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Starfield user score drops to "mostly positive" on steam
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this post was submitted on 11 Sep 2023
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One of the major disappointments imo is that space isn't interesting. You only really go there for the odd ship battle to progress the plot or whatever, but you can't really fly between planets, so you miss out on the cool side stories you get with Elder Scrolls games by walking between cities. I was hoping for Firefly the Bethesda game, but it's just Skyrim stretched across planets that you fast travel between.
I want to find ships in distress, pirate outposts among asteroid fields, scuttled ships I can scavenge, etc. In other words, space should be a mechanic, not just a setting.
I think the planets are fine, but I'd rather have fewer, more densely populated planets. I don't think space-colonizing people would only make 3-4 settlements per planet, there would be dozens if not hundreds of settlements before moving to the next planet. I'd rather buy a DLC to get access to more systems then current setup where everything is spread out. In fact, just give me Sol with Earth, Mars, and maybe one of a Jupiter's moons being inhabited with the rest working like the planets in Starfield.
But no, it's just Skyrim set it space, with fast travel between cities. That's fine, just not particularly special. I may play it at some point, but it's not what I'm looking for right now.
The scale is definitely too big. I'm pretty sure most of the systems are pretty much there just to fill in the star map. I'd rather have a setting where maybe interstellar FTL requires a sublight trip first so only the nearest few stars to Sol are accessible. Really I just want Everspace 2 where I can hop out of my ship occasionally and deal with fewer annoying "puzzles".
The problem is that they let people skip the space parts arbitrarily often (sometimes planets make me stop to get scanned, sometimes I can go from ground to ground). All of those are encounters that happen, but if you fast travel you won't see them. I have warped in and seen each of those, with ships in distress even landing near me to ask for help when I'm on the ground. Although the only actual pirate outpost in space AFAIK is the Crimson Fleet base and Everspace 2 does everything in space way better.
The fact that you can't space walk without cheats is what I'm getting at. I want to be able to leave the ship to go investigate some wreckage, get into someone's airlock to bring some needed supplies to a stranded vessel, or set up a mining outpost on an asteroid. Basically, the same feel you get when walking between towns in Elder Scrolls games, but with the unique mechanics space allows.
Starfield does a lot of things pretty well, but doesn't really stand out in any of them. There's a lot of elements of a great game there, but it just ends up being pretty good instead. That's still awesome and it'll sell well, but I am looking for that special something, and I'm basically seeing Skyrim in space. Not a lot of innovation, just a mapping of that formula into a space setting.
Try joining the FreeStar Collective, which is Wild West Scifi just like Firefly.
You'll get the same types of stories and encounters. Including distressed ships, pirate outposts among asteroid field and scuttled ships you can scavenge.
TBH, I haven't missed any of the other mechanics you mention. Yeah would be cool to do a space walk, but is it really necessary?
It would be more immersive, just like flying into and out of planets with no loading screen would. Their Elder Scrolls games nailed that immersion, yet Starfield went backward with a bunch of loading screens and limitations.
It's still a pretty good game, like an 8/10 or so, but to really get that GOTY 10/10 rating, they need to excel at something. Either have better immersion, or limit the scope in some way to improve other aspects of the game.