Starfield - What I think went wrong 

To prepare for starfield and make it more immersive I've decided that from now on in my daily life when I walk in to another room or building i will stop and close my eyes for 5 seconds

10000% on immersion being critical to a roleplaying game. Frankly, how do you have a space game without the most important element...space.

It’s wild how Bethesda in recent years has managed to make a mixed if not bad game and typically unpaid labor (mod authors) a valid business strategy.

Glad I stuck with my own rule, never pre order no matter the hype.

8 years... For this "revolutionary new IP", full of cloned locations, invisible walls and loading screens

A friend lent me an Xbox so I could try this game and see for myself how it feels. And now I can firmly say that you absolutely hit the nail on the head with your review, Mac. Starfield is a rushed, soulless shell of what could have been a great game. On the plus side, it reminded me of how good No Man's Sky is, so I'll probably jump back in just to fly around in space a little, like in an actual space game.

What I don't understand though is why are all of these loading screens not just hidden? When you get in the lift, why don't the doors just close, it loads the area, and the doors reopen? Who the hell thought "nah, let's just have a black screen instead"!?

Bethesda, despite never really being good (since Morrowind at least) at making proper RPGs with choices and consequences, used to always succeed at environmental story telling. By cramming this game full of planets to up the number so people feel like they're in a vast universe, they've hamstrung their greatest strength: their ability to give you that feeling of discovery when stumbling across a building or ruin and exploring it, finding out the story behind it.

I can't get over the fact that even now, they can't do natural overhangs or caves; seeing low detail smooth terrain give way to far more detailed static rock model geometry - one of a few repeatedly used across the planets - just cracks me up!

What’s wild is the amount of 9/10 & 10/10 reviews that don’t mention any of this

Imagine if you got Skyrim and you only fought bandits. No Giants or Falmer or Trolls or Undead. Just Bandits. And all travel was through fast travel through a clunky menu. That's what we got. The Bethesda that made Skyrim doesn't exist anymore it's dead.

Starfield is just the natural progression of Todd Howard's design philosophy - which is to churn out games that are increasingly dumbed down in order to appeal to as wide an audience as possible (in order to cover the ever-inflating production budgets). My first grumblings of dissatisfaction with Todd came with Fallout 3 - I had fun with it, but my final impression was "It's just Oblivion with guns" (this was actually a common complaint at the time). I was hyped for Fallout 3, and ultimately walked away disappointed. My moment of clarity, funnily enough, came with Skyrim. The leveling system in Skyrim is (to put it bluntly) utter shite, and It didn't take long for me to notice that most of the dungeons in Skyrim were either corridors with a treasure chest at the end, or corridors that looped around back to the entrance. I thought, "I can't be the only who noticed this, right?" And sure enough, there were forum and reddit threads that discussed this very topic (some of them still exist, if you're willing to do a little digging). It was when I saw somebody actually PRAISING this terrible design that it finally clicked - I'm not Todd Howard's target audience, that mouth breathing buffoon is Todd's target audience. And sure enough, when the hype train for Fallout 4 kicked into overdrive, I saw the same telltale signs of Fallout getting the "Skyrim treatment" (that, and I just assumed everything coming out of Todd's mouth was BS), so I simply avoided it - the same way that I'm avoiding Starfield, and the same way that I'm going to avoid Elder Scrolls VI. I'm convinced now that Todd Howard genuinely thinks that you can improve RPGs by removing as much actual role playing as humanly possible. And the massive commercial success he's enjoyed has only incentivized him to continue with this approach. I can't wait for the Fallout 5 interactive movie to drop in 2030 (/s).

I'm trying my best to like Starfield. But... On my first two planets visited for exploration (Luna & Mars) the game gave me two identical collapsed mines as unknown markers. Same dead bodies, same layout, same loot. My heart sank and I thought I'm going to struggle to stay into this game now.

I remember playing Morrowind for the first time and being completely lost and in awe. It was magical. Oblivion: Great! Fallout 3: AMAZING! Skyrim: Great! I thought that Fallout 4 the engine was just not up to scratch then... But now, eight years later and they are still using this engine??? At this point I'm starting to wonder if the devs at Bethesda don't actually have any idea how to use anything else.

It's mind-blowing how a studio of this size starting from Oblivion since about 20 years cannot implement a transparent WINDOW! So that you enter a house and see stuff outside. Yeah, we had limitations all these years ago, but now, seriously? a loading screen? Mac, big shoutout for your honest review!

Love the Kingdom Come shout out. Game is so underrated. I hope they make another one

Even if they needed loading screens from a technical standpoint, there’s no reason they couldn’t make them immersive. Mass Effect 1 from 2007 had airlocks, and elevators that allowed environments to load without ruining the connectedness and immersion felt in the world. They also gave opportunities to further develop lore.

I thought for a game to be considered open-world by today's standards, there have to be no loading screens between regions? There was a long debate in the Zelda fanbase about how the older games are not open-world because there are loading screens between areas. Now Starfield comes out and you literally cannot get from one area to another without a loading screen, and people call it open-world?

So what was the technology Bethesda was waiting on to be able to make this game? Because i see nothing we couldn't make years ago.

"I'm a beam me up Scotty in this game" - This is way i love this channel.

Tbh it being a looter shooter with a few rpg mechanics is what bethesda has been building to since skyrim. They have been streamlining and downplaying rpg elements since oblivion, but Skyrim is where it really started focusing on the trend of continuous drip feeding of improved leveled loot. Fallout 4 continued the trend and added a bad city builder.

I love how the running joke for years was this was just going to be "Skyrim in space"...but we didn't even come close to getting something as good as "Skyrim in space". This sums up gaming for this past decade perfectly.

The idea of a few, well crafted, planets would of been WAY BETTER! They could of even added secret planets that are either discovered by the player and can then make their own settlements or have "Random Events" where NPCs will find those planets, notify the other NPCs and the player, and then a settlement will slowly be built on that planet.

It seems for now nothing is ever going to beat the original Mass Effect Trilogy in terms of space RPG and No Man's Sky in terms of space flight.

I ended up refunding. The biggest problem with Starfield is that it's made by Bethesda, and Bethsoft doesn't refine, they expand. They took the underlying Fallout 4 mechanics, didn't improve or refine any of the mechanics that made it one of the worst received Fallout games, and just bolted some extra space themed tat to the package.

Agree with all the criticism. Ive only got 10 hours into it but all of the points brought up are valid. The map... or lack of is what really drives me crazy. I still think it will eventually be a decent game after some updates but it does not live up to the hype and expectations

Gaming, movies, music, everything that used to entertain us is now at an all-time low and nobody even seems to care...

Bethesda has reached the limit of the creation engine. I believe that the designer team is perfectly capable of implementing everything you have mentioned in your video, but regrettably the decission to use the archaic in-house engine is made during very early stages and this decission ties both hands of the developers. I would also like to point out that the character models look rather 'Stiff' or 'Plasticky', especially the eyes. A smaller studio with much less budget has managed to pull out a lot of things much better (Larian - BG 3). In addition, the graphics Starfield has really does not justify such high system requirements. Optimization, anyone? Even the AI is horrible. Enemies cannot react sniping tactics from afar, most cases the target you are engaging even fails to realize that bullets are sucking the life out of him and does not bother taking an action. I also have a serious issue with that XP indicator popping at the center of the screen right under the crosshair, ruining my attention and breaking the immersion of combat. Starfield is designed to be an Xbox success, this is also a problem when the hardware capabilities of Xbox consoles are considered. A lot had to be cut from the game so it can ''Barely' be 30 fps on Xbox platforms. Such a shame. The game also has an identity crisis. Wants to be an RPG, fails to deliver. Wants to be space sim, epicly fails to deliver. Wants to be an FPS looter-shooter, fails to deliver. I believe that the steam score will be 'Mostly positive' to 'Mixed' and metacritic score will be around mid 70s.

No Man's Sky is one of the most immersive games I've played and with over 300 hours put into the game I still find myself being pulled back into the vast universe.

Looks like Larian had nothing to worry about after all. Imagine if this and BG3 released at the same time.

people need to stop thinking these game companies are the saviors of the universe.

Back in the 90s on the Amiga/ST scene there was a game called Damocles. You coukd get in any vehicle and take it for a drive, anywhere. That included finding all kinds of spacecraft that you could just get in and literally take off, head to the stars and fly to a different planet, land and get out again to star exploring. All that in one load from a floppy disk and a great player experience. Granted its not Starfield but youd think these days provuding that kind of good player experience should be standard by now

I'll just stick to my indie devs, they still have passion and a pair to provide people with quality experiences. I've been playing Baldur's Gate 3 all day and i absolutely love it.

Very curious to hear from you as to how this game is any less of an RPG than Skyrim or any other bethesda titles. I made a list criticizing the "criticisms" from your "review". Im just gonna paste it here again(probably took me more effort in copy pasting the text than it did you reviewing Starfield): > Bethesda has had loading screens for every single city, dungeon, hell even every single building, even some rooms inside those buildings, atleast since the time of Skyrim. They haven't had a "seamless" world for a long time now. How is it that those aren't "boxes" but this is? > Train seems to work no different than Travelling Carts of Skyrim. Those carts also used to stand idle outside every city for you to take and travel between points, and simply gave a loading screen if we took them. > Again, how is fast travel in other Bethesda titles immersive, but not in this? You can choose/not choose to fast travel in every bethesda game, including this one, making the game as "immersive" or as convenient as you want. > How is the AI any worse than any of the previous bethesda titles? > They chose the perk system for this game, but that is a huge part of what enables roleplaying in this game. Ofcourse you can't just pick anything and everything and have to work your way to get better cooler stuff. Funny how you declared that its just a looter shooter and not an RPG, when you literally ignored the entire perk system that grants abilities based on ur preferred choice for character. Whining abt how you cant steamroll through the entire game without giving any thought to your character, build, and the roleplaying systems. There are multiple ways to go about things in this game, even stuff that you showed, with the door requiring lockpick, it can be done without lockpick, which you would know this if you actually engaged with the game. As for that "immersion" that bethesda is known for, it comes from the organic storytelling, where you create your own story/adventure in these worlds through a whole variety of out-of-the-script emergent events, activities, interactions etc., stuff that just happens to you as a player/character, that feels unique and organic. That core is still very much present here in Starfield as well, so I don't really understand what you are talking about. If you don't like it you don't like it, but atleast engage with the game before reviewing it.

like the game but a basic surface vehicle missing is beyond wild, imagining humans just first getting to space walking around endlessly in the elements 🤣

I've been consistently in awe as to how that studio continues to make use of GameBryo. You could see how this was becoming a problem with Fallout 3 and New Vegas, let alone Fallout 4 and 76. Sure, Creation Engine (AKA GameBryo) tools provide modders to achieve some incredible feats, and Bethesda games feature highly talented individuals which mod these games. However, having to say "I'll just wait until the community improves this so-called AAA game" is a poor excuse of anything.

I've come to realize that when someone or a big company has to keep reminding us, i.e. (the consumers) of their past achievements; this tends to be a red flag of whats to come. We were shown very little gameplay & a lot of cherry-picked cut scenes, even a live action trailer. It's kind of sad when developers stop pushing the envelope & are content in giving us the same recipes to the table.

I think Starfield could have learned a TON from No Mans Sky. No Mans Sky is so seamless in its transitions from planet to planet.

The Crowbcat video on this game is going to be legendary.

"You see that planet? You can land on it."

I only just thought about it but it's actually crazy that there aren't any alien races you can play as. Bethesda touting this as their first new universe in 25 years and coming from the company that made the Elder Scrolls series where you can play 10 different races all with detailed history and lore surrounding them seems a bit of a cop out tbh, I dunno tho maybe aliens are coming in DLC 😅

I mean bethedsda struggles to implement ladders so I kind of expected this

When they mentioned the amount of planets, we all expected to have actual space travel, not menus and loading screens.

Gen Z with the instant win and the absolutely no challenge requirement is the target audience for more and more AAA games.

As a gamer, I can not agree more with this analysis. Things that some people might thing are small details, are actually a VERY big deal when it comes to breaking immersion. That feeling of getting into my ship and taking off into space is great, and can make or break the immersion. Also, there is nothing worse than a loading screen to destroy immersion.

Creation Engine does support animations on loading screens. I'm still surprised they didn't add some "warp" animation load screens for the planets.

Lets remember they DELIBERATELY left out vehicles because the planets are so small. Other bethesda games had horses and fast power armor. This was to hide how small and fake their planets really are.

I like how your first review was a raw first reaction and this review is a deeper thoughtful critique... will certainly Not Buying until its worth it.

Bless you Mac for being there for us, the gamers. I’m so thankful for you and your reviews. They are on and to the point with no holds barred. Keep up the incredible work!

Starfield 76

Thank you for actually saving me money, Mack. You're the best.

This game is the first game marketed as a space game that’s not a space game and getting good reviews for not being what it’s been marketed as.

I knew it would be like this. I can confidently say that my habit of impulsively buying video games is completely broken, thanks to you, Mac. RIP Starfield.

I was jetting around space and hyper jumping systems, a decade ago with and early access game called "Empyrion". Crazy how we are going in reverse.

I knew way back when it was first known that BGS would still be using creation engine for Starfield (circa FO4 release) that this is what we would be getting.

The cool thing about Starfield is that now I know which reviewers should not be trusted. Thank you Starfield, for exposing the shills.

Razorfist said it best on twitter. "Bethesda - a game studio that doesn't even ask for your character class anymore - is now asking for your pronouns." You can't make this shit up.

I thought load screens were a thing of the past. I remember that being the challenge back in the 90s.

Should we be worried about the next elder scrolls?

Things like fast travel/teleportation REALLY kill immersion. I truly discovered this for the first time after playing Fallout 4's survival difficulty/mode. Man that was a breath of fresh air and created some of the best, most memorable gaming moments of my life(of course mixed with the difficulty/danger as well).

I noticed that they have added a loading screen inside the elevators because I guess they couldn't fix the infinite elevator bug from Fallout 4.

It looks like Todd as just re-hashed the old engine from skyrim, changed the location to space and then spread the game out over a bigger area.

Coming into a planet/leaving one was my best moment of No Mans Sky. Felt so special

I'm not a huge fan of No Man's Sky, but dammit, they know how to do space travel right

That's just it, isn't it? But they will never give up the gamebryo/creation engine. Because it's what they have accustomed their team to. So long as they make enough money to please their shareholders, they will continue to fall 20 years behind other AAA studios.

4:33 You know what makes it worse? Bethesda, a massive studio, still outsourced Starfield to about 27 3rd-party studios, with half of them being basically developer sweatshops.

Bethesda thought everyone wanted a Fallout 4 Space Mod.

Congratulations on Number 10 in trending, you deserve it for your years of truth.

If you brush off every objective shortcoming, like awful NPC interactions and behavior, loading screen bukake, all the empty worlds with copy-paste non-content, no real space travel, awful inventory management, constant awkward glitches and bugs.... this game is a 10/10 generation-defining experience.

"And so Hello Games decided to make something big and weird and ambitious that could still work within its small studio structure. For much of No Man's Sky's development, the team was just six people, expanding to 15 by the time it shipped. Still, it was a tiny team considering the buzz around that game" REAL SPACE FLIGHT.

Are they just completely unable to make vehicles in this engine? For a game like this you need both ground and space vehicles.

You can go back and watch some of Todd's interviews about Skyrim. You'll notice that he has a reductionist take on RPGs as a whole, wishing to remove anything he deems "superfluous". What he fails to realize is that RPGs thrive in the realm of extravagance. RPGs do well when immersion, meaningful decision-making, worldbuilding, and differing methods of play are all considered and executed. Starfield seems to accomplish none of these.

I had low expectations and still got disappointed, my faith in this industry is almost zero at this point.

Honestly even an Age old Game like Space Engineers has you immersed by walking on and off your ship. Manually landing and such

Starfield made me really appreciate what Star Citizen and No Man’s Sky have done with seamless spaceflight in and out of atmo.

you should do a re-review of No Many Sky. Probably a great time to do it!

We went a whole generation (and likely 2) of consoles without an Elder Scrolls game for this. Not a terrible game but the sheer expectation for this that was built by the constant hype generated by Bethesda means, if we got what was promised, that this should have been a masterpiece.

The weird thing about video game critiques for me is how some people describe a game they like, contrast it to the game in question, point out the (obvious) differences, & then say that makes the game in question bad. Imagine taking your new porsche back to the dealership you bought it from, dented to fuck, covered in mud, & asking for a refund because "it's not as good as my 4x4". Let the people who make it tell you it's intended use & you will avoid the disappointment.

I spent 30 pounds to walk around slowly in a space suit so I don’t die from co2, whilst some little kid in pyjamas runs around a city no problem

Starfield really makes you appreciate just how far No Man's Sky has come and what it's become.

I can agree with your complaints but I'm still having a ton of fun with it. A little bummed that we dont have a no man's sky type space travel but the side quests, gameplay, and story lines have all been very fun for me

I wish it was a few curated worlds instead of 100 bland ones. Like 10 maps/planets about the size of fallout 4's far harbour DLC. Each one visually and culturally different where it scratches the "I wonder what's over there" itch

this whole starfield launch made me finally try out skyrim and get immersed in it (i only played a few hours of it before) - i raised the difficulty, turned on the survival mode and my god the immersion in that game is amazing. plus the survival mode forbids fast travel so it made me really feel like tha part of that world. i finally got into it

Tell me lies, tell me sweet little lies !

This was supposed to be game of the year....and not Baldur's Gate 3! 😂

You know what is a truly immersive RPG? Baldur's Gate 3. It absolutely makes me feel immersed into 4 different personalities in the same way multiple personality disorder does.

They are the perfect example of more isn't always better!!!! It's soulless...

This is one of those games where you watch youtubers playthroughs rather than actually buying it and playing yourself.

I do agree 100% with what you said here. Actually, this is what I thought the game would be. Walk in the ship, give power, take off, fly away ... the loading screen fest is SO 1990. Seeing all the review I just understood that the game is not for me. My expectations were too high I guess.

The whole entering a new planet and exploration in NMS, especially in VR, is a very special thing. Great perspective thankyou.

I could get over the not existing space travel, what put me off are loading screens when i want to enter a building/base. I know it was like this in Skyrim etc.. too but this kills immersion for me in a 2023 game.

It's weird. I've put 20 hours into Starfield and am really enjoying it. Yet I'm watching this and your previous review and agreed with most of your gripes.

King, your reviews are the best on the YT these days. Thx for the ride.

What a honest review Mack. You just saved me some money I think. Going to see some other reviews.

Saw there is a 2 two-week free Star Citizen pass. Played it today for the first time after being highly skeptical but I'm already enjoying flying around more than the 2 days i spent in Starfield.

The ship building alone deserves it's own video because of how bad it actually is once you start building slightly bigger ships with more than 1 level. Ship vendors 1. There is no "player inventory" for ship parts meaning every part you place is purchased and every part you remove is sold. You have to travel around to every vendor looking for the parts that you want. 2. There are a dozen vendors that each sell different parts. Some sell a few general parts and others sell ALMOST all manufacture specific parts. What about the manufacture specific parts that are missing from the manufacture specific vendor? Oh just travel to every other vendor looking for them. 3. Vendors arbitrarily carry certain basic parts. Why don't they all have the generic turret structure for mounting weapons? You'd think maybe the higher end vendors would carry the more expensive things, but nope. Ship building 4. The connecting point (door or ladder) between your Habs (the walkable modules in your ship) are completely random. It's impossible to determine where the doors and ladders are going to be until you actually buy the parts and then explore your ship. What happens if your ship turns out to be a maze? You enjoy selling back parts at a 10% loss. 5. There are like 4 different ship manufactures but Habs only have 2 variations in their interior look that i've found. 1 manufacture has one, the other 3 have another. 1:3 screams rushed to me. 6. No stairs. and no... the single ship part, the biggest cockpit in the game, having stairs is not the same thing. Not only is it an ugly cockpit, but at best it only solves the problem for a 2 level ship.

Starfield: Skyrim. [loading screen]... In space.

the defensiveness over this game, solely because so many consolewarriors were hoping it would be Microsoft's GOTY-winning sony-killer, has been unreal to witness.

Imagine trying to add a third universe to stand next to Fallout and Elder Scrolls... then proceeding to shit out this bland mess. Bethesda is dead, don't look forward to anything coming from them in the future.

I’ve been more immersed in a call of duty match than the entirety of the 12 hours I played before requesting a refund. Lucky steam gave me my money back. Not paying $100 for a fast travel simulator with shooter elements.