*Ding Dong* That's for me! :) Hi! Do you promise to be good? ...Of course I'll be good. Seriously, please be good. bethesda ilovenothingmore
withallofthatlaidoutinfrontofme ilovenothingmore
THANTOBEDRAGGEDOUT ATEVERY*quack*CONCIEVEABLEOPPORTUNITY
Good morning, fellow Sewer Dwellers. Let us discuss the elephant in the room: Buzz Starfield Starfield isn't a bad game. "There, I said it." He's misunderstood and an outcast. (Music) I've been anxiously waiting to make this video, desperately hoping that if I
stayed on the sidelines long enough, everyone would collectively realize
that they overreacted to Bethesda's latest
installement in open world RPGs But with every new sunrise,
a "Starfield = Bad" video snakes it's way across my
youtube recommendations staining my already sleepless,
bloodshot eyes with their tan streaks It's always yet another 30 minute,
miserable review bombing piece of hot garbage with a 40-year-old's take on a game that they haven't even given
a day's worth of playtime. I've decided that I'll make this essay,
and when the algorithm finally decides to pick up this video,
everyone will have shifted their collective distrust and hatred
to another intellectual property and Starfield will become the misunderstood
classic that people like me can see it for. Now I don’t want you to
misunderstand my negative tone. Many of these older game reviewers, I love. I anticipate their first impressions
with baited breath to help me make an educated guess as to whether
or not I will like any given title I have chosen specific ones to pay attention
to due to similar tastes, of course. But something happened here. Something
strange but entirely predictable. Everyone expected something
outside the realm of possibility. I used to hate this game. Truly. And now I know why. (Music) I initially played for about a week, every
other night, completely unable to care. I had a few very glaring issues with it. the primary storyline felt unengaging and not
conducive to a character-specific playthrough Fallout 4 had this problem. Where no matter how you wanted to play, you were roped into “Oh no my
son was taken! Where is Shaun??" "Errragh!"
*gun noises* "Shaun!"
"Ethan!" "Shaun!"
"Shaun!" "Shaun!" This doesn’t attract any players who
have played real Role-playing games to be thrown into a mandatory story with no
semblance of control over their own destiny. I wanted to play as an evil character based
off of a character in a novel I’m workshopping, which doesn’t mesh incredibly well with the
goody-two-shoes exploration guild that is Constellation, your first home base in this game.
There’s also a frequent dialogue option that I couldn’t bring myself to select where you
simply ask for work from someone with no previous conversation to allude to the
fact that they may have a job for you. Of course, I wanted to do missions,
but I was playing a rude character who hated most people (a new endeavor for
myself) why would this egotistical maniac ask for work like a low self-esteem child,
putting his index fingers together shyly? The performance wasn’t incredibly good
on launch and even though that was a main complaint by others, it isn’t until about
40 hours now that I am experiencing bugs. My bugs so far are:
Andreja is not behind me in the ship, but in front, running in
space/ in front of my control console. Airlocks are floating up in the air
instead of being mounted onto settlements. Long after a stealth mission, I
still get the trespassing warning in the top right corner of my screen
Companions' heads disappear? (perhaps an issue with legendary stealth armor)
A bunch of Cydonian miners don't have their work outfits on for some reason
Some airlocks bug out and make it so you wear the space suit inside, but not outside?
Let's get back to the core issues. Spacesuits don’t allow you to
circumvent lung damage?? I’m literally not breathing the outside air though??
Guns are hard to use until you're about level 10. Unless you find a lucky legendary, you’ve got to
play incredibly safe in combat until you gain the right amount of credits to buy good gear.
The space junk problem: There’s an insane amount of resources you
collect in this game if you’re a heavy looter, and no amount of time spent menuing to figure out
what companion to pass it off to or exploring the outpost storage system is fun and satisfying.
Fast travel being a necessary part of the game: I was used to playing games like Elite
Dangerous, No Man’s Sky and Star Citizen Which I feel was a massive amount of this
game’s audience. If everyone from this camp, like me, are the ones complaining about this game, I completely understand and sympathize.
Those games allow you to hop in your ship and take off from the ground,
to the sky - NOT JUST TO ORBIT My first 16 hours, this discrepancy drove me
insane and is my main conflict with the game “I can go anywhere in this
game, but not in atmosphere?? This is a hard contrast to explain to people who
haven’t played one of these games, but the ability to pick up and fly above all of your points
of interest, watching them slowly disappear behind the horizon, doesn’t compare anymore
It lets you actually experience the scale and beauty of the worlds you’re flying to
and from as well as the space in between. Especially in VR
When I would get on my ship in Starfield, I would always press the take-off button,
expecting a CLUNK and a gentle lift off the ground, allowing me to use the piloting skills
I had GENUINELY LEARNED and LOVED from other games only to be greeted by
The dreaded cutscene. I love the process. I love piloting my OWN SHIP
through the BEAUTIFUL setting I’m provided. I’m not saying that Bethesda should
have done this seamless travel option, but this is just something I personally
wanted more than any other gameplay mechanic I almost didn’t buy the game when
I heard this wasn’t included. For reference here: Elite Dangerous is a
great game mechanically, with most of the game taking place inside of your ships’ cockpits
Elite Dangerous Odyssey tried to change this formula up with the ability to run around
space stations and on planet surfaces, But even with semi-regular updates,
the sheer lack of engaging content in the game leads to a “make your own fun” approach.
There’s also a good amount to complain about with Elite Dangerous Odyssey: Tthe community has been
begging to have explorable spaceship interiors, which Starfield of all “Space
Games” managed to deliver on! I had this to say during my
birthday stream a few months ago: “I have an opinion on Starfield that’s
probably not normal opinion. The game is everything Elite Dangerous: Odyssey
wanted to be without anything good that Elite Dangerous already was. Because Elite
Dangerous is a good game, but Starfield is everything Elite Dangerous Isn’t. So if you
just combined Starfield and Elite Dangerous, you’d have the best space game that’s
ever been made. And that’s the truth.”
It’s like that meme with the two books that hold
the entire universe’s knowledge - “everything they teach you at Harvard” and “everything
they don’t teach you at Harvard”
Elite Dangerous’s main gameplay components
feel thought out and interesting: Engaging space combat and exploration.
Amazing faster-than-light travel systems with interesting alternate
routes through neutron stars. An incredible online multiplayer community.
Seamless gameplay. A real sense of danger and fun.
BUGGIES THAT YOU COULD DRIVE ON PLANET SURFACES Interesting non-humanoid aliens and lore
The things that ED failed to deliver were all apart of Bethesda's (and by
extension: Starfield's) repertoire. A charming galactic story
Missions that were actually fun Ship interiors and modular shipbuilding
RPG elements that genuinely benefit the game By the way! You can add or remove perks in normal
gameplay! When was this a thing in previous games? I happened to wander inside a UC Security office
looking for something and stumbled on a member of my evil cult, and when speaking with them, I
could express doubt in my god and remove the perk! The same thing happened when I ran into a
random therapist, and he offered to help persuade my character out of my introverted
nature, which would remove my perk there! Amazing feature allowing for
interesting character growth. No notes. All of the “RPG” elements in Elite Dangerous are
essentially personal headcanon that you make up offscreen and are only expressed in ship choice,
name, character appearance, and mission selection. There’s not much that genuinely inserts your
character into the world with meaningful consequences outside of blowing up innocent people
as a pirate or joining the fuel rats in real life. There’s an insanely grindy system that allows
you to gain affinity with the different factions in the game, but it isn’t intriguing in the
slightest, as it essentially boils down to “do a million random fetch quests for that faction and
choose reputation instead of credits for a reward” There are workarounds and hacks, but those require
extensive YouTube research and rabbit holes.
So what was Starfield offering? Everything
Elite Dangerous wasn’t and nothing it was? Not really. I saw all the trailers and was sold on the hype. I became overconfident in a
product that didn’t exist. I even purchased the early access to
play a few days earlier on Game Pass. I believe everyone (that thinks of this game
negatively) had a similar expectation as me, that Starfield would be everything No Man’s Sky, Elite Dangerous, Star Citizen,
and Fallout were: rolled into one. Instead, we only got “Fallout in Space” But isn’t that what we wanted? (Music) Despite all the issues, something
drove me forward, this hope and last-ditch effort to understand the game
studio I had come to love over the years, developing and releasing
games with compelling stories. Many times the gameplay was lacking in these other
games, namely Fallout 3 with its mediocre gunplay, and Fallout 4 with the staggering regression
of certain RPG elements and choice. but Bethesda has always managed to deliver
an engaging story with interesting choices, be it Elder Scrolls or Fallout,
they are beloved by many. So what was I missing? What
was the golden sauce that my friends were enjoying about this
travesty on the space game genre? Then it happened. I took a chance. I abandoned the main storyline and
explored Cydonia, a measly mining colony on Mars - funnily enough one of
the main places you go in many missions. There were so many npcs here - characters going
about their days. and they all had issues? Although it was outside of the headcanon I
had created for my character, I offered to help some of the less fortunate, and decided to
“take care of” problems for snobby executives. Needless to say by now, this changed
everything. The hurdle was hurdled. I went everywhere, and did everything and did
anything. I asked random npcs in every town what they were doing, what they needed.
- despite my character not wanting to do something like that. If the npc had a name,
I was asking it questions as the player. The UC Vanguard was suddenly interesting
and not a random security force I hated. The Freestar Rangers burst onto the scene as the
independant freedom fighters full of personality The Crimson Fleet were more
intriguing than simple “raiders” A dragon themed corporation filled with lies and
deception drew me in with their ill intent and ego Everything opened up All I had to do was let go
and stop believing the game needed to be what I originally wanted it to be. It could never be that. How could I reasonably expect a game studio,
a myriadic collective of innovative game developers to specifically understand and
implement my ideal bethesda/spacesim game? They couldn’t. And I should
never have expected them to. there’s a great many issues I had
before, that have now been relieved. Fast travel? Going back and forth as a gameplay
loop gets tiring after awhile while I would have appreciated the option
to fly anywhere and everywhere I know I would get tired of the process with how many
system jumps I do in a regular game session The Constellation Main Story? It’s great for casual players - people
who don’t care about throwing a specific character into situations like you can with
other RPGs. - SO IT’S MADE FOR MOST GAMERS Bethesda faces a challenge being a
popular game dev. Since most casual players have heard of them, they need to
weigh out the pros and cons of creating an in-depth “story creator” for
a niche group of players like me. Let’s be honest here. How many casuals do you think
had heard of Larian Studios and wanted a “real RPG” before Baldurs Gate 3?** I hadn’t heard of them - and that’s not because
I don’t care about the type of games they create, but because they weren’t a part of
the broader gaming conversation yet. Bethesda has to contend with
being one of the biggest Devs and catering to as wide an audience as they can. And that’s okay. It’s a choice that makes sense for where the culture was
during their development cycle. We have all this talk about crunch culture in
game studios - would you really have wanted this game to be delayed by another year,
simply so they could copy Larian’s formula? I wouldn’t have. So the constellation story is not a
great introduction for this character that I made - but that point doesn’t change the
base game’s quality - just my specific use case Sometimes I would need to take the reigns as the
player instead of the character, and that’s okay. I can’t expect the game to be hand-tailored to me. No Fallout-style radio?
Not really that big of a shame. It adds to the atmosphere of space
and how quiet it actually is. Besides, I can listen to my own music if I
want. - And I appreciate that element. No vehicles on planets? uh, actually this one still bothers me a little.
I suppose there’s not a lot of smooth terrain, but it would help if I could pick up and
get to my undiscovered locations quicker Iack of handcrafted points of interest I have been frequently seeing
a complaint where people are upset about Starfield’s space being “empty”. Sorry to be “that guy”, but have you
studied real life at all? If anything, Starfield’s galaxy is full of life and interesting
places. Ours is barren and dead by comparison. The expectation that a space game needs to
have brand new and handcrafted interesting places around every little moon is unrealistic. Ship Building?
All I needed was 30 minutes of messing around and I understood
it. I just needed to give it a chance. I just needed to give it a chance. Once I realized this, I could see the
game for what Bethesda had wanted it to be. I could picture their “mentalese”
as described by Joseph Tsar in his video: "Why you can't articulate like you think"
I have a link for it in the description. In essence, he details linguistic variances and
how it is essentially impossible to explain in words exactly the image that you have in your
head without an immense amount of connotation This means that at any given time, someone
you’re speaking to may have an entirely different visual glossary for a word or concept you are
expressing to them based on their own experiences. Bethesda’s colorful articulation
finally came through to me when I stopped projecting my ideal
vision on their creation. It was like I was watching Toy Story
thinking it should be about Andy and his mom, about how she’s a single mother
raising him and his sister Molly. It’s not about that. That’s a B-plot. Toy Story is a quaint movie that makes light
of talking toys and their adventures as they navigate betrayal, jealousy, abandonment,
and the impending shadow of destruction. Not whatever I want it to be. Just because you want a piece of
media to be something it isn’t, doesn’t mean it should have
been what you wanted it to be. My working theory now is this: Everyone expected Bethesda to deviate from
their incredibly successful game formula simply because “it was a brand
new space game” and take new and interesting strides into the current
landscape of the "space game" genre, developing further space sim game elements and
stitching them all together into “Starfield” Then - once everyone was “let down”
and Bethesda had simply created another open-world RPG with their special charm in
the way that only they could, everyone was immensely disappointed - no matter how beautiful
and creative the entire art piece is as a whole. That’s why you see this consistent smearing of a
game that will only become beloved as time passes. WE FINALLY receive a AAA game with an original
story and worlds and this is how we treat it? We haven’t learned from our
exorbitant conjecture. This always happens… and it’s not hard to spot anymore. In case you have a hard time with
this Starfield slander as I do, try out the subreddit R/nosodiumstarfield. When discussing this with a friend, we were
talking about how we feel like the only ones loving the game. he mentioned that the no
sodium subreddit would be a good place for me, as the main subreddit for Starfield is
littered with this constant complaining and refusal to acknowledge the things that
Bethesda (once again) got *exactly* right. I’m letting you know about it in case you
also think Starfield isn’t actually bad, you can join and post memes and such. Now if you’ll excuse me, I still have more Dragonforce books to retrieve for
my fellow bookworm Mitch Benjamin. I will uh
Catch you in the ‘field Don't forget to like and
sub if you liked the video That really helps me out I will be streaming sometime soon hopefully on twitch so there's going to be a
link for that in the description Feel free to drop by and discuss any
counterpoints. I would be happy to debate them. You're also welcome to stop by the Discord, there's a link for that in
the description as well. Have a great day.
