Starfield is Bethesda's BEST Game - Brutally Honest Review

okay take a breath here we go [Music] my name is Kodiak this is Legacy gaming Welcome to our brutally honest review of bethesda's Epic space RPG Starfield Starfield has arrived and it's surreal to say that out loud Bethesda was gracious enough to give us plenty of time with the game almost two full weeks and even still we've barely scratched the surface when I say Starfield is the biggest game I've ever played I'm not joking it's a game on a galactic scale and while the developers have been saying that for quite some time it's something else entirely to experience it for yourself that being said I've put in some serious time with the game and after over 100 hours searching the Stars it's fair to say I've put the game through its Paces to be fair to all of you anxiously waiting to play the game this video will contain no major story spoilers and I'll even avoid talking about some of the Key Systems within the game because it's not worth ruining that experience for you stripping out those things still leaves us a ton to talk about so let's get to it Starfield is bethesda's best game that's the headline everything that we've come to know and love about a Bethesda game is on Full display in Starfield something familiar like their iconic dialogue interactions is a staple of this game but it's elevated to its best possible form the same could be said about combat which is in the same vein we no longer have a vat system to lean on but the introduction of new and different combat systems kept me entertained and it was simply put the best version of bethesda's combat what I'm getting at is this Starfield is Bethesda at its absolute best the Decades of work and the foundational systems they've built in games like Fallout and Elder Scrolls are utilized or transformed and worked into Starfield think of it like this it's the Bethesda experience dialed up to 11 on every front it's familiar oh so familiar but also refreshingly new when it needs to be then there's the game's scale which I'll reference about 1 000 times in this video because even with some flaws creating a game this good this ambitious is simply incredible to put this into terms that might actually be helpful in the context of a review if you've played a Bethesda game before you're going to feel right at home in Starfield almost every system outside of a few new ones we'll talk about are variations from previous games if you've liked their previous games I would bet money on you liking Starfield but if games like Fallout and Skyrim never really clicked it might not be blown away from a story perspective this is hands down their best storytelling to date and I mean across the board the team genuinely tries to tell engaging stories with unique characters you meet Across the Universe and this is at the very heart of the game your adventure hinges around constellation a group of explorers trying to solve one of the universe's greatest Mysteries but along the way you get pulled every which direction talking to strange people you meet on the streets or finding yourself aligning with the faction all of which leads you down a completely new path what really won me over was the combination of character models voice acting and writing there are some genuinely funny and deeply personal moments that manage to make me feel something which doesn't happen that often in games nowadays not every conversation is a winner and the constant need to check in with your companions can become a little tedious but it really depends on what you get enjoyment out of when it comes to your games if you like talking to everyone learning their story hearing crazy tales about the universe you're going to be in Hook Line and Sinker if you're someone that really doesn't care about dialogue and a compelling story there's still some stuff to do but you do lose that essence of the game I think it's safe to say this is the most RP Bethesda has ever put in their RPG and while that's a corny line it's the best way to describe how it feels to play the game with you at the center of a massive Space Opera Starfield isn't all about polishing up old systems and making them new in fact the team introduces a number of things that truly captured my imagination as a player that I believe will resonate with the community at large first is The Game's shipbuilding system I more than dabbled trying to create my own Starship and after about I don't know three hours I had to move on or I would never have stopped you can go a surface level or as in-depth as you want and that's what I love about this aspect of the game if you want to just go to the technician and buy a new ship you can do that so long as you have the credits you'll never have to step foot inside the ship Builder and you'll still have access to new toys to play with if like me you want to create something truly epic which I have yet to accomplish you can explore shipbuilding which lets you meticulously rip apart your ships and rebuild them from the ground up if you're someone that plans on spending a lot of time on your ship this will be the rabbit hole you fall down most likely for hours on end each time you visit a Spaceport you'll have access to new parts by investing points in certain skills you'll have access to even more it's a system tailor made for anyone that's ever fantasized about racing off into space in their own custom-made ship and they absolutely nail the execution in a similar vein if you thought building a settlement in a Fallout game was intense get ready for outposts because both systems together could keep you away from ever doing anything else within the game that's obviously a huge exaggeration and both systems aren't exactly easy to get up and running requiring hours of farming but they're deeply customizable which makes them a Tweakers Paradise however none of this holds a candle to one of the game's biggest new systems the universe if you thought walking across Skyrim was an Endeavor try navigating the very heavens themselves now I won't sit here and tell you I visited every planet cleared every point of interest because anyone with review access claiming they've done that is straight up lying the game Star map is one of the coolest yet most intimidating things in all of Starfield from here you can navigate to any system in the Milky Way galaxy once you select your Galaxy you can view the planets in that system then take it a step further and view a singular Planet scan it to determine what resources are available and eventually pick your landing spot at the end of that little experience is a planet ready to be explored unfortunately these are not the true full-sized seamlessly explorable planets we thought we'd be getting leading up to launch there was a lot of discussion about boundaries and what's actually explorable and what's not what I can say is this there is a limit to exploration in a given area because of the game's procedural generation and eventually you'll hit a hard boundary planets are really just several large areas stitched together via loading screens and that's definitely a different experience than running free once you touch down does this change my overall impression of the game absolutely not but is it a cut Corner most likely forced by technical limitations yes if immersive storytelling was one pillar of the Starfield experience exploration which encompasses a whole heck of a lot is a second pillar whether you choose to explore 1000 planets build a custom spaceship or set up a network of outposts and make one of them your home amongst the Stars the lengths the Bethesda team has gone to create some new experiences is for lack of a better term stellar if there's one thing most people know about Bethesda games it's that they're often littered with bugs some small some hilarious some game breaking with the game the size of Starfield can you actually expect Perfection I think some players will but what I found in my hundred plus hours of playing the game is that the team managed to do a pretty great job keeping the major issues in check while still allowing some hilarious issues to slip through the cracks I'm not going to sit here and pretend my experience with Starfield was perfect it wasn't on my playthrough I dealt with at least two hard crashes a number of graphical bugs some hilarious physics-based issues and then some progression Hang-Ups most of the problems I ran into I sorted out the traditional way by loading up a previous save and trying to move past the issue and that worked to a point our team did also encounter at least one true progression blocker no matter what we did we just couldn't Advance a quest which was frustrating what I will say is this I'm willing to give Bethesda a lot of Grace on this front none of these issues I personally encountered stopped me from enjoying the game for more than a couple of minutes was it inconvenient sure but does it all cheap in the experience not at all there's also a good chance many of the issues we experienced won't be present after launch day the team pushed out the day one patch two days ahead of launch and I was happy to see so many of the issues I experienced on the patch notes list I can't say if they'll be completely gone from the game after launch since I spent all of my time on a review build but to see them addressing so many issues so early on in the game's life cycle it's promising where I think Starfield is really going to trip people up is with the sheer amount of load screens you have to Wade through to experience the game in full if you're on a PC with an m.2 drive this isn't as big a deal but every time you fast travel lift off from a planet go into a new area really anything where you leave one location and go to another you have to sit through a load screen as with all annoying things you become accustomed to this but it's absolutely the issue I think most people will gripe about I'm not going to sit here and pretend I know the first thing about Game Dev but I can't imagine there are a number of technical hurdles that prevented the team from doing more seamless exploration but with games like no man's sky and Star Citizen proving that it's possible to go from planet to Atmosphere to space without a single load screen makes you kind of wish Starfield had that capability too it's a longing for something even more immersive because by all accounts the game gets it right but this will absolutely be a talking point amongst the community after launch to tack onto the subject of exploration we knew going into launch that there wouldn't be any ground-based vehicles in the game that we were meant to run and jump our way across the Galaxy and straight up it's got exhausting it's not bad on planets with low gravity where you can kind of jump and sail for a few seconds but once you're brought back to reality of a planet that exerts more natural forces on you it becomes an absolute slog again I'm not going to pretend to know the technical limitations here but it sure would have been nice to have an option here even something simple like a small speed or bike there's no doubt in my mind there will be a fair number of players out there looking to approach Starfield as a gameplay first experience they'll want a dog fight in space defeat spacers and Pirates alike all while leveling up their character and collecting Epic Loot the Bethesda formula is largely unchanged in this regard and while there are some new systems worth talking about it's all wrapped up in a larger gameplay experience let's start PlanetSide with traversal and combat at some point the developers said that combat was completely revamped thanks to the new creation engine 2. and I'll be honest I didn't really feel that as I mentioned in the first section of the review combat feels like bethesda's best version of the experience but it's far from the most advanced combat experience you'll find out there there are loads of weapons to choose from and the diversity of the offering is great but I wouldn't call The Experience masterfully design it's familiar and that's all well and good but if you were to compare starfield's combat against some of the industry standards of the day it just wouldn't hold up for a casual audience I don't think this is going to matter much in a slightly more basic combat system might actually endear them to the experience but more traditional FPS players are not going to find it satisfying luckily on the traversal front boost packs and low gravity really saved the day that combination single-handedly makes getting around the world while on foot much more enjoyable after 100 plus hours with the game I can honestly say I'm still not bored of boost packing around planets and floating around in Low Gravity environments everything you do in this game feeds into starfield's skill system which I personally love things break down into five core trees and each of those trees offers a wide variety of skills that change the nature of the game the kicker here though is that to rank up each skill you need to complete a challenge with that skill which forces you to invest in its Improvement I love this subtle change to the system because it connects your experience in game with direct improvements with that skill and I think that's a connection that's not often made in games with skill treats I have to imagine you're also curious about exploring space dog fighting and boarding enemy ships and how that all ties together in your overall experience fighting in space is interesting to say the least duck fighting definitely falls on the more arcadey end of the spectrum and if you're coming from games that lean further into the simulation side of things you're going to immediately feel the difference and most likely hate it I personally don't mind the space combat but I will say managing Power Systems is far less of an immersive system than the game made it out to be you pretty much strip the available power from your grav Drive juice your weapons and engine and then forget about the system there's also something to be said about the balance which feels off especially early on often times you'll be up against two or three enemy ships and at that point in the game it can be brutal just to clear the field of enemies considering that you heal your ship the same way you use a med pack it's a less than thrilling experience what's far more enjoyable is boarding enemy ships stealing their cargo and claiming it as your own this experience felt vastly different from space dog fighting and I thoroughly enjoyed it each and every time it's a great example of how a small system can have a huge payoff and at 15 minutes of work means I'm adding a new ship and some loot to my Armada I'm all for it taking that combat element out of the equation for a second I think everything else about ships is awesome customizing your ship will no doubt be the highlight of the game and not because it leads to an engaging combat system but because the customization and flexibility of the system I mentioned before allows players to really live out that space RPG fantasy it's an endgame Endeavor that requires a ton of credits to do right but the sheer possibilities will excite almost anyone's imagination I'd also be remiss if I didn't drill a little deeper into outposts again this is familiar territory if you're coming from a Fallout game and I have to say it's another one of those systems I think many players will be sucked into the team has gone through Great Lengths to expand the offerings giving players both function and form on our team livid spent the most time dabbling in this system for the most part he enjoyed it building a space space is a fantasy I think a lot of RPG fans are going to Revel in but there are some nuances of the system that can be frustrating like cargo management and connecting your outposts all things that you can figure out with a little time and practice yeah with over 100 hours played in the game I feel confident saying I've experienced a core chunk of Starfield but to say I've scoured every corner of the universe dug deep into every Nuance of every system would simply not be true that being said I stand by my claim at the beginning of the video Starfield is Bethesda at its best to some players it'll be a game of the year Contender simply because of the space setting the immersive RPG elements and the Nostalgia that comes with the developers history but for others the game will simply just be great I can't stress enough how impressive the experience is when you consider how massive it is the sheer breadth of the developed content is staggering and I don't think any released game has come close to capturing this level of scale and scope but because of its size there are some Hang-Ups primarily ones that have dogged Bethesda for years if you know what you like and you like Bethesda games Star field will go down in your book as one of the greatest games of all time and once mods hit the scene oh boy because that potential is ridiculous but for those that are expecting Cutting Edge Innovation at every turn Starfield doesn't deliver on that particular front now my personal take I love Starfield I think ambition is good and it's clear there is so much passion behind the game are the bugs silly sometimes annoying yes could the combat have been overhauled even more to deliver a more polished experience for sure but did I have the time of my life building a ship unpacking story moments and becoming the space pirate I always wanted to be absolutely so there you have it friends our brutally honest review of Starfield we hope you have a fantastic time playing the game and I'd love to know your thoughts so feel free to share your first impressions in the comments section down below of course if you want direct access to the Legacy Community then consider joining us on Discord with over 20 000 members in a section dedicated just for Starfield it's a great place to hang out talk about new and upcoming games and win loads of free prizes that link as always is below my name is Cody Atkin from everyone here at PC gaming thanks for watching and play on [Music]

Channel: Legacy Gaming

Views: 188,058

Keywords: Legacy Gaming, starfield, starfield review, starfield early review, should i buy starfield, should i play starfield, should i get starfield, starfield game, starfield pc, starfield xbox, starfield combat, starfield skills, starfield space, starfield preview, starfield powers, starfield early access, starfield early access review, starfield new player, starfield review in progress, starfield spoiler free review, starfield gameplay, is starfield good, is starfield bad

Id: ZnldnOLfVHY

Length: 17min 1sec (1021 seconds)

Published: Thu Aug 31 2023