I uninstalled it last week, which I did not see coming when I picked up the game. I knew it wasn’t going to meet all my expectations/hopes, but I was assuming the floor was a gameplay loop at least as interesting as Fallout 4. I never got to that point.
I think the travel to new areas is the biggest problem. When you’re going to a new system or planet, it’s a tap on a map. So much of the magic in these games is preparing for the long hike to a new area, looking at that spot on your map, heading out, and then before you know it you’ve spent an hour doing something totally different because of surprise encounters along the way. Starfield has hails and some hostile ships, but for the most part, the surprises have been offloaded to the cities/stations (and you rarely get outright stopped by those). The planet/moon surfaces are where that same walking around vibe is, and there are zero encounters on them unless you’re going out of your way to a structure (or you poke an alien bear).
I really think this game needed in-sector–or even just in-system–live player transit. Having those encounters while you’re hauling around your whole stash and multiple party members opens up a lot of new ideas and also raises the stakes. It’s also pretty easy from that point to cater to the “space trucker” player crowd that’s out there. If the proc gen is why they couldn’t do this, then I think the proc gen was a mistake.
It also really didn’t help that the game didn’t look great and I couldn’t hold a steady framerate on top of all that. I still thought it was at least passable for a while, until I had my first “oh no” moment when I got to Neon. Putting up something directly comparable to Cyberpunk 2077’s visuals is so bad for this game.
That said, I thought the main story was brilliant and that this is the best character writing I’ve seen out of the Beth RPGs I’ve played. I also loved the soundtrack and would definitely love to see it played live if I ever had the opportunity. But I don’t think I’m coming back to this until a DLC is released.
I uninstalled it last week, which I did not see coming when I picked up the game. I knew it wasn’t going to meet all my expectations/hopes, but I was assuming the floor was a gameplay loop at least as interesting as Fallout 4. I never got to that point.
I think the travel to new areas is the biggest problem. When you’re going to a new system or planet, it’s a tap on a map. So much of the magic in these games is preparing for the long hike to a new area, looking at that spot on your map, heading out, and then before you know it you’ve spent an hour doing something totally different because of surprise encounters along the way. Starfield has hails and some hostile ships, but for the most part, the surprises have been offloaded to the cities/stations (and you rarely get outright stopped by those). The planet/moon surfaces are where that same walking around vibe is, and there are zero encounters on them unless you’re going out of your way to a structure (or you poke an alien bear).
I really think this game needed in-sector–or even just in-system–live player transit. Having those encounters while you’re hauling around your whole stash and multiple party members opens up a lot of new ideas and also raises the stakes. It’s also pretty easy from that point to cater to the “space trucker” player crowd that’s out there. If the proc gen is why they couldn’t do this, then I think the proc gen was a mistake.
It also really didn’t help that the game didn’t look great and I couldn’t hold a steady framerate on top of all that. I still thought it was at least passable for a while, until I had my first “oh no” moment when I got to Neon. Putting up something directly comparable to Cyberpunk 2077’s visuals is so bad for this game.
That said, I thought the main story was brilliant and that this is the best character writing I’ve seen out of the Beth RPGs I’ve played. I also loved the soundtrack and would definitely love to see it played live if I ever had the opportunity. But I don’t think I’m coming back to this until a DLC is released.