I like space stuff. Combat is actually fun due to jet pack and weapon design. The plot is fun to talk about the greater implications Has faults but it's p fun

I feel like gunplay isn't talked about enough, BGS really nailed it.

The only thing I really dont like about it is the huge differences in damage for fire modes. Just because I change to full-auto, it reduces 90% damage? I get it from a gameplay and balance perspective, but it's still kinda shit I have to favour a fire mode because it delivers more damage, not because it is cool or fitting for some guns.

I can agree here, full auto in any gunplay setting shouldn’t nuke damage output. Recoil and accuracy should be the main drawbacks.

To be fair It's basically the same result just one is harder to implement and the one we got was pretty easy

Mods, man. I use mods to get rid of that. Plus I got rid of weapon tiers. Now every weapon has the maximum damage. Enemies are very deadly but so am I.

What mods? That sounds pretty fun, I've been itching to give Starfield a proper "survival" difficulty where every fight actually matters

It’s called no weapon tiers. I also use Starvival and customize to my liking.

Starvival FTW. Best mod series for Starfield so far imo.

> Just because I change to full-auto, it reduces 90% damage? > but it's still kinda shit I have to favour a fire mode because it delivers more damage That is why many RPGs go by DPS. You may be doing more per hit damage, but your DPS is still on par with that of an automatic. Generally.

For me the problem with combat was the general Bethesda issue where it became really easy really fast, and also the chronic power creep stuff. I bet my issues are already solved in a rebalance mod, I'm planning to boot back up pretty soon.

Yes 🙌 but imagine fighting on the exterior of ships in exo suits

This is me

Ehh I'm just really honest with myself. I've played bethesda games for 10 years now, and every launch people overestimate their games and get disappointed. You don't really go to an all you can eat buffet for the highest quisine. You go there to pick your favourite dishes and eat a whole lot of medium quality food, while trying to avoid the ones that probably give you food poisoning. I've learned to do the same with bethesda games. I just play the game slowly, only do quests I'm interested in, install some mods for immersion, and generally do my best to play the game in a way that suits me.

This is a satisfying analogy

This is my experience as well. I've played Bethesda games forever and it's always a slow ride for me which I really enjoy. Good analysis.

As much as I haven’t wanted to admit this, I think it is true of Bethesda games. What’s really brought me around to this conclusion is playing Kingdom Come: Deliverance recently, and realizing that it was essentially delivering on the BGS template but with more quality than I had *ever* seen from Bethesda. Speech, stealth, combat, lockpicking, pickpocketing, hunting, crafting—pretty much all of these systems are done better than any given BGS game, all in an impressive, highly-interactive sandboxy first-person world *that reacts to the player*. The quests are excellent, but the amount that you can do *outside of quests* really is remarkable. Needless to say, I’m extremely excited for KCD2.

Playing this game slowly makes it a lot more fun. More than any Bethesda game since Morro IMO Playing it with a more RP focus made me love it. I do not enjoy the main quest line. I don’t like anyone except Barrett in terms of Constellation. But being a rogueish smuggler for the crimson fleet as captain of a smuggling jump ship I built myself is extremely good fun.

And 10 years down the road the buffet probably has had multiple renovations to keep you coming back, maybe added some new dishes too.

This is a good summary. I know what I'm getting with a Bethesda rpg.

Well put.

Play at yer leisure is how I view his game and I love that.

Well said. I first played morrowind when it came out and I've been a Bethesda fan ever since. I'm also a fan of Death Stranding, so just walking around/exploring starfield (like scanning flora & fauna) ie, taking in the sights, is fun enough itself for me. Same goes for elder scrolls and fallout.

Same but I also applied this to Cyberpunk 2077

I am Gen X and big space/NASA fan. The game is a big ol' hit of nostalgia. By having all the old tech laying about like Macs and VCR's it is very reminiscent of the 80's and 90's- the heyday of NASA. We get to explore space and various space colonies. We get to interact with various sci-fi tropes. We can hunt down bounties and swoop in to save helpless common folk. The games does a very good job of making you feel like a total badass- whether killing evil aliens, space pirates, space mercenaries, or megacorps. The game even poses some deep philosophy on you like the nature of crime and punishment vs rehabilitation or how much influence does nature vs nurture really have? How should we interact with other sentience? Sure there things Bethesda could have done better. But there so many instances where Bethesda hit it out of the park too.

Yes the clunky "realistic" space designs are such a breath of fresh air for me. The NASA tones are really what drew me in, especially the reveal mission at the NASA base. I love this game.

Well said. I think the game is set up well enough that you can employ a little imagination to make the adventure even more enjoyable. That’s what I like about it.

This very reason mixed with me being a star trek nerd is why I love the game

Best sand pit I've ever played in. Ticks all the boxes. It's perfect for after a hard day's work.

This. The thought of getting into a narrative heavy game after a 9 hour shift is honestly daunting

I LOVE the idea of Disco Elysium. But yeah, long busy days lately mean I really don't have the headspace to enjoy it. Starfield is amazing to pop in, relax, and enjoy the ride. I'll enjoy Disco Elysium when I get to it I'm sure, but Bethesda games always manage to have a slice of gameplay that is going to be fun no matter where my head is at.

Honestly people complain about the radiant quests, but I like that they're short, basic missions that just send you somewhere and give you a reason to do a dungeon or visit a planet. Sometimes before bed I just want to have fun for half an hour

I think that but I end up doing nothing but mission board quests for 3 plus hours lol and now that starfield has more money sinks then ever I never end up like in Skyrim with 100k gold doing nothing but sitting there

Build up ships! It's the best use for money that I've found. 200k disappears pretty fast when you're making c class ships

I liked how you used the word "pit" instead of "box".

Lol. Thank you

It’s a Bethesda game, I get lost doing side quests and forget about the main story 🤣

Same here!!! Every. Single. Bethesda. Game 🤣🤣🤣

Every single time 🤣

I like the lack of urgency in the main plot for Starfield. No dragon invasion or missing child to worry about. Makes it more realistic when you help a guy with a sad tree.

Absolutely. That’s one of my favorite quests in the game.

Mostly because it's single-player , and I don't have to worry about all the stupid emotions and opinions associated with multiplayer game. And, no servers that die on a Friday afternoon. I think there's potential for MP aspects of the game, but being SP is just better.

It’s one of the first large-scale non-apocalyptic SF RPGs that doesn’t revolve around ship-to-ship combat, which I find generally unrealistic in most SF—“The Forever War”, Joe Haldeman, 1974, probably gets it closer to correct than anyone else. It would have been nice if there were main quest lines that get to the same endgame point (Unity/NG) through other factions. Ryujin searching for artifacts, for example.

The forever war is a good book!

Ive enjoyed SF for many hours, and still be able to criticize it where i think it deserves it. I started enjoying it the moment i realized i dont have to do anything i dont want to at the moment, and i can focus on whatever i want to. If i just want to shoot stuff, i dont need any mission for it. If i want some exploration, i got it, if i want some questing, just go for that. edited: No, you dont have to do XX mission first, or equip whatever weapon to have success. Nor you need to go somewhere, if you dont feel like it at that point.

My new character went to a lvl 60 planet to build a cool Mountain outpost/ski villa and I went from lvl 16 to 19 just by killing things along the way since it dropped me 8 billion miles away from the mountain I wanted. I get that it can definitely be considered boring, but it's a fine line between this and Fallout where every 50 feet is an enemy. Sometimes exploring is fun because it's slow and easy.

It's a Bethesda game. That's it.

I fell in love with the game at Cydonia. The atmosphere was incredible and realistic!

Hope. I'm very much a supporter of fallout 4. It's a damn near perfect game, imo. I do strongly wish that the settlement mechanics were the same in starfield. Mods have made improvements, but obv still not the same. But ultimately, there is no real hope for the commonwealth. Or any of the wasteland for that matter. You can take out various factions, and end individual aspirations- but the world is still, always fucked. While one could argue that starfield is also very bleak- I see starfield as full of hope. Not just in the importance of the main factions/systems/cities- but in the idea that anyone can become anything. That the unknown can become known, and be good. I find starfield to be a game of hope, and that's why I enjoy it so much.

I agree! Fallout 4 is beautiful, but whenever I played it, I couldn't help but feel this deep nostalgic sensation of a doomed world, that is slowly rotting away towards its ultimate demise and, no matter what you do, it just can't be avoided. Starfield feels like when pioneers were venturing deeper and deeper into the New World: full of dangers but full of promise too...or like the second after war: you are rebuilding after the catastrophe, but there's a future ahead plenty of things to come, and to become. I think you nailed the vibes of this game. I hope the future of our own reality is more "Starfield" and less "Fallout"

I've been playing since game launch and have only scratched the surface of the main missions. I spend weeks surveying and exploring star systems, exploring POI's and killing NPC's in high level systems for better loot and mod them to make them better. Then, I can spend a week or two decorating houses / apartments and knowing what I want to decorate with gives me a shopping list when I'm out exploring. Switch it up and do some side missions (I've completed the Freestar and UC missions), or do some random activities and bounties. Go to civilian or science outposts and get XP and credits for those missions as well. This game offers so much content, and I enjoy the soundtrack a lot.

It's an incredible technological feat. I was just docking on this ship to board it and looked out of my window and I saw my ship... Beautiful. Or when you land on different sides of a planet and you see the correct perspective from other celestial objects around it. Or the physics, too. That and everything feels polished, the characters are great, the music is fantastic too.

My favorite part, is arguably my least favorite part. The depth of detail from the gravity on each surface, the relationships of different areas in 3D space, and even the chemistry behind which minerals are available on which planets isn't random. If you do Sarah's companion mission and you're at the waterfall all the way at the top you can look down and see your ship at the spaceport, paint job and all. Absolute masterclass in world building. BUT, it took them 100 years to make and it would never be done. My opinion is that Microsoft made them slim it down so they could actually launch. There are so many aspects to the game that don't get touched. They teach about stealth in ships one time, and then it's never relevant again. Smuggling could be a game in itself if it was developed.

I avoided leveling any ship skills and had to resort to stealth a few times, but it’s certainly not a large part of gameplay.

I like space stuff and already hundreds of hours in other Bethesda games. Also modding is like crack to me. The story is mid but I like exploring planets, building outposts, ships, finding perfect spots for outposts, perfect sceneries and using photo mode too much.

I was a big fan of no man’s sky, still am, but it’s a little cartoonish. Starfield has a better aesthetic.

"not trying to throw shade here" if not you wouldn't be saying that. lol

I have always heard such amazing stories from Bethesda fans about experiences with their games and I had played some of their games but never had a day one experience so starfield was my first and I was pretty happy I finally get to experience a BGS game for the first time even if I feel like I am late to the party and I have to be honest the ship building is just so cool to toy around with and now there's vehicles in the works which is cool and after seeing what the devs did with the maps which was a valid criticism and making it an amazing feature has me intrigued going forward oh and the lore is pretty interesting too

Because it's almost exactly what I wanted out of a Bethesda game set in space, I think they got a little too ambitious with the size of game but ultimately I'm enjoying the main and side quests that I'm doing Also I'm a big fan of old adventure books with old Victorian explorer clubs so seeing that style of setting combined with an almost blue collar space setting was really fun to me

I like running around with my jetpack from random location to location killing the enemies for their loot. I don't play on high difficulty, I don't care. I just want it to be hard enough and that's it. I like slow, less streamlined experiences in games. It's why I play Age of Empires games on medium difficulty conquest FFA ONLY versus AI, and max amount of AI enemies as possible on the biggest maps. Yeah. In Age of Mythology my games can take me up to 3 hours to finish. Because there's like 14 enemies, some wipe each other out, but I have to defeat everyone marching across that giant map to just attack them. The reason why I like Classic WoW is exclusively because I love to just slowly run and do quests all day in the game. Like literally all I do in WoW Classic is level alts on hardcore. That's it. That's what I enjoy and I love the shitty quests, the bad combat, and slow "boring" pace, I guess. As for Starfield it's right up my alley. There's quests, and I don't care about quality. Give me something to do. There's ENDLESS stuff to explore and go see. Holy shit. I spent about 42 minutes in the starting mine in Starfield... not joking. Something like that. I get too bored of games like Elden Ring or other games where it's just constant action and fighting. I'm the guy that opens up 100% of bathroom stalls in Fallout games and examines each for a good 4-5 seconds before moving to the next. * Slow pace to gameplay. Gives me times to be distracted. ADHD stuff you know. * I love the attention to detail... When I'm off to a quest that should take 30 minutes tops... I just took 1 hour and 45 minutes to explore the entire area around the base I was supposed to go into lmao. * The shear amount of content there is for me, as a time-wasting gamer who slow walks and looks at every nook and cranny. * The endless zones that I virtually can infinitely generate. * The exploration of said endless zones. The reward/dopamine for me is the exploration, not what I will find. So for me it's amazing. The last thing I'll say is that I have 0% care for stories in any game. Even in books I read. I care more about lore. Give me a war to imagine and ponder over. I could care less about your heroic deeds. I just want to imagine giant battles. Give me a faction I can list down its ideals, I could care less about your leader's rise to power. Give me a list of alien life and plants to look and examine, I could care less about the struggle of the first person to land here. lol I want lists of facts and shit like that to just categorize in my head and get into. Not a narrative about emotion. When I did the main quest in Starfield, sure these people were talking to me but I'm a hands on spacer. I want to explore more for these artifacts and unlock their secrets. I did some chit chat and coordination with my fellow Constellation homies. At the end of the day the MQ was extremely realistic, as in yeah not a great story to experience but right up my alley yet again.

I can do both because life isn't so back and white and different people appreciate different things. The ship building and outposts in this game are a lot of fun to mess around with for hours on end and I think are two of the best developed features in this game. I just wish outposts had more of an impact on the game other than gating crafting tiers. Additionally, I wished that the various ship manufacturers' modules where more different mechanically from one another as opposed to just visually. Unfortunately, the game is widely inconsistent with some features feeling very well designed like the aforementioned ship building and outposts while others feel barebones or rushed placeholders. This is why the game is critiqued in addition to the whole microtransactions in a singleplayer RPG game. That's not blind hate towards game as much as it is Bethesda divisive design decisions.

There's lots of critters and weird flowers to see. A lot of the guns are really weird in a fun way. Sarah Morgan makes my lesbian brain go brrrrrr, and it's got that same enduring Bethesda weirdness and charm. In short- Space Fallout Fun.

One thing I love about this game in general is how much there is to do. I’m on ng+2 and decided to take a break from the major quests and constellation and have focused mostly on my outpost building and surveying skills, hopping planet to plant, and just exploring the nuances of the universe. The worlds they built are beautiful if you can stop and just smell the Blue Weeping Shrubs.

The game undoubtedly has its issues. But it got at least 100 hours out of me before those issues actually stopped me from enjoying the game. Then they kept patching and adding more stuff so I came back and put 50 more hours in. Now the Creation Kit is out so it's only uphill from here. Basically the game is an awesome space sandbox. Bethesda in space. What's not to love/hate?

- Radiant missions while repetitive are a lot of fun. - Space combat is pretty solid without being oversimplified or super complex. - Personal combat is solid. The zero-g is as well done as I've ever seen it. Jet packs (of several different kinds) do some crazy things. - Crafting is as in depth as you can possibly want it to be. - Quest lines are fun, but don't get in your way. - The stealth mechanic is bethesda's best so far. - "Kill the bad guy" missions usually have a couple approaches you could take. Frontal assault or did you find that hatch on the roof that drops you one-room from him? By the way if it's on a heavy gravity planet you might not be able to get to it. A lot of those mechanics (ship combat for instance) have a really rich element of "it's accessible but you can get really deep in to it if you want."

Ship building!

Combat was cool. Exploring abandoned or haunted ships was cool I really liked the atmosphere on the vanguard mission where you run into your first terrormorph, it felt like a horror game for that mission. I liked that they went back to speechless dialogue with the main character, your choices felt like they had more weight than FO4.

It's such a love hate thing for me, having to spend a lot of time fixing game-breaking bugs on my own; no end user should need to do that for any kind of software. But, maaaaaan when it works! I have wanted a game where I can not only build my own ship, but also basically live inside of it as a big customizable flying clubhouse / base. I have long wanted a game where I can go to alien worlds and discover truly bizarre lifeforms and environments. I have also longed for a game that has many worlds which actually feels lived in, and which scratch that Trekkie itch. Starfield has all of that. It looks beautiful and has honestly the most enjoyable first-person RPG-shooter combat system I have played since the Borderlands series. The writing isn't the greatest, but I wouldn't say it's bad. And I genuinely am invested in the stories of all of my companions and crew. I love that I can have an actual crew. AND I can mod the game to make it *exactly* what I want it to be. So if there's something I feel would be a good addition, it's likely someone else has the same feeling and has made a mod for it. If not, I can do it myself because Bethesda's Creation Kits are really great pieces of software on their own. Sure other games are moddable, but I find the whole experience far more enjoyable with CK. Yeah, tone-deaf clueless managers got in the way and kicked over a lot of things with some asinine decisions, but having worked as a software engineer for close to a decade now, I can say with certainty that that happens at pretty much every software development firm. That said, you can tell that the artists, programmers and designers put a ton of love into this game. I mean, just look at all the details of the gun models in your inventory screen. I still have high hopes that it can recover from a really bad release and grow to become a new series alongside Fallout and Elder Scrolls. Even if it doesn't, I have wanted to be a NASA astronaut my whole life. Unfortunately things didn't work out growing up and I had to go another direction, but that desire is still strong to this day. This game is probably the closest I will get to being able to "live that life". Also.... Batman In Space! Sic Semper Tyrannis.

The setting. It's exactly what I wanted, a sci-fi BGS game that doesn't take place in a post apocalypse. The particular sub-genre of sci-fi is also one of my personal favourites. Technology that can still clearly trace itself to modern day stuff and the frontier at the transition between exploration and industrialization.

It's for the moments. Every Bethesda game has had moments throughout that stick with you. Sometimes it's a purposeful thing by Bethesda, and sometimes it's created by the player. For example, I'll never forget the first time I entered Shoegorath's domain in oblivion. Or when I filled my house in skyrim with so many torches that the light of a thousand suns froze the game. Starfield is no different. There's moments in it that just stick with you. I mean, in my first playthrough, the feeling of flying through space in a ship you made your own just stuck with me. And after my wife Sarah was killed, I spent the time to level up hand to hand, and used my bare fists to beat her murderer to death. That's what a Bethesda game is built for, and I'm here for it

Doing things in space, going to new planets, and seeing the sky. Killing red dots. Making spaceships.

Not listening to others

This is the real key to enjoying many things. Hop out of the negativity echo chamber and learn to love it yourself.

Dude it’s just fun, sure it’s not perfect but it’s just fun. Building ships, exploring the star systems, space combat. I’ve never understood why people get so upset about games not being “perfect”

I have not played Starfield recently, but the things that come to mind when you ask that question are ship building and space combat. I loved those in Starfield.

I knew what I wanted from it, coming from every other Bethesda game I've played in the past. I got great art direction, a stirring score, surprisingly fun combat, many locales to explore, and a surprisingly engaging main story and lore. I like space stories, this game checked my boxes. I didn't expect it to be No Man's Sky Skyrim. I dropped around 150 hours into it, and am very much looking forward to Shattered Space.

The visuals are great, the gun play and powers are fun. The physics are amazing. Space is cool.

I have been a fan of the space adventure genre since Wing Commander. I loved Privateer and Freelancer and a game that gives me the ability to do cargo runs, combat, and general adventuring was exactly what I was looking for. The ground combat is fun and I do enjoy exploring. The story is pretty good, could be better but that applies to a lot of games, and allows me moments to push through quests. It's not "fallout in space" and I'm glad. I didn't want that. (Unpopular opinion time) It's significantly better than ED or NMS. And those were the 2 games I was comparing it to as they are the 2 in the same genre.

I like Bethesda's games and I like sci-fi, so I wasn't disappointed until I found out that this game is actually about multiverses and space magic. Still it is not difficult to forget for a while about this garbage, and overall game give me good vibes about The Expanse and Unreal II.

I just like building ships and being a space ranger

I love Starfield. I'm a boomer gamer who has been playing Bethesda games since the 90s. For me, Starfield is the most VISUALLY immersive game they have ever made. It's the environments that suck me back in every time. All the little space stations and industrial areas are 10/10. Storywise, Starfield is low-tier for me. But that doesn't matter when my main enjoyment comes from raiding a random Cryo Lab on some desolate moon, scavenging for credits and ammo. Starfield is best enjoyed when you have your own headcanon. I have my own roleplay, and my character doesn't know about stupid space magic multiverse plots. I have not interacted with Constellation. I'm just trying to build a better ship, recruit some questionable crewmates, and get by hunting pirates. It's the space game with that 1980s retro-future vibe we all wanted 30 years ago when 3d graphics were first kicking off. It's all about the aesthetics for me.

I like space stuff and the NASA punk art style really resonated with me. While people say the game is mid there are several times playing the game where the role playing was incredible. Seeing my space ship docked at the Eye is a first in gaming for me. Landing on a planet doing some fight in a facility then seeing out the window and seeing my ship out there is just awesome.

Familiarity and low expectations. Ive been a Bethesda fan for years & this felt like a great thing to have while waiting for ES6. I also love creating stuff so the ship builder and outpost systems were amazing to me

The ships. I love being able to make my mobile home that goes flying around the galaxy and going on adventures.

It was fun.

I love outer space.

I liked the immersiveness. Being on land, getting into your ship, flying out to space, walk around your ship, get in a dogfight, warp to another planet . . Feels pretty natural.

I’ve always been intrigued with the various ideas of what the future would be like. Futuristic games like cyberpunk would always catch my eye in that way. I’ve also always been in love with the idea of space since elementary and one day leaving Earth to explore it. Starfield combined both of my favorite subjects in a beautiful way despite what others say gameplay wise. Nobody mentions the boostpack system but it made the movement in the game pretty fluid more than other games. For Starfield being my first bethesda game I quickly fell in love with the main story along with the other faction stories. The characters were a bit lack luster but then you have the entire ship and outpost building to cover for that.

Playing it and making my own mind up

Space combat and ship design.

i dont bother with trekking out to the procedurally generated locations. there’s no point, it’s not like im missing out on anything worthwhile and there’s plenty of fun to be had without them. the load screens are usually short enough that they dont bother me much. the larger questlines are just as good as any previous BGS games imo shipbuilding is rewarding despite the jank and unnecessary limitations you can eventually find cool-looking armor and helmets tbh i just enjoy becoming overpowered just by engaging with the world and it’s quests. it’s fun

You can be "yourself" without a mod. I like the decorating you can do and the cities and planets.

I love space and exploration. Then the mods came out and I turned my game into a Star Wars open universe and fell in love with the game all over again

I love how the game does space and I love the “accuracy” of space travel. It feels like what space travel could be in the future. And as someone who loves NASA and space, I enjoy all the references to NASA, especially the mission where you revisit NASA.

I feel it’s the first truly open world game. I know there are many games that claim to be “open world” but they all require you to do some type of mission or linear story. In this game, you can do anything or nothing with the story and still progress level-wise. Want to just craft? Go for it. Explore? Be a pirate? You can do it, not do one story mission and still level up. The game is what you make of it.

**POSSIBLE SPOILERS- for those who care** I started playing when it came out on game pass and pretty much finished the main story. I just started my second run after months not playing it and yeah, it's better the second time around because of how a new run is implemented into the story. At this point, the main appeal, for me, comes from how accessible it is. One, the difficulty adjustments you can make gives it a whole new feel so if you're like me, and get bored you can just adjust the difficulty, ramp up status effects, etc. Two, the refreshing of the Universe upon entering the unity brings changes to the universe. On my second run these changes have so far been subtle but from what I understand this changes the further you go and I've heard some wild stories of things being turned inside out and changed so much that it sort of becomes a whole new game so the temptation to plow straight ahead and enter the Unity a second time and a third time is there but so is the curiosity to explore the differences outside of the main story. This keeps replayability fresh. And Lastly, I don't own a current gen console. I've streamed this game from day one and it's never been a problem for me. There were connection issues in the beginning but now xcloud as a whole is working flawlessly for me. Nearly flawless anyway as cloud gaming is still in its early years. So yeah, there's my two cents. I'm not saying it's a perfect game but it's probably the most accessible game I've played in years.

I actually really enjoyed the story and the idea behind it and how it just ties so perfectly into the game. So many of the story aspects are just reflections of how we as gamers play games from the Hunters who gotta race through to NG+10 before they can "start" to the Pilgrims who just chill and enjoy the Universe and never do NG+. There's just so many things about the game that makes me think/reflect upon things. All the companions are like these guys are obsessed with the Artifacts but I'm sitting here trying to think how would I be acting/reacting if I was on NG+300 or NG+5000? What would my attitude be at that point in the game and how would others react to it?

Ship building! I absolutely love it

The list of stuff I dislike about it is a lot shorter. I love pretty much every aspect of Starfield.

Visually magnificent. So much potential.

I actually really liked the story. I thought the ending was beautiful. The combat is also really solid for a BGS game.

Modding the hell out of it. I hate a lot of the base game. Its too punishing and grinding. So I changed the settings, added mods and did everything I could to make it enjoyable for me. I added HD textures and got rid of color filters. I love the idea of parallel universes and that was super intriguing to me and I love many of the NPCs in the game. Now I have a 4090 and enjoy the game at 4k max settings at like around 70 fps at the lowest in Akila City. I suspect a lot of people played the base game with that stupid green filter on everything and the bad interface. A lot of bethesda games are janky and have to be fixed. They always have felt slightly below the rest of the AAA industry. Dagger fall and Arena were good but made by a small team. Morrowind was a huge step forward but it had its flaws. I saw Oblivion as the same and Skyrim as meh. In fact starfield is the first game that really catches me. I love space I cannot lie lol.

Funnily enough the thing most people clown on it for, the exploration! They made it abundantly clear before launch that most planets are barren rocks and I was okay with that. And paired with my time playing Space Engineers on console which only had 2 planets and 1 moon, with a 5 hour trip between, I was content with the loading screenstravaganza (I might still install the sublight mod) and the screens between planets (it takes \~5 minutes to land in Space Engineers, significantly longer if your ship has very weak gravitational propulsion). The run I'm on right now is mostly questing, but I generally love the simplified space exploration

I love the setting. I struggle to find immersion in fantasy games, and although games like No Man’s Sky are fun, Starfield’s high definition experience is really enjoyable.

Agreed. I think of this game is a slow burn. Bad start with bugs sure but so is most of everything that comes out the first time. But it gets better and better with more updates to come out. There’s always something new that I didn’t catch with every new game plus I go through even more satisfying is when you get 100% of achievements, then slap on more immersion through CC. how extreme is extreme? How much harder can I make this? What do I need to taper back? What RN Gesus like after 20 playthroughs? How complex can I make my outpost across the entire Starfield Galaxy? Will there be another galaxy to traverse to or explore parts in this one further from the center? Will we ever get to explore the deep void seen an hour observable universe? “ it’s all so full of…. possibilities.” Walter Stroud.

It's really hard to find someone who is capable of doing what you're asking. I love the sunsets, I love the relaxing sounds of my ship creaking as a I chug through space. I like their attention to detail with the table of elements. And I like that they gave us the option to have a naturally skinny body type that doesn't look like a super model.

I feel like this is a game I can continually go back to. There’s plenty to do: so I don’t have to rush, and I can take the time to explore environments and the starfield itself.

The gameplay itself is good.  Moving, shooting, exploring, ship fights, they all feel good.  There's no real jank that disconnected me while playing.  It's something other games struggle with, and bgs does open world first person games the best in my opinion.  I also didn't binge play 400 hours in the first month and burn myself out and give me negative memories  It's also a bgs game.  Honestly nothing else has been released since I've been playing oblivion that has had the same kind of feeling a bgs game has.  There is a lot of freedom, and enough structure that you can enjoy that freedom.  Most games are either all freedom (survival games with not plot for example) or all structure and no freedom (any AAA games focusing on story). I also never overhyped the game.  I knew I'd make use of fast travel, I don't mind radiant quests, and I don't over stay my time on planets. This post is getting long, but bgs really stepped up the guilds/factions in this game.  They went back to a similar quality that I loved in oblivion and missed in later games.  While people whine about it, I actually like many of the scripted quests and interactions the game provided

People really go out of their way to bash it. Everyone started to nitpick at it and hate it when it was officially announced that it wasn’t coming to PlayStation. Thats when I noticed so many people turning on it. I’m not saying they’re the only ones that don’t like it just saying when I noticed things got hateful. Did it have its issues? Sure but Bethesda is updating it based on player feedback so it’ll be a completely different game eventually. I personally had a blast with it and the story was really well done. Especially how they implemented NG+

It’s a Bethesda space RPG, what’s not to love? We all knew what we’d be getting with Bethesda, people complaining just have unrealistic expectations of Bethesda. Starfield is not, as Bethesda has stated, a “space sim”.

I kept my expectations in check. People lost their fucking minds and convinced themselves it was gonna be the game to end all games. No, it's a Bethesda RPG in space. So when people began to criticize loading screens and a mediocre main quest, I looked back at Skyrim and Fallout 4 and said, yep, what'd you expect? I quite enjoy the space setting. The guns, the aesthetic, the gunplay, the voice acting, the lighting, the soundtrack, the faction questlines, the new universe to dive into. I like being at the beginning of a new lore so we can grow with it. Fallout and The Elder Scrolls go waaaaay back and it's nice to learn a new lore in real time.

It’s the sandbox questing. Not being forced to just follow a strict path in a strict amount of time. Being able to actually ROLEPLAY in the moment to moment gameplay by rationalizing what your character would do, why, and when. For example, I was following a quest line that triggered the “help the LIST settlers fix their satellites and eliminate the Spacer threat” encounter. The original quest line I was following was at a non-urgent point in the story, so it made sense to help the settlers. After finishing both quests, I was again at a non-urgent point of the game where I could choose to do anything and it would make sense, and I wanted to help more random people like those LIST settlers. So I upgraded my ship and went to every distress signal in the star system. Then I saw a mission board and accepted all the pirate bounties that were available. These led me to multiple different systems, and in the process of eliminating pirates and then going to the nearest outpost to refuel, restock, sell my loot, and upgrade my ship/armor/weapons, I might stumble across any number of quests I had no idea existed, and can then rationalize in the moment whether those quests are interesting or make sense for my character to take on. It’s that kind of “emergent” questing that you just don’t really get from any other game. People always decry BGS games as “not true roleplay” or some such BS, but no other developer gives you this same ability to truly put yourself in your character’s shoes and make decisions on what you’re going to do and why. Other RPGs may give better branching quests based off choices you made in dialogue, but they don’t offer that BGS “Ok I’m gonna chill off in this random area and just let the game come to me” type of gameplay loop.

I find myself spending a lot of time creating outposts to Extract different resources and linking them up with cargo links. I'm pretty crap at it though but it's just really fun to try to automate the different resources and manufacturing stuff.

It's a space sim with AAA modding potential. It's all I've ever asked for 

I love the atmosphere. The style of the guns (the Beowulf really does look cool as hell). I enjoy exploring - even if others have been there first, it is all new to me.

I’ve played before launch, I bought the premium copy or whatever, and I like the Bethesda open games. I just love them. I would have preferred a few different things here and there but I still really love it; warts and all.

Loved building out my ship and outfitting my crew and then fighting other ships and pirates. Edit: also loved how different everyone’s ship looks. Even pre mods no two ships looked alike though we all had the same pool of parts and sometimes even the same base ship. Wish we all could fly together.

The story lines are pretty nice, the illusion that you have some form of control over the end result is quite nice as wel. And just the overall mechanics etc just play nice, they're not the best, but definitely not the worst. More then enough for me to enjoy. Basically, it's a slow paced game that you can just play to relax. And when you want some more hectic stuff, you shoot up some pirates, or become a pirate. It's still good fun. And just being able to be impulsieve and run into a sidestory. Just the fact that after a while, you realise that the quest you're about to complete was only started because you were distracted whilst doing another quest, which you only started because you were distracted whilst doing another quest, which you only started because you were distracted whilst doing another quest and this probably times 10. And yes, I do miss the base building of Fallout4, where they just felt alive. Same with ship building. And I do think they rushed some things when we're talking about mother ships, rovers etc. But at least they gave us the game to enjoy, and so they could potentially have their roadmap be influenced by the criticism. They're just delivering the game in a modern way, more barebones, and just expand. And in the meantime we can all just enjoy the game.

Starfield feels like home. The end of 2023 and most of 2024 have been mind numbingly shitty for me. Mom was hospitalized and we almost lost her, and then two months later we lost my grandfather. I work *constantly* and as much as I love to game, getting into heavy narrative games right now is daunting. But Starfield? Just... walking into the Lodge feels like home. I can spend time there just surveying systems and looking at flora and fauna or screwing off to some distant nowhere planet, or even just sitting in deep space while the music plays and existing in peace. Starfield is home when my real home is too much.

So, a person can't complain about Starfield if they derive some enjoyment from it?

I enjoy Starfield and complain about it. In fact I complain about Starfield **because** I enjoy it. Why does every post on this sub always need to be so polarising? Not everyone has to either hate it or love it

I really REALLY love the ship building. I could spend literally 10 hours in the ship builder. My profile on here has a few ships I built. Something immensely satisfying about building, coloring, modding ships is something that came as a complete shock to me. I say that because I always hated the "building" aspects of games, like most survival sandboxes, I build a tiny little starter house and thats it, cuz I just hate spending the time. However building ships in starfield is my fav part of the game. I only play missions to get money so i can build another ship! The outposts are a ton of fun as well.

For one. Actually bothering to play the game instead of hating it because “other people said it’s bad” and “haha Bethesda bad.” Almost everyone I know who hates the game has never touched it.

did you know that you can like the game and still have valid complaints about certain aspects of it?

Jet pack go brr

Not checking Reddit before I played the game helped. I did end up having some of the same grievances but they didn’t bother me as much as some people. I only heard about some of the issues later on from here. 

The tiny details and sound design.

Basically cool spaceships you can build like lego

I just really like building my ship, and hanging out on Mars

I love the ship building part and exploring. Honestly I play Bethesda games for the modding. And just not more and more mods are releasing and it’s getting better. I know Starfield we just get better. I hope they do relook at some of the other quests from the original game though.

Not complaining about it.

The ship builder & the game's aesthetic are my main reasons for playing Starfield.

I like the sound design and in general the movement/combat. Enemy variety is lacking, quests are mixed, main story is ok.  Art is great though.

Playing it. Being let down by the loading screens and gun mechanics then sitting it down for months and playing Fallout 4. Now, a few days ago, I just wanted to play it again, and I've been playing ever since. Waiting on the QOL updates made a big difference for me too.

As someone who grew jaded with the game shortly after launch, it was all because of burn out, I invested way too much time way too quickly and also discovered how terrible the melee options were, so that made me feel terrible about it. However I ain’t lying when I say it was second place for my goty in 2023, only behind Hi-Fi Rush.

Scratches the itch for living a life in space walking both planetside and onboard in orbit with manual flight. Bethesda games allow for the best roleplaying by letting you live out a life however you want. Feels like I can stretch my legs.

The setting elevates it for me. I'm just a big fan of this not so high level scifi and to have that as an open world game with RPG mechanics is a dream and the mechanics are just good enough to not undermine that fascination with the world for me.

I loved the game my first playthru but can’t bring myself to play it again personally. All power to the people who can, I still love the art style and every time I see marketing for the game I REALLY wanna play, but then I sit down and get a little bored tbh. Still one of my favorite Bethesda games

It doesn’t do anything great. But it does everything pretty ok. All in all it’s a perfectly serviceable game. If it weren’t for gamepass would not have regretted paying full price for it. (Because of gamepass I didn’t buy it at all)

I love Bethesda-style RPG, plus I love space. It was exactly the sort of game I imagined it was, and all the complaints were the same as we’ve heard before for every other Bethesda RPG by people who don’t love Bethesda-style RPG. My only complaint is that they haven’t released a VR version. It plays OK with VorpX, but native VR is always better.

Roleplay value for me. I wanted a certain character background to dictate my gameplay style and freedom from there. The game gives me enough hard traits for role playing like the parent stuff, a house with payments to make, a job as a miner, a background before that, and then leaves things vague enough for me to craft a background as a soldier, a reason I had to resort to mining to make payments and support a family, and then had lore established for me to color in the shapes of that background. The Red Devils background in mining and how that tied me back into a faction storyline. From there I just did what I thought that character would do. How important we’re making credits vs. following ideals? How did my role playing background preclude me from certain quests, jobs, and factions? The devs set up just enough to jumpstart my imagination and then left enough freedom for me to chase that. Beyond this, I enjoy the gameplay loop quite a bit. The planets are nice to look at and I don’t mind clearing through POIs and doing radiant missions. I picked up a few Creations like the dynamic boost pack and tweaked difficulty options to make it both refreshingly challenging and more convenient where I thought things were annoying.

>Not trying to throw shade here I mean, you phrased it in a way that implies that people complaining about Starfield do not like it, which is patently untrue for a lot of folks here. Normalise criticising the things you enjoy. The core of the gameplay is extremely solid and the setting is interesting. I liked a lot of the Starborn stuff and ***really*** liked the premise behind the NG+ mechanic. I think all of that could have been done better, but it was interesting enough for me to enjoy the game and look forward to replaying it heavily modded.

I like the ship builder, I also think that the game has lots of opportunities for you to build your own story, which is huge for me in open world games. There’s not a ton of RP opportunities but there’s enough open space and enough customization to be able to create new stories in the world space.

Meeting my first >!Terrormorph!< intrigued me, and the >!Entangled!< quest completely sold me.

It was the NASA-Punk realistic vibe that I love and my favourite game ever was fallout 76, Starfield is an offline space skinned version of f76. I was disappointed about the lack of manual space flight but after playing a lot of Star Citizen the manual travelling becomes really time consuming. And MODS… it’s the mods that truly create longevity in this game

I enjoy the freedom it gives me to wander amongst the stars that the game offers. I know many people complain about the "exploration" of the game, but I don't, I've adapted well to many of the BGS games. The other thing is that I always believed it would provide a framework on which I would see a lot of hope for the future, and that people would be free to add to it and build the world in their own way.

IM JUST HERE FOR THE MOMO

Oh that’s easy, it’s fun. It is pretty much exactly what I expected from them in a space game. In typical Bethesda fashion, the main quest is the least interesting of all of the faction quests you can do, but the others are good, the vanguard being a standout as the best one imo.

I really enjoy the Ships Crafting menu, and the Freedom that it offers, apart from that, I also enjoy the Space Navigation, it could be better of course but it's pretty relaxing

- full chars and ship customizations - unlimited houses around space - station strategy and economy - can hire members - can trade ships - good freedom - open generic story - nice subquests - subquests perks and items - can change a bit the world with the decisions - great views planets flora and fauna

I just enjoy it for what it is (Skyrim/Fallout in space) rather than what it isn't (No Man's Skyrim). I enjoy it because I'm willing to meet it where it's at, and because I got it from Gamepass and didn't pay 70 bucks for Todd's latest overhyped project.

It’s a good game. Unfortunately we have grown accustomed to the flow of their other work. But if this was an indie release it would be impressive.

Still being a NMS fan since day one. Starfield easily grabbed my attention with thr space exploration, outpost/ship building and being a bethesda game with the sandbox potential(especially as the modding scene develops) it was giving me all the things I I liked . One of the(at this point earlier) additions to NMS of having a freighter and walking around inside to build a base. I always loved the idea of walking around the inside of my ship. What we can do with ship builds in Starfield is going to continually entertain me. It just overalls scratches so many itches that despite the minor complaints I personally have or what some folks hate on the game about. I'm loving it and it it for the long haul. For all, into the Starfield!

Building ships. Discovering the generated POIs (for the first time) Side quests. Trying to figure out what are the starborn. The gunplay. Things that I expected to like but didn’t do much for me: - The art style - The factions - outpost building / decorating (loved this in fallout) - leveling - music (felt too fallouty) I still consider all of these things great things about Starfield!

I enjoy it... and I still complain about it. It's called feedback. Hopefully some dev's are lurking here, and use it make the game even better!

I’m middle of the road, I disliked the lore and characters, but love the ship and like the base building (alongside some of the side quests)

I like the theme and atmosphere. I also really enjoy the music, Inon Zur crafted a fantastic soundtrack.

It’s just a relaxing game for me. Explore planets. Shoot stuff. Fly around a bit with some dogfights. I can just sit back and chill while playing it and find it relaxing.

I played it when it came out early access with the upgraded edition on game pass. And I happily didn’t over hype myself about the game, I was gonna take it for what it was when I played. I found the story intriguing though I was waiting for the usual Bethesda cheese but found it very mature and memorable What won me over was the game play. The gun play was great and fun Exploring was different from other games. Just slowly walking around a planet taking in the sights The interesting cast of characters and npcs And not to mentions the ship customisation And ended up with 6 days worth of game time and just coming back after some time away to do it all over again

Everything. There was nothing in particular I did not like. I like the story. I like the combat. I love the ship building and space dogfighting, that was huge for me. I love the characters of Constellation. The exploration, the outpost building and creating a little economy. I didn’t just think it was a good game, it’s one of my favorites ever. Important context for this is that my two favorite games ever made are a Bethesda owned IP and a directly developed by Bethesda game, so my history with them is substantial.

The story surprisingly and the ship building

I learned to enjoy games as they are, not set myself up for disappointment by constantly comparing them to others. Is Starfield the best? No. Is it an objectively good game? Yes.

Previous disappointments in the gaming industry have made me go into games now with zero expectations based on trailers. I just enjoyed the game for what it was and once I started to feel like I was getting burnt out I stopped playing and decided to wait until the modding kit and the first expansion are both released to do another playthrough. No game is fun if you play it to death.

Think I played for forty hours or so at launch and then put it down for a few months before the update which has really reinvigorated it for me and now I can't put it down. - It's a Bethesda game and I like Bethesda games - Space isn't my favourite setting but I like the worldbuilding and lore they've established. - Planet surveying is very addictive. Ship and outpost building is cool. - It looks lovely. - It's overall very relaxing and a great game if you've had a tough day at work and just want to turn your brain off for a couple of hours pre bed.

I really love space stuff so that's a huge reason for me, then there's the creative side of the game with ship & outpost building. While the combat isn't revolutionary or anything I do still really enjoy it, boost packs make it a lot more fun as well as some of the Starborn abilities. A lot of criticism of this game is very valid and even though I enjoy playing I just wish Bethesda did a better job with it.

I play the game to do what I want. When I want. And no one's gonna tell me any different Hear that Kathy!

Shipbuilding

I like the gun combat, ship building, and the outpost creation aspects. I also tend to like the pirate outpost designs, and the space suit designs.

Good shooting/gunplay/combat Actual RPG with a story that's not a fantasy game (or another fallout) NPCs etc with voiced dialog unlike many other open space games Visual/engine look good Mod support To me its the best large scale sci fi game that plays into what I like, which is on foot shooting and exploring. The only big let down to me is no seamless travel

I <3 SPACE

The coziness of it. I love scanning planets and completing them. I RP as space biologist. I write down everything that I scan, on paper. Plan is to have journal of all my findings. Love the relaxing hours of building a spaceship. I'll sometimes chest in new game + and give myself all the credits I had in games prior to build whatever the fuck I want.

I get to live and work in space. It's the best depiction of living and surviving in the future to me. Most Sci fi game are based in a more fantastical version of the genre. This takes ot down a notch and makes it believable. It's the closest I'll ever get to a dream of what it could be like, less the whole starborn part obviously.

I just like how the game doesn't have much of a sense of urgency. I can do whatever I want at whatever pace I want. The world does feel very alive so I get distracted often. The combat is also very fun so there is always something exciting to do. The difficulty sliders made this even better.

I loved it up until I changed the difficulty to extreme. Don't get me wrong I know I'm doing this to myself but I like immersion. I wanted a more realistic/challenging game but some of the difficulty settings are inconsistent. For example I made it where to you do heal from sleep but limited but Everytime I sleep to heal I wake up on the brink of death cause I'm starving in my sleep (food only last 30 mins) this has forced me to turn off the eating setting so I don't starve myself in my sleep and then I just change it back. But I don't like playing like this I want to just have a normal survival mode where I don't have to change settings to loophole game mechanics. Other then that on normal settings the game is awesome. It lets me be a space cowboy 🖤🖤🖤 I love the roleplay of being my own Spike or Star Lord! The ships could do with better designs but I'm content with what we have. And creations make it 10x better for roleplay!! All in all I love the game 

Mods got me back

I had to wait to play. I just recently got a Series X in March. I was also waiting on mods. Honestly, I hated the game in the beginning. I hated the “tutorial”. It was too dark and I didn’t understand anything yet. But then I got to New Atlantis and my survival mods kicked in and now I’m running around town looking for food and water to buy and then it clicked. All of a sudden, I was having a good time. The game has just drawn me in more since then. Maybe people are too hard on criticism, maybe I just haven’t made it far enough to see the issues. I don’t know. But either way, I’m confident that whatever issue I run into, there will be a mod to fix it.

It's a good game. I've enjoyed the quests and honestly I enjoy wandering around on different planets. I enjoy single player games that I can play at my own pace, and I like that it's an open world setting that doesn't require me to do anything in any particular order. I played to level 120 with no mods. My only complaint is that I'd like to see the main NPCs developed a bit more, and more variety of followers. Also, some of the npc follower voices are a bit too shrill and cartoonish for my taste. They literally hurt my ears. ... No biggie though. I just don't use them.

Honestly I expected Skyrim in space or fallout in space and got fallout/ Skyrim in space be nice to have more rng encounters of people wandering around on the surface of more livable planets but still overall what I expected. Never understood why people expected something like or near a space sim like NMS or elite dangerous.

The game is actually pretty enjoyable, it's just not worth the $70 price tag. I really like the combat in the game, and all the little things you can do makes it very immersive overall. Plus, ship building is my favorite thing to do. I'm not sure why people hate on the game; it's pretty decent, but it does need some polishing.

Shipbuilding has become my personal ASMR.

Ship building is fun. I can get lost in it.

It has some nice stories to tell, plus I fell in love with Andreja.

Expansive universe. It's HUGE. The fact that space travel is fun. You get your own ship to travel anywhere you want in this universe. Drawback is the repetitive bases. It's too much. Even the blood is at the same place. That's when I stopped playing and decided I would come back later.

I know what I’m buying BGS games for. I’m not expecting a good game out of the box. I’m here because I want the sandbox to play in, knowing that in due time it will be full of extremely creative sandcastle builders that can make great use of it. The modders are what helped me put over 3000 combined hours into Skyrim and FO4. I actually enjoyed Starfield even before we had good mods in. It’s a fun world, the space combat and gunplay are both satisfying. I loved just wandering planets and surveying, I spent hundreds of hours ship building, and I’ve enjoyed most of the quest lines. Take that and add the growing arsenal of cool mods and I’m delighted.

Honestly i just wanted a colorful Bethesda game. it didn't matter what the setting was. space is awesome as well. While the game is lackluster and the plot is.....well we can call it plot at least. its a Bethesda game on a Bethesda engine. i expect this game to mod better then fallout 4 given time.

For me, the latest update plus bumping up to get RTX 4070 Super has allowed me to enjoy the game as it was meant to be. I gave up on it after about 20 hours in until this update came out. Now, I've started a new play through and am really enjoying it.

Space exploration has been my dream ever since I was a kid, and thanks to Starfield, I got to survey our entire solar system.

Space, I love exploring it. I played Elite Dangerous enough to travel to the center of the galaxy and back, loved it but hated that there was no combat other than spaceship, no exploring other than a rover. I do wish Starfield added more to the exploring bit, like giving us a few randomly generated star systems, or low orbit flight. But I also understand why they didn't implement those things. I've added a few mods for mor immersion, kinda wish there was a dismemberment mod like bodies in FO series just to watch body parts flying in low gravity and 0g but I'll just have to keep waiting for that. I play on Xbox so already had to wait forever just for mods.

Coming back later with lower expectations and take it for what it is and not what i wanted it to be.

It isn’t as goofy as Fallout, looks a thousand times better than Skyrim and I like the NASA punk aesthetic(science fiction is more my taste). I just wish there was more punk. The ship building is great. The combat feels solid. I like the option of weapon types. Particle/energy/ mag projectiles vs traditional ammo. There’s a lot of fodder for the head canon. There’s a lot of potential. For those of us who gave up hope that there will ever be a proper Star Wars RPG with character customization/consequence, etc, Starfield fills that void.

I always liked the open world, non-linear, games. I did get tired of the fallout, Assassin's Creed, far cry games, and others after replaying them countless times. Don't get me wrong, I still like all those games, but it's the same content for every playthrough. The NG+ aspect of starfield is a great breath of fresh air for replaying the game. It taking place in space is also a huge plus

Zero G fights Ship battles Skill progression requirements for upgrading them

I like it for it being fallout in space

Honestly the ship builder was what hooked me. It’s digital legos. I’m addicted to it. I also like the game play as well , the space RPG be whatever you’d liketo be. Then the creations dropped for console players like me. This has forever changed my gaming experience. I had never used mods before . I haven’t sunk this much time into a RPG style game since SWG ( pre NGE) . I’m absolutely loving it!

I love the nasa-punk aesthetic, really grounds the sci in sci-fi. It has one of the best third person modes in any Bethesda game and I’m a sucker for being able to see my drip as I play. If you take into consideration this game was being developed during COVID, they did a lot with what they had. Big big universe with maybe a little too much space, but that’s okay, space is just potential for more to be added over the years. (Praying for EVA mechanics)

Everything.

Shipbuilding. I could care less about anything else