Recent reviews by EgoMaw

You had a good thing going, Arrowhead.

https://i.egomaw.net/liberty_dead_jim

I really want to like this game, but I just can't.
Maybe it's the fault of the marketing, or maybe because after 7 years I expected something more, something better.


(Everything that is about to follow are my own opinions on the game, this is also actually my first review)
(It should be obvious, but I might as well mention, that if you enjoy Starfield then that's great, please keep enjoying it and have fun!!)

Regardless, TL;DR, this is a Fallout game in space. Nothing more. Nothing less. Do not expect what you were told.

The whole entire game feels disjointed and convoluted. It tries to blend Fallout's formula with elements of space exploration but fails to deliver. It feels as if the game started to be something new for Bethesda, but they decided to return to their original formulas halfway through.

Starfield tries to blend elements from a bunch of different games and ideas while failing to tie them together, resulting in a messy soup of content that doesn't make sense a lot of the time.

Story-wise, you are left on your devices, with the majority of your time being spent on trying to follow different stories that are often at odds with each other or that lack information from other story beats that you would normally get if the story progression had an order.

Gameplay-wise, it's a mess. You have companions, outposts and gun play returning from Fallout with all their quirks and weirdness (Companions being companions basically), there is some mild improvement on outposts over Fallout 4 so that's a plus if you liked it. Then you have half-baked systems that were meant for a Space Exploration game (this is not it boys).

Ships and ship building are systems that will only ever be forced upon you to use for story beats, otherwise they serve no function in this game, and it's also quite evident that this is a half-baked system considering you can create this.

The planets are also another system that is half-baked. It was also a vocal point for marketing,

Originally posted by Bethesda:

Over a 1,000 planets to explore spread across 100 systems, all with their own unique weather, species, and characteristics.

Yes, but what's the point when only 10 of them actually matter, with the rest being empty vast spaces with nothing to do?
Moreover, those planets are not actually planets, just a loading screen to drop you into a procedurally generated map completely separate from the "planet".

Loading screens and animations, are another pain point for anyone wanting to enjoy this game.
You will get a loading screen while doing anything...
Want to hop to a different planet? You will get 1 or 2 loading screens depending on if they scan you or not, or if there is a mission, any building with a closed door but that allows you to enter is a loading screen.

You have to go through the same exact set of animations every time you want to fly your ship, and they are 100% purposefully slow in order to inflate your play time. It's gone to the point mods exist to remove or speed them up.

You will also meet your fair share of Bethesda bugs, including but not limited to crashes, game breaking glitches, poor performance (just get a better GPU bro) etc.
Yet this was their least buggy game to date :))


Yes, a lot of my points cover things said by Todd and their marketing team, because this is what was sold to me and every one of you. We were sold on Starfield being groundbreaking, something entirely new, something unique, the best game of the year at least.

It's none of these things, it's just another mediocre title, in the endless sea of mediocre titles.