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I wanted to wait until I finished the story to review this game, I really did, but I just cannot bring myself to play it anymore, so here we are. The Starfield review. WARNING: THERE WILL BE VERY MINOR SPOILERS!
In short: a barren wasteland painted with a layer of gold.
When I first launched this game, I was ecstatic. I couldn't WAIT to delve into the world(s) of Starfield. The opening visuals took my breath away, I loved the customization, I loved how real everything looked, I just fell in love, and that was all before even boarding the first ship. I was in awe when I first entered it, slowly going over and admiring all the little details and quirks. It didn't just look like a mode of transportation, it looked like somebodies home. It looked lived in. I made my way to the cockpit, and while I didn't know it at the time, this would be the first dent in Starfield's armor. I navigated my way to Kreet. The navigation had its charms at first but as I got further into the game, it went from a charming afterthought to an actual annoyance just to travel from planet to planet (I find the label "fast travel simulator" accurate). I landed on Kreet and made my way inside the research station. I did not know it but once again, this was another dent in the armor of Starfield that would come into play later. I cleared the base, completed the objective, made my way to New Atlantis and the real gameplay truly began.
I was still in love with the game. So excited to do quests, fight enemies, customize my own ship, all of that. I was ecstatic. What first began to wear on me was the space travel and travel between planets. As I said earlier, it went from a charm to a dreaded annoyance. Was it the worst thing ever? Absolutely not, but neither was it anything remotely innovative or entertaining. It was a literal chore. What next began to take a toll on me was the planets and their layouts and terrain. They were by no means bad, but just came off as generic. You go from place to place to place and eventually realize all that's changing is the weather and gravity. At this point I still liked the game but was starting to see some flaws. Then came the generic enemies. There's really no easy way to put it, you go literally anywhere in the galaxy and you're either fighting A) Spacers, B) Pirates or C) other. That's it. There is almost no variation whatsoever. Next were some bugs. To be clear, I did not encounter nearly as many bugs as some others have, but I had my fair share. NPC's glitching through floors and walls, items floating in mid air or just not loading in at all, the usual from Bethesda. Next were the quests. There were some decent ones that I enjoyed doing but for the most part, it was just classic Bethesda: go kill this enemy, go fetch this item, go tell this person something, come back and get your money. Also, the story, as I experienced so far at least, is less than ideal. I wouldn't say it's bad, but I am a big fan of story games and whatever the plot of this game is, it ain't it.
At this point I was no longer viewing the game through rose colored glasses, the honeymoon had worn off but I still had hope... until the biggest issues I encountered arose. The most prominent was how planets and enemy outposts and whatnot generated. On paper, it sounds really cool: over 1,000 planets, many of them procedurally generated. That should allow a ton of variation and uniqueness, right? Well, like I said, on paper, yes. But in practice, it is some of the most lazy game design there is. Like many things in Starfield, it seems cool at first but the interest and joy quickly fades the more planets you visit and the more you realize it's basically all the same. You'll encounter the same bases, the same landmarks, the same everything, which leads me into what killed the game for me: copy and pasted base layouts. Remember when I went to Kreet earlier and did that mission? Well that first base left an impression on me because well, obviously it's the first base you find. Well hours later, I came across another base on a separate moon... with the exact same layout. And when I say exact same, I mean EXACT same, down to dead NPC's, item placement, in some situations loot, everything. At first I thought, "Hey, it's a MASSIVE game. Surely I'm going to encounter a little copy and paste, that's OK". And it was OK... the first time. And then it happened again. And again. And again. And again. And again. There were only a few base variations and they'd simply copy and paste over to their procedurally generated area and that's where the real dagger happened. The pinpointed moment where I realized what I was playing. I was on some moon, don't even remember the name (does it matter? They're all the same), doing a mission. I finish clearing a small base when I see a marker on the map for a cave like 800 meters away. Figure what the hell, I've got time and inventory space, let's go clear out this cave. It was a base in the side of a mountain, if you have any meaningful amount of time in the game, you'll know exactly the type of base layout I mean: equipment and stuff outside, a guard or two keeping watch and when you enter the cave, there's a tunnel leading to a big cavern with enemies which in turn leads to an even larger cavern with an inoperable elevator and more enemies. I had seen this layout 5 or 6 times now but whatever. Cleared it out, grabbed my loot and went back outside. I saw another marker on my map 300 meters away, figured I'd go check that one out too. I make my way over to the other side of this mountain and what do I see? The same exact base, copy and pasted 300 meters away. Same enemies, same enemy layout, same items and loot, same everything. It was literally the exact same. And that was it. That was the moment the curtain fell and I realized what I was getting into.
It's all a big smoke and mirrors show. An illusion. That's really all I can describe it as. Say what you will about Skyrim or Fallout 4 (and trust me, there's plenty to criticize) but at least each building, each interior, each cave was handcrafted, not this regurgitated drivel. There's no life to it, no soul, no personality. It's like if you told an AI to make an infinite space science fiction RPG for the masses. And to be clear, that's who Starfield is for: the masses. Same with the earlier mentioned Skyrim and Fallout 4, Bethesda is no longer making challenging games with interesting dialogue and compelling stories. It's all watered down, streamlined, easily consumable slop for the masses and Starfield is the epitome of that.
ALL THAT BEING SAID, I would like to highlight some positives. While there aren't many, I'd feel remiss not mentioning them. Firstly for me are the graphics. While they're by no means out of this world (pun slightly intended), they still look fantastic. There's also atmosphere. As I said earlier with ships, they don't just look like modes of transportation. While it's all mostly eye candy, the amount of detail that goes into just the small, minute things is what really gets me. I do also enjoy the combat and gunplay. While guns still have that Bethesda feel to them, they still work well and there's a wide variety to choose from. There's also a ton of customization. If there's a singular positive thing about the game I'd like to highlight, it's ship customization. Granted, while a large portion of it is purely cosmetic and won't impact gameplay, the ship customization is fantastic.
In its present state, I'd give Starfield a 3/10 and could not in good conscience recommend it to anyone. It's a shell of what was promised and honestly keeps me in fear of what The Elder Scrolls 6 will be like and I hope Bethesda learns from this and takes steps to remedy it in future games. I can only hope it receives similar quality of life updates to No Man's Sky and Cyberpunk and is brought back from the brink. However, considering how Bethesda reacted to criticism, I'm not holding my breath though.