The Starfield reviews keep flying in, and they encourage us to aim for the stars and explore new horizons. But does it mean the game is perfect? Let's take a look what the ratings look like!
Starfield is the first new universe in over 25 years from Bethesda Game Studios. It began as a pipe-dream that took inspiration from Star Trek, the pen & paper game Traveller, and Interstellar. But now, after years and years in development, fans will finally be able to get their hands on one of the most highly-anticipated Xbox exclusives ever made.
Starfield takes place in the year 2330, and by this point humanity has ventured far beyond our solar system. Take up the roll of a single individual, decide on your background and venture through the stars and to explore the universe to your heart's content...
...So far so good, but did the game deliver on its promises? Without further ado, let's dive into the reviews and take a look how Starfield has excited many people, while also looking at the issues the game still has!
Starfield: Review Overview
So far, Starfield sits at 87/88 on Metacritic with over 50 reviews published. Here are some of our highlights from our favorite reviews so far:
Dalton Cooper from Game Rant gave a top rating with an overall score from 100 and said:
Starfield delivers on everything it promised and then some. It's the ultimate sci-fi game, giving players an incomprehensibly massive world to explore and letting them play however they want. Starfield has what it takes to be another Skyrim-level game that's played religiously for the next decade. It's utterly engrossing, an absolute must-play, and the best Xbox console exclusive in years..
With a rating from 85, Matt Miller from Game Informer, is a little bit more critical but eventually fall in love with the game:
It took me a long time to fall in love with Starfield, and even after I did, certain aspects didn’t work for me. But the things I didn’t enjoy are vastly outweighed by my enthusiasm for this new, original science fiction universe, the breadth of its adventures, and the appeal of its many interwoven stories. Go in with the expectation that it will take some time to find your footing in such a vast gameplay space, and there’s a universe well worth discovering here.
Chris DeAngelus from Worth Playing gave some valuable insights as well:
Starfield both hits and misses the mark. Starfield has both improvements and steps backward from the previous games, and whether you consider it to be better or worse than Fallout is dependent on what you prized from those games. If you're looking for more Fallout 4 with bigger and more detailed environments and quests, then Starfield is pretty much everything you could hope for and more. If you're looking for No Man's Skyrim, however, it's disappointing. Almost everything on the ground feels good, while the space travel and exploration feels lackluster. If you're looking for a Bethesda-style, open-world RPG, Starfield scratches that itch, and Bethesda fans will lose countless hours in scouring every nook and cranny.
Akshay Bhalla from Screen Rant had a few but straightforward words left for Starfield:
Starfield is an instant classic and a triumphant homecoming to blockbuster gaming for Bethesda Game Studios.
Last but not least, Michael Higham from Gamespot, missed the feeling of a memorable RPG experience during his ride:
Starfield has its moments, for sure. Its satisfying gunplay makes combat exciting, especially when it's integrated into setpieces within its better, more captivating questlines. And although limited in its conception of space exploration, there's a novelty in poking around the galaxy to see star systems up close and personal, and occasionally finding side content worth chasing. However, it struggles to deliver a cohesive and memorable RPG experience amid the seemingly boundless sea of stars. For all its reverence for scientific philosophy, its stories and characters paint a rather tame and sterile vision for what our spacefaring future could look like. When you strip Starfield down to its essentials, it relies on a tried-and-true, but well-tread formula while missing some of the depth of the games that came before it. Starfield is a game more concerned with quantity than quality, and leaves the experience at the surface level.
The consensus is clear: Starfield offers an exceptional but flawed journey, which takes up the mantle from Skyrim and Fallout 4 and has delivered a vast and enormous playground. It does perhaps lack depth, memorable characters and a convincing environment throughout the whole journey, but overall we can call it a great game.
Do you think it has a chance at GOTY in 2023?