Here we are with Starfield, a big weapon of Bethesda and Microsoft. How successful was this game, which was even expected with a huge expectation? Let's take a look!
First of all, I would like to say that I don't have much experience with this kind of games. I can even say that this is my first time playing a big game of this scale. What interested me in this game was not the RPG theme but the space theme. I can say that the review was written with the eyes of someone who looks at it from this point of view. The fact that I played the game when it was released on GamePass and therefore did not have as much experience as someone who had played it for long hours before may have caused me to miss some points. If there is a part I wrote wrong or incomplete, please let me know. 🙂
The year is 2330. Earth is no longer habitable and humanity is scattered across the universe. Before we start reviewing Starfield, which opens the door to new adventures, let's give a brief summary about this game.
What makes Starfield important?
Bethesda, the developer of Starfield, is a big company that has made its name in the gaming world with RPG series such as the Elder Scrolls series. The power of this and the establishment of a brand new universe after 25 years opened the door for players to embark on new experiences.
However, Microsoft realized that Bethesda and its parent company Zenimax's games are strong productions. They said, "I'll buy them," and after a long, long negotiation, they succeeded.
Thus, Starfield, which has been long awaited by fans, was released only on Xbox and Windows computers.
Also, since Starfield is from a company like Bethesda that specializes in RPG (Role Playing Game). The expectations of the fans also increased. A space-themed RPG game (and a large-scale game) is not a job that every company wants to do.
That's the story in a nutshell. Now, let's start talking about the game!
Game Plot
Bethesda didn't just work on the story that we play. Bethesda has put a lot of effort into creating a whole universe. Even when you type "Starfield lore" in the browser, you can see a long story. This not only adds to the enjoyment of playing the game, but also provides a detailed and broad story in general.
Our game takes place in the year 2330. Humans now live on different planets and even galaxies. In 2050, after the first human set foot on the planet Mars, the development of technology and science and the fact that the planet Earth has become uninhabitable after a while have forced people to live in different places, almost to establish a space life. Of course, the life you live here is up to you.
The game starts in a mine. You are given some tasks and you do them. Then, you come across a mysterious metal called "Artifact" and you become a member of a group called "Concellation" that investigates these items. After that, we embark on a series of various adventures.
Although I found some confusing parts at some points, the story is well designed in general. The dialogs didn't make me say "why wasn't this option added" or I haven't come across any confusing details yet.
Getting started - Character creation
Immediately after the first mission, the game presents us with a character shaping screen with a lot of detail. So much so that you really want to spend hours here. You can customize your character in almost every aspect. Not only for personal appearance but also for the character's abilities, Bethesda has opened up a huge space for the player.
Gameplay
The game tried to utilize the huge potential of the word "space" in a good way. That's why it gives us a very wide playing field. You can land in the city of an active planet, you can travel through the vast space with your ship and fight space pirates, you can plot your own course, you can land on bases on completely different planets, you can visit the world in 2330, you can engage in gunfights, you can do this, you can do that...
In short, there's a lot you can do. Bethesda has provided impressive openness in this regard. But the problem with this is that it requires a very complicated gameplay. I mean, a lot of mechanics come together in the game, such as spaceship mechanics, shooting sensations, NPC dialogs, inventory-loot system.
While the gameplay feels lacking in some areas, it is also quite successful in others. For example, the driving mechanics of the spaceship (and especially the battles with rival ships) are quite fun. Especially if you play with a gamepad, you might like the game in these moments.
But for example, I found it too difficult to use the gamepad during gunfights. I got a much better result when I tried it with a keyboard and mouse. Still, I can say that there is a good feeling of combat in general. But here, too, I encountered the problem of enemies absorbing bullets like a sponge when they get hit. It might bother you in this respect, for example. Or the inventory system may seem too complicated. The game has a lot of details such as the spaceship's separate inventory, your separate inventory and their connection to each other, too many items that can be looted (you can loot up to foam cups), and the production and use of new things with these items. But the problem is not that it has too much detail, but that it presents this detail in a complex way. You may get confused especially in the loot and inventory part.
As much as I praise it, I will of course criticize the spaceship part. It is fun to use the spaceship and fight with other ships, but the game does not offer you the opportunity to use the ship for a long time. You have to do "fast travel". The bad thing about this is, as I said, you don't have the opportunity to use the ship freely. You cannot go on long adventures. However, very nice details could have been added in this part. For example, encountering and examining empty spaceships that only send signals during the journey, getting stuck with bandits, escaping from meteorites. At least it could have been done on interplanetary journeys. Anyway, at longer distances, our spaceship opens a direct tunnel and that's how we pass through. Those who only want to travel by spaceship should lower their expectations in this regard.
Apart from that, a nice skill tree system that affects the gameplay has also been added. As I said, many mechanics come together in this game. In fact, even just the concept of "gameplay" covers a very big thing in this game. There are very detailed things like space battles, gunfights, base building. According to HowLongToBeat's data, it is a game that can take 190 hours to complete completely.
In short, I can say that it is successful even though it has some shortcomings in terms of gameplay.
Environments - Environment - Atmosphere
The environments are, of course, very futuristic. The spaceships are varied, there are multiple cities, so there are multiple different environments. I can't not mention the beautiful sky.
For example, in this bottom photo you see a more traditional city. But elsewhere you see a completely different environment.
I can say that each city has its own unique atmosphere. But there are not only cities in this game. You can also visit other planets and even build bases.
The environment designs and environments have definitely been worked on. They feel quality. The planets are varied and you are likely to encounter different scenarios.
The atmosphere is definitely one of the best points of the game. The atmospheres of both space and planets are quite beautiful.
Dialogs - NPCs - Scenes - Animations
The point of the game is that it's an RPG. That's why the dialogs and choices have already been thought about. But the scenes and NPC movements may be a bit weak. Cinematic scenes are almost non-existent (I only saw them in the spaceship scenes)
Although facial animations and facial expressions are weak again, I didn't see any problem with the general animations, especially the walking animation.
Speaking of walking. There are three different camera angles in the game and you can change them quickly. So you can use the shoulder camera, FPS or TPS camera angle depending on the scene. So for example, you can use FPS during combat, TPS when using a spaceship, and so on.
I said that the dialogs were thought about. I can also talk about the fact that the dialogs deviate in different directions. For example, sometimes you are presented with options, such as stealth or bam bam bam dive, and you can make these choices as you want in the dialogs. Or the character you are talking to can come after you according to your dialog. Fortunately, I didn't encounter any incidents such as the death of the character here. While I was already dealing with my own life, I think the other characters falling and getting up and down could have undermined the pleasure of the game a little.
Finally, I can talk about the loading screens here. Let me give you a nice detail, you can see the things you take in photo mode on the loading screen (not all of them). I should also mention that there are many of them. When you enter and exit somewhere, there is always a short loading screen. In some scenes, they tried to cover the loading screen with cinematic scenes. Again, better than nothing.
Graphics - Visualization
Even though it has a graphically impressive atmosphere, I felt like there was something wrong with the game. Which you may have noticed in the photos you looked at while reading the review. Whether it's texture quality, sharpening settings, or lighting, there's something I can't figure out.
Even though I tested the game on both low, medium and high settings, I couldn't see much difference in terms of graphics except for the low setting. It would be nice for Bethesda to work on this a little more.
Visually, it is absolutely successful. The space theme is very successfully reflected. I mean, I don't even know what to say about it.
Performance - Bugs - Mods
The performance of the game is one of the most criticized points. In fact, I can say that performance and optimization issues are directly the most criticized point.
I played the game with RTX 3060 Mobile - I5-12500H. Normally what you would expect is something like 65 fps on x settings, but that's not the case for this game. The FPS is extremely fluctuating unfortunately. In some scenes it drops to 40 and in others it goes up to 70. (This is on medium settings. Whether FSR was on or off didn't have a significant effect either. Even changing the graphics settings didn't change the FPS, unfortunately. On high, it got a bit closer to the 40s, but overall I got similar results).
Apart from that, if you are using an Nvidia RTX graphics card, you can install DLSS mode as well as FSR. RTX 2000 and 3000 users can play DLSS 2 mode, while if you have an RTX 4000 series graphics card, you can also install DLSS 3 mode or try Intel XeSS in addition to DLSS.
Speaking of mods. As a Bethesda game classic, of course this game started to be supported with mods as soon as it was released. You can install many mods that fix color settings or add other features.
Finally, we can't not mention the bugs. You must have heard that Bethesda games have a lot of bugs. I didn't find as many bugs in this game as they say, which is the general opinion. But did I come across them? Yes, I did. Some of them even gave me extremely funny scenes. Like characters flying into the air. But at least I didn't have any bugs that prevented the game from working.
Latest details
Especially on the Xbox side, Microsoft has now been able to answer the long-standing question of "where is a big game" (even if it is a bit costly :d)
Even though it is big, there is a possibility that you may not like the game. Keep this in mind. Especially if you say "I don't like to hang out for a long time, I do my duty and get out, I just want it to be simple." too much variety can confuse you. Or if you expect something space shuttle-oriented, it may not meet your expectations. If you expect very high quality conflicts, it may upset you again. But if you say I want to explore, I want to make my own way, you are very likely to like it.
The game is too big. Therefore, there are definitely places I missed or skipped in this review. There were even some parts that I skipped on purpose because reading long articles will tire me and you after a while. Of course, there are many things to tell and write about this game.
Even though a lot of strong games came out this year, Starfield is still a strong Game Of The Year candidate. And it will probably get a nice award.
Here's how we rated the game:
84/100
Thank you for reading this review and taking your time.🙂
What do you think? Do you think Starfield is good and can it win the Game Of The Year award? Let me know your thoughts in the comments. See you in the next reviews!
