STARFIELD

[RV1709]

On 10/18/2023 at 8:32 PM, triggr happy ss said:

 

wow you must have played and completed the game 

[triggr happy ss]

3 minutes ago, RV1709 said:

wow you must have played and completed the game 

[Ne0]

Ok, been playing this game for the past few days, clocked in around 18 hours, here're some early impressions : 

 

Cons:
- This is not a open world game.  If you are someone who came to the game looking for an open world adventure game set in space, you are in for a huge disappointment.  The game is more of a "yakuza" style game, where you've small sections of the map which can be explored, but to move from one section to the next, you need to use fast travel (a.k.a loading screen).  
- The graphics goes from 'wow' to 'bad'.  For ex, I landed on Mercury and it had gorgeous views, while new atlantis seems so bad with low-fi textures. 
- The loading screens are abundant and irritating, makes you feel like playing a 10 year old game.  There's a loading screen to go from base of the ship to cockpit, a loading screen to enter a building and so on.  Many high rise buildings have elevators - which means - you guessed it, more loading screens to move from one floor to another.  This really breaks the experience IMO, especially if you are coming from playing a game like cp 2077 or farcry 6 where you can traverse the whole map without a single loading screen !
- At its core, the game does play like skyrim / fallout set in space at times (albeit a greatly improved version of them).  The same stupid immersion breaking things like you can fall asleep on a bed in the middle a quest or your companion will start to ramble on about some random topic in the middle of a quest, when you try to interact with them to trade gear etc.  These were tolerable perhaps in the FO/Skyrim era, but with games like RDR 2 or The Witcher setting new benchmarks , these mechanisms seem very dated and feel like baggage that was carried mainly due to the limitations of the engine.
- Also, forget about cars or any other means of transportation apart from space ships. Humanity has reached space, but apparently everybody walks around in these newfound planets (there's a train in new atlantis, but again that's just a mask for loading screen).  And I dont understand the point of investing in building a cool looking space ship, as most travel happens via menus and you see the ship only while landing / taking off.
- Space warfare so far has been absolute nightmare , the ship given early game is hard to control and most of the time I feel like I'm playing a 2D arcade shooter game.  Not sure if it gets better once the character levels up in the related skills.

 

Pros:
- The writing / narration is solid.  The game has hours upon hours of dialogue and for people who like to explore and understand the world, the game world is very well built.  RPG mechanics (while it looks simple) are decent.  I felt its kinda similar to skyrim, where you increase the skills which you mostly use.
- Many quests are character driven like in prev skyrim/fo games, and the quests are mostly intersting thanks to the interesting characters that are part of it.
- Just like skyrim /fo games there are so many ways to complete a quest.  I've invested in persuasion tree, thanks to which I was able to complete some of the quests with no combat whatsoever.  
- The core gameplay loop is pretty solid, which makes me keep coming back for it despite all the cons mentioned above.  That skyrim feeling of "let me complete just one more quest" exists here too.
- The planet hopping / exploration is neatly done.  It does feel like being part of an exciting adventure to visit new systems, explore new planets etc (although you do travel to them mostly via menus/loading screens).

Edited October 27, 2023 by Ne0

[dylanjosh]

6 minutes ago, Ne0 said:

Ok, been playing this game for the past few days, clocked in around 18 hours, here're some early impressions : 

 

Cons:
- This is not a open world game.  If you are someone who came to the game looking for an open world adventure game set in space, you are in for a huge disappointment.  The game is more of a "yakuza" style game, where you've small sections of the map which can be explored, but to move from one section to the next, you need to use fast travel (a.k.a loading screen).  
- The graphics goes from 'wow' to 'bad'.  For ex, I landed on Mercury and it had gorgeous views, while new atlantis seems so bad with low-fi textures. 
- The loading screens are abundant and irritating, makes you feel like playing a 10 year old game.  There's a loading screen to go from base of the ship to cockpit, a loading screen to enter a building and so on.  Many high rise buildings have elevators - which means - you guessed it, more loading screens to move from one floor to another.  This really breaks the experience IMO, especially if you are coming from playing a game like cp 2077 or farcry 6 where you can traverse the whole map without a single loading screen !
- At its core, the game does play like skyrim / fallout set in space at times (albeit a greatly improved version of them).  The same stupid immersion breaking things like you can fall asleep on a bed in the middle a quest or your companion will start to ramble on about some random topic in the middle of a quest, when you try to interact with them to trade gear etc.  These were tolerable perhaps in the FO/Skyrim era, but with games like RDR 2 or The Witcher setting new benchmarks , these mechanism seem very dated and feel like baggage that was carried mainly due to the limitations of the engine.
- Also, forget about cars or any other means of communication apart from ships. Humanity has reached space, but apparently everybody walks around in these newfound planets (there's a train in new atlantis, but again that's just a mask for loading screen).
- Space warfare so far has been absolute nightmare , the ship given early game is hard to control and most of the time I feel like I'm playing a 2D arcade shooter game.  Not sure if it gets better once the character levels up in the related skills.

 

Pros:
- The writing / narration is solid.  The game has hours upon hours of dialogue and for people who like to explore and understand the world, the game world is very well built.  RPG mechanics (while it looks simple) are decent.  I felt its kinda similar to skyrim, where you increase the skills which you mostly use.
- Many quests are character driven like in prev skyrim/fo games, and the quests are mostly intersting thanks to the interesting characters that are part of it.
- Just like skyrim /fo games there are so many ways to complete a quest.  I've invested in persuasion tree, thanks to which I was able to complete some of the quests with no combat whatsoever.  
- The core gameplay loop is pretty solid, which makes me keep coming back for it despite all the cons mentioned above.  That skyrim feeling of "let me complete just one more quest" persists here too.
- The planet hopping / exploration is neatly done.  It does feel like being part of an exciting adventure to visit new systems, explore new planets etc (although you do travel to them mostly via menus/loading screens).

 

 

V. Nice review 

[Vaibhavp]

Done with preliminary playthrough. 100+ hrs. Didn't do any quests yet, just activities and side stuff you get in cities. 

 

I think this is my favorite setting. Just exploring the galaxy, the desolation, atmosphere, music. It's sublime. Clearly the best part about it. Audio visual experience is some of the best out there. 

 

Combat feels great. Skill tree is as diverse as they come. You can role play a wide variety of professions. Engineer who specialises in ship building to botanist who is expert in alien plants to combat specialist sniper to.... Builds are pretty cool. 

 

After playing 100+ hours I think the weakness of the game is clear to me. It has a ton of content. But most of that content does not encourages you to explore planets. A lot of it happens within city walls or at max, inside caves. Some of the quests task you with exploring a given planet to figure out what happened there. Those are best ones and game needs more of those. It's unfortunate that even after having so much content, there is need for a bit more work to elevate the game to higher status. 

 

Overall I think Bethesda maintain their lead as pioneer open world game developers. While usual open world game formula is getting stale, this is a solid step forward. Only thing I would like to see added is a reason to explore planets more. That is only thing holding it back from becoming an all time great. I will keep game on hard drive and keep jumping in the game from titme to time. It feels like a comfy blanket. 

 

[Takeda]

Fantastic review @Neo @Vaibhavp 

 

That's what i want to see, a proper honest feedback from people who actually played the game themselves and not just bashing the game based on Metacritic score and all.

[Ne0]

On 10/27/2023 at 10:59 PM, dylanjosh said:

 

 

V. Nice review 

 

On 10/29/2023 at 4:50 PM, Kazarka said:

Fantastic review @Neo @Vaibhavp 

 

That's what i want to see, a proper honest feedback from people who actually played the game themselves and not just bashing the game based on Metacritic score and all.

Thanks guys.  I feel it’sa good game, but a missed opportunity to be a great game. I think instead of going the ‘No man’s sky’ way with ~1000 planets, maybe, limiting the scope to a couple of well developed star systems with a dozen or so planets with good variety and depth would’ve been better.

[Vaibhavp]

53 minutes ago, Ne0 said:

 

Thanks guys.  I feel it’sa good game, but a missed opportunity to be a great game. I think instead of going the ‘No man’s sky’ way with ~1000 planets, maybe, limiting the scope to a couple of well developed star systems with a dozen or so planets with good variety and depth would’ve been better.

 

I think they are still working on gameplay loop on this. Its first game of this type so understandable. 

 

They have developed a pretty elaborate end game system, but need to iron out exploration hook. 

 

I feel some small, unique stories on planet surfaces will greatly motivate you to go out and explore every system. 

 

That's the only thing I wanted added. It will be perfect for me after that. 

 

On side note, I am still addicted to this game. Yesterday I fired it up. Spent some time doing minor activities. Still feel great. 

 

Edited November 5, 2023 by Vaibhavp

[AnK]

3 hours ago, Ne0 said:

 

Thanks guys.  I feel it’sa good game, but a missed opportunity to be a great game. I think instead of going the ‘No man’s sky’ way with ~1000 planets, maybe, limiting the scope to a couple of well developed star systems with a dozen or so planets with good variety and depth would’ve been better.

It started life as a full procedurely generated design.

But later changed into the conversational Bethesda quest/exploration design.

 

That’s why it couldn’t do either up to the standards of other more focused games.

Bethesda shouldn’t have deviated from there core strength in neither FO76 nor Starfield.

 

Hope ES6 elevates the genre beyond The Witcher 3(where it’s stuck) rather than pulling more deviated stunts.

[Vaibhavp]

29 minutes ago, AnK said:

It started life as a full procedurely generated design.

But later changed into the conversational Bethesda quest/exploration design.

 

That’s why it couldn’t do either up to the standards of other more focused games.

Bethesda shouldn’t have deviated from there core strength in neither FO76 nor Starfield.

 

Hope ES6 elevates the genre beyond The Witcher 3(where it’s stuck) rather than pulling more deviated stunts.

 

What? 

 

How do you know it was fully procedurally generated before?? 

 

Also they have built some very cool systems for this game. It's a proper step forward in a lot of ways. Brand new quest design/ exploration design. Obviously not perfect, need some work. 

 

I did finish both Skyrim and Witcher 3 back to back before starting this. Difference is the same. Story driven vs system driven design. 

 

Just look at skill tree in Skyrim, way more mature and full fledged. Witcher 3 is way simpler game with graphics/ music/ characters doing heavy lifting. Skyrim is all about simulation elements, how you can interact with them and do a lot of cool things. 

[Takeda]

 

 

 

[dylanjosh]

 

 

 

[Takeda]

Nice

[SpearHea:D]

Dlss update up, Max settings 2K, getting 120+ FPS With Frame Gen and DLSS Balanced. Nvidia 

[SpearHea:D]

 

[SaiKO]

 

[Takeda]

 

 

 

Playing using Cloud

[TRMNTR]

 

 

[Ne0]

On 11/9/2023 at 9:01 AM, SpearHea:D said:

Dlss update up, Max settings 2K, getting 120+ FPS With Frame Gen and DLSS Balanced. Nvidia 

Are you playing on steam ? On game pass still don’t see this update !

[SpearHea:D]

3 minutes ago, Ne0 said:

Are you playing on steam ? On game pass still don’t see this update !

Yes. The update is still in beta thats why not on gamepass yet.