Play it on: Xbox Series X/S, Windows (Steam Deck: YMMV)
Current goal: Stop spinning my wheels on random side-quests
Buy it from: Amazon | Best Buy | GameStop
Bethesda RPGs are only really good once modders lift them out of mediocrity, so I hadn’t planned to get in on the ground floor with Starfield. But then a kind friend sent me a Steam gift so sure, why not? I blasted off into the version 1.0 yonder.
So far, Starfield’s not really changing my opinions about Bethesda games! In fact, I’d suggest this one is more half-baked than usual given the way its discordant gameplay systems strain to mesh, its truly awful UI, a veritable onslaught of mediocre Bethesdian prose, and the nagging feeling that fast-travel is really putting in work to stitch together the game’s disparate zones.
And yet, every night, you’ll find me in there shooting, looting, and generally probing to detect where the (likely frayed) edges lie, seeing what there is to see. I can’t deny that this unplanned early encounter with the pre-unshittified Starfield has displaced every other game I was playing recently. I’m clocking some serious space hours, so there must be something compelling here, right?
Well, I’m trying to find out. In my last session or two I’ve grown weary of storming through randomly generated side dungeons so now I’ll devote time to mainlining the main quest to see more of the game and hopefully perk up my interest. This is for sure, though: Amateur modders, like always, are already saving the damn game. From day one they’ve been fixing many of Starfield’s most irksome oversights and shortcomings, and once the official mod tools come out, the galaxy’s the limit. I really can’t wait to see what they can accomplish in this one, as the stage now set before them is uncommonly vast. — Alexandra Hall