Starfield - Easy Allies Review 

The game sounds fine, but there are so many good games this year it will be VERY easy to wait for patches, mods, and a price drop before playing this one. Thanks for the review!~

_great review, thank you. The only thing I don't quite agree is the comment about how exploring planets gets old fast because there's not much content. Planet exploration is the reward in of itself. The majestic vistas, the ambience, the new life forms we can find. The game really doesn't have to have more than that (although there's plenty of quests in them). The feeling of planet exploration can fall apart the moment we start to turn this scifi game into a fantasy world.

This is why I love Easy Allies. A fair and honest review of Starfield. There are some things that can be improved on in the game but the overall experience is one that brings everything together in a beautiful package. You can play how you want to play.

personally I am absolutely loving Starfield and it's already my personal GOTY having just over 50 hours into the game now. However I agree with an 8/10 grade. I think 8 is the perfect score for the vanilla experience overall but mods will certainly bring it up to a 10/10 must play before long. I can't wait!

Damiani you're a champ for taking on this beastly review. Well done sir.

of course there is no need for 1000 dull planets, especially not in a game that doesn't deliver the feeling of endlessness and freedom in space. but making huge promises always pay off by creating attraction and generating sales. it's not only with games, it's with everything: if you want to be successfull make big promises no matter if it is true

I feel you, this game is more valuable than the sum of it's parts.. I can't stop playing it... Help me, please...

Bethesda's problem is that sometimes they are way too ambitious for their own good, like did the game really need those 1000 planets and bring back the procedural generated content? the reason why the best games in the open world genre and even semi-open world games like BG 3 are so good is because they are full of handcrafted and unique content that makes exploration rewarding, this is what made older bethesda games so good, its really sad that they got rid of it in favor of size.

I understand why folks would want city maps, but I'm finding it very fun discovering the city layouts on my own, even if it takes longer. It feels more like a real place when you have to mentally map the city instead of just looking at a premade map. A good compromise may be to have several "you are here" style info maps around the cities that you can reference. That way it would still feel immersive, and you wouldn't have free access to the map all the time.

I think the biggest detriment is the lack of seamless exploration. If that was in the game, many of the other cons would probably be overlooked by most.

I appreciate the lack of spoilers in your reviews.

A co-worker of mine said Starfield is wack... he didn't like it at all. He got ankle surgery on Saturday. His wife & kids went to his in-laws overnight for labor day. He was bored, put Starfield on and took his time and (his words) gave it a real chance. He played for 14 hours straight... took a 2 hour nap & played for another 6 or so hours. Called me and said YOOOOOOOOO Starfield is the truth... after the 6 or 7 hour mark it clicked with (me). I get it.... the more you play, learn & experience... the more Starfield put its hooks in you. Now he's on his 3rd New Game + and according to him Starfield keeps getting better with every play through. *If he wasn't home healing for ankle surgery. I don't think he would have ever played Starfield again... and may have talked negative about the game in conversations with other gamers. Food for thought!

For me this is the Bethesda game I've been wating for since Skyrim. Feels like they really took the criticism of Fallout 4 to heart, this is so much more a fun roleplaying game with deep engaging sidequests and tons of content. I get the criticisms but for me its vastly outweighed by the good stuff, just in love with this game. But the conversation around it is just horrible. Games don't need to be for everyone. I didn't really jive with BG3, i thought it was boring and tonally all over the place... but that's ok. I get why others love it so much and am happy they are enjoying it. I'm not going out of my way to find BG3 comments and shit all over it and demand everyone agree with me. I don't understand why people seem to have a hard time having that attitude about Starfield. Let people enjoy it for what it is.

It's a hard game to ignore despite it's shortcomings. I'm addicted lol

Oof, that score was generously given. The review sounded like a 7 through and though.

Meh I’m gonna stick with BG3.

The best reviews, clearly points out the pros and cons on all games with no bias. Will be waiting for the mod improvements before I jump in. Thx easy allies 👍

Amazing game, not perfect, but so much to love. People should celebrate when there is a good game.

"remedial" day job? Or menial

Best reviews on the net. I strongly believe Bethesda games are love or hate. For me they essentially defined what an open world game should be. Slow, steady and a hell of alot of fun with a ton of exploration. To me you can't beat the pace of a Bethesda game, they aren't always action packed, nor are they always the best. But they always seem to draw me in with their mysterious story lines and odd ball characters. As always easy allies knocks it out of the park with their review 👏👏

Another stellar Easy Allies review , you guys are the best in the industry

It really feels like the same game they've been making for 20 years.

Excellent review guys having pros and cons in a very balanced way! I hate when people focus on the score and not the actual contents of the review. Giving everyone a great picture of what to expect is all I can ask from a review, especially if I’m going to sacrifice my time and money to play it. ❤

This is the third Bethesda game I've tried (after Skyrim and Fallout 4), and I've finally realized why their games don't click with me. They feel like garbage man simulators. So much of what I'm doing is just walking around picking junk off the floor, then organizing the junk. Anyway I bounced off this game pretty quick, hopped between a few other Game Pass games since I got the free trial, then started up Baldur's Gate 3 instead and didn't look back.

Fantastic review. Feels like just yesterday that I was listening to Brandon review Skyrim for GameTrailers 😭

Beginning is slow but I'm loving it now

I absolutely love this game. I'd give it an easy 9.5. It's exactly what I wanted, as a long-time Bethesda fan. I already put well over 100 hours into this game and I expect to put in many hundreds more over the next 5+ years. I'm level 59, I've done basically every quest, every faction quest and looted almost every temple. I have 80% of the achievements. So if someone knows how good Starfield is, it's me. Stuff like the lack of free space/planet exploration as opposed to loading screens are things that I really suspect are just not that important to most people despite so many reviews pointing it out. Considering the scope, depth and breath of the game, it's actually kind of unfair to dock points for something like this when so many games have like 20% of the content/scope and still have similar problems and score higher. The game wasn't even promised to be built this way either. Todd said you can land anywhere on the planet, and you can. Even the first trailers showed the loading screens/animations as well - no promise was made that this was going to be like No Man's Sky. Like, you gave The Outer Worlds a 9 out of 10, and it's just astonishing to me that Starfield couldn't score at least that much considering just how much of a better game it is compared to The Outer Worlds. And don't get me wrong, I love The Outer Worlds, but Starfield is a much superior game in basically every area and it's scope is also 10x bigger. Obviously, some kind of bias or unreasonable expectations entered this review, as it did at many other outlets. There's no justification for Starfield scoring lower than The Outer Worlds. None. It appears you're judging Starfield on a standard that you frankly haven't set for other similar games.

I wasn’t going to get this game but once I heard it felt like a Fallout space epic, that’s all I needed to hear. Love Fallout and love exploring different planetary environments so, I’m definitely in 👍

looks like that metascore's going lower (inb4 "UHMMM WHO EVEN CARES ABOUT METACRITIC 🤬 THEY'RE OBVIOUSLY BRIBED BY SONY" comments)

Smashed it Damiani, an excellent review.

Not surface-to-orbit flight, no interplanetary travel, and no pole-to-pole exploration on planets themselves are all HUGE bummers. I guess the Bethesda engine is too old for that kind of thing.

80% talking the negatives, and yet still score 80...

On frametrap Damiani lambasted this game. I also noticed at the beginning of this review it said "WE" instead of "I". This leads me to believe that in order to avoid backlash, easy allies had an intervention and had Damiani up the final score from what he originally would have given it. Bc on frametrap...damiani definitely wasnt given this game what "they" gave it here.

8 seems about right for this game let's be honest give or take a .5 down or .5 up depending on the person but about what I personally expected nothing really groundbreaking or game of the year worthy tbh just solid

Best review ever and a fair score. Everything more is fanboy crap.

So happy for the decisions they've made to correct after Fallout 4. We love BGS firstly for open world RPG simulation and interactivity, no other dev/publisher wanna even touch something similar and get the engine/tools necessary up and running. except Rockstar did do their take with RDR 2 and you have Nintendo, but Zelda is not a choice driven RPG and RDR 2 not really either. All we can hope for is someone else within Xbox uses the BGS engine+tools, or they license out. New Vegas was a gift. We're also waiting 5-8 years between games at this point. Second, you have replayability and roleplaying with different characters. Third, you have modding scenes which just go insanely hard, can't wait.

Fair criticisms honestly. I lean more towards an 8 but I can definitely understand people even giving it a 7. Now that the game is in players hands it’s rated a 3.75/5 on Xbox own storefront, a 7.5 out of 10 so most players are feeling about the same. Hopefully Bethesda can be quick with their updates without leaving everything to modders to fix it for them

My personal score for this game prior to this review is a solid 8/10. I agree with the majority of what Easy Allies are saying. Im 20 hours in and thoroughly enjoying it. Its not exactly a revolutionary game (say to how Elden Ring was for the Souls formula). However its an enjoyable experience personally! My Series X has been in a bag for the past 10 months so its a great reason to use the console. Personally however i wouldnt deem it a system seller.

It's like a 5 or 6 for me. Was really hoping I'd enjoy it more. Playing bg3 right before made it even worse cause I enjoyed that so much more. I'll probably give it another try in a year or so

Good job EZA. And Thanks.

I've loved Bethesda games since Fallout 3. I love space and sci-fi themes. But for some reason I just can't get into Starfield. I feel like I just don't care about the world(s) or characters. After about 6-7 hours of play I checked out, probably won't come back to the game sadly. I hear a lot of people say that they can't stop thinking about this game when they're not playing it but the second I turned it off during my first playthrough I had more of a desire not to come back to it. I think part of it might also be the burnout of "open world" games. I just don't have the time to explore fictional worlds anymore and would rather focus on a shorter game with a great story or/and great gameplay. In Starfield, I turned on the scanner and saw all the things I could pick up in a room and was like nah, this is just too much, stop making every pencil and ashtray an item I can carry, I will never pick these up.

But can I play as a stealth archer?

Seems like a very fair review of the game. One of only a handful of reviews where the flaws of the game are actually taken into consideration, instead of brushed aside with the ridiculous excuse: 'it's a Bethesda game'. I really wonder why one of the biggest studios in the world is being held to a lower standard? If this game was made by anyone else, reviews would have destroyed it.

I wasn't sure about this because Damiani clearly isn't really into Wrpgs but damn dude, you nailed everything in this one. Great review

Actually it's a decent game, if you keep your expectations in check!

How DO you all review BIG games like this. In the discussion last week (before the weekend at least) it seemed like a few of you Allies were playing it- so is that 70 hours EACH or just your perspective after 70+ hours? I still expect this to be a much more expansive review than those that came out before pre-release- Thanks so much for waiting to do this review!

I’ve put around 50 hours into …my GOTY so far.

Starfield's short-comings come from Bethesda balancing realism with fiction/fantasy/fun. On one hand, too much realism (becoming encumbered for example) seems like a nuisance, while the removal of some realism (fast travelling and not piloting your ship to land) is a complaint. And honestly, I don't think many of the complaints have any real merit. Space is boring. There really isn't anything to do there. The fun we have as human beings comes from interacting with other human beings and other life forms. If the Earth was barren of life, you'd become bored out of your mind, very quickly. I'm not sure what people were expecting in out-of-space exploration, when it was disclosed that only about 10% of the planets had life, which is actually closer to reality, and that was disclosed before release. Now, imagine this, if Starfield implemented realistic sim piloting, what do you think the complaints would be? Well, much like how carrying around a lot of stuff slows you down in real life and will drain oxygen faster (even on Earth), people would complain that landing/take-off is too complicated. The barrier to entry (especially for younger people, like kids) would be a huge, legitimate complaint and gripe. If landing/take-off was too easy, it would be unrewarding (like space fights mentioned here). Too realistic becomes too difficult. Make up your mind? There was no way to make a game this vast, that satisfies everyone. Even Star Citizen quickly becomes boring when you're playing by yourself. The thing about Starfield is, ANYONE can pick it up and play it. Too realistic; many people wouldn't be able to get into it. Too simplified, and we have people complaining that certain things aren't realistic. Never mind that space travel and space exploration is pretty darn boring, in itself. Overall though; a very solid and balanced review, although there are some takes I don't agree with.

You guys arent reviewing BG3?

Ive played for 60+ hours so far and so far im having a blast. Definitely in the top 3 bethesda games in my opinion.

One thing I am surprised that no reviewer I heard mentioned so far is that yes, the facial animations are nt superb, but the tech executing these animations definitely is. Every movement stretches or bulks ups underlying flesh and muscle, skin stretches or furrows under the eyes or on the forehead and I've even seen a thick neck deform from jaw movement. Considering this must be dynamic, as they wouldn't have mocapped it this scale, I would say the overall facial animations are pretty impressive. I've seen the first convincing in a video game ever in this game, just because of all that natural skin deformation on the cheek and under the eyes.

Excellent and fair review as always. Great work Damiani! L&R

It's a good game but they tried to bite more than they could chew and failed in a lot of aspects, they should have gone for one handcrafted solar system and focus on that.

That’s a respectable score. + or - a point if you dig the BGS formula.

From what i've seen from the game. Nothing makes me want to play it. From loading screen simulator to bullet sponge enemies to the owl effect when talking to people, guards that do no react. The bland planets with nothing to do. All of this makes me long for the EZA review for BG3.

That moment when Tears of the Kingdom on Switch feels more next-gen than a Xbox Series X game.

This is the *only* Starfield review that matters.

The opening statement, that my friends, is one killing opening to a review. This is why I love the Allies so much and have been a follower since the GT days. I tell all my friends, don’t look to meta critic for information. Find the reviewers that being fair, balanced and critical thought to the process and avoid the noise. The top tier production value is icing on cake 👌 Great review y’all.

I don't care what anyone says Starfield is a solid game and if the game is this good without mods imagine what we're in for after the modders get their hands on the SDK.

modern technology isnt as advanced for this game to be released in this generation, nasa still discovering things in space and other advanced space technology still haven't even invented yet. modern time 300 years from now, it wouldve been released with more realistic lot less empty planet. we simply lack the space wisdom

25 hours in, hit a bad bug on the crimson fleet quest line and lost 3hrs. I don’t feel like going back now though it doesn’t feel like an open world game at all.

I'm 32 hours in and I've still barely been anywhere (mostly Akila City, New Atlantis and the Key); 6+ of that has definitely been burned purely on ship customisation. Been having a blast with the game, though I've found it harder than normal to settle on a character I like the look of (fortunately the Enhance! store on New Atlantis lets you change for only 500 credits). Only major bug I've really encountered is using a controller on Windows; if I switch to keyboard to bring up a game overlay (e.g- Windows' game bar, Radeon driver overlay etc.) then my controller inputs stop working and I have to restart the game. Fortunately the game loads pretty fast, and this is avoidable, but it's annoying. Otherwise it's been the usual physics glitches with a fully open world game; enemy whose boost pack malfunctioned ended up wedged through some geometry, that sort of thing. It's not a perfect game by any means, but it is a lot of fun so far, and I can definitely see me replaying it a bunch of times, especially as more mods become available. I'm already thinking up some mods I'd like to make, and ship-building has proven really addictive so far even though I've barely progressed yet (it can be very expensive).

See you guys among the stars edit: gott a feeling I've been here before

8/10 is a fair score. Great review.

Fair review. I think its a point higher but that was good to watch.

This might be one of the best games thats come out since Armored Core 6

Keep hearing is better to complete main quest first? Goes against every rule I have with a Bethesda game. Conflicted!

Best video game reviewers for what feels like almost two decades now. Thanks!

Great review. Was surprised to see Damiani tackling it because if I remember (probably fuzzy memory) he isn't really interested in Bethesda RPG's, and never really played Skyrim until much later. Maybe that's the exact type of person the public needs reviewing Starfield though, someone who won't immediately gush over the next Bethesda game. Seems like a fair score and definitely a PC purchase for me!

30 hours in. 9.5/10 for me.... Highly recommend playing on hard so the systems earn respect.

I'm surprised how much the reviews differ so far. It's such a huge game there's apparently a lot of variety in the experience. As just one example, MrMatty is a RU-vidr who has thoroughly played all the big Bethesda RPGs. In his 70h impressions video he says the space combat in Starfield was one of the most engaging parts (the total opposite of Easy Allies here!), and that unlike Fallout and Skyrim he found the exploration underwhelming but the main story as the studio's strongest ever. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-vZkcQqupli4.htmlsi=qNmQh_PWuIsnB_z9 I haven't played so I'm not saying either perspective is more right. It's just interesting to see what even pros want and expect can differ so much.

The lack of proper space exploration completely kills my excitement for this game

Great review. Fair and balanced.

Only bugs I encountered so far are NPCs/Companions getting stuck into something for no reason, sometimes the Weapon Inventory menu would be all black but the entire UI still works, some NPCs will forget the quest instead of guiding you to your destination, and delayed voice over lip sync at the start of a conversation but gets fixed on the next line.

Approaching 10 hours with Starfield and I mostly feel the same. There's a lot to like here, but the overall experience is hampered by the lack of actual space exploration.

Gotta disagree, what would have totally destroyed my immersion with traveling would have been of point of iteredts in space would gave been reachable "manually" in aby reasonable amount of time.

Is it me, or does Jones sound a bit exhausted? Hope he’s doing alright.

Great review Y'all!

Nice Review Damiani!

Good enough for gamepass.

Not a bad review I just……and honestly this is my first BGS game so no I’m not a fanboy of any kind but I love space games like Mass Effect, Halo, NMS, etc. But when I hear when ppl say you land on a planet and there is nothing to do….I seriously ask myself if these reviewers are playing the same game I am. See what reviewers fail to always leave out is “how” they are playing a massive game like this. If you have a review who doesn’t like to scan, gather resources, do resource management, and cries because you have to walk or jet pack to a point of interest, no wonder they will say something like there is nothing to do on this planet. It’s because they land look around for like 2 mins and leave. I have spent over 70 hours on this game, I have only been 2 like 2 systems to explore planets, and yes some outpost are copy and paste but that’s not what I am there for. I am there to be an explorer and for the rpg element of it get xp to level up. When you fully scan and survey resources, plants and animals it gives you xp, when you go to points of interest it gives you xp, when you battle spacers or pirates at those points of interest it gives you xp and you can bank a lot of credits. Then you have your activities, missions, misc, factions, main story. There is actually SO MUCH to do whether your exploring or playing missions. And there is always an incentive behind everything you do because you get xp, credits, gear, etc. like because I was just out exploring is how I even found and did the mantis mission. It’s an rpg, and if that’s not your thing why even review or play a game like this, that is how most of not all rpg are played so I’m not for sure why acting like this is a new thing lol

Brandon Jones, your voice still brings so much comfort to this old gamer. Keep it up allies.

8.0 is what I would rate it. Basically next gen Bethesda game says it all.

Good and interesting review. Spaceship comabt is like Wing commander from 1990. Map system are terribel, inventory even worse.

Damians voice is downright nostalgic

I know it's a very selective audience but as a 28 yo with a 9-5 dayjob this kind of game is perfect for me to pick up and put down whenever especially the space stuff. With it being on gamepass is definitely a bonus.

Loading screen simulator with the WORST inventory management in a game where you spend 30% of your time in the inventory. It actively made me stop looting

I think people will quickly realize that procedural generated environments are just a gimmick unless your game is focused on simulation and crafting like No Man's Sky. For more narrative games like Starfield, I take 2 or 3 handcrafted, highly detailed worlds or areas over thousands of empty planets any day.

TBH all Bethesda games are 8/10 at best, for me. All except Morrowind. That game is a 10/10 for the music alone.

The reason of the backlash (appart from PS5 trolls) is that Bethesda did a terrible PR for the game. They went out of their way with the space exploration angle. I did catch from the videos they released pre launch that the travels themselves would take place by cutscenes, but most people didn't, and Bethesda didn't do anything to clear the air on this subject. So it is only logical that people would believe that they would play nomansky mixed with Skyrim. Instead of that, they have a mix of Mass effect and Fallout4.

The limited space flight and exploration are complete bullshit but other parts are fun , 7.5 out of 10 for me

Many reviewers are saying ship building is great. But what's the point anyway if you can't explore space?

To be fair to IGN, that score is starting to make sense (I haven't played it, just observing the reviews).

We have Star Wars, Star Trek, Star Citizen and now Star Field. Apperently its hard to come up with something more original for the name.

I know this is not what Starfield is but last night I solved one “quest” by totally ignoring what the npcs told me to do and sneaking and using magic to stealth break people out of jail. Another by convincing this guy who was torturing someone to have his cult like followers kill him and he happily jumped on the table. The freedom is so wild in bailouts gate 3 that I can’t get over it. I’m gonna give Starfield a try in the future but kind of feeling I should wait for mods.

20 hours in and I think 8/10 is very fair.

Well written but after listening to your review i Ifeel that a 7 would have been a more realistic score. How did you get to an 8? Im waiting to play it this evening on gamepass and ill make my own decision in a few weeks.

How long have you played? Because I was bored after 20 hours and I don't see any reason to play this game any more. Beside couple of interesting quests, this game is painfully repetitive, crude, and not immersive.

“Game of the generation”

Well done Damiani 👍👍