My Starfield review-in-progress went up 11 days ago, on August 31. I had made my way through a good chunk of the main quest and was getting my bearings in Bethesda's gigantic universe. Now that I'm on the other side of dozens of hours spent galavanting through the galaxy, much of what I said before still holds true, and other than some small nitpicks, Starfield is truly out of this world. And now that pun is officially out of the way.
Starfield review roundup: epically broad, yet frustratingly shallow?
01.09.2023 - 12:39 / pczone.co.uk / Todd Howard / Brad Smith / Michael Higham
Starfield is the most anticipated game launch in recent memory. After a seven-year development cycle, this oh-so-slow-baked RPG from Todd Howard and Bethesda gets roasted by the critics (apart from those in the UK) and the result? The taste is pleasant but less than thrilling, at least for some.
One day since the review embargo lifted, Starfield has a score of 87 on Metacritic, placing it well below Skyrim (94) but comparable to Fallout 4 (87 on PS4, 84 on PC).
The vast majority of the 50+ critics’ reviews are very positive. However, a handful of mixed reviews are from heavy hitters such as IGN, Gamespot and PCMag. It’s an odd mix of opinions.
IGN reviewer Dan Stapleton gave Starfield 7/10. One of his biggest criticisms is how long it takes for the game to get properly fun, with character limitations only solved by patiently unlocking abilities via the game’s skill trees.
Dan states in his review verdict: “It’s never a great sign when someone recommends a game on the grounds that it gets good after more than a dozen hours, but that’s very much the kind of game Starfield is, and I do recommend it. There are a lot of forces working against it, and the combination of disjointed space travel, nonexistent maps, aggravating inventory management, and a slow rollout of essential abilities very nearly did it in.”
To confuse matters further, PC ZONE veteran Brad Smith has been playing the game in early access and is thoroughly loving its opening hours.
In response to the IGN criticism of the game’s slow start, Brad said: “Within 20 minutes you’ve already got into a gunfight and flying…The quickest start of action of any Bethesda game I remember…complaints of a slow start seem a bit weird”.
GameInformer was a little kinder in its assessment, with reviewer Matt Miller observing: “It took me a long time to fall in love with Starfield, and even after I did, certain aspects didn’t work for me. But the things I didn’t enjoy are vastly outweighed by my enthusiasm for this new, original science fiction universe, the breadth of its adventures, and the appeal of its many interwoven stories.”
Most reviews seem to agree that Starfield improves as it progresses. So let’s hope any tedium with the early going doesn’t last too long to put casual players off.
One of the big selling points of Starfield is its enormous scope. With a galaxy to explore, gamers have been excited to see what adventures may lay on the 1000+ planets that can be visited in 100 different star systems.
However, to accommodate so many locations, Todd’s team seem to have made significant sacrifices to the depth and detail of each area. Heavily relying on procedural generation and generic assets to flesh out often shallow experiences.
Gamespot reviewer Michael Higham
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