Starfield Review
- Jordan Belton
- Sep 27, 2023
- 8 min read
Pros | Cons |
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| Becoming Overencumbered frequently |
The wait is finally over.
Bethesda's new Intellectual property has finally been released.
This is the company's first single-player offline game since Fallout 4 in 2015, released eight years ago.
While a simple explanation of the game could be saying it is Fallout or Skyrim in outer space, I do not think that description gives credit to how unique and vast Starfield truly is.
The comparisons between Starfield and Bethesda's other IPs are understandable because Bethesda builds their games a certain way.
Whether you are exploring outer space, in a post-apocalyptic America or exploring one of the many areas of Cyrodill, there are glaring similarities in all the games.
These include the dialogue system, carrying weight system, and how effectively food can restore health.
Starfield has its unique systems.
These include:
upgrading your spacesuit to help with healing or taking less of a damage type
the use of a spaceship, being to customise one and use one as a base to build unique creations.
Multiple maps for galaxies, systems and planet surface maps.
Now we've established that, let's talk about Starfield specifically and what it gets right and gets wrong.
Character Creation
The Character creation section of the game is detailed and impressive.
There are over 30 preset character models to select from, and you can use them as a base to create your character.
Probably the most welcome addition to the character creator is being able to choose your character's pronouns.
The choices are HE/HIM, SHE/HER and THEY/THEM.
I think this is a great addition, especially for people who are non-binary and have wanted to be able to either be themselves in a Bethesda game or create a character which truly represents themselves.
As part of the character creator, you choose your background, a staple in Bethesda games for a long time.
In this section, you choose from several options combining skills you will find in your skill tree.
The next section of character creation is traits.
These will determine your character's personality and can lead to dialogue options unique to that trait.
Skills tree
The skill tree in Starfield is split into five different categories.
These are Physical, Social, Combat, Science and Tech.
Physical affects your oxygen levels, health, resilience, and carrying capacity.
Social affects your ability to persuade and intimidate someone when in conversation.
Combat affects your ability with ballistic, laser and melee weapons.
Science affects your ability to create medicine, research to craft new items, Grav drive and the fuel capacity of your ship.
Tech affects your ability to do lock picking of different difficulties, use boost packs and being able to upgrade and customise your ship.
Within these categories, there are four tiers of skills.
Each tier has 3-5 skills to which you add your skill points.
These skill points are earned through XP for killing foes or completing tasks or quests.
Where you put your skill points depends on what skill set you want your character to have.
The crucial thing to remember is that you must put a certain number of points in a tier to move on to the next one.
Over-encumberment will happen frequently due to the weight of mined materials, weapons and spacesuits.
You may need to put some skill points into the carrying weight section of the skill tree.
Story
The story begins with your character on a ship being transported to a mine to collect materials.
Once you get off the ship, you are greeted with the mine and allowed to learn how to mine materials.
Once you have completed that, you are tasked with discovering what a mysterious object found deep in the mine.
When you get to your destination, use a cutter to get to the item and interact with it.
This is where your story begins.
Overall, I think the main story and missions of the game are very well-constructed and keep a player's attention.
However, in my experience, I found it best to go between the story and side missions to keep it from becoming tedious and allow the player to explore more of the open world.
The World
The world of Starfield is beautiful and vast and empty in some areas.
There are over 1,000 planets and over 100 solar systems to explore.
While only 10% of the planets have life on them, which makes Starfield feel a bit empty, I do not think it takes away from the game.
There is always something to explore and something to do.
While there is no life, there will be minerals for players to collect to upgrade their space suits, armour, Weapons, or build outposts.
I think the world caters to several different types of players.
You can explore planets and collect mineral deposits or explore areas you travel to for quests.
Starfield gives you that freedom.
Equipment
In Starfield, your equipment is crucial.
Weapons, Clothes, your spacesuit, aid (healing items and enhancements)
These include Weapons, clothing, spacesuits, aid (consumables) and quest items.
The Weapons in Starfield are Pistols, Rifles, Shotguns, Heavy Weapons, Melee, throwables and explosives.
Like in the Fallout games, there are ballistic and laser types of guns.
Clothes are obtainable by completing quests, buying from merchants or looting fallen foes or containers.
Specific clothing will enhance your abilities; the Frontier attire provides ten extra health points.
Spacesuits are obtainable in the same way clothes are, and you must have one equipped as not all planets you visit have breathable atmospheres.
Your space suit is made up of three components.
Helmet, suit and pack.
Like clothes, they give you benefits to help your character.
For example, the Mantis suit Grants up to +100 Energy and Physical resistance depending on your health, plus 25 Radiation resistance and a 5% chance to disarm nearby attackers.
The Mantis pack and Helmet will also give you small benefits identical to those detailed above.
Aid or consumables help to not only heal your character but also give you an extra boost for a short time.
This can include healing over time, boosting your oxygen level or helping you craft an item with fewer materials.
In Starfield, you can be damaged by weapons or the environment, so having the correct items to heal them is crucial for survival.
Quest items are obtainable by completing different quest lines and cannot be dropped or sold.
However, most quest items do not have any carrying weight.
Combat
The combat is satisfying, shooting enemies is simple and effective, and the melee combat feels less clunky than in previous Bethesda games.
The downside to combat is the lack of a VATS-like system used in the Fallout series, which I think would have added to it.
VATS is the Vault-Tec Assisted Targeting System.
It allowed players to target specific body parts of their foes to damage a limb and slow them down.
Factions
In Starfield, there are Five major factions you can join.
They are Constellation, Crimson Fleet, Freestar Collective, Ryujin Industries and United Colonies.
Constellation
The faction you join after completing the tutorial and making your way to New Atlantis.
Constellations' goal is to find anomalies in the Galaxy and what is truly out there.
You join them through the main story.
The image above is of the Lodge, the base of the constellation.
The Crimson Fleet
Space pirates who intend to bring down the United Colonies that imprisoned them.
They are also looking for a treasure found by their original leader, Jasper Kryx.
The Freestar Collective
Space cowboys who task themselves and pride themselves on protecting the citizens in their areas.
They are based in Akila City and fight to protect their people from the Ashta, Local Alien Predators.
In dialogue, you will hear them referencing the past when they were at war with the United Colonies for individualism.
Ryujin Industries
They are space's version of a mega-corporation who are based in Neon.
They deal in Weapons, Drones, ship manufacturing and some criminal activities they prefer to keep quiet about.
United Colonies
The United Colonies are a group that sees themselves as the children of Earth.
They value law and order, discipline and humanity's legacy.
The way to join the UC is to find their headquarters in New Atlantis, their home base, and work through the Vanguard quest line.
While the five factions listed above are the major factions in Starfield, there are also some Minor factions you cannot join.
These include Spacers, Ecliptic Mercenaries, Xenofresh Corporation, and three religious organisations, The House of the Enlightened, Sanctum Universum and the House of Va'Runn Zealots.
Spacers are the scavengers of the settled systems who operate independently from a specific faction.
Ecliptic Mercenaries travel the Settled Systems carrying out missions for their clients.
Xenofresh Corporation is who discovered the psychotropic qualities of their local fish species, Neon.
The House of the Enlightened prioritises Humanitarian and community outreach over a god.
Sanctum Universum is a religious group based on the church of the Universal.
The House of Va'Runn Zealots is a cult that worships a strange deity known as the Great Serpent.
All three religious groups mentioned above can be joined by selecting them in the trait section of Create a Character.
Companions
Like in other Bethesda games, companions are NPCs you can bring along to assist in combat or carry items for you.
Constellation provides you with quite a few of your companions.
These include Sarah Morgan, Barrett, Andrea, and Sam Coe.
Everyone else you come across can only be used as crew members for your ship or to operate at your outposts.
There are 16 named companions and several who go by their job titles.
One of the other companions is the Adoring Fan, a throwback to Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion.
However, the only way to have him as a companion is to select him in the trait section when building your character towards the beginning of the game.
Companions are helpful, especially in the more challenging battles with large groups of enemies.
Your Ship
Your ship in Starfield is more than just a mode of transportation.
It is a weapon to help you in space battles against your enemies, but it's also your home from home.
You can earn and buy new ships throughout your journey in Starfield.
A great addition to this is building and customising your ships.
This allows some creative shapes and sizes of ships.
However, in the shipbuilder section, you can only have three weapon classes, a grav drive and one reactor.
Overall, flying ships can be fun but challenging at times because the more considerable the vessel is, the harder it can be to manoeuvre.
This can make some space battles difficult, but the key is to upgrade your ship with weapons and other parts to improve its shields, engines, Grav drive and reactor.
As well as upgrading your ship, you can use one as a canvas to build your own.
Shipbuilding can be complex but fun, as you can create exciting and unique shapes and sizes.
Buying ships is simple enough as merchants are at the four major city's spaceports.
Maps
The Maps differ from previous Bethesda games, but that's not only due to the setting.
You have an interactive map that allows you to move from solar system to solar system and planet to planet.
You also get a surface map of the planet.
Currently, there are no city maps yet.
However, Bethesda claims they will be added in a future update.
The interactive map is helpful, allowing you to travel from one solar system to another if you have discovered it.
If you haven't, you can fast-travel to a solar system you have discovered, and that makes a new path.
If it's close to a system you haven't found, you can now travel to it.
The surface map, however, is not good, in my opinion.
While it does show icons representing locations on the map, it is just a blue map and does not give you an idea of the distance between one point and another.
Final verdict
Bethesda has created an engaging and fun world to scour in Starfield.
The different environments, companions, factions and missions allow you to make choices which have consequences.
However, there are some cases where it feels like the game is attempting to force you down a particular path, which can take away from the experience.
Exploring the different solar systems, building your ships, and the diverse questlines allow you to create a narrative for your character like all great RPGs do.
However, the bugs and glitches also take away from the immersion and the
The bugs in Starfield include being unable to interact with your objective in a mission. This is massively frustrating when it happens multiple times, as it did in my experience.
While Starfield does include its unique features, it does feel like Bethesda is sticking with a formula they have used for decades.
A veteran player of the Fallout and Elder Scrolls games will notice the familiar themes new players won't.
