Cyberpunk's storytelling makes Starfield seem ancient - Opinion

Hdcase@beehaw.org to Gaming@beehaw.org – 183 points –
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This is some of the most honest feedback about Starfield. It's not bad. It's just horribly dated.

It's a standard Bethesda game, and it's great for a Bethesda game. But Bethesda hasn't updated anything in years, over a decade even. Characters are flat, storylines are fun but not engaging, it's just.... fine.

If this had come out in 2014-2016 as a successor to Skyrim it'd be one of the best games, I firmly believe that. But it didn't, they took their time building it, which is good, but now we have games like the Witcher 3, Cyberpunk, RDR2, even ME3 came out after Skyrim. The format for story propelled RPGs has changed, and the bar has been raised.

Again I don't want to be one of the "Oh bethesda bad boooo" people because honestly, I'm still having a ton of fun in Starfield. It's just that for a brand new game... it's really showing it's age.

Honestly Baldurs Gate 3 is what really makes it look bad. Playing Starfield after playing that highlights all of the shallowness in Starfield.

Exactly. Compared to games from the early 2010s? It'd hold up. Compared to games in the early 2020s? It just can't even be compared.

Yup, this. I've played two runs by myself and on my fourth with some buddies and I'm still finding out meaningful stuff I didn't do on my solo runs. Starfield is an upgrade in tons of aspects over previous beth titles (big exception is planetside exploration), they fixed tons of issues both Skyrim and F4 had. Skill checks, while not as present as they should be, pop up once in a while. Skill tree isn't as boring as F4 but build variety suffers, same as in Skyrim. Character background pops up in convos sometimes (but isn't as deep as it could be).

That's starfield. It has the makings of a good game, and it is, but it plays it very safe. And because of that, NPCs are boring, as is the story, as is combat, as is pretty much everything else in the game. The only thing that impressed me was that one mission in the main quest but even that one was limp dicked on the finish. And ship costumization, but if I wanted in-depth ship mechanics I'd play KSP.

Like the game was too ambitious and too chicken shit at the same time.

I really like this, honest feedback to them. The game is obviously made by committee. That's exactly what my wife and I have been saying, that they did a lot of cool ideas - and then dropped them half way through. None of the ideas are fully thought out or finished, it all screams "Some suit said 'no this is great, move on'". Some quick examples

  • Base building, awesome concept, I want to build a base on a foreign planet.
    • But what do I do there?
  • Automated crafting. Awesome, I love Satisfactory! I can do this.
    • Wait, I can't limit items in transit, so I can really only transport one item over a link? So it can't really be automated.
  • Oh sweet, I can build my own spaceship?!
    • But you are rarely actually in space and really when you are it's just a mini game between planets.
  • and you get companions to hang out with you on your ship?
    • But they don't interact with each other or do anything like help you fight other ships.
  • Oh and we get to have a fleet of ships?!
    • but they aren't actually a fleet. You never get to assign someone as captain of another ship to help you fight pirates. You just... pick which of your ships you want to fly right now.

And that's just some. Like so so so many cool awesome fun ideas that were just... "I don't want to play with this anymore." The fleet one especially stings. I was really hoping I could assign someone as captain of another ship, and when we jumped/spawned in space there it would be on my left, and it could help me fight pirates. I mean, how hard would it be to program that? They already have the ship, they have AI for dogfighting other AI, it would just follow behind you until you entered combat.

don't worry, the gap gets a lot smaller when you reach act 3 in BG3 lol

ive heard it gets insanely buggy and forgets previous choices once you reach act 3. havent played any baldurs gate game though, so i have no clue on specifics

Idk I find starfeild could even be a downgrade in some way, no ai habits like shop keepers must be on a meth bindge as they never leave they're stores, the openish world is gone, in one lengthy mission I'd see 5/6 loading screens, usually when going from planet to planet then into the city then to do the objective then repeat in reverse.

i don't understand how they could ship the game with more than 1 featureless gray rock planet, the interesting environments is the bread and butter of bethesda games and the one thing you've been able to rely on enjoying even if you find everything else to be garbage!

If this had come out in 2014-2016 as a successor to Skyrim itโ€™d be one of the best games,

LOL nah, it'd be shat on like FO4 was. Maybe not as heavily, because it didn't opt for voicing the protagonist, but sure as hell wouldn't be called "one of the best games".

itโ€™d be shat on like FO4 was.

FO4 printed insane money and won countless awards. It did fine lol

They said FO4 was shitty, not that it lost money

Looks like Starfield is more of the same.

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While the subsystem of 5e isn't my favorite, Baldur's Gate 3 has an insanely good RPG system and every sidequest feels pretty unique. No radiant quests like 2077 or Bethesda games Sure, the sex scenes could be a bit better, and I'd like more dialog once you become the best of friends with people, but it's still amazingly deep with great voice acting and tidbits of stories in various places and situations.

I recommend it if you haven't played it yet! It's definitely my game of the year.

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