Here we are…Starfield has been out for a whole year. Time to take another look to see what we think of the game.
For those curious about my original review of Starfield, here’s the link: Starfield First Impressions.
Since it’s debut, Starfield has had some updates offering general improvements, bug fixes, and additional features. The most notable feature/improvement was the topographical map being replaced by one that actually showed surface features and locations. The latest update introduced the REV-8 surface buggy, which makes travelling around planet surfaces much less of a slog. But have any of these improvements or additions actually improved the games playability?
The short answer is: No. Not in the least.
The longer answer is a little more nuanced. We’ll review some of good I’ve noticed in my most recent playing of the game, as well as the bad. Just note that this article was written before the first DLC for Starfield: Shattered Space has released. A lot of the content I’ve experienced in my recent play is the same content I saw when I made my initial review.
What’s New?
The REV-8
I already mentioned that we were given a new land vehicle to use to get us to our destinations faster when on planets. This does improve the slog of exploring and surveying a planet, in that you have to travel a ways to get to the surface traits you need to scan. It’s also somewhat useful when collecting data on flora and fauna of the planet you are surveying, since the scanner works while you are driving. You can cover the terrain faster while searching for the one remaining beastie you need to scan in order to fully complete the survey.
On the flip side the buggy is relatively unneeded if you are landing at a surface base that is your destination when doing a quest (although a few still require a little bit of travel). It’s also useless when your collecting minerals, since there’s no cargo space to carry all the rocks you’ve picked up. There is a mod for this, so I’m not going to complain too loudly other than to say, “Why do we need a mod for this?”
It’s fun and all, but has a few glaring problems. First, while you can bring your human companion along, and they’ll sit in the passenger seat, if you have a mission where you have a second follower, guess what. They’re left behind when you drive off. Controlling the vehicle is a bit strange, too. You only have forward, back, and turn. There is no fine control. It drives like the MAKO from Mass Effect, or any of the catch-a-rides from Borderlands.
Creations
At the beginning of the summer, Bethesda added Creations to the game, meaning mod support is official. Many mods have since come out, or been remade using the Creation Kit. There are free mods through Bethesda.net, or Nexus, but there are other paid mods that have come out to add more quests and content.
But this leads us back to the original problem with Starfield (and Bethesda games in general); the mods are what will keep this game alive. And honestly, the mods are what’s keeping this game playable to begin with. I know that when I stopped playing Starfield, I wasn’t going to start up again until mods were supported. It still took me 3 months to do so. Now that I’m playing again, I’m looking at the available mods but only using a handful.
Many of the free mods I’d like to use got broken by the REV-8 update, and I haven’t found the will (or the inclination) to give money to Bethesda for any of the paid mods. I have been tempted (Ancient Mariner module for ships), but haven’t found any must haves yet. One would have to assume all the paid mods are verified functional with updates before publication, but I don’t know for sure.
Trackers Alliance Faction
With the Creations update came the Trackers Alliance Missions. I haven’t really explored these, but I did feel that this faction was missing when the game first came out. You had the Bounty Kiosks, where you could go to clear any bounties on your character, but there were never any bounty hunters showing up while you were exploring that you either had to fight or pay off. At least now you get to hunt down bounties, but I don’t know if you have to contend with people hunting you.
My only complaint so far with the Trackers Alliance is the lack of immersion when getting recruited. The introductory NPC that gets you started is very in-your-face, practically from the moment you land in the first city you are led to. It’s not like another faction, Ryujin, where you hear an ad in the background and you get a task in your Activity list that you can ignore until you’re ready.
What’s (still) Bad?
I should preface this by saying I AM using mods, and don’t know where they might be causing random bugs. On the flip side, at least one bug I’ve seen (noted below) should not be attributable to any mod I use. It has also been several months since I last played Starfield. I can’t trace back to what bugs were there from what stage of updates being released. I can say though, that it doesn’t seem any better or worse now that when I started…with a few notable exceptions.
The first is that turning on and off the scanner tends to send nearby objects away from me. I don’t understand why this happens; and like I said, I don’t use any mods that should be causing it. I’ve taken to using the scanner as little as possible when in interior cells, just so I can avoid this particular bug.
The PC Character Creator presets and game NPCs all looked like they were pulled (as far as style) from The Outer Worlds, according to my lovely moderator, Mojo. I was seeing actors from The Expanse TV Show myself (which I thought was kinda cool). Her impression of the Character Creator itself was that it was clunky and not intuitive. The lack of variance in NPCs you pass randomly on the street is also off-putting.
You still get bombarded from all sides by potential side missions, right off the bat when you reach the first civilized area of the game. Before you have a chance to even complete your first mission, you have a half-a-dozen Activities in your list. New Atlantis is especially bad for that. These could have been spaced out over several visits, making your return to the city have a purpose other than just turning in quests for one or two people.
Mojo rightly mentioned that there is no planet index for surveyed planets to see what resources they provide. This seems essential for outpost building, since you need so many different elements to build a settlement, but no way of looking up where you might have seen them. If you’ve taken the time to survey a moon, planet, or entire star system, this seems like a natural payoff.
Finally, I missed in my original review that there’s no connection between any of the factions. None appear to have any relation to each other, and so all can be joined and their questlines completed. I miss that from other Bethesda games; where the factions are connected and to complete the game/story, it requires you to betray of one or more factions.
Conclusion
I’m a little more critical now, since I’ve played more of Starfield. The quests are still satisfying to complete, the ship building is still fun (with or without mods), and finding cool weapons and modifying them is always enjoyable (if you can find or afford the materials). The issue lies in the fact that the game is not as attention grabbing as it’s predecessors. It’s still a Bethesda game, and as much as we all rag on Bethesda, we still play because it does scratch that certain looter-shooter itch. But I’ll get bored of it and move on, or move back to Fallout 4, sooner rather than later.
As for Mojo, who only started playing very recently, her overall feeling is that “they could have kept quite a few of the general game and crafting mechanics, along as the more familiar character creator from their other titles.” This would “appease the fans and still have made a new enough game that is enjoyable to play.” It could even have brought over new players from the No Man’s Sky fanbase. “Instead,” says Mojo, “the new players went back to playing No Man’s Sky.”
I’ll be reviewing the new DLC for Starfield after it is released and I’ve had a chance to play.
