A Galactic Adventure Begins
Thousands of planets, hundreds of thousands of lines of dialogue, spaceship and outpost construction, space battles, jetpacks, documenting flora and fauna, resource mining, and a central narrative that poses a simple yet poignant question: "What's out there?" It's safe to say that there's a lot to discuss in our Starfield review. We're about 20 hours into our Xbox Series S playthrough so far, and how does this year's most anticipated RPG fare? Well, up until now, Starfield hasn't quite been the galaxy-conquering, boundary-pushing experience I had hoped for, but it has definitely impressed me in several key areas.
However, I do begin this review with a caveat - Starfield takes a while to get going and is initially hard to appreciate. Your first three or four hours will likely feel underwhelming compared to the game's pre-launch hype and discussion. There's little narrative groundwork or weight in your joining the Constellation, Starfield's main faction of space explorers searching for mysterious artifacts throughout the Starfield universe. The initial ship you receive and the introduction to space flight can be frustrating. The menus - particularly the Starfield map that shows you all the systems and locations - will confuse you.
Embarking into the Unknown
It is surprising that Starfield has had such a rough start and that the user experience has been so complicated, considering how many new players Bethesda could attract thanks to the launch of Starfield on Game Pass (and the massive marketing campaign). However, it is getting better, and as things open up, Starfield is starting to feel more like the advertised game.
An Expedition through a Thousand Planets
The main attraction that Bethesda presented to players before the launch was the prospect of traversing a thousand planets in Starfield. This was the hyper-ambitious core of the game that allowed players to wander around a vast galaxy filled with handcrafted and procedurally generated content, with space travel and gravity jumps between every star, planet, moon, or space station.
Combat Experience in Space
Starfield has also impressed me in terms of combat. Combat is often an afterthought in Bethesda role-playing games, but not here. The variety of weapons and how good each of them feels was a pleasant surprise.
Final Thoughts
Overall, I am really enjoying Starfield so far, but it is far from perfect - promises of breathtaking interstellar exploration have not been fully fulfilled, the user experience is surprisingly cumbersome, and there have been some performance issues. Nevertheless, I am completely fascinated by Bethesda's world-building, the grounded combat of Starfield, and the staggering amount of handcrafted content in this game.
