It's Time to Talk about Starfield

Saturn viewed from orbit of Saturn's moon Tethys

Disclaimer: I grew up during Nasa's peak in popular imagination and culture and sandbox RPGs are my preferred video game genre. Before Starfield's release I spent several months playing Fallout 4 and No Man's Sky. This contributes to my point of view on Starfield.

Few games allow the player to interact with world objects to the degree that Bethesda's games do. There's a reason for this. Much of the game's available resources has to be dedicated to storing, tracking and animating objects. Not to mention physics calculations or the multitude of scripts running concurrently to manage the game world behind the scenes. It makes my head throb just to think of it. I'm not a professional software developer but I have dabbled in database management, animation and simple game and app programming so I understand something of what's involved. Bethesda also allows custom characters and a number of NPC companions which all need to be inserted into animations and an endless variety of situations. All this without appearing bent, warped or just plain ridiculous. Although we all kind of love it when they do. My point here is that this is what Bethesda does and their development priorities aren't always what players think they should be.

I chafe a bit at the limits other kinds of games impose but there's usually other intriguing things about them that inspires me to play.

When Bethesda announced this partially procedurally generated massive space game I wasn't sure what to expect. I generally believe (contrary to some others) that Bethesda knows what they are doing so I was curious to see. I just know that I would have been very disappointed if it wasn't a typical Bethesda game. Starfield blew me away. This is the best thing that they have ever done. I'm not alone in this opinion but for the moment we're drowned out by a multitude of voices claiming it's the worst.

To be fair I haven't played a lot of space sims and until recently there's been a dearth of space RPGs. Fantasy or sci-fi fantasy is always more popular than hard sci-fi. I think that objections to the entire concept of  Starfield are genuinely held. If loading screens really are a deal breaker I'm not going to try to convince you otherwise. But I really wish that there was more acknowledgement of the things that Bethesda did incredibly well here.

I'm not an astronomer or a scientist either but my impressions of space rest on Nasa imagery. Bethesda has delivered a plausible model of the Milky Way. Just a part of it but we are allowed to live there free to do as we please. Everything is optional after your first visit to the lodge. There's limits because there has to be but over 1000 hours in I'm still not exactly sure what all the limits might be. We'll know a lot more when official mod tools come out.

It's a stunning achievement. Most space RPGs that I've played are stories set in space. I've never actually felt like I was an interstellar explorer the same way as in Starfield. The surreal lighting, the imagery and the physics have a lot to do with that. With maxed boost and some physical skills, traversal is so effortless that I have been ruined for other games. The longer I play the more I appreciate how dynamic every planet is. You certainly can say the same about No Man's Sky but as highly as I regard No Man's Sky, Starfield just appeals to me more. 

While I think that Starfield could do with more random points of interest I think that they did a great job of  integrating them into their environments. The dynamic nature of these environments make them seem less repetitive to me. The little outpost and mission board quests are another iteration of the radiant quests that first appeared in Skyrim. Select locations just serve as XP/loot farms like in Fallout 4. But unlike Fallout 4 they are randomly generated and ripe for expansion.

One thing I believe that might be killing Starfield in popular opinion relates to some of it's systems which aren't the most accessible. I thoroughly enjoyed the story line and many of the story and side quests are engaging but the larger themes of the game didn't really hit home until some time in a new game plus. At least I think I understand the larger themes. There's a lot more to understand. My view of the temples did a complete 180. Unfortunately I wonder if many people get that far. The ability to fine tune game options provided in the latest update helps a lot. Character progression, crafting, ship systems, ship building and outposts are still a complicated business. The way skills, abilities, attributes etc. weave together in game play is fascinating for the curious but it takes some dedication to reveal.

Normally I'll replay ES and Fallout games periodically over a period of years. This has been condensed by Starfield's new game plus. I've done my "what's this about" generalist playthrough and my intense investigative playthrough and now I'm on an untethered prospector/entrepreneur/space cowboy adventure. Starfield isn't above criticism but so far it's my all time ultimate sandbox RPG. An ever intriguing and often breathtaking showcase for Bethesda's theories on player agency.