This year has been great for video games. “Dead Space (2023),” “Resident Evil 4 (2023),” “Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom,” “Baldur’s Gate 3” and “Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon” have all been released this year. These games are excellent and were hyped up by the gaming community in anticipation of their release.
However, I would argue “Starfield” was the most anticipated game to release this year.
“Starfield,” released Sept. 6, is an open-world, action role-playing game developed by Bethesda Game Studios. The player takes the role of a space explorer searching for unknown, ancient artifacts.
Bethesda is known for many iconic games, such as “The Elder Scrolls” and “Fallout” series. I think most players can agree they are very similar, for better and for worse. These games usually have a big open world where the main gameplay loop is exploring every inch of the map while completing quests and making the playable character as powerful as possible. It’s an old but fun gameplay loop.
On the negative side, these games tend to have extreme technical issues. “Fallout 76” set a benchmark for how poorly optimized games can be at launch. While it is better now, first impressions matter. “Fallout 76” never seemed to recover player retention.
So, when I saw “Starfield,” Bethesda’s first new intellectual property in 25 years, I was hopeful. The gameplay looked good, and early reviews claimed the game was somewhat optimized, resulting in a mostly bug-free experience.
What I got was a fun and immersive Bethesda game that I’ve come to expect and appreciate, but released in an unplayable technical state.
Bethesda goes to space:
The factor that got me interested in “Starfield” was its setting.
Just the concept of being someone who is exploring the deep vastness of space in search of ancient artifacts is awesome. The last time a game attempted this concept was “No Man’s Sky” in 2016. “No Man’s Sky” launched in a pretty hollow state but has since become a much better game, with exploration being its big selling point.
While “Starfield” doesn’t reach the level of exploration “No Man’s Sky” does, what is here is still pretty entertaining.
Just the fact you can go to any nearby solar system, choose a planet and go there is cool. Each planet has its ecosystem and resources, so exploration is incentivized to be able to craft new items and see the full scope of the game. Even with most of the planets being lifeless rocks, the resources available on these planets still make them worth exploring.
Laser blasting:
Combat isn’t something I consider a strong suit of Bethesda games. It’s usually a means to an end to keep the player engaged, while the real strengths, quests and exploration, take center stage.
“Starfield” has the best feeling combat in any Bethesda game.
With the large roster of weapons, enemy types, skill trees and the sheer feeling of the weapons, it is vastly superior to any other Bethesda game I have played. It’s the most notable evolution of Bethesda’s gameplay, as everything feels like it matters a lot more now.
Sure, the player can use a new weapon they just found, but with a few skill upgrades and weapon mods, the rusty pistol the player starts with can be just as good, if not better. It allows a lot more customization and freedom for the player when you can succeed with anything rather than one specific item.
If there was a weak link in combat, it would be the space combat. It’s not bad by any means, it’s just not as exciting or fun as running up to a spaceman with a butter knife. It is a minor complaint compared to a solid combat system.
Performance and bugs:
It’s important to note there was a pre-order bonus where players could play the game a week before release. I bought the game on the official release date, Sept. 6. I say this because I haven’t beaten “Starfield” yet. Not because of the size of the game, but because its performance is so abysmal I decided to put it down.
My “Starfield” experience consisted of taking one or two minutes to load into an area and walk around while my game would freeze and stutter at the most minor change to the environment. Combat was a chore to participate in, as every bullet I fired would cause my game to freeze. It never crashed my computer or kicked me to the desktop, but the constant freezing was maddening.
When the game wasn’t threatening to make my computer explode, the audio would constantly cut in and out when I was just standing somewhere listening to dialogue. Usually, it was the music, but other times it was the sound effects and dialogue, which were super frustrating. It got so bad I turned off my audio completely so I didn’t have to deal with it, something I’ve never had to do in a game before.
I don’t have the best gaming PC in the world, but I have a decent enough system that it can usually run anything I throw at it. Even “Cyberpunk 2077” didn’t run as badly for me as “Starfield” did.
I tried lowering my graphics settings, but it didn’t work. I tried validating my game files, but it didn’t work. I tried uninstalling and reinstalling the game, but it didn’t work. Eventually, I got fed up and started writing this review. I do my best to try and finish something before I write a review on it, but when something is constantly fighting me to work properly, I shouldn’t even bother with it anymore.
I thought the make-or-break for “Starfield” would be its combat, its writing or its world design. Turns out, it was its failure to even function properly.
Conclusion:
It’s important to note my experience is not the end all, say all with this game. Each player will have a different experience based on their system and setup. The game portion of “Starfield” is good. I have little to no complaints about what is available to the player. Bethesda has a formula that works, and I am fine with it.
But I am sick and tired of games releasing in horrible, unplayable conditions.
As I stated earlier, it has been a great year in gaming. On the flip side, there has also been a lot of bad. “Star Wars Jedi: Survivor” and “The Last of Us Part I” are games I enjoyed, but their PC releases were awful. “The Last of Us Part I” hurt in particular, as it is one of my favorite games of all time, and seeing the state of that PC release was disheartening. The developers making these games care about their craft, but this trend where fun games are ruined by technical issues needs to stop.
If you are still interested in “Starfield,” I would wait until these issues get fixed. As for me, I just wanted a fun, goofy game where I could explore space to my heart’s content. I couldn’t do that, and I am so, so disappointed.
