How to Enjoy Starfield

Starfield is an embarrassing mess of half-baked ideas perpetually generated content that only amounts to endless walking while harvesting resources a bombardment of loading screens in near immediate succession skill tree paths with incredibly tedious and unclear unlock requirements followed by completely lackluster rewards and I've got to say I absolutely love it when the first installment of the Guardians of the Galaxy series came out I thought that star-lords character was so cool the idea of a rogish space fairing Gunslinger shooting looting and picking up chicks throughout the Galaxy left me with a resounding fantasy that still to this day holds a grip on my mind banging aliens in theory Starfield should have been the perfect game to scratch this itch space stuff not the alien however my first playthrough felt a lot more like bad boring Fallout in Space the biggest flaw of Starfield is that players will naturally play it like any other Bethesda game and compare all of its elements accordingly and the path most players are going to walk will likely bring them to the conclusion that Starfield is just a bad Bethesda game just like I first thought throughout my first playthrough in order to express the roller coaster of quality I experienced in Starfield I'm going to take you through my first playthrough which should serve to make this video both a comprehensive critique and also a guide to enjoy this strangely framed space Sim in the most efficient way possible if you click this video it's likely because you already have a negative outlook on Todd Howard's latest disaster however my hope is that I can convince you to give Starfield another chance and if I'm right you should be able to see the hints of Genius hidden beneath the huge ount of incompetent design which surrounds this game for a brief bit of background information regarding my experience with Bethesda games I played in Love Skyrim Fallout 3 and New Vegas but found myself wavering when it came to Fallout 4 I think the uh post-apocalyptic shoot and loot formula had just gotten boring for me personally I was happy to ignore the existence of Fallout 76 as well as Elder Scrolls online and by the time Starfield has been released my faith in Bethesda had diminished to a point where I was happy to skip it alt together that was until I learned one simple fact that changed my outlook entirely it was free on games pass at least with no Financial Risk I was more than happy to give this game a try I booted it up set up my stream and began one of the most confusing and boring intros to any game I've ever played you begin your journey as a Dusty a thankless job for workers who don't have the financial means to be anything else you're then asked to explore further into the cave system in which you encounter an unknown potentially dangerous artifact that fills your minds with visions of the future while altering your biochemistry yeah I don't think space OSHA would approve of this after your Acid Trip you wake up walk outside and get immediately attacked by Pirates which to me cements the job of Dusty as unfulfilling and dangerous labor that only the truly downtrodden would be systematically forced to do anyway Barrett gives you his ship and you wait wait wait wait wait he gives you his ship he gives some random Dusty that he's never met before a spaceship you don't earn it you don't build it you don't steal it from Pirates there's no call to action that sets you on your journey some guy gives you a ship worth 53,1 188 credits and single-handedly lifts you out of poverty it's not that important but it does set a weird tone for the start of this game that you begin as an inactive character in this story but then are given free reign to fly across the Galaxy doing whatever you want also Barrett mentions that he'll want a ship back so I wasn't quick to get attached to my first space vessel which in hindsight feels like a huge missed opportunity but I will get to that later you fly your new spaceship to a different location by fumbling through the menus until you activate a loading screen then land on the planet by fumbling through your menus until you activate a loading screen you kill 100 Pirates while shuffling through the game's basic weapons and based on this early game gameplay you might make the same mistake that I did in assuming that combat would be emphasized throughout Starfield with this in mind I beat several missions including the Mantis mission for the dorky ass mantis armor as well as the Razor Leaf ship and I completed Sarah's companion quest which was admittedly great uncovering her past and helping her come to terms with the trauma of her military mistakes that ended up costing people their lives was thoughtfully designed and made her feel like a fully fleshed out companion I leveled up hit the skill tree to make the absolute worst decision I possibly could have investing in science my goal was to upgrade the space suit design and weapon engineering skills as fast as possible in an effort to have cool weapons and armor at my disposal as soon as possible in my mind this was supposed to the Starfield equivalent of smithing daggers and enchanting them in Skyrim or Unlocking The Blueprint weapons in Fallout 3 little did I know the grind for crafting would be much more complicated in Starfield than its predecessors ever had been let me take you through the process as fast as I can first you spend Four Points in the science category simple enough but the starter skills are pretty garbage and generally a waste of points then you level weapon engineering which prompts you to craft weapon attachments to continue down the skill tree easy enough I'll just find a weapon crafting station and I have to Res search first okay I'll find a research station fill in the resources and I don't have the resources okay well a quick YouTube search later and I know I can get most of my resources by flying to Titan going inside Homestead and buying what I need or sitting for 3 hours to refresh the stock what was it I needed again I fly back and forth between the research station and Homestead until I filled in everything in the first weapon engineering slot now to craft attachments where was the weapon station again at this point I wanted a solid base of operations I built an outpost in South America filled it with every single crafting station and got to work crafting the best weapons I Poss all of my weapons already had better attachments so I found the two cheapest mods and SWA between them until I had met the requirement for the next skill point level up I did this whole entire process again for each of the levels in both weapon and armor crafting along with the extra levels you need into the special project skill and what was my reward I got to change one of my weapons from burst fire to full auto and and a couple silencers that I never got to use effectively because i' spent all my points in science instead of stealth it was at this point that Starfield had lost its luster to me lies of PE came out and absolutely blew me away taking my attention from all other games for several weeks Starfield was left behind feeling like a Hollow Grind that I wouldn't recommend anyone and I'm not really sure what compelled me to return but I did and after getting my bearings as to where I left off in my playthrough and realizing that over 1,000 lb of my ship's cargo was dedicated purely to carrying the resources I had gathered in an effort to upgrade my kit I figured it was finally time to figure out the ship building system I spent hours upgrading the various components rearranging the layout to better integrate cargo holds and figuring off the limits of what I could do with the system without totally ruining my Mobility I was loaded with credits at that point so it was easy to go all out and designed to my heart's content except for the parts that were locked behind the ship design and piloting skill which required destroying enemy ships to progress in I'm sure this is a super common complaint but I had destroyed so many ships at this point in my game and none of them counted towards the piloting skill because I hadn't unlocked the skill with the skill point yet I really wish that Bethesda would patch this so that every skill challenge was available at the beginning of the game and adjust the unlock requirements to reflect that it's so frustrating to have done something so many times and not have any credit for it either way I now had a ship of my own design a ship that had carefully crafted for the specific purpose of carrying a lot more to hoard and sell but not the best ship it could possibly be with my sight set on unlocking the upgrades to ship design I went pirate hunting throughout the Galaxy and while I was doing that something funny happened all of the Pirates I wanted to destroy grab jumped away from me because they were afraid of the mantis's ship but something else funny happened I began enjoying the quirks of the game suddenly the role-playing aspects of being a cool space fairing Adventurer overshadowed the many fall S I had found loading screens between planets were now exciting because I never knew what kind of scene I would emerge into when I entered the planet's orbit whether it be Pirates quests to accept Merchant vessels it was all part of the spaceman RPG experience I wasn't playing as a Fallout guy in space any longer I was the captain of my ship I had once wished that the fast travel system was more streamlined to avoid fumbling through menus and loading screens but now it wasn't a loading screen it was a grab jump and I found it funny that the loading screen and menu system of Starfield is almost universally considered boring but Peak Skyrim and Fallout exploring amounts to walking in a direction for however long until something happens the difference for me is the RPG element I could walk in Skyrim for hours as long as it feels like I'm the dragon Bor and exploring a fantasy land and now that my perspective had shifted I can do the same in Starfield so long as I feel like I'm the captain of a powerful ship that I can make even more powerful after I hunt down enough Pirates the rewards of the weapon upgrade system were incredibly disappointing upgrading my ship was always satisfying learning and understanding my ship's weapon systems and targeting systems was rewarding allowing me to hunt enemy ships with greater lethality and Scuttle any vessel worth commandeering and selling increasing my cargo hold space allowed me to gather more loot to sell across the Galaxy and make me even more Rich everything about the ship system was unique and interesting and satisfying and I almost missed out on it because Starfield fails to Telegraph to players the main fantasy the game fulfills with that mindset that I set out to play the game again but with a new set of ideas to guide my playthrough I would start with the Bounty Hunter class which has a starting point into piloting booster packs and ship targeting each of these skills are important on their own and worth spending at least one point into but they also have the benefit of each residing in the tech skill tree this means after leveling once and putting a point into security for lockpicking another very important skill to invest in early the four skill points requirement would be met to unlock the second level of tech which includes Shield systems payloads and Engine Systems with many useful tech-based skills to invest in including the skill level UPS I got along the way it was not long before I reached the third row unlocking the Starship design skill the progression through the tech skill tree was efficient and rewarding leaving the only thing between me and the most powerful ship in the Galaxy being the skill point unlock challenges and the money I needed for all the parts I would want starting with the piloting skill was hugely beneficial being that quitting your day job and leaving the poverty planet is immediately followed by an intro into space battles resulting in three free ship kills for the five that you need to rank two a few missions later you meet a trio of Varun him ships in orbit near your objective engaging with them is optional and I'd skip them on my first playthrough because I was not yet comfortable with the ship controls but now all I saw was two more ships to destroy and rank up my piloting and one ship to Scuttle and take for myself I ended up using this ship for the rest of my playthrough mostly because of those big voluptuous fuel tanks the rest of my playthrough was pretty pretty linear from there I did missions and sold commandeered ships to make money I used the money to upgrade my ship making it faster stronger hard a hitting with better em capabilities and with more cargo space then used it to more easily hunt down enemy ships and further level piloting the pacing of the game play was incredible missions sent me further into space which pushed me into randomly instanced dog fights with stronger and therefore more valuable ships followed by gunfights in the process of commandeering as well as gunfights within the mission itself I would punctuate the action by returning to civilization to sell off all my Loot and spend an extended time in the ship building menus trying my best to make my ship as cool and efficient as possible after a long while of indulging in this gameplay loop I had designed the strongest ship in the Galaxy the mil Hunter whole while while I was doing all of that the facet that streamlined my playthrough the most was the fact that I didn't need to spend a single point of mass in my inventory or in my ship's cargo on Resources by forgoing the crafting perks in the science skill tab I realized that I could feasibly and easily play the game without using a single item in the resource category in doing so I had freed up my inventory to loot every weapon and armor piece I saw allowing me to spend as little time as possible deciding what I should take and what I should leave behind and so my final summary and advice after I played all this if you want to enjoy Starfield invest in the few aspects of this game that work really well that being the spaceship and the fantasy of being a star Captain all the while ignore the absolute worst aspects of the game including the weapon upgrades the SPAC suit upgrades Outpost building Planet exploring and surveying the research table using the scanner using the mineral cutter the pharmaceutical table cooking and basically everything in the science skill Tab and carrying any of the hundreds of resource items required to make any of that possible and you want to know the kick in the balls of it all the absolute best ship related skill is called autronic Fusion which gives you more units of power in your reactor which means less fumbling around while in ship battles it's a master perk in in the science skill tap you've got to be kidding me now despite all that at the top of my video I said that I love Starfield which is true playing the way I described is very satisfying and I've sunk many hours into this game without regret however that doesn't stop me from realizing that this game is garbage fact that I can tell you with a straight face that you'll spend more time in this game with more enjoyment if you simply ignore large parts of it should be embarrassing for Bethesda the fact that I can advise you to drop every item in the resource category should be seen as a complete mismanagement of the assets at hand and the time someone spent coding and creating them it's a real shame this game was released the way it is because there is genuinely a great game hidden somewhere amongst the heaping pile of ideas and systems that need like two more years of development to get right Bethesda owes it to the version of themselves that used to make great games to get this new IP on its feet it's sort of the opposite of how I feel about from soft's games where I believe their older games are their garbage and yet they manag to leverage the success of their garbage to figure out what works and what doesn't or in order to make incredible games Bethesda seemingly has forgotten what used to make their games great so despite my negativity towards the future of Bethesda I figure it wouldn't hurt to put my constructive thoughts out there for whoever's listening this is everything I would do in an attempt to fix Starfield first I would make the weapon and armor upgrade systems much more rewarding I think the grind to unlock these tools would be completely worth it if the reward was something something huge like the ability to upgrade your white weapons and armor to rare then epic then legendary Rarity it would be a pretty simple fix make the first point into the skill unlock all the attachments and mods but still require their research then the second Point unlocks a rare skill upgrading your weapon to rare next point to Epic last point to Legendary I think this system would definitely need some balancing and certain perks would be undeniably better than others but at least the grind would leave you with something exciting and also allow you to upgrade your whole kit in unique ways that fit your play style secondly I would make gal Bank act as a real Bank in game but instead for your resources if you choose to go through the crafting path then resources become incredibly value to you and you rarely leave them behind however that ends up being a huge burden on your carry weight and your ship's cargo weight this could easily be remedied by utilizing the already established in-game gal Bank as a bank for your resources next I would flesh out the bad guy options a lot more seems like if you take any path even remotely negative you end up paying a huge price being a pirate means losing access to the main areas of the game as well as losing the respect of the four romanceable Companions and losing the missions associated with their companionships it's far too high a price to pay when you get very little in return having to register a ship before selling it eats most of your profits for pirateer it would be nice to have a spaceship Chop Shop that'll take your ill gotten vessels without having to register them next I would give the game a better intro with an emphasis on obtaining your ship through active decision-making on your character's part for example a DLC expansion set on the rim of the settle systems colony of pirates Smugglers and other dob batters could be an indentured servant working with your friend under the harsh rule of a pirate Captain you've been secretly attempting to gather the parts for a ship to escape to the settled systems together but the captain finds out and asks you who's responsible you can sell out your friend for the captain's favor resulting in him gifting you the stolen ship parts setting you on the bad guy path through the campaign or you can say nothing resulting in both of you getting beaten but your friend's wounds are lethal they give you a key to a secret cach of Med packs start a weapons armor and ship parts and tell you to get out while you still can make it to the settled systems and live on for them you then fight your way to a ship building console and get a short tutorial on how to build a ship which explains what each part does and the restrictions in their placement you get to build your ship out of a bunch of garbage basic components in the design of your choosing which should build a small amount of bond between you and the ship while still having a huge amount of upgrades in the future even more than in the base game being that you're flying space trash instead of some functioning ship some gives you for free you then fly away and are given the option of returning to the settled systems to play the main game or staying in the unsettled systems to get revenge for your friend the campaign could be similar to Skyrim's Dawn Guard being that there would be a good and bad campaign running side by side using the same set pieces and characters to tell both stories asle you would have to do something thing about The Outpost design and Planet surveying exploring thing and I'm going to be honest I don't know what I could say on that it's just a blank canvas of content there's nothing there if I were to give some kind of constructive comment I would say that the unexplored unsettled planets should be ripe with hostile Wildlife like you could have it be more of a miname to hunt down the alpha creatures and then reskin the deathclaws my lurks and Skyrims dragons as like bosses in the world maybe your whole ship crew gets to come with you making you feel more like a captain and giving more weight to the crew station stat on your ship I don't know I'm just spitballing cuz this is honestly the most boring and pointless part of the game well anyway that's about all I've got hopefully I've given you some fresh perspective on the game and hopefully some Bethesda Dev gets to see this and gets their creative juices flowing add space hores

Channel: Jester of Juice

Views: 1,338

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Id: isecXngsPuM

Length: 18min 26sec (1106 seconds)

Published: Fri Nov 03 2023