I completed it at around 75 hours. It's fine...I guess. There are things I enjoyed, and things that were really dull. I could've played hundreds more hours, but none of it really felt special or important. Maybe in a year or so, with mods, it will be as special as everyone wanted it to be.
Honestly, even broken Cyberpunk 2077 at launch--the ps4 version on ps5--was more immersive for me, and I think even today's build is a bit overrated, but to each their own, I guess.
I'll definitely go back to it at some point, but that won't be anytime soon unfortunately.
It's a 7 out of 10 for me, but I like stuff that others think is trash. I truly enjoyed Wanted: Dead, for example. Like what you like. I might disagree, but I will never say you're wrong.

mingyjongo @dungus10/25/2023, 4:48 AM

I like Starfield a little better than Cyberpunk, that is my Bethesda bias perhaps. I still think both games suck and are emblematic of deep problems in the industry, problems of unsustainable scale and compromised design in endless pursuit of spectacle.

There’s nothing impressive to me about Cyberpunk’s skin-deep open world, just like there is little impressive about Starfield’s “1000 planets” when it is essentially the same substance of a typical Bethesda game, only spread so thin it robs the formula of exploration. The only real selling point for both games is the spectacle afforded by their massive budgets and prolonged dev time. It is their reason to exist, their contribution to the form. That is nothing to celebrate.

Justin Stewart @Seymour-Demonica10/25/2023, 7:30 AM

Well, this won't bolster Bethesda to make Skyrim 2 as thin of an experience as possible at all.

From what I hear, mechanically, Starfield is as deep as a puddle and that the many side narratives begrudgingly hold up the experience. Worse yet is that it's less exploration-based, more objective-based and that directly goes against the formula that got Bethesda to stick out. You would think the unlimited freedom of space would harbor a sense of wonder, but the procedural generation doesn't seem to work like that.

They need to take cues from Breath of the Wild/Tears of the Kingdom, but they won't. So, basically, there's only hope that public perception goes way south and soon enough for them to catch it in pre-production (I'm not sure if it's yet in full production).

mingyjongo @dungus10/25/2023, 1:18 PM

The funny thing about this game is the public perception did seem pretty poor, at least judging by what I saw. It got this very controlled marketing rollout ahead of the early release, then when it actually came out the player impressions seemed for the most part negative. In a way it's this weird on-paper win that has been engineered for Microsoft, and they needed it. I'm assuming its reputation will grow over time after enough updates and mods come in - people will be like hey remember Starfield, it's not so bad. Not to me, I will always remember it as a disappointment and a failure.

Goemar @Goemar10/25/2023, 11:12 AM

They made a space game and forgot about space.

Would have been better off having one whole planet than what they did.

I just think there's been too many years gone past from when this game would have been seen as great.

in reply to @Fuzunga's post:

@BurningYggdrassil10/25/2023, 9:46 AM

I got bored of the game when reading the developer's blogs...