I love a really big, in-depth roleplaying game (RPG) and have been looking forward to playing (and reviewing) Starfield for a long time.
Starfield, developed and published by Bethesda for PC, Xbox, and PlayStation is a traditional open-world (well, open-galaxy) first-person RPG in exactly the same tradition as The Elder Scrolls or Fallout games.
Even though science fiction is such a great setting for games, it’s been a really long time since we’ve had an immersive space RPG and Starfield nails pretty much every element of the genre.
The central plot of this absolutely enormous game is that you are a miner who discovers a mysterious artifact and finds themselves joining an interstellar exploration society to uncover more of the mystery – while getting involved in the machinations and affairs of numerous factions across the galaxy too.
I cannot overstate how big this game is, or how much there is to do, explore, or discover – it includes everything from scanning planets for resources, spaceship design, outpost construction, resource extraction, and even cooking. Oh, and plenty of combat, too.
Technical troubles
The main issues I’ve had with the game are technical – notably a lot of crashes to desktop – and the assorted bugs and glitches Bethesda games have a reputation for but often end up being humorous rather than game-breaking – people levitating through floors, dead enemies ragdolling in amusing ways, and so on.
I personally have a high-end gaming PC, and when the game was running, it ran beautifully – but then suddenly it would just crash out and I’d have to restart.
The graphics are also not quite as advanced as I was hoping either – they’re good, but clearly based on older game engine tech. For most gamers (including me), it’s not really an issue, but someone expecting bleeding-edge graphics, effects, and ray-tracing may be disappointed.
There’s no doubt that Starfield is huge, deep, accomplished, and epic in the very best sense of the word. It’s also desperately in need of a polish and some patches – and once those arrive (hopefully sooner rather than later), Starfield can really shine brightly like the star it is.
See also: Game review: ‘The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom’
