A Space Oddity
Starfield on PlayStation is not something I expected at any point especially so soon, although it has been 5 years it seems like only yesterday that Xbox welcomed Bethesda in exclusive original games going forward while their older games already on PlayStation continued to receive support so I was sure I’d never play Starfield at least for a long time anyway. I was excited for Starfield, I mean No Man’s Sky is a game that I constantly go back to, I adore Space exploration as a genre and I am sure the great minds behind Skyrim, Fallout and Elder Scrolls dipping their toes into the genre was something they would have in the bag but after playing it do I still retain that same excitement?
The answer is a bit more complicated than yes or no. Starfield begins with you on the moon known as Vectera, here you will begin initial setup of character creation and setting things up such as starter skills, if you have played a Bethesda game previously you know what to expect, you can pick your appearance and other features such as characters background and Skills which range from Physical to Social abilities, these include things such as how well you adapt to the environment around you and how quickly you regenerate health to how well you can bluff your way through a situation or steal things right from under someone’s nose. Once you get through the introduction to the game you find yourself on an adventure to uncover secret artifacts.
After the initial tutorial you will learn how to navigate the game from how to pilot the airship in space and how to fight enemy spaceships and how to deal with pirates when you are on solid ground. Getting around the controls and navigations was the biggest block for me and I imagine it would be for many other players, while the game does explain space navigation I still found it difficult to get the grips with, the ship controls did just not feel intuitive and it took some time getting use to the Cruise Mode in order to explore those very distant planets. Overall it just felt clunky and messy navigating the ship menus in order to do anything. It’s also wild to me that Cruise Mode was not a thing before and it was actually part of the Free Lanes update and selecting a planet to land on was done by a menu and that this was done by a loading screen, it still consists of a loading screen when you land but at least you have more of an illusion that you are going to it first, there are benefits to this as you will encounter hostile enemy ships.
The combat of Starfield is fun and there are many weapons and mods to mess with, its fun using the laser against space pirates to begin with and switching to an actual gun and pump them full of lead, although variety lacks when it comes to harder fights, enemies are not harder in they are more tactical in approach but are more of a damage sponge, but overall it gets the job done. Outposts in Starfield allow you to set up a base which allows you to build constructions, these bases can can gather resources for you and can be a permanent storage solution for the collection of notes and books you will never ever look at again.
The other lesser minor issue I came across while playing Starfield was that I was trying to track a single quest through the in game mission log but it was showing me all markers from other side missions not tracking through the log when there is an option to show only active targets which would show markers for uncompleted mission. It took more time than I wanted or needed to figure this out but better late than never.
Starfield has a Universe that vast and there is much to explore, planets can be devoid of anything but that makes sense much like our own universe some planets are completely empty but it was not long before I explored a different planet entirely only to find that it has similar structures with the same layouts as the one I had just explored. It was not immersion breaking, even no man’s sky is guilty of this, all the worlds that are available in Starfield are the same for everyone who plays the game but points of interest and abandoned bases will be in different locations for everyone or should you start again, this randomises things and while there are many other planets to explore overall I have yet to find anything that would blow my mind, the game has it’s main City hubs full of NPC’s going about their daily lives, outside of this I have yet to be intrigued by the vast universe that is out there, the game has a main questline and going off the main path doesn’t feel needed for the most part.
Starfield certainly does feel like a Bethesda game, this is down to the graphical fidelity, the way NPC’s interact down to how the game plays. This is a game released 3 years ago and even then it fails to improve on things such as character models and interactions, it certainly is better than the days of the Hamster Cheek NPC’s of Oblivion. Sarah Morgan looks really good but consistency is not always key as some characters look like they are still blindly staring through you when they are talking to you.
The PlayStation 5 version of Starfield is the most current version of the game after having been around for 3 years already. Since then it has two expansions including the features that it would not have had prior, it’s hard to imagine how the game would have been on release as the game stands now it certainly feels like a polished game even though it does have a slight learning curve to get around and the somewhat dated Bethesda feel to it. Playing the game on the original PlayStation 5 gave me no issues, you can toggle between a visual mode or performance mode if you wish but I did not have to mess with anything and I found the game visually great to look at with no issues to performance.
Would I recommend Starfield as a game? I would say this depends on your expectations. The main story is what drives the game forward and also the faction quests. The exploration side of Starfield is where it may feel lost on some which is a big deal especially as this is seen as a space exploration game and even marketed as one, I certainly have felt that although I am still invested in the main story. Starfield is an RPG set in space and while it may feel endless with a huge galaxy to explore, the novelty of going to distant planets soon sadly wears off when you find that most are not worth exploring at all. The questline overall isn’t emotionally gripping but interest me enough to see it through, I feel that the game is definitely created in line for fans of other Bethesda titles especially if you are a fan of Fallout and Skyrim you will find enjoyment here as you will know what to expect.
A PlayStation 5 Review Code was provided by Bethesda. This article is featured on OpenCritic
