Is Starfield ACTUALLY Good? - 300+ HOURS Review (NO SPOILERS)

welcome back to fudge muppet my name is Scott and my God damn am I so excited to be making this video Todd Howard and Bethesda game studios have done it Starfield is a fantastic game when Starfield was first revealed I wasn't really excited and the First full reveal left me a little wanting I really wasn't convinced and if anything I just wanted Elder Scrolls 6 more after the Showcase earlier this year I was more open a real wait and see approach and holy hell I waited and I saw this game is incredible honestly some of bethesda's finest work Michael and I have sunk a combined play time of over 300 hours at this point and my God there is still more to see this game is huge they have made it far more role-playing Centric than ever before and this is a major key for us we have done multiple playthroughs tackling different sides of the experiences exploring the many systems factions and quests and man there is so much more to do honestly I'm overwhelmed this video will contain no spoilers we don't want to ruin any experiences and hence a full critique isn't something we can do right now and after we have spent some serious time exploring the fullness of the Galaxy after we've done lots of builds after we've really really just graphed everything that we can in the game we will come back with a new analysis but still there is so much to say right now this game is enormous there is so much content so much to do but at the same time there are so many possibilities within the same content we have experienced role playing is hugely important to us we love to get deep into the law and create backstories for character builds that truly feel a part of the world and in the past we have done so for Skyrim and Fallout 4 but much of the role playing in those games comes from your own headcanon experience and cool Aesthetics and archetypes but Starfield Changes Everything by far this is the most Vivid role-playing experience that Bethesda has ever produced this game has the most inbuilt systems for role-playing of all bgs games period the dialogue the characters and the quest writing is so good and so vast there is so much variance in dialogue and your background traits and skills matter they really make you feel like your character is seen and understood by the other characters in the game you can truly express yourself I for example chose to start with a gunslinger type character I picked the space scoundrel background and the traits freestyle Collective settler serpents Embrace meaning I'm part of the Veron religion and wanted which means I have a bounty on me but not the conventional Bounty you get for Crime but a special case bounty hunters actually came after me during the game and there were so many instances where I could use dialogue options for the trait wanted expressing that I could relate to being on the wrong side of the law or have someone chasing you and the same goes for my religion there were some really neat instances where I got some neat armor get past Veron hostiles and the freestyle trait came up a lot when I was in their worlds adding extra layers of character expression and your background also comes up a lot I had dialogue options for being a space scoundrel and for example Michael picked the gangster background and had a whole other experience especially on neon it really allows your character to be represented in game in a meaningful way the same goes for skills many of which are frequently used in dialogue and not just persuasion for instance if things such as security can come up in dialogue if you have the skill but while on the topic of persuasion this is by far the most engaging form it has had in it Bethesda RPGs when you persuade you actually enter a series of turns where you can pick from ranging difficulty dialogue options to try and fill out the bar and successfully persuade the character but on top of that there is also a degree of nuance while I can't 100 confirm it yet so it's still a mystery Michael and I both had independent experiences of picking persuade dialogue options that we thought corresponded more so to how the characters were in personality and more often than not it seems like it had a higher chance of working even when it was a high difficulty check which makes me think that maybe there is something working in the background that keeps track of the context and character which if true is really cool but that's speculative bit aside another awesome part of persuasion is that background traits and skills can also factor into the system for example you may get into a persuade check and then in Brackets there'll be an option like wanted or space scoundrel or intimidation and these have an improved chance of succeeding in these contexts anyways the persuade system and dialogue in general is really damn good and that brings me to my next point the writing in general is far better than previous games in terms of actual dialogue and Quest design which I'll talk more on later but talking to people is really enjoyable they feel like real characters and I'm always Keen to see what unique options I might have due to my specific background traits and skills so my advice is to carefully consider your role-playing angle and pick your background and trade accordingly we are so excited for role-playing builds absolutely subscribe to the channel if you're Keen to see what we are cooking so many great experiences to be had in this game this game is huge there is so much content and it feels like it just keeps going there's tons of side quests faction quest lines obviously the main story radiant missions and so much exploring to do of course too there is all the Random Encounters that are possible as well and the things you come across upon the worlds honestly it's kind of hard to encapsulate the scope plus we have all these different systems to talk about but I'll get there I'll try to break it down into some categories so I won't say anything about the main quest line other than I have completed it in full and I really enjoyed it but the other thing to mention which I love is that there isn't this desperate sense of urgency that feels like it's encouraging you to burn through the story quickly we've critiqued before that both Skyrim's desperate plea to save Skyrim from dragons and Fallout 4's quick save your son style of main story gives you a sense of urgency see that pulls you away from sinking in and enjoying the open world starfield's story is fantastic in the way it is patient and doesn't make you feel rushed it makes sense that you would just pursue other quests or explore or go and do whole other factions without suspending disbelief in a role-playing sense there are four main factions in the game and we have played through all of them and honestly they feel like mean stories in themselves we had a fantastic experience with each of them and for the most part they aren't Typecast around a playstyle so any character could approach any of the questlines but they most certainly provide different role-playing experiences Michael and I played very different characters and there were many options for different ways we could take the quests during faction plots things that made you feel as if your input matters honestly they are really well done I don't want to say too much but man I would highly recommend you take your time with a mean story and enjoy all the factions and side content calling it side content honestly feels like a slur it's honestly so good calling it side stuff makes it seem like it's the chips when it's actually an additional giant burger with a thick Shake I want to talk about the environments themselves but just some quick notes on radiant content the missions the on planet encounters honestly it's all really well done radiant content has existed before but the way it is implemented in Starfield makes it feel like an authentic part of the experience rather than this extra rubbish to do things like bounty hunting transporting cargo pirating surveying and exploring this all this kind of stuff that factors into your role-playing character if you want to be a bank rolling Trader who owns a giant cargo ship you absolutely can ship customization is so mad honestly there is so much good about this game and so much to do that I feel at times like just blurting it all out at once you don't know how hard it is to condense these thoughts into some kind of structure speaking of which back to environments this was probably the biggest difference compared to previous Bethesda games there is no longer a single traversable map there are big main cities space stations settlements and Facilities but these are spread out across the Galaxy and if you were to play the game going from place to place it can feel more like a hub based game however this is still a Bethesda sandbox RPG and if you shake off the imagined constraints at first you realize you can just power pack on top of a tall tower or just walk out of a city and off into the vast Wilderness I will admit at first I found it a little bit jarring but once I got used to the new layout of a galaxy rather than a single map I found myself enjoying it so much in fact I was surprised by how much I enjoyed exploring the Wilderness seeing new creatures and biomes and also being an Explorer is a totally valid playstyle and can yield lots of experience there are so many types of things you can do but I'll try and stay on track here the planets can vary a lot in biomes like tropical forests Wetlands deciduous forests Frozen Plains Red Rock Canyon type environments all kinds of creatures and so many awesome experiences just occur from exploring those first moments of seeing some brontosaurus tear creatures run roaming the planes or seeing flying manta ray type things floating about and coral crabs racing to kill some herd animal only for it to then get hunted by a pack of trap Moors and then you may come across a wounded settler seeking help or you might find a science Outpost or an abandoned Factory or some weird fungus ecosystem and if you get to a planet where gravity is low it can be so fun when you can basically fly with your Boost pack exploring the Untamed Worlds was far better than I expected and Loki hits one of my favorite things to do mind you it is much better if you Speck into the Explorer related skills but as for civilization the cities feel much more like cities compared to previous bgs titles with lots of random citizens walking around and this is just much better makes the city feel much livelier and scale appropriate but the cities are also quite fast with lots of tucked away sections and places to explore and quests to do and man the Aesthetics are just really cool neon Aquila and Atlantis are the three main ones each with a distinctive feel but there are also lots of other good-sized Town type places to find and other cool spots to get stuck into like the red mile or Paradiso I won't say much but there is lots to see and experience beautiful cities beautiful environments and intentionally ugly places really do make the Galaxy feel vast and Rich you may also know that you can build bases in this game coming off the back of Fallout 4 I was concerned about Starfield having an emphasis on Base building and scrapathon tier experiences however those concerns have vanished Base building truly is optional it's not pushed on you at all which I really like and collecting resources is so neatly entwined with the experience of exploring worlds and seeing what's over the next Horizon that I never felt as if I was doing this boring laborious job I don't know how at the moment to convey what I mean but I could let Todd Howard do the talking and say it just works most of the systems and gameplay mechanics feel so neatly integrated into the core experience that I never feel that I'm bored doing one particular thing or that I have to grind this one section or something like that if you set up an outpost or multiple you can create system networks of shared resources and efficient mining operations or perhaps you want to grow plants or just have a Scenic spot for your house also we have to talk about shipbuilding the shipbuilding is so damn cool there is so much potential for role-playing even if you aren't trying to be a flying ace you could kick your ship out like a luxury space limo for your corporate money hungry agent or making it a cargo hauler for your truck or Trader or making some cool bounty hunting ship for your iconic character there are so many statistical options and different ship stats but then also there's a whole lot of stuff that goes into the structural and aesthetic options I personally can't help making ships look like some June concept art fruity retro thing also it can function as a home basically if you want you can change the configuration of the levels and the types of room modules but unlike a a bought home or an outpost you can't change the furniture positioning I'm Keen to try and make an Evan Hawke ship I guess while talking about systems I should mention there is researching for new upgrades and weapon modifications spacesuit modification can making food cooking man so much to just get out we plan on making guides for these different facets of the games and I know for sure ship design will be factoring into all our role-playing builds they're basically characters in themselves so do be sure to subscribe for those okay let's break up the stuff talk a bit and talk more about who you are we covered the Fantastic role-playing of this game but now let's talk more about the leveling and the skills because again this was a system layout I was a little skeptical of at first essentially you unlock a skill and when you complete the requisite challenge for that skill you can spend a skill point to unlock a new rank with new benefits and a new challenge for the next rank it's like a hybrid of level by doing and follow out fours more XP perk based system I really enjoy this system having spent a lot of time with it I've typically preferred more XP perkcentric systems but what I really like is that the system incentivizes you to spend time engaging in the use of the skill and it's often given me reasons to go out and tackle the world it really is quite a simple system but in a good way being critical I don't think there is as much X Factor as there have been with perks beforehand but at the same time all of the skills and advancing them are very specific to play Styles and seem to confer very tangible benefits to reward that investment plus as I said they show up in dialogue also it does make for a situation where you will want to consider your priorities of skill acquisition so that you can complete the challenges as you play we'll definitely expound upon all of this in a starter build guide coming very soon but if I have to say one thing this game really respects your playstyle with a combination of different skills ways to approach quests role-playing background and traits and general diversity of dialogue there are ways play Starfield where you can really just choose to live in the world this more open organic style of classless system I find is much better when combined with the background and traits that determine the role-playing aspects for example if I could have played Skyrim and selected the background Thalmor agent as a high elf and then that factored into dialogue and perhaps even made the embassy Quest easier then that would be really cool but you don't need a class system to do this in the same sense Fallout New Vegas had fruity perks to choose from like tribal wisdom that improved role-playing but in Starfield it feels like you get to pick these kinds of things up front via traits and backgrounds and carry them throughout the game and into your dialogue with all the builds coming your way there will be so much talk of all the statistical bits and pieces so just know that I thoroughly enjoyed the leveling system in action and to the character creation with backgrounds and traits is mint so if you are familiar at all with our Channel and our history of Fallout 4 and Skyrim builds you would know that role playing is huge for us and a part of what sells a character's Vibe is how they look what they wear and what they use and so coming into Starfield we had concerns about the aesthetic options available you know there's a lot of spacesuits functionally you have an apparel option kind of like Fallout 3 or New Vegas no Fallout 4 layout system here these are just your clothes which you can wear in settlements and breathable planets and as a plus note there are a whole bunch of options and there is little statistical variation meaning that you can pretty much wear whatever you like as clothing for the perfect feel of the character but when it comes to your spacesuit your space helmet and your pack you will often be prioritizing functionality over aesthetic appeal but I can deal with that as long as I have cool clothes when out and about in settlements plus later on you can find better versions of the same spacesuits and use an earlier aesthetic that you enjoyed and don't get me wrong there are plenty of cool looking spacesuits but again by the nature of the item type being spacesuits in a space game there aren't as many aesthetic combinations Nations I can Envision at the moment there is a wide variety of your typical weapons and various of each type for example I played a gunslinger that had like six different pistols each with different ammo types available all benefiting from my pistol skill the same kind of varieties available with every weapon type except perhaps with laser weapons I have found fewer of those but still there are some unique weapons with unique names and sometimes unique skins and appearances but typically the bulk of your special stuff comes from random Loot and vendors there is a tiered Rarity system for weapons you find white is just standard blue is rare and has one special effect purple is epic and has two effects orange is legendary and has three special effects so you may for instance find a basic Maelstrom rifle but it's legendary it's functionally the same in terms of raw stats but the special effects augmented for example I had a legendary helmet that had three effects chameleon when crouched minus 20 oxygen consumption and minus 20 resource weight exploding round shotguns faster fire rights poison axes this Rarity system provides an additional layer to the weapon Choice system but it is a randomized feature though this always makes you Keen to explore and see what cool gear you might find you can of course take any of these weapons and mod the hell out of them but you do need the weapon engineering skill for that sure I'd rather there be some more true uniques in the game but I'm happy enough with the weapon variety both from a functionality and aesthetic point of view though it doesn't have as much X Factor as say A Mace of Molag Barrel or an Ebony Blade but honestly it feels like a good robust selection to me so in terms of using all of this stuff the combat feels really good to me the Boost pack is one of the best things for the game so much maneuverability in combat and having enemies being able to jet pack to better Vantage points or away from your attacks makes them much more engaging to fight gun play is what you would expect it depends on how good at Shooters you are melee feels surprisingly good and it's quite fun the gameplay showcase absolutely did not do it justice space combat in ships has a bit of a learning curve but if you do pick it up and especially if you invest into related Starship skills you will have an awesome time many cool moments dogfighting and asteroid Fields again you will see us talking about it more and explain playstyles and upcoming builds but we like it a lot one thing to note is that you can intentionally avoid space combat by just grab jumping away or paying up to those who are trying to take your credits or other methods but there isn't much forced ship combat a few instances in a couple of the quest lines I kind of said this before but there are so many valid play Styles in this game you can just be an Explorer xenobiologist scanning planets or a beast hunter or you can be a corporate ninja or a captain of an urban hawk-like ship as a diplomat character with lots of crew you could be an industrialist creating a system of mining outposts and manufacturies there is everything you would expect and more overall I have to say again they've done a really good job of rewarding you depending on your playstyle choices there aren't really any useless occupations and moving on to the phone final part of our thoughts quests Bethesda has really improved its writing chops a lot from dialogue to characters to interesting plots and rewarding Quest design Starfield has it all most quests have multiple ways of achieving the same goal allowing for multiple approaches combat stealth dialogue having a lot of money there's lots of options to explore and there is a good set of choices and consequences through outside quests and factions there have been choices I made where I felt real consequences for instance if someone says they're going to come back and kill you for something you did they probably will track you down I mentioned before that the main story and factions are great but even the side quests are awesome it's worth exploring cities fully and taking your time there is so much I still haven't seen honestly the quality of this game is amazing considering its scale there's also plenty of cool Random Encounters some of which may be related to your character traits or background I also want to say that there seems to be four main companions who are responsive in dialogue and will chime in on your missions they are characters that are really involved and they are well written there are other companions that feel less involved and more just like a follower but I still need to confirm and explore the extent of these options I would have liked if there were some more variety and companions if I'm being honest it's not so much the amount but rather the similarity ideologically all the main ones are quite similar and it's a little frustrating that there isn't a quality companion with more dubious morals especially if you are role playing a more criminal character at the end of the day star field is amazing we are so happy and there is so much to explore and after 300 hours we can truly say this as one of the Bethesda greats it just works now while we have completed the main story all the factions heaps of side quests it still seems like we have heaps more to see and we need to complete all the content the game has to offer and explore many more characters to give a full bird's eye perspective and accurate review which we plan on doing eventually but in the meantime we are super pumped about this game we are so happy it is in a dud and we are going to be producing content around the clock so drop the video a like if you are pumped for a new era of fudge Market And subscribe for all the builds guides and Starfield content that we'll be dropping very soon thanks so much for watching my name is Scott and I'm going back to play Starfield

Channel: FudgeMuppet

Views: 327,562

Keywords: starfield review, starfield gameplay, bethesda starfield, starfield gameplay 4k, starfield first impressions

Id: 3mmQmfuMCos

Length: 21min 18sec (1278 seconds)

Published: Thu Aug 31 2023