Starfield (Skyrim in space game)

[Cerys]

It's going to be ages before I get to play this, so SNG is banned from enthusing for now.  If he gets it on his PC, though, he can climax over it as much as he wants - I'm not a monster.

[Inspector Norse]

Is this the sort of game that you can just hang around in, absorbing the atmosphere and world without getting into fights etc?

ie RDR2 in space? Probably partly: if it's like Skyrim etc you can certainly wander for hours just going ooh wonder what's round the next corner, soaking up the vibes, and there's crafting and that, but not at the same immersive depth and it's not usually that long before a cave bear or bandit has a pop at you.

[The Crumb]

It does all sound a bit like a compartmentalised hell of loading screens which is less impressive technically than most other space exploration games. Apparently on the generated planets the scenery doesn't even get set until you build a base in that area.

Someone reported trying to fast travel near to an interesting looking mountain on a planet and then finding it had been wiped from existence when the game loaded in again.

[Junglist]

I've done 15 hours now. Done. Deleted. Feel it was a fair shot at things.

I won't stink up the thread as loads of you are enjoying it but it's like a relic from about 2010 with a lick of paint. Not seeing anything new, inspiring, fun. Very tick box.

Not seeing where the 9s and 10s are coming from. It's an easy 6.

Godspeed gents.

[Lemming]

Same here, played about 15 hours, too. It's full of so many baffling design decisions. I don't understand why these fools at Bethesda can't just lock down the formula that made Fo3 and Skyrim such runaway successes and replicate it.

Instead, this game seems to have about as much content as Skyrim, but it's spread over a huge, empty, procedurally generated universe. It's a terrible use of procedural generation, IMO - while Daggerfall used procgen to create an inhabited, living world, Starfield uses it to create endless barren fields of moon rocks that you can't do shit with. Sometimes you find an outpost, which is five men with guns stood next to a crate who shoot on sight. After visiting two procedurally generated planets, I don't think there's ever any reason to visit another.

The actual handmade content is usual Bethesda fare but there's so much padding and filler shit in between that it becomes a big pain in the arse to go looking for it.

Lots of stuff feels very half-done, enemies can be downed for example but they don't actually do anything and there's no way to interact with them, and your companions will come over and execute them anyway. You can force enemies to surrender with your diplomacy skill but, unless you maxed it out, they just attack you again like twenty seconds later, so it's not at all clear what the hell the point is.

The setting is also pretty dull, it doesn't really feel like there's any clear theme or tone. Individual planets have themes like Firefly Ripoff Town and Cyberpunk/Deus Ex Ripoff Town, but they're weird as fuck and just make the game's overall tone even more muddled.

It does get a lot better after the first 8 - 10 hours, though. Now that I have a BIG GUN, a BIG SHIP, and know where to look for quests, I'm having an okay time. Advice to any new players is to get out of New Atlantis ASAP, the game doesn't put its best foot forward at all. Things open up a bit when you start flying off on your own and get to places like Neon.

Oh, one really good thing, though - the persuasion minigame. It's the best speech system I've ever seen in an RPG, for real. Makes Fallout's [Speech] checks look like shit. Really hope that future RPGs try to build on it.

[Junglist]

I will fully admit the lock picking mini game is a joy. That's my one huge positive with the thing.

[Thursday]

I won't stink up the thread as loads of you are enjoying it but it's like a relic from about 2010 with a lick of paint.

That sounds good though

[bgmnts]

I won't stink up the thread as loads of you are enjoying it but it's like a relic from about 2010 with a lick of paint. Not seeing anything new, inspiring, fun. Very tick box.

So full game costing about 40 quid that's properly tested and not filled to burst with microtransactions and cordoned off content?

Sounds amazeballs.

[oggyraiding]

I don't know if it's boring or if it's just not my cup of tea. I'm just leaving the first moon thing where you have to fight/negotiate with a raider captain. The colours seem really washed out and exploring the planet isn't fun. It all feels very sterile. Compared to the wackiness and colours of The Outer Worlds, or the rich world building of Mass Effect. It's very dry. Maybe if you're super into sci fi and space and shit it'll be great. But I'd rather be playing The Elder Scrolls 6 or Fallout 5.

[Mobius]

Does it feel/play like Skyrim and Fallout? I got that impression from watching some gameplay videos this weekend. Is it that that feels dated now?

[Lemming]

Over 20 hours in now and my opinion's doing a bit of a 180. I'm liking this more the more I play.

Does it feel/play like Skyrim and Fallout? I got that impression from watching some gameplay videos this weekend. Is it that that feels dated now?

It feels like echoes of them at times. The problem with the early game is that things are pretty sparse and you don't have reliable questgivers and fast travel routes yet. It starts to feel a bit more Skyrim-esque the more you play, as you start hopping back and forth between the same few locations to do quests.

Quests are about Elder Scrolls quality, mostly linear but with the occasional choice at the end. Nothing really Fallout-y yet in that department.

Doesn't have Fallout or TES's sense of place, though, sadly. It all feels quite disconnected and incoherent, unlike Skyrim/the Capital Wasteland/the Mojave/Cyrodiil/Vvardenfell.

[Junglist]

So full game costing about 40 quid that's properly tested and not filled to burst with microtransactions and cordoned off content?

Sounds amazeballs.

Well no that wasn't what I was saying. I was saying it plays like an old game. Despite its attempts at splendour its a severely outdated UI, dialogue trees, gunplay, most of the mechanics. You can feel the engine creaking away trying its absolute best.

[pierre boo-lez]

Can you murder the annoying faction(s) wholesale like you could in Fallout 4? I am of course talking about the Railroad.

[druss]

I am one of the weird people who thought that Fallout 4 was Bethesda's best game so have some hope for this.

[Mobius]

Fallout 4 had such boring factions. The dialogue wheel was shite, as was the main storyline. The exploration and general Fallouty bits were really great though.

Still wish they'd remaster Fallout:New Vegas + all the DLC, although that's another company or something isn't it.

[oggyraiding]

Still wish they'd remaster Fallout:New Vegas + all the DLC, although that's another company or something isn't it.

NV was Obsidian, but now Microsoft owns Bethesda and its IPs, and owns Obsidian, a NV remake is feasible.

I think the only thing that would hinder it is that NV is playable on PC, and the Xbox 360 version is playable on Xbox One/Series due to backwards compatibility, so there may not be a big incentive to put resources towards a remaster (kind of like how Red Dead Redemption isn't getting the port that PS4 and Switch got because the 360 version is backwards compatible).

[druss]

Fallout 4 had such boring factions. The dialogue wheel was shite, as was the main storyline. The exploration and general Fallouty bits were really great though.

Agree with all of that. The core gameplay loop was magnificent though, particularly on hardcore mode or whatever it was called.

[bgmnts]

It would be nice if Bethesda just gave Fallout to a company like Obsidian, because they can actually make interesting games.

Of course then you have the issue of tonal inconsistency in the series so fuck knows.

Intrigued to see how this new one plays tomorrow, I hope it's at least a few hours of roaming wonder.

[Lemming]

Don't want to colour anyone's views before they play the game, but if you want the advice of someone who's played over 30 hours and is enjoying it:

Spoiler alert

The first city you find will be New Atlantis. You'll find it very boring and it'll put you off the game. Don't worry, it's by design - it's meant to be a bit sterile, because that's the tone they're going for in that specific city.

You'll also likely find the city to be empty and tedious to navigate. Unlike previous Bethesda games, where settlements were tightly-designed and most NPCs were unique, Starfield has big cities full of generic NPCs who can't be interacted with. This takes a bit of getting used to and can give the erroneous impression that the game barely has any content. Most of the meat of New Atlantis is found in an underground slum called The Well, so you may want to head there.

My best piece of advice though is to leave New Atlantis as soon as possible. Stick around to get a feel for the location and do any quests that strike your fancy, but otherwise: go to Constellation, get the main quest started and recruit Sarah, get out of there and start exploring. New Atlantis isn't representative of the rest of the game and will likely confuse new players who don't yet realise what the tone of the game is meant to be - that was certainly the case for me.

A lot of people online are saying they found the game dull at first and then it clicked for them after a few hours. I think New Atlantis is largely to blame. It's a lot better to go back to New Atlantis later, after you've explored the more interesting planets, because then you'll be aware of why it's deliberately designed to be a bit dull and you'll also be more familiar with how to find quests and such in the cities, which are much larger and less dense on actual quests than in other Bethesda games.

I'd also advise mostly ignoring the main quest, because it's supremely boring, but that's standard procedure for every other Bethesda game since Morrowind.

[close]

[pierre boo-lez]

If you do enough things your companion dislikes do they fuck off forever or just have a bit of a moan?

[Inspector Norse]

Out now on Game Pass. So far I have endured some realistically crap banter, been disappointed that I couldn't slice NPC's heads off with the prologue mining laser, and found a MacGuffin that presumably makes me the Chosen One, in classic Bethesda style.

Also in classic Bethesda - or any game really - style, I spent half an hour in the character creator then once I had a cool-looking idealised version of myself ready, I clicked finish, switched to third-person view and found that my character looks an absolute pranny in the game.

[bgmnts]

Some big warning signs in this shitty prologue but hey let's hope it comes into its own when it let's me properly play.

[bgmnts]

Won't lie I think this might be shit.

The way travel works in this games seems to take away probably biggest positive in an Elder Scrolls game: the sense of wonder and freedom at being allowed to discover this huge world for yourself. This is all fast travelling all over the place and I'm not really into it.

Also, the level of world building at the start and the stakes seem a bit naff.

It also seems to be aesthetically a miss mash of other games that when I notice it, I want to play them instead. Not good.

[oggyraiding]

I joined the UC Vanguard, the exposition and worldbuilding is done in such a shitty way. A literal museum where you walk along, press to listen to a speaker, then move to the next one. It's optional, but I sure don't give a fuck about this boring sterile universe.

[Lemming]

If you do enough things your companion dislikes do they fuck off forever or just have a bit of a moan?

Not sure, but they watch you like a hawk and react to the most unexpected shit, which is pretty cool.

Also, the level of world building at the start and the stakes seem a bit naff.

I joined the UC Vanguard, the exposition and worldbuilding is done in such a shitty way. A literal museum where you walk along, press to listen to a speaker, then move to the next one. It's optional, but I sure don't give a fuck about this boring sterile universe.

New Atlantis is very dull, it picks up a lot when you leave. Although the Vanguard questline was quite good I thought, there's some mildly interesting stuff there, especially in the Crimson Fleet branch.

[BRen]

I've been playing since Friday, restarted once after about 10 hours as I wasn't happy with my original character choices, and have about twenty hours in the game so far. I've liked all of the Elder Scrolls and Fallout games, so thought I'd give this a shot, but to be honest, the actual setting is a bit boring to me, the 'space opera' type stuff. I knew it would be like this, but it's all falling a bit flat for me, I much prefer the dystopian setting of Fallout or grand fantasy of the Elder Scrolls games. I did enjoy The Outer Worlds, though that was a bit more 'wacky' and didn't play it as straight as this, which is more Star Trek-esque.

[bgmnts]

Yeah fuck this game.

Bethesda pretty much confirming themselves as charlatans there. Although it did make me want to revisit plenty of better games elements of which its borrowed.

[beanheadmcginty]

Wasn't The Outer Worlds (not to be confused with The Outer Wilds) already Skyrim in space? How does this differ from that?

[bgmnts]

Wasn't The Outer Worlds (not to be confused with The Outer Wilds) already Skyrim in space? How does this differ from that?

No not really.

I suppose it would be more Fallout: New Vegas in space but not really that. There was no proper open world for one thing, more a series of large planet levels with lots of explorable areas, a bit more like what this game is.

[pierre boo-lez]

I'm having the same problem of constantly seeing what games they're ripping off borrowing from and getting distracted from the actual game itself.

I'll give it a bit longer, I've not really left New Atlantis, apart from a quest line on Mars. Constellation are a massive bunch of fucking space dorks though, aren't they?