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To be fair, most of the cosmos in real life is literally empty. However, realism is overrated. The whole reason we play video games is because real life sucks.
I mean, some of us play sci-fi games because we want to experience the reality that's still out of reach to us.
Not Bethesda products, of course, but, you know. Games.
Unless it's a driving game. Arcade-style racers just aren't fun. You barely have to use the brakes (if at all), and the AI cheats. I much rather play a racing sim.
Otherwise I agree.
arcade style racers just aren't fun
Sad trackmania noises
To me, the only fun racer is Initial D.
I spent 20 hours exploring one solar system alone. Yea some planets are empty. Not many though. The complaints so far are really shallow.
The people having fun aren't the ones writing these knee-jerk critiques. They're the ones engrossed in the game atm and their opinions will be better reflected once they're done.
There's a lot of reason for the haters to hate on this one. Bethesda game, no space travel like NMS, no PS5 release. All things which were either a given or should have otherwise been obvious, but still, clicks are clicks and so any reason to hate is reason enough.
After 30 hours, I've honestly seen no reason to upgrade my ship. It's just a speed bump to fast travel.
And the main critique I have is that there isn't any real discovery. When you go to most of the new planets, you're given one to three points of interest, you land there, and see an "abandoned [something]" overrun with enemies. You clear them out, generally get nothing of value, then move on. It's quite repetitive gameplay.
Outside of following quest lines, there's not much reason to explore.
I kinda feel like I'm just passing time, but not really having fun. Still, it's one of those games that I don't want to stop playing because I do actually want to see where the main story goes.
It's true, some of them ARE empty by design...but the problem is, a world with life on it in Starfield is barely more interesting than the barren rock. It is still almost ALL randomly generated, there just happens to be more wildlife to scan while you run across the boring landscape, and maybe an animal will try to kill you.
Oh, and the pointless radiant quest you get will be from a solar farm on the nice planet, instead of a mining platform on the barren one. There is very little difference.
I do not understand Bethesda's insistence on "Radiant" quests.
I don't necessarily mind them, but they seem to be out of control in this one. I ran from the UC place in Atlantis to my ship, landed on Mars, ran into the town to a quest giver, and when I opened my map next, I had dots ALL OVER IT.
I popped open my quest log, and there were 11 random quests I didn't even realize I had hoovered up just running from location to location. The thing that kind of bothers me about it is that that's more than double the amount of quests I had intentionally picked up.
It's okay if I explore and uncover some of these myself, Todd.
A lot of those come from you "overhearing" NPCs talk. But often you're completely out of range, or there's so many NPCs brabbling that you can't make anything out anyway and suddenly the questlog fills up with "talk to so and so" quests, with no relation of its context (which imo is the real crime here).
I feel like they should just put the "Things you overheard" objectives in a different tab. Problem solved.
Radiant quests aren't bad as long as we know that's what's happening. We don't want to keep on down a path if it's not going to lead somewhere but they are useful for earning credits or xp on occasion.
Ugh, they are bringing back radiant quests? Did they learn nothing from Skyrim? Bare minimum, radiant quests have to be BETTER than Deep Rock Galactic missions. But better to just not have them at all, a la Baldur's Gate 3.
Hey thanks to radiant quests I now know that there is "wildlife" on Luna. Isn't that awesome?!
It doesn't matter if you are on Jemison right next to New Atlantis, the capital of the universe, or on some random moon in nowhere, you'll get the same abandoned buildings with spacers/pirates/mercenaries in them. And literally zero of them will have any sort of story or writing attached to them. Walking around on random planets is unbelievably repetitive.
If it was boring, nobody would want to visit the Moon or Mars IRL, and yet... People do want to do that. 🤷🏻♂️
Of course, in the game even the "empty" planets are not actually empty. There are plenty of POIs to find from wrecked spaceships to clandestine bases to naturally forming caves. You just can't find them without landing and walking around. Sometimes for hours, because the planet is huge and you can only explore it on foot.
You understand there are scientific pursuits on mars and the moon IRL that don’t translate to Starfield in any shape or form, right?
That's what my entire second paragraph is for.
Insist all you want, Bethesda, it doesn't make it true
I just played two hours and called it quits as I was walking, jumping, and hovering in "mid air" on Luna. No Sun to see, but the Luna Surface was .... illuminated and the features threw somehow shadows? Where is the light coming from? Why is there no conversation of moment? This is truly Skyrim in space.
I feel like Starfield should have removed the space travel mechanics. It could instead have opted for Mass Effect style travel menu..
Also, they could have gone for a handful of highly detailed planets.
I think the most fun I've had has been the spaceship building. I've only done a bit of space combat, but the spaceship builder while not perfect (like the inability to rotate parts) I quite liked.
the spaceship builder while not perfect (like the inability to rotate parts)
Please tell me you're exaggerating for humorous effect
No, best you can do is flip a part so that the connector is on the other side. But if a part is meant to connect on a side connector, there's no way to attach it to a top connector or bottom connector. Parts cannot be rotated.
Nope, you can flip some parts. But you can't rotate them. So, for example some parts can only be attached to the sides and others to the top or bottom. (or sometimes just the bottom)
There's quite a few videos on youtube showing this now.
I have the Frontier module at the back and its blank ass is just sticking out with absolutely nothing to attach to it that wouldn't look like an eyesore or remove the shower. Like, just give me the ability to slap my fuel tank there or maybe a little radiator or something. There definitely need to be more options.
Still, I agree. While it has some shortcomings (like lacking descriptions & previews), the ship building and consequently being able to walk & fly around in and with your ship is amazing.