Recent reviews by Cener

What a pleasant surprise this game was! Going into it totally blind (purchasing solely based on the overwhelmingly positive reviews and the charming odd art style), I wasn't sure what the hell I was spending my money on exactly, but I'm definitely glad that I did. Anyone who likes investigation/logic-deduction games will love this one; It scratches the same story-based, puzzle-solving itch that I never expected to ever find again after playing the Return of the Obra Dinn (another must buy for puzzle game lovers). They are similar in a way, but also very, very different. But by the end, both left me with a sense of amazement and appreciation of their creators and the crazy creative capability of the human mind. If you crave the satisfying dopamine hit of solving puzzles, piecing together a story and uncovering the truth behind a murder mystery, then do yourself a favor and give this game a shot. Very much worth the price and very much looking forward to the sequel!

Obligatory positive review for this masterpiece. In camp with very few others for contender of best game world ever created.

EDIT (12/12/23): SKYRIM, a game from 2011, has more concurrent players right now than Starfield (~20k vs 16k peak for the last 24 hours), which came out several months ago! That says everything that needs to be said, doesn't it? And that's even after the greedy bastards reintroduced paid mods and broke everyone's game. Laughable.

- - - - -

As others have astutely put it, Starfield is a mile wild but an inch deep. While I imagine that it's pretty difficult for any game developer to exceed (or even just meet) the excessively high expectations that their fanbase often develops after years of waiting, I reckon that if anyone would be able to do it, it'd be Bethesda: a company with access to an ungodly amount of money and experience that very few others have. Yet there are those with a fraction of a fraction of their resources that have made masterpieces in a fraction of the time. That leads one to wonder: what the hell were they doing all this time and how are they so out-of-touch with their fanbase?

In my ~40 hours of gameplay, I got the impression that the Starfield team wanted to check as many 'cool feature' boxes as they could just to make the game's description sound as appealing as possible to maximize sales, but not go any further than that. Sure, you can "explore more than 1000 planets", but why bother if they're just slightly different environments with similar enemies and randomly generated copy-paste locations? Which are even copy-pasted on the same planet, mind you. You'll likely see the same bandit outpost a few times even if you don't go to another planet. It was around seeing my third duplicate location on the very first planet I traveled to that the realization the "vast expanse of space" of Starfield was indeed vast... vastly different from what I expected. Soon after, my desire to keep playing quickly diminished. All I was left with was a bad taste in my mouth and disbelief that after many years and $70 later, this is what they came up with. I would venture to say that 99% of players would have preferred 10 unique, hand-crafted planets over the thousand plus of unimaginative ones that we ended up with. Whoever thought quantity over quality was a good idea? Evidently not even Bethesda as it's been over a decade (!!!) since the last Elder Scrolls game, but after seeing what they've done with Starfield, it would be wise to temper expectations and prepare for inevitable disappointment. Everything else about the game is pretty much just as generic as the same 5ish randomly generated locations you can visit, but I'll refrain from ranting any further.

Lastly, the ultimate slap in the face to me is the recent developer responses to ♥♥♥♥♥♥ reviews now that the Steam rating is 'Mixed'. I wasn't going to bother, but after seeing their Ctrl-C, Ctrl-V replies defending this $70 dollar disappointment, I had to do my part to ensure no one else gets suckered into buying it. One of their frequent counterpoints to criticism is "when astronauts landed on the moon and found that it was empty, they certainly weren't bored!", which may be the most asinine take I've ever heard. Making Starfield may have taken roughly just as long as the Apollo program, but the comparisons should end there. Except maybe there'll be some conspiracies that the years-long development was faked and Todd Howard made everyone pump this out in a year to fund something else.

I simultaneously love this game but hate it at the same time.

I love it because it is one of the best RPG games ever made (I'd even go as far to say it's a contender for one of the best games ever made), but I hate it for that same exact reason: nearly every other game falls short in comparison to this absolute masterpiece. It has deep, non-linear story and character development, very acute attention to detail in all aspects, rich, lively environments, quality soundtrack and believable voice acting, fun strategic combat system with a wide range of classes you can specialize in, diverse enemies to face... there are very few things about this game that I don't like (one of which I already listed above, which in fact is a compliment itself. Another one will be when I reach the credits screen and have to find another game that scratches the same itch this one does).

If I had to nitpick and list some 'cons' or things I think could be a bit better, then I'd say the pathfinding when trying to pick up items can be a bit odd sometimes and the characters in my party will occasionally need some help getting over or around something. But when those are the worst things someone can say about a game and have difficulty coming up with many more, then I reckon it's a pretty darn good one.

The fact that you can take $59.99 and buy either this or NBA 2k24 (currently with a whopping 13% rating on steam) or Black Ops 3 (almost a decade old!!) or any of the other generic money-grabs that come out every year just blows my mind. Larian Studios finds itself among a minority of game developers that is passionate about their craft, understands their consumers' wants and desires, and puts out a solid product with many hours of content without disrespecting their fans by sapping their bank accounts with incessant frivolous DLCs that consist of content that should've been in the base game to begin with -- a frighteningly normal and increasingly common occurrence in the gaming industry. I desperately hope that the future of gaming follows in the footsteps of creators like Larian Studios instead of Electronic (F)Arts, Paradox or even Bethesda, all of which have given in to the age old conflict of maximizing profits over creating passion projects for the fans that made them what they are today. At this rate, I expect that a growing majority of developers will prioritize profit over passion, but that makes the few gems we are given, such as Baldur's Gate 3 or Larian's Divinity series, just that more special.

Haven't fully finished the game yet, but wow... I had to leave a positive review right away. From the maker of Papers, Please comes one of the most unique games I have ever played! Such a cool concept that is excellently executed, in a unique art style that has lots of charm. As others have said, it is a true detective game: no blatant answers, no hand-holding... you must use your environment and the little information given to you in order to logically deduce who is who and how each crew member expired. It's super satisfying working through each little piece of the story, steadily unraveling the mystery of the Obra Dinn, and seeing the whole thing come together one person at a time.

And as others have said also... you'll wish you could wipe your memory and relive this experience for the first time again (and I'm not even done yet!). It might not be for everyone, but it's a must play for those who enjoy mystery/puzzle games. Between Papers Please and this game, Lucas Pope has proven himself to be an exceptional creator and developer.

Excellent game! One of those games that you wish you could play again for the first time. Very fun working/thinking through each level with the character's different abilities. Good story with several twists and turns, excellent gameplay, and great graphical style. Good replayability too! Minimal bugs and frustration with the controls. Can't ask for much more from a game. 9.5/10.