12 Days Later: Starfield - The Good, The Bad, and The Unexpected

after 12 days with Starfield it's time to dive into the contrasts the highs and lows of bethesda's latest Venture as it turned out the game has taken quite a few unexpected turns with me some of them are really good and some not quite so much okay so up front I want to say that I've really been enjoying Starfield the game has a lot to offer from exploration to question from combat to ship and Base building it really is a game I can get lost in for hours at a time and like Sky Raymond Fallout before it Starfield is a game I'll be returning to again and again it provides an experience that very few other games actually offer also I think it's important to say here that first and foremost I approached this game with the full expectation of finding a Bethesda game and not a space Sim yet that said why is not a full-on Sim Stafford is undoubtedly a space game and this leads me into one of the areas that I have previously said is what I believe to be at the titles of weakest and that is space flight now the spaceships themselves in Starfield are really good I find this to be true that both aesthetically and functionally I've enjoyed customizing ships upgrading them walking around inside of them and even flying them and ship combat wise to fairly basic is also very decent so where is the problem well what makes this particular section of the gamer weak to me is isn't really the spaceships but rather space itself now over the previous year or so I've repeatedly pointed out that space in Starfield might be restricted of course we didn't know but it seemed likely based on what Bethesda had been saying that space would be bounded to areas near planets the fact this turned out to be true while it's not entirely unexpected is still somewhat disappointing now I was hoping that even with these restricted and bounded areas of space those environments would nevertheless be a little bit more open with much more to discover what I would like to have seen is the ability to travel for hundreds or even thousands of miles in any direction and make various discoveries and encounters sure in reality yes Pisces are generally empty isn't it but it is first and foremost a video game that we're talking about here so ultimately having these discoveries are limited to such restricted and bounded areas of space is very limiting to the game as a whole in fact the entire reason I mentioned this part at the front of the video is because it is one of the elements that really holds a star filled back from being a much better game I'm gonna come back to a space exploration a bit more into the video but first I want to move on to the other section of the video for me then Bethesda generally make great games they make some really good RPGs although that said I've never played a Fallout 76 all that much but Murray wind Oblivion Skyrim and fallouts three and four however have had thousands of hours put into them and have enjoyed every single one of those hours so attend I went into staff field with the exploitation of more of the same does it deliver well yes and no it's a mix there's certainly have more positives and negatives by far however in some areas the Starfield is a big step back compared to the 12 year old Skyrim there's two reasons to my feeling for this firstly yes Skyrim and fall out of a huge game World sure the maps for these games are maybe smaller than other open world RPG games however they are densely packed with all manner of things that very much make them feel alive from the first moments of leaving the Vault 111 and witnessing that the massive open worlds in the Fallout 4 to roaming the countryside in Skyrim and venturing between the Solitude and Whiterun every part of those game worlds feels connected and Alive sure there might be some loading screens when entering cities caves or buildings but the interconnectedness of the world is very much present and these worlds are filled cohesive because of that Duffield on the other hand over fields abounded in more ways than just one the cities of neonan new Atlantis are truly amazing I've really enjoyed walking around them and they've been a pleasure to experience Aquila meanwhile is great too in its own way but very different to those others and so too are the many as settlements and outposts that can be found throughout the Galaxy yet unfortunately so many of those locations feel isolated and bounded now television screens are a large part of that they make these areas feel like instances and self-contained yet somehow I feel there's far more two of this sense of isolation than just that in short would it come to Skyrim and fall out this way the world felt alive it wasn't just to do it with the world's map there was other Tech going on as well so most notable of all the many things that made this possible was the game's radiant AI this Tech enabled NPCs to have their own lives store owners for example would work set hours then close shop go home and have dinner and then go to sleep sometimes I'd watch them during their life and see how they would have encounters and conversations with other NPCs sure these conversations were generic sometimes dull and the kelgic occasionally a downright weird that's why we've got so many memes about that sort of thing out there but the fact that the NPCs had their own life added so much to these game worlds it's something that makes Bethesda RPGs really stand out from the crowd and this was just something that uh well no it wasn't just limited to shop owners was it but almost all NPCs in the game some of them would Wander from towns to Wilderness others from town to town and this type of thing it just adds so much life to the games Starfield on the other hand is a massive step backwards and I don't really understand why while some NPCs in staff illness into that they do have life patterns and keep to timetables of sorts vast majority yes certainly a do not store owners and office workers sit at their desks 24 7. they don't move they don't change they don't do anything Hamilton City is a busy regardless of the time of day and why is that there may be some changes to crowd density it really isn't that significant until then the NPCs in Starfield are background clutter rather than background characters and this really does make a massive difference to the game overall as to some people that this might not make that much difference to me it is a huge blow to the game and it really does reduce the immersiveness that would otherwise be there personally then I feel that this combined with all the areas of the game feeling bounded and instance make Star field a far less alive than say a skyrimmer for example okay so I talked about the limitations I found in Starfield first because they really do help frame the parts that I have enjoyed despite those limits the game has none of them had prevented me from enjoying the game I do still feel that Starfield is a good game Master space travel is certainly the weakest part of the game it still contains enough to add a lot of value to Starfield like I said the spaceships are a significant part of the game and whilst it's true to say that they use is optional in many ways thanks largely thanks to fast travel those who want to make the most of them spaceships are a huge part of Starfield the space encounters ship to ship combat shipboarding 0g first person combat lutein and other activities have all been engaging and I've spent hours at a time doing all of these things but the two things I've enjoyed the most in Starfield however are these side quests and the Planetary Exploration so regarding quests long-time viewers of this channel will be aware and I've said numerous times in the past that I find the main quests in Bethesda RPGs to be an inspiring and poorly written that's also true of Starfield it was true of Skyrim and Oblivion and other games the writing in the main quest for Starfield I do feel it is dull and the dialogue options that the player has built extremely dull as well in fact I've played through the main quest about three quarters of the way through and eventually decided to stop I just couldn't take it anymore and I've there's an interest in working my way through that to get to New Game Plus or indeed any other part of the story the side quest however I found to be very strong and also a lot of fun the Mantis quest for example I came across unexpectedly without really being aware of what I was getting into the Crimson Fleet Quest has also been great as Heather many of the other side quests also there are numerous random quests and have sent me into some seriously impressive locations throughout the game some of these side quests have been very simple such as effectual delivery missions others have had a lot more depth and been set within great environments all of this then has really made the game field are very much alive and despite what I've said about the lack of radiant AI in Starfield or the reduction of it the fact that there are so many side quotes and encounters all throughout the game and throughout the settled systems but it does help bring Starfield to life for me the other part of the game I've been really enjoying is landing on planets and then setting out to see what I can discover for some reason it seems that a bunch of people out there don't really enjoy the barren planets and yeah 90 of the planets in Starfield are Barren but personally I've found that them thought they make me more than happy to roam their services all of the planets have their various locations on them sometimes that this is a simple to planetary trait to find other times it can be a larger base or even a cave all of them have been worth exploring and sure sooner or later these become repetitive with similar or even these exact same layouts but for me that's really not a problem the planets with flora and fauna meanwhile have been even more interesting to Roman explore now ironically whilst the NPCs found to Outpost spaces and other places of course don't have too much in the way of sensible AI their very presence really does add depth to the world for more of my thoughts on exploration then do check out my video on what is it like to explore in Starfield I'll make sure to link that in the video description I don't want to talk too much more about exploration at this point because I've done it before but do be aware that it is for me a very important part of the game now as with any game there's been some unexpected things with Starfield much of these have been good surprises actually one thing that continues to surprise me is the sheer scale of some of the Outpost spaces and the space stations and even spaceships that I've visited some of these underground complexes for example are truly impressive there was one there that felt like a bit of a silo sort of an underscramed military abandoned complex which had this big Silo that opened up to allow spaceships to land inside of them another surprise is that some of the quests have been surprisingly good the Mantis one that I mentioned before is a great example of this I think that perhaps the biggest surprise for me however is the ease with which Starfield allows you to move from one activity to another whether that's following your current quests exploring space or planets or even building a new ship switching between activities is a breeze and it cannot be done without any unnecessary time scenes and for me that is a really big deal because one of the biggest turn-offs for me in any game is a time wasting and yes this includes my pet peeve long distance space travel or having to search for something in unknown or random locations so I'm really glad that this doesn't exist in Starfield when it comes to gameplay Starfield is a known quantity once you get to grips with the game what it offers is very clear it's easy to achieve the goals you set yourselves and that to me is very important Duffield Ben in many ways is a classic Bethesda RPG and that is ironic ironically what does held it back it's a large scope whilst previous Bethesda RPGs have been much smaller they've all felt more alive and this is a thing that very much 100 holds a Starfield back in my eyes one being a truly great game nonetheless it is a game and I've greatly enjoyed and will no doubt continue to enjoy for that much longer to come um do let me know what you think about Starfield in the comments section below because obviously all of our experience for the game is unique will be seeing things in a very different way some people have been viewing it as a true space game like no man's sky or a space Sim like Elite dangerous Meanwhile my Approach has been to view it as a space-based um RPG so let me know what you think about all of this in the comments section below as always thanks for watching and I catch you guys and girls next time

Channel: ObsidianAnt

Views: 66,717

Keywords: starfield review, starfield gameplay, starfield impressions, is starfield good, is starfield bad, is starfield worth playing, starfield before you buy, video game review, is starfield any good, starfield concerns, starfield game

Id: npPEL3aMheE

Length: 13min 27sec (807 seconds)

Published: Tue Sep 12 2023