A Starfield Story

Games I’m Playing — Big Empty — Since the early days of Daggerfall’s vengeance, the static silt strider’s visage in Morrowind, the nauseatingly endless gates of Oblivion, Fallout 3’s destroyed Washington DC, Fallout: New Vegas’ outstanding story, followed by the equally excellent yet overly dragon infested Skyrim (currently being remastered for nanny cams, car screens, and Japanese toilets), and then other game. “Hey,” I hear each reader’s words echoing through the numerous vacant areas in my head, “your grammar is incorrect and Bethesda has made many games.” I beg to differ! They’ve made one game in several iterations

Let me start by saying, I’m a fan of Bethesda game, with particular enjoyment coming from New Vegas and Morrowind (fly high, cliff racer). Though it did get tiring once the Fallout series was added, but Elder Scrolls in Elder Scrolls and Elder Scrolls in Post Apocalyptia were generally enjoyable. But let’s get down to cases, the most recent game, Elder Scrolls in spaaaaaace, a.k.a.Starfield, starts with the character creator that crafts a creation which looks like it’s from a modded Morrowind + cool space gear. Once created, players embark on a hero’s journey that’s a cross between the prisoner sequences of Oblivion/Skyrim with a thread of Red Faction (MINER!). As fate would have it, players are destined for greater adventures among the stars (Luke Skywalker would have been pretty boring if he just farmed… although there are some masochists that like Powerwash Simulator). Under the employ of Argos Extractors, players quickly discover a sought after artifact mcguffin. An invasion then occurs by the Crimson Fleet for said mcguffin and players are forced to flee with a robotic operating buddy named Vasco. The artifact is to be delivered to an organization called Constellation on New Atlantis. In typical Bethesda fashion players are then let loose to do what they want, buttressed by a main quest of flying searching for more artifacts and multiple side quests that span the gamut. The big differentiator from other Bethesda game is this one takes place on planets and moons spread throughout the Milky Way. Players get a ship and use this to navigate the void. The ship serves as crew quarters and a hub for space battles (more on that later)… The ships are essentially the base building of Fallout 4 in ship form. Side note, Destiny was originally intended to have space flight and combat, but that was a tall order and was scrapped

The gameplay is standard Bethesda fare, where it’s primarily played in the 1st Person (though the bafflingly offered 3rd person remains). The controls feel the same as playing Fallout without the V.A.T.S. system. So what’s different in this game? Well, stamina has been replaced with O2 since many of the worlds require a spacesuit with a rebreather. So when players exert energy by running or, apparently, power walking, the O2 level drops. As it drops, CO2 rises and players must stop to regain O2. It’s a little too clever to be a fun system and its flaws are exacerbated by the crafting system (how I tire of crafting as a mechanic. Also why doesn’t the game give the option to automatically remove the suit when in a breathable atmosphere?). As with other Bethesda game, one can become encumbered if they carry too much. In Starfield, the components for crafting and upgrading weapons/space suits, etc often have a non-inconsequential mass. When out adventuring, and dealing with the inherent kleptomaniacal nature of every Bethesda game player, it’s easy to become encumbered which conflicts with the upgrade loop of the game (Hats off to Kojima’s weird Death Stranding design choices). So a loop is created where players can’t fast travel to their destination, can’t easily offload to Vasco, and can’t effectively pick up items required for crafting. Additionally, players need “credits” to buy new ships and ship upgrades, and selling excess stuff is a way to get that. So there’s a real problem here. Piloting a ship through space takes a little getting used to but is relatively enjoyable and the space combat is decent, though not nearly as satisfying as, say, 1994s Tie Fighter. The multiple weapon systems and upgrades are cool, though. What is unique is the ability to power down the systems of the ship (weapons, shields, grav drive, etc) in order to stealth past certain enemy ships. A huge boon of the other Bethesda game was there was so much richness to explore; Starfield, by contrast, feels thin outside of the main questline. This is especially frustrating in a world where a game like Baldur’s Gate 3 was so well written that it could be hard to distinguish a side quest from the main one. Starfield felt a lot closer to Mass Effect 1 than BG3 in that department

Starfield feels like it deserved better than it was reviewed but is simultaneously more of the same game. It feels like Deus Ex or an Arcane game but with less robust game systems. It’s trying to do a lot, but that “a lot” is basically reskinning what is already done. Also, what is with games shipping unfinished or with big updates needed? The same thing happened with Cyberpunk and who has the time to go back months or years later and replay something that was ill conceived at the outset?.. I guess me, but what does that say about me?