Starfield

[The Hammer]

Ok, so this game has been out for a few months now and I've gotten to finally spend a bit of time in the Settled Systems.

What have you thought of the Bethesda's latest space IP?

I've enjoyed it so far, but it is certainly a typical Bethesda game for all the good and ill that entails.

First play through and I decided to background as a Space Scoundrel, focusing on pistol and Shotgun Particle weapons, as well as ship piloting and some outpost dabbling.

 

[The Hammer]

I'm looking forward to the DLC and hoping it allows me to make more.use of my background trait of being a member of House Va'ruun.

 

[Quintessence]

I loved it. That said, it is a game of two steps forward, three steps back. It's all a bit baffling.

They amped up on the stuff that matters to me, personally, as a narrative-driven hardcore RPGer. But the execution is all over the place and there are enough bizarre design decisions that make me wonder if something odd happened during the development cycle (other than the obvious scapegoat of the pandemic). Worst case scenario, if the trend of Bethesda selling its soul to corporate greed continues that would explain a lot about the unfinished mechanics of the game. It is, potentially, going to be my favorite Bethesda RPG of all time... but it isn't there. I'm hoping Shattered Space brings to fruition the vision of the NG+ mechanic, because right now it's an idea that has a spectacular amount of potential but is ultimately just not there yet. When a developer actually pulls off a fractal multiverse of randomized iterations of different scenarios and world states? That will be a game to talk about for a decade. It hasn't been done. And I think that's where they were going, but they just fell well short of that ambitious vision.

 

[libre]

I had no idea it was a Bethesda game, which explains why I heard so much about it in the opening weeks. The Baldurs Gate drop kind of overshadowed it to me, maybe I'll give it a go.

 

[Twilight Hue]

Ok, so this game has been out for a few months now and I've gotten to finally spend a bit of time in the Settled Systems.

What have you thought of the Bethesda's latest space IP?

I've enjoyed it so far, but it is certainly a typical Bethesda game for all the good and ill that entails.

First play through and I decided to background as a Space Scoundrel, focusing on pistol and Shotgun Particle weapons, as well as ship piloting and some outpost dabbling.

I'm holding back on purchasing it.

Todd Howard is a liar. He's always been a liar and the company has been falling ever since the past high years with those amazing games of Morrowind , Oblivion , and Skyrim, and I'd also include the early Fallout series as the last of the greatness this company had offered.

More on topic I would say the biggest disappointment would be the customization of a ship that you could never use because everything is loading screens. What's the point of all that customization being able to walk around on your ship if you can't even fly it In any way? Todd's lies made it look like it'd be something like No Man's Sky as far as ship travel and planet exploration would be, but obviously it isn't even close to that by a long shot.

Also the missions I've been hearing about are a mixed bag where you have some really good ones mixed in with some God awful ones with all the bugs and glitches of an old aging engine that they keep promising they will fix , but they never ever do.

I think this is one of those games I'm going to wait for a bargain basement sale, which might be worth the price then but it's certainly not the worth the full price they are charging people for it now.

Most of the reviews I've come across in the game plays have put it at only slightly above average so it's really a meh game at best.

I don't pre-order games anymore from Bethesda. And I'm certainly glad I didn't given Todd Howard's history of chronic lying and misrepresentation of the games he pitches out of his mouth.

 

[Quintessence]

I had no idea it was a Bethesda game, which explains why I heard so much about it in the opening weeks. The Baldurs Gate drop kind of overshadowed it to me, maybe I'll give it a go.

I mean, any game by Larian - and especially BG3 which basically does everything DoS:II did but with more budget and time (thus turned out better) - basically beats any other RPG you can compare it to.

To compare it against games made by their own studio, it's more or less what you'd expect from one of their titles but with a stronger focus on proper RPG elements. They dropped the ball on some of their legacy mechanics and also added a few new neat things at varying levels of polish. It's a radical departure from how Bethesda has trained players to play their games in ways that rubs some the wrong way and that others enjoy. Like with any high-profile release, the sky-high expectations render it subject to baffling and often unfair criticism. This especially plagues Bethesda because of their legacy of releasing generation-defining titles. Starfield reached for heights that present technology cannot - and may never - reach. And in that it lost sight of some things it shouldn't have but is still a game I did two back-to-back runs through which I almost never do for any game, ever.

I think this is one of those games I'm going to wait for a bargain basement sale, which might be worth the price then but it's certainly not the worth the full price they are charging people for it now.

It's better than bargain basement, no doubt - it's fair at $60-70 USD if you like Bethesda's style of games and can handle the structural transition the game demands of its players. Plus, anyone with ten bucks can play it off games pass, then bounce to any of the few hundred other titles for the rest of the month if you end up going "nah." I would do a run at least once before they add the inevitable greedy cash shop. Because after that, well... if what they did to Skyrim is any indication, things will not go a good direction with Starfield post-launch compared to what the game is right now.

 

[The Hammer]

I loved it. That said, it is a game of two steps forward, three steps back. It's all a bit baffling.
. When a developer actually pulls off a fractal multiverse of randomized iterations of different scenarios and world states? That will be a game to talk about for a decade. It hasn't been done. And I think that's where they were going, but they just fell well short of that ambitious vision.

Ok,.so I finally finished the main quest. And holy ****! What a story..

What do you think is missing from the NG+ Scenario? WhAt would make it a more realistic fractal universe?

 

[Viker]

The game sounds interesting. I might have to check it out.

 

[Viker]

Ok, so this game has been out for a few months now and I've gotten to finally spend a bit of time in the Settled Systems.

What have you thought of the Bethesda's latest space IP?

I've enjoyed it so far, but it is certainly a typical Bethesda game for all the good and ill that entails.

First play through and I decided to background as a Space Scoundrel, focusing on pistol and Shotgun Particle weapons, as well as ship piloting and some outpost dabbling.

Han Solo much?

 

[The Hammer]

Han Solo much?

Absolutely! Loved that character archetype.

 

[The Hammer]

The game sounds interesting. I might have to check it out.

Well worth it imo. Check it out.

 

[Viker]

Absolutely! Loved that character archetype.

Me, too.

 

[Quintessence]

Ok,.so I finally finished the main quest. And holy ****! What a story..

What do you think is missing from the NG+ Scenario? WhAt would make it a more realistic fractal universe?

Once you have played through one NG+ and observed how little has changed, I think you will understand what I'm talking about. The implementation is just very half-baked.

A certain major main quest event you can now outright prevent with foreknowledge in a dialogue choice, but then everyone in Constellation still talks afterwards as if someone is missing. Constellation members can see and even board the interesting piece of technology you get at the start of NG+ but still comment on how they never have seen anything of its like when introduced to it in the main quest later. It was so bad I wondered if my game was bugged, but that isn't it - NG+ is just that half-baked. Quarter-baked, even. Because on top of those really jarring examples, the aggressive "essential" tags on NPCs and limited branching of quests, the ability to join every faction even when that doesn't make sense, poorly-implemented non-lethal mechanics (I tried to do my NG+ as pacifist as possible and learned the game forces me to execute NPCs when they are down to progress quests), no significant universe state alterations outside of a handful of rarely-spawning options... it's clear NG+ was an afterthought when, if it had been put front and center, would've been the kind of amazing and innovative Bethesda used to be known for.

There's still a lot of fun that can be had with NG+ via internal narrative and roleplay, don't get me wrong. And that's kind of my bread and butter so the way all of this altered the arc of my character was really fun to play out. But that's something my own creativity brings to the game, not something that is inherently present in the game because of anything the developers did to put it in there.

 

[Twilight Hue]

Ok,.so I finally finished the main quest. And holy ****! What a story..

What do you think is missing from the NG+ Scenario? WhAt would make it a more realistic fractal universe?

I'm happy to hear that you enjoyed it cuz that's what it's all about.

But for myself I am more for immersiveness, and the features of the game from what I gather, doesn't deliver when it involves your customization enabled Starship for which all that customization is completly wasted to loading screen after loading screen after loading screen and that just takes so much out of it that I find playing such games are almost unbearable because it interferes with not just the story itself , however great it may be, but with what goes on between the story. What's the point of having a customizational Starship if you can't even use it in any way in flight?

I'm the type of person who likes the complete journey, the whole entire journey including the boring parts and random encounters if they are even there, and not just bits and pieces of it sewn together for the sake of rushing things along, or laziness because its become too much of a a bother to work on.

 

[Quintessence]

What's the point of having a customizational Starship if you can't even use it in any way in flight?

Dunno who you've been listening to, but players definitely use the ship in flight - starship combat is very much a thing and both character skills and ship building choices have a significant impact on starship combat just as one would expect in something that is an RPG. How much starship combat players do depends on how much they want to engage with it, though - a lot of it can be avoided if it isn't the player's thing, as is typical of these sorts of sandbox RPGs Bethesda is known for making. And an RPG should never be mistaken for a flight simulator - that's not ever what the game was going to be and those who were expecting that shouldn't be taken seriously. Their complaints pretty much amount to "but why isn't this Bethesda RPG not a Bethesda RPG?" Dude.

 

[Alien826]

I played it for a while and eventually moved on. I bought it without realizing that it needs an SSD to work properly, and though SSDs are reasonably inexpensive I thought I would try it for while before going through the hassle of adding one to my PC. I found that it was playable with my HDD if I could put up with very long load times and occasional "stuttering". In the end I decided that it was good, but not good enough to merit adding the SSD.

I did try Baldurs Gate 3 and played it for a while. A good game, but I really hate turn based play and that stopped me in the end.

Here's a great little game that those that like space RPGs should try .... SpaceBourne 2. Only $20! It's in early release and still has a few quirks but I love it. It's written by a single developer, believe it or not. My worst complaint is the lack of controller support. Well, strictly it has support but it doesn't work very well and they haven't tagged it as such in Steam, so if you use a controller Steam will (optionally) translate the controller inputs to KB/mouse. Neither that nor the native support is very good. I've enjoyed the game enough to get used to KB/mouse input, and that says a lot as I much prefer a controller.

 

[Twilight Hue]

Dunno who you've been listening to, but players definitely use the ship in flight - starship combat is very much a thing and both character skills and ship building choices have a significant impact on starship combat just as one would expect in something that is an RPG. How much starship combat players do depends on how much they want to engage with it, though - a lot of it can be avoided if it isn't the player's thing, as is typical of these sorts of sandbox RPGs Bethesda is known for making. And an RPG should never be mistaken for a flight simulator - that's not ever what the game was going to be and those who were expecting that shouldn't be taken seriously. Their complaints pretty much amount to "but why isn't this Bethesda RPG not a Bethesda RPG?" Dude.

I was getting the impression that it was like a No Man's Sky type of Planetary Exploration including space combat.

Obviously its nothing close to that , which is one thing I think Todd should have been honest about but wasn't.

 

[Quintessence]

I was getting the impression that it was like a No Man's Sky type of Planetary Exploration including space combat.

Obviously its nothing close to that , which is one thing I think Todd should have been honest about but wasn't.

Fair enough. Folks expectations were all over the place, the bane of success, mostly. I've played quite a lot of NMS and enjoy it much - bought the game even though I can basically play it for free with Games Pass - and it does certain things better than Starfield does. It's less grounded, so it gets a lot more wacky with is procedural generation. I LOVE that breadth of visual interest. It's too bad the game is so buggy and has so many performance issues, but the entire premise is the universe is a simulation, so... I can hand wave that away.

 

[Twilight Hue]

Fair enough. Folks expectations were all over the place, the bane of success, mostly. I've played quite a lot of NMS and enjoy it much - bought the game even though I can basically play it for free with Games Pass - and it does certain things better than Starfield does. It's less grounded, so it gets a lot more wacky with is procedural generation. I LOVE that breadth of visual interest. It's too bad the game is so buggy and has so many performance issues, but the entire premise is the universe is a simulation, so... I can hand wave that away.

I believe people when they say it's an okay game. Just not spectacular up to par with past classic Bethesda titles. I'll probably buy it but only when a price drop occurs that justifies the content given.

A once respected and great company has fallen far away from its glory days since Morrowind, Oblivion, Fallout, and Skyrim which to me was its last great title.

Once I saw Fallout 76. I knew it was pretty much over for this company to rekindle its greatness.

 

[Quintessence]

I believe people when they say it's an okay game. Just not spectacular up to par with past classic Bethesda titles. I'll probably buy it but only when a price drop occurs that justifies the content given.

A once respected and great company has fallen far away from its glory days since Morrowind, Oblivion, Fallout, and Skyrim which to me was its last great title.

Once I saw Fallout 76. I knew it was pretty much over for this company to rekindle its greatness.

I know what you mean. Being a massive Bethesda fan straight up dictated my choice of gaming consoles (xbox) and when I got next gen consoles. I didn't bother getting new console until their next game came out on them.

Then they released cash grab seventy-craps.

For which I basically worked as an unpaid QC tester for and saw tremendous potential in what the game could be... until it became obvious that they were going to make it into whaling, predatory cash grab instead of a good game. The game was ironically at it's best within its first couple years before it really became little more than a storefront that happened to have a game attached to it. It sucks, because the world space in that game is probably the best the studio has ever done. Ah well. Indie gaming is where the good stuff is these days, generally.