Starfield Review: Diagnosing the Main Problem

[@BoJangles42]

My issue with Emil’s rant on X is that I don’t need to be a chef to know when the soup doesn’t taste good. If a lot of diners say the soup sucks, maybe the chef should take that feedback as valid criticism.

[@amazinghorizon8270]

Given that I criticized your conclusion in your most popular video, I was very positively surprised to hear that you do acknowledge the criticism. This time I even agree with your main points even though I think you give the heads at Bethesda to much credit, as the writing has been criticized since Oblivion and in major ways since Fallout 4. So they have had enough time to improve it for Starfield, but they didn’t which is why I think you gave them to much credit.

[@TheBlackRose3]

Nice to hear from you horizon. I mean how can I be a critic, but not let myself be criticized? Also, as I tell people, "if you don't like criticism then entertainment probably isn't the industry for you." 😂

[@RustyShackleford-i3v]

Would it kill anybody at Bethesda to learn how guns work and what they actually look like? Is there some sort of company policy against ever looking at a cross section of a firearm or reading a book about them? How do they make games involving guns for this long and still fail to make a gun look like it could actually function?

[@AWDTH1111]

The hell you talking about?

[@Wrackey]

I played starfield for 40 hours, and I didn't even have a problem with the writing. I had a problem with how the game is wasting.. my time. I enjoyed the start, but it just got worse and worse and worse, until I didn't enjoy the game anymore and it started to feel like work after 40 hours. Side quests are empty, and even the main quest consists of short dungeons without story. To me the game doesn't feel like it needs more writers... More writers to fill more dialog to fill more cutscene and animation generating systems is not going to make me happy anymore. I need substance. I need crafting to feel like it's worth the effort. I need leveling and perks to feel like I'm not wasting my time, and can build the character the way I want to.. I need my jetpack to do more than a fart after a night of beans before I put 3 attribute points in there. I need ventilation shafts to feel like ventilation shafts, instead of them being gigantic hallways. I need the world to respond to my actions.. not just a scientist that waves his hands pretending to be "analyzing data" The vision for starfield is completely wrong. Not even Star Citizen, after 11 years of development and a ludicrous budget, has as many planets as starfield has. Starfields problems cannot be patched. They should have made a different game. If instead, they populated 3 planets.. Made them teaming with life and rich in history, and scattered them as the only few livable planets across the galaxy, worthy of exploration. Then filled the rest of the galaxy with empty planets to use for resource mining and base building with space the way they have it now... IMHO it would be MUCH better. Each settlement of the 3 planets would be worth exploring like Skyrim, and dungeons could be longer. Then make the upgrades and level system feel like it DOES something, instead of completely nerfing me, giving me small incremental updates, and bullet sponges for enemies, and maybe THEN we have a game that I would love to get lost in.... But saying that the players "don't understand" or "Don't know what they are talking about" is ludicrous. It's like a baker blaming the customer, because the customer should UNDERSTAND why the pie was disgusting, and it signals to me, that they ARE stubborn about this, and unwilling to learn form their mistakes. Market research only gives you so much, if you don't know how to interpret the data.

[@Wrackey]

Sorry if my post is a bit long. I'm just passionate about it... I really wanted this to be good.. and was excited to play this.

[@jonleonard1555]

Though I agree that Emil Pagliarulo's name does get dragged through the mud quite a bit in some of these reviews, I think it's more of a focus on his work philosophy and results than him as a person (at least it should be). The part that keeps being harped storywise, is that there was apparently no design document developed for the game. Things would apparently change so frequently and quickly that having one would "be futile". This makes for numerous inconsistencies and poorly explained plots. I expect what could have improved the situation was if there were only 100 instead of +1000 locations to explore, and then expand into new areas with DLC (which we all love, right?)

[@TheBlackRose3]

I want to expand on the last part. With a game that already has fully explorable planets what really is the difference between 100 and 1,000 planets? They're both huge numbers. I think going with 100 and not having them generate differently for each player would have been a much better decision. I recall Bruce Nesmith sharing similar opinions, so perhaps they should've listened to him more.

[@TheGallantDrake]

I criticize Emil as a person because he’s shown himself to be wilfully ignorant of criticism for over a decade now. He’s just straight up refusing to improve himself.

[@kalohaggard1729]

The problem is the game sucks. It's that simple . Make a good game and they will garner compliments instead of complaints. They can't hype the game to the level they did then say the backlash is too much when it falls flat. It's ok to fail then learn from it but they seem only to remember the first part . I loved Fallout 3 , New Vegas , Morrowind especially, Skyrim, and even Fallout 4 so I wish they could turn it around someday.

[@mysteriousfox88]

writing doesnt address the awful ui and mechanics

[@rickenthal9338]

Keep interpreting art BlackRose. You’re great at it!

[@rosevfx]

🤣

[@peterd9698]

I have recently come up with my own conspiracy theory about what happened. _What if Microsoft stepped in and insisted that Bethesda stop adding/finishing features after a certain date and _*_only_*_ work on bug fixes?_ This is a fundamental of good programming practice, but could have spoilt Bethesda’s janky magic. Here are some points this conspiracy connects: * SF actually released in a more polished state than usual for Bethesda. * .. but the repeating locations without even basic procedural variation is bizarre. * Some reviewer claimed that M$ actually pushed the date back to allow more debugging. * Emilio’s statement, that seemed like a criticism of reviewers, could actually have revealed his frustration that he was completely disallowed from telling us why the game released as it was.

[@driver3899]

Morrowind had 18 factions and over 300 quests. Starfield has 4 factions and 30 quests That's a LOT of extra factions and quests they can get you to pay for as DLC Now you know why it's so empty

[@afgh1408]

fascinating speech cadence

[@VexedOcelot]

Never before in my life have I played a game where the more I play it, the more I hate it. Starfield is certainly a first.

[@Wrackey]

Exactly this! My rating went from an 8... to a 7... to a 6.... to a 5.. and then I just stopped playing. I felt like it was a waste of time.

[@rosevfx]

The writing is not the problem, really, as wonky as it is, especially when you've already realized that the general relativity stuff is utter nonsense and psudo-science. it is a treasure trove for fiction writing, but nonsense nonetheless. The actual problem with Starfield is that NPC are context unaware and void of memory for 99% of the time. That may not be too bothering on your first play through, but it becomes extremely bothering after you tried to go at it multiple times, trying out different approaches etc. After some shop owner or clerk told me twice he demands instant payment, I get the message an the NPC should know and remember me. Or the truly annoying questions by crew and companions that you just can't answer. There is no point in asking, if it can't be answered, hell, there isn't even "Yes" / "No" / "not now" or "thank you" etc. Especially talkative NPCs like the ever annoying, horrible Sarah start to go on my nerves very quickly. Wonky story is what it is, pretty much on the level as 90% of screenwriting, immature nonsense, but it could be a lot more fun to play without the idiocy of "islandish" NPCs across the board ... and that by the way is not a problem too difficult to solve. Yes, it would take time to improve the state machines of those NPCs, but it would instantly elevate the whole game to a new level. Worth it!

[@StephenThuggin]

He's not a good writer. Lol.