Entering the Starfield

First impressions don't always tell the whole picture

Long have the many months of waiting been whilst we've salivated over the prospect of Bethesda's newest IP to join the two of yore. The fantasy series and the sci-fantasy series can finally find itself balanced out the otherside with a pure Science Fiction franchise to keep the nerds in check. Starfield. The Nasa-Punk space faring adventure exploration title which got many eyes a-turning with it's extensive gameplay reveal event earlier this year, and then pretty much left the world high and dry in the many minutes since. From that time all we've learned have been through leaks. We learned of the general setting, some plot points, the fact that invisible barriers keep us locked to a certain area around our landing zone so we can't travel forever across an entire globe. All little stuff to somewhat douse all that burning anticipation. But we're through the storm now and the game is here; so what is it like?

I've dedicated about 15 hours to playing through the game and I can tell you right now: I'm not sure I even know what my thoughts are on the game yet. Whereas when I was playing Assassin's Creed Odyssey this hour mark pretty much signalled the end of new ideas that the game had to present me with, in Starfield I'm being assailed by so many systems or questlines that I simply have to ignore in order to stay on track that I honestly feel like an ant struggling to comprehend the sheer scale of a human boot before me. There's so much I haven't really had a chance to even mess around with. I'm still saving up to buy my very first non-gifted ship (you get a small hopper right at the beginning, but I want something more substantial.) Outpost building isn't even a thought in my mind. Gunsmithing requires perks I don't even have the permission to buy yet; and I haven't gone more than a single system away from densely populated stars. I've yet to visit a virgin planet in this exploration game, and I'm getting that sense of overwhelming.

First I want to make clear that this doesn't feel like the Bethesda titles of the past that you know and love. This doesn't feel like the kind of game where you can slingshot yourself into the wide open and pick up the thread of fun in a few minutes flat. There's a serious investment of gameplay and knowledge that has to be put in to get anywhere and settle into a rhythm; which is possibly why this game has one of the slowest first few hours of any Bethesda game to date. They can't just throw you out into the world without a life-line or you will fall over and scrape your knees- the game is just hard to sell. So many people take a look at the game through the lens of streamers or reviewers and shrug their shoulders not quite getting what is alluring or addicting about what seems like a fairly mundane space title- but I swear there is something there because I can't put the damn thing down.

Maybe part of that is due to my fascination in trying to get to the heart of the gameplay loop, because I don't feel like I'm there yet. For this game more than any other Bethesda title before, the main quest acts as something of an 'introductory walkthrough' of not only the key parts of 'Settled Space' but many of the systems and companions you'll need to work hand-in-hand with in order to wiggle out some sense of the game that you're playing. In some ways, it feels like I won't start to really live in Starfield until I've beaten the main quest and gone out in my own way, and I'm not entirely sure that's the kind of game that I want to invest time to, to be frank. Honestly, it reminds me in a sick way of a genre of game I never could quite get into: this sort of feels like an MMO, right now.

Not in the multiplayer make-up of it all, obviously, but rather in the way that I'm getting more invested the more that I play. The more roots I dig into this game's soil, the more I worm my way into really getting the type of experience this is meant to be. In many ways it's both more restrictive then any Bethesda game before it and more open then most of them too. And I coming to understand that it's in defining your playstyle that you come to appreciate what's available to you. For once there's a real effort that needs to go into specialising one way or another- you can't even sneak until you unlock and train in the skill first- this is no longer the type of game where you can just go "I'll spend an hour smithing something and suddenly become a world class smithy". And I can really see how that might rub up poorly against a casual audience.

Starfield demands your time, in a way that actually makes me doubt the viability of it's replay potential. Grinding up the right skills, trucking along the appropriate quest lines, struggling to build up your stock of supplies- it all sounds like such a headache from the outside looking in. And yet in it's substance, at least, Starfield is entertaining. The combat is pretty decent and keeps you entertained, slowly becoming more interesting with the cooler weapons you get hold of. The space battles are brutal and unforgiving, bringing a healthy amount of break-neck decision making to feel exhilarating. Unlike many of the MMOs in the world today, I actually like the rhythm of playing it, and am not merely milling around chasing the BIS items for the sake of optimisation. (Which is good because I think Starfield itemisation is pretty meh so far.)

I can absolutely understand someone looking at the game as a viewer concluding the thing is about as deep as a puddle, just as I sympathise with those stuck knee deep in the game feeling it's too deep to breathe within. At the very least I can say this; If you give the game time to learn how it works it will become approachable. The UI won't suddenly stop being cluttered and annoying to navigate, but you'll at least learn how to wield it properly. And there's no hardcore Flight Sim heart to the game which I know turns off a great many more casual players to similar sounding titles like 'Elite Dangerous' and it's ilk. Instead there are a lot of menu hopping options when it comes to space travel. Like... too much menu surfing. It's actually a little annoying, I wish there was a cruise speed or something.

Looking at the review range of Starfield you can see anywhere from 7-9's and I honestly feel that range is as fair as fair can be. More than any other title I've played this year, Starfield is a hugely subjective gameplay experience that some will love and others will utterly despise- I consider myself fortunate to be edging towards the former camp. What I feared to be as skin deep as Fallout 4 is slowly unfurling a more clunky but classic rhythm which is, as cliché as it sounds, reminiscent of a type of game that Bethesda used to make for Oblivion and Morrowind; only with worlds better combat. Not flashy, perhaps, but complex in the areas that seem to matter, and nearing my 30th hour with the game (this blog was written over two days) I might be coming more around than I ever thought possible on it.