expand your outpost, except Bethesda have kept things pretty straightforward. Much like how you can assign crew members on your ship, you can also assign various companions that you find out in the settled systems to your various outposts. Here they'll work, live and take care of your outpost, and particular companions will have skills that provide additional benefits that will improve how the outpost is managed.

Outposts to me were one of those things in Starfield I feel I neglected for a good part of my playthrough, but towards the later end and even now I'm still logging in to collect resources and better my outposts, and it has become as if I'm playing a different game when I get into my outpost grind. But overall, I do think that the outposts and setting up various different outposts can be quite a fun, albeit time consuming experience, it is one that I think if it is your jam, than you'll get lost for hours in the outposts, just as easy as it is to get lost in the ship building. It'll be interesting to see how Bethesda and the modding community iterate on outposts, as I do believe that Bethesda have provided a strong template for sandboxes and further building to be added in the future. There a various directions that they can take leaning more heavily into base building and factory management, or even take a horde mode approach. Based on how it stands now the outpost aspect of Starfield is a fun little detour that feels like something you can get lost in, or completely ignore if you want to.

Cooking & Crafting

Starfield takes many of the crafting aspects found in Fallout 4 and feeds them more into the overall experience where you're levelling up and investing your skills into mods which better help you cook and craft different core components that feed into the different aspects of Starfield's building loop. These systems evolve through a the research panel. How the research panel works is that you deposit an amount of particular resources, and you'll be able to unlock different mods for your armor and guns, different medicine, different recipes to cook, and structures to benefit your outposts. This loop of researching new items, and upgrading and iterating on existing core components of Starfield, opens the game up drastically allowing you to focus on and enhance your experience.

Exploration

Okay, so now we get to the most divisive aspect of Starfield for me and that is how it handles exploration. Starfield's planets and sheer scope feels mighty and grand, 1000 planets, across 100 different star systems, it is quite a bold and ambitious endeavour. However, behind the curtain when you first take off you begin to notice something really glaring, once you hit space, you'll notice that you aren't able to fly towards any of the distant planets, instead having to enter your menu and fast travel, to the nearest planet that you're wanting to visit. Okay so you select your desired planet, select a spot on the planet you wish to land on, and then set out exploring. You deviate off the path and go exploring in one straight direction, and then hit a wall that tell you, if you wish to continue exploring in this direction, you'll need to land in a new location as the boundary is reached. You think oh okay cool, open up your 3 different menus to make another landing point and continue exploring.

Fast Travel Traversal

This is where my core issue with Starfield begin to emerge as travelling between planets or locations within a planet begin to feel glued together through menus, which can make Starfield and its world feel more gamey and ultimately more fragmented. The thing is that many games particularly RPG's do still have loading screens and menus for travel, hell this is something all prior Bethesda games have, and let's be honest no one is manually travelling between each major city of Skyrim of the Wasteland all the time. Fast Travel is fine, and navigating menus is fine, the problem and why it feels apparent with Starfield, is that there is no seamless option to manually traverse and explore each end of a particular location. Therefore this fragmentation feels more apparent, more noticeable, and that is the biggest crutch that can shatter what is otherwise an distinct and interesting universe that is full of secrets, stories, and adventure that rival many of Bethesda's best worlds. Couple this with maps, that don't provide any visual bearings or cues as to your surroundings, and the fact that hub cities have no local map at all. It makes Starfield feel a little bit messy in how it presents its world to the player, and makes the early hours of getting to grips with navigating Starfield harder than it needs to be. This fragmented universe, is something that feels like an initial sting, a major blow, that takes the wind out of Starfield's sails.

Procedural Generated Exploration

However, after being able to accept this limitation in traversal and understand what kind of experience Starfield is, It begins to become clear what is glued together is in fact a diverse and expansive world full of quests that follow a similar methodology of any other BGS game. Starfield's exploration in the moment oscillates between these highs and lows, that are built this way by design. From desolate moons, with little to find, to fully functioning cites, towns, and living habitats on others. Starfield's world's feel like they nail the atmosphere, but at times can feel a little vacant of things to truly do. Starfield's design philosophy But this doesn't mean there is nothing, the first time I saw a ship land I was like "wow other people" and whether it is friendly members of the UC, settlers, or pirates there are different random and cool encounters that can emerge. Starfield's worlds can provide random encounters, that you would expect from any Bethesda game. The absolute weakest aspect of Starfield's worlds are how similar each facility, cave or explorable structure you find in Starfield are. Most caves feel like they have you walking through a two story u-shaped path with minerals with a few platforms to jump around on and most bases feel like they're two or three story buildings with the same enemies you clear out, and collect loot. I understand that many of these locations are procedurally generated, but it does feel like this aspect of the exploration becomes rather hollow within the first 10-15 hours of the game. You can still be pleasantly surprised at times, but these are few and far between. Where Starfield fumbles in handling the procedural environments, it makes up for in its hand-crafted environments and the stories, societies and settings that accompany them. Some examples of this are the easy go to examples of New Atlantis and Neon, the big hub areas. But it's not only these locations, I look at smaller towns like Hope Town, or Paridiseo that are much smaller in their scale, but offer their own stories, societies and broader imaginings of the settled systems.

Space-Exploration

So before Starfield launched we saw heard Todd Howard, the man, the icon, the legend himself mentioned that you could not manually land on planets and land, much like other space games like No Man's Sky. But instead Starfield's planet exploration and space exploration will be two separate experiences, and what this led many to believe myself included was that although we couldn't fly in and land on different planets, we'd at least be able to fly to different planets in a solar system right? Well...no, technically you can fly to another planet if you have the hours of attrition to have you ship reach its destination, as exhibited by Alannah Pierce. But this is not by design or intentional as even after hours of flying in a straight line to the planet you won't be able to land on this planet.

So if that's not how space exploration works, then how does it work? Well, much like how Starfield's exploration on land its an explorable hub, the space exploration operates in a similar way. Providing a small vicinity of space per planet that you can fly around and explore. In terms of what discoveries can be made, well much like on land, this is down to chance, however, much of the space-exploration feels less procedural and more hand crafted making the content you do find feel more worthwhile. The highlights of space exploration are communicating or docking with other ships which provide their own stories, if not through side quests, through environmental storytelling, like abandoned rundown ships, or ship parties. These different ships serve as great additions, similar to finding a landmark in Fallout or Elder Scrolls. However, again I think where Starfield's space exploration suffers is at the core foundations of exploration where everything feels glued together through a menu. It's such a shame because ship crafting and ship combat are both two great components to the space experience, but the space exploration, feels like it is lacking and under-utilizing many of the aspects that make these other two components so great.

Hand-Crafted Content

These worlds and their imaginings are only enhanced by what Bethesda does best and that is the quests, adventures, and discoveries that accompany the many worlds of the Settled Systems. Starfield has a clever way of pointing you towards different activities and that is through a tab that is literally called activities. How this works is by interacting with many different NPC's, or overhearing what two NPC's are saying. This aspect of Starfield's exploration is handled tactfully, it doesn't have an exclamation mark over someone's head saying "come to me, I'm important", it puts an emphasis on talking to anyone feel more important because anyone could have a quest or job tucked away behind them. Listening to that random NPC who said something to you could point you in the direction of a quest. Starfield handles guiding the player through breadcrumbs and once you have the lead, you can pursue it to your hearts content.

Starfield reintroduce the Minutemen settlement quests here in Starfield, through missions. Missions, are repeatable quests, that send you off into various different planets and systems to complete fairly simple and mundane tasks more locations. They're fodder side quests that allow you to rack up experience and credits, and are a neat way to expose you to some of Starfield's more interesting quests or planets early on.

The exploration is the biggest mixed bag to the overall experience of Starfield and I feel like how much you're willing to accept the fragmented traversal between place to place, the more that you'll be able enjoy what is a mostly and intriguing universe, that does provide hours upon hours of content. As I mentioned at the start, I've invested 100 hours into this game, and I still have a laundry list of side quests that I still need to complete, based on the quests that I have found. There is so much game here, that it is hard to fully assess quantitatively just how much there actually is. Overall there is an overwhelming amount of content in Starfield that varies in terms of value, depending on the players preferences, and I feel like one way or another most people will find one of these forms of exploration exciting.

Overall the exploration in Starfield is what will be the most divisive component of people's overall enjoyment. There is so much here to explore and discover in terms of the size and scope, with procedurally generated worlds that create dynamic environments pulling influences from early works such as Daggerfall. To hand-crafted content that pulls from modern BGS games think Oblivion onwards. It'll ultimately come down to how you the player choose to like embrace the reliance on a fast travel system, and it's glued together disruptive land and space exploration. I think if you're fully invested into all of starfields systems for questing, resource gathering, base building, then I think their are many aspects of Starfield's exploration you'll enjoy. If you're looking for intimate worlds that are rich and populated with things to do, than you may find yourself disappointed with many of the aspects of Starfield's exploration.

Performance, Bugs and Problems

Okay, whilst this video is titled I loved Starfield, it is important to preface that there are many things with the game that I feel it falls short on that I had problems with, alongside some bugs which weren't too much of a deal breaker but are still worthy of mention. First and foremost, the biggest annoyance I had with Starfield was being over-encumberd when exploring. There are so many objects and things to interact with in Starfield. It is so easy to fill both you and your companions storage, and I do feel like this issue could be easily elevated if there was a perk or ability that allowed you to transport your inventory to your ship whilst travelling, OR alternatively and this would be a big ask. It would have been great to see some form of land vehicles be added to the game that come with a cargo hold which would allow you to do out on expeditions and mine more freely or explore and deposit the loot from your inventory. It would have been a great extension, and being able to customize your rover too would have been a neat addition to seal the deal. I feel that something like this really would have fixed one of the major complaints that I feel most people would say they have with the game.

In terms of the overall performance Starfield feels like it runs fairly well, with little to no bugs, which has been a staple for Bethesda games prior. The biggest and most common bug that I would notice is that when in conversations with different NPC's there would be times where I would be talking to someone's back or talking to them on an odd angle. These issues can be humorous at times and can be a mood killer at other times. Overall the performance for Starfield for me on a 2080ti ran at 4k with a consistent 30fps for me and

Visuals and Sound Presentation

Man o man if there is one aspect of Starfield that I absolutely love it is the overall NASA-Punk aesthetic that Bethesda were going for in this game is absolutely phenomenal and is one aspect of Starfield that clearly distinguishes itself from it's contemporizes. The world is full of detail and variety from the packaged food, tools, and medicine you carry, to the books you read and billboards that light up the skies in Neon. The most prominent examples being the big sprawling cities that pull influences from a large pool of different places. Whether it is the raining blade runner-esque city of Neon, to the space cowboy city of Akilia. Yes, there are some facial issues that can occur at times that do bring the Starefield meme to life at times. But overall the vibe and atmosphere here in Starfield is amazing and some of these planets desolate or bustling feel like they all provide a very distinct mood and feeling. But on top of these stunning vistas, and varied cities, towns, and resorts is the soundtrack and sound design in Starfield which honestly is outstanding. The musical variation here in Starfield is actually exceptional

The Starfield Legacy

Starfield will leave a legacy, but not in the traditional sense that we think of. It won't spawn a new genre or reinvent the wheel. Starfield's legacy will stem from the sheer scope of its universe, the amount of foundational game elements that have been provided to the player and the most important part, the way forward in terms of how Starfield is iterated and evolved. We already know that one expansion has been planned for Starfield, but I think that in the long term, Bethesda is looking to have many of this well known modders work alongside Bethesda to include major stories and evolve the world. Look at what we have seen with Fallout London or Skybilvion. These fan made projects have sparked so much excitement from the community and Starfield ultimately has been designed as an ultimate sandbox that can play host to infinite possibilities of stories that can be told in the Settled Systems. Because let's be real we'll be looking at another 10 to 15 years before we see a sequel to this game, so the longevity of this game will ultimately derive from the community and what I believe is going to be a relationship going forward between Bethesda and the community.

Conclusion

Starfield shoots for the stars, and in many aspects shines as bright as a star. Whilst it may not be a genre defining game, that pushes the medium or industry into a brave new direction. It manages to create a fascinating universe, a reminder of what makes a Bethesda game so special, and a long term legacy of a game that was designed to be not only picked apart and discovered, but iterated on and built upon, as Starfield is a modders playground, that will facilitate a whole universe of potential stories, and expansions that could build onto an already solid base experience. Bethesda have provided all the essential building blocks, and a compelling universe for a player to engage with, and much like how we have not been able to escape Skyrim since it's release 12 years ago, we'll be talking and hearing about Starfield for years to come. Starfield is a great experience, and a must play for any Bethesda fan, and with it being accessible on Game Pass it truly is worth at least trying.