This Should've Been Starfield's Main Quest 

This guy gets it! The war and mechs felt like the writers were almost trolling us. Like, "look at how interesting this world USED to be."

I loved the Terrormorph story. It was so long I forgot everything else. Lol

God, comparing that scene with that pirate you have to kill for a bounty to the scene in Cyberpunk 2077 is stunning in how much Bethesda misses the mark.

To me, after your character goes thru unity, he becomes more like the player. What I mean it's like playing fallout or skyrim for the 4th or 40th time. You know the world, the characters and what things will happen. So after NG your character is in the same situation as you are. I think it's kinda cool. When I play a game over and over again, my playstyle changes to just doing what I enjoy. The push to get it all done is gone. You've done it all.

When I first played starfield back on september I remember my first encounter with a terrormorph it was the most scary moment I felt in this game and I assumed at the moment that it was part of the main plot due to the terrible and powerful display of this creature. It is indeed a disappointment that this quest its not the main one. Currently when I play I still feel the menacing shadow of that first terrormorph.

I can't deny the UC Vanguard had the most potential of impacting the universe, but you could argue if Bethesda had looked to get all factions more involved in the end point of the Constellation quest during the Unity endgame, as you say, there could have been epic battles for example - so that answer is subjective. I feed the Crimson fleet was the most enjoyable to play, possibly because of the characters and comradery you don't seem to get elsewhere. Starfield without the quests is just a shoot and loot, so I really hope any later quest additions (shattered space included) needs to deliver on the expanding universe and storyline, bringing together (or perhaps dividing) the factions for a bigger more impactful prize?

So I got to share the summary of my first playthrough. I did not know anything, just decided to make a character that I roleplayed was a former UC Marine and was a mix of Commander Shepard and a Colonial Marine from Aliens. I basically went straight for the Vanguard questline... Imagine how perfectly that all fit! THAT was the main story for me and always will be. Also need to add, I felt more like a space explorer in the Crimson Fleet questline than I have in the Constellation story so far... yes, I haven't finished it. I honestly just keep getting bored when I try.

Your Colony War part is a bit odd to me, as it's clear to me at least both the UC and Freestar faction quests are directly dealing with the decisions they had each made during the war. By extension, the faction questlines for those two are basically epilogues to the Colony War. So while I get that you would have preferred they somehow reignited the war, you're kind of implying they have nothing to do with it when they absolutely do. Both storylines are fairly well catalyzed by rogue military elements that took part in the war (Sanon and Hull) looking for revenge upon the faction they served under.

This is a fantastic video for a channel getting its footing, I couldn't tell the difference between your channel and one with a few hundred thousand subscribers. Can't wait to see this channel blow up, keep doing what you're doing 💪

Imagine a DLC where when you start another New Game plus, you get put into the past and get to play through the colony war

If we could get into a war with another entity, then the Mech would be great! You are right on with your observations. I have had no desire to do the NG + stuff. They need a Borg enemy that many of the factions can go up against. Minor adjustments - from start you should be able to buy whatever ship part you want. A simple 1 key stroke to go back to your play from any window your in. Cut down on the time I have to keep seeing load screens!! Much better system for on planet travel. Much better system for storing food like being able to put it in and out of a refrigerator. Better ability for player to place objects in rooms. FIX the sink so it attaches at a realistic height for instance. Seems like there could be lots more inter action in cities with shops and people. The game has huge potential with the outposts and making a story line for folks who like trading and business building, with some of these factions maybe coming after or competing with you. After going to play Empyrion Galactic Survival from this, the chosen mechanisms in the game for various things does limit their ability to create content stuff. EGS really got some thing right, like ship building and the ability to fly your ship anywhere and land, and surface travel options. Thanks for your review, very well done!👍👍👍

I feel like the colony war is in the past in order to explain all the abandoned, but not too old looking factories, bases and other POI that are empty, or occupied by spacers and other enemy groups. The war expanded the need to mine resources, and do research on xenoweapons and mechs etc, and this was done on remote worlds out of view of the rest of society. When the war ended, funding for research etc was canceled and everybody came back to the core worlds. Frankly I wish that some of the most remote planets and moons you visit were completely empty. Sam Coe and others talk about how amazing it is to step on a world never before seen by another human. But good luck finding one in the Starfield. Even the most remote has a research tower, or abandoned hanger etc.

I got so sucked into being an undercover agent I forgot to collect artifacts

On the decision of the Aceles vs the microbe, if you choose the Aceles, you will occasionally encounter fellow Vanguard members escorting one and have to help it kill a Terrormorph.

You gave me an idea they should do something like the entangled quest but you end up in a multiverse we’re the colony war is still happening and you have to help a side to end the war

Speaking of the Colony War, this is where Bethesda dropped the ball in a big way in my opinion. When you start the game and can choose Solider, it does not let you decide what side you were on and because of that they could have had some tense dialog for the player. Two examples are the Bartender on Mars or Admiral Logan during the Sara companion's questline. They could have been a bit hostile to the player if they had been FC military, maybe even causing the quest to stall until the player could find another way to continue on, depending on the dialog choices. Also, the Bartender on The Den station could become openly hostile and either curse the player or even take a shot at the player and make the Van Guard officer, I forget her name, to come in between the two and tell off the Bartender or even have him arrested since he currently has nothing else but that minor poster quest. It is bad enough that even if you talk to the VG officer when you drop the boots off at the Den, the writers messed up and the NPC acts like they have never meet the player before.

Great exposition and I agree 100% 👍 The lack of any dynamic interaction between player choices and the various factions makes the world feel very shallow.

Great video, but I have a thought about having a colony war d l c. It could be done something like this; A starborn has found a way to use the unity to travel back in time in particular, universes and went into the Starfield's main universe (or first) and changed the past and made one of the main factions win instead of there being a peace treaty made between them. And you as starborn yourself chooses to go back and find that starborn and fix the past that he altered.

I’ve heard a lot of videos about Starfield over playing the game for a year now. But I’ve not heard a 🤔 thinking and reflection piece quite like this which I throughly enjoyed listening to. Agree that the Vanguard storyline could have been a main story and taken even further where it included the other factions in that story directly. Sadly we never got that.

I actually felt that the civil war storyline in Skyrim should have been the main quest, it was much more interesting and felt more real than just fighting dragons.

Well when I played through it the first time I kinda got the sense that that universe died as well so that sucked you can never go back,and we still don't understand the unity or really control how to use it to get where we might wanna go to much like in the beginning of the tv show sliders.

Great video and discussion! Small correction on the faction questlines. For the UC Vanguard quest, there are some notable effects from the choices you make. For one... *SPOILERS* If you choose the Aceles over the microbe, sometime afterwards you can find them on random planets. You might even see them fighting Terrormorphs.

"the game is too big for them to..." Dude, just look at BG3, it's not impossible, it just takes time, work and passion

On the point with the Mechs - They should have been implemented in a way where the minor factions like the pirates, or even spacers, are trying to get some working.

The only quest that had an impact for the remainder of the play-through was with the Crimson Fleet. Siding with and against the CF affected my relationship with the fleet thereafter. Plus, on my second playthrough, I sided with the UC and had to kill 'friends', and any revisit to the Key felt ... empty and left me feeling guilty. No other quest had that effect on me.

I agreed with you 100%, I think you really highlight the biggest problems in the base game. I said agreed, past tense, because (and I realize this video is 4 months old at the time I'm making this comment) after seeing how content creation and the upcoming DLC is handling this universe I realized why all of this was kept so utterly vague and unimpactful. The base storylines exist only as a lore building mechanic. They are there to establish a functioning universe that feels realistic and integrated. If you think about freestar and UC as like the U.S. and Russia you are seeing the results of what two factions with both military and political power look like when the idea of another war just really isn't something anybody wants but still want everyone to think they're a threat. It was also something innocuous for the player to do upon purchase because a game of pure exploration and resource gathering would have been rejected by the majority of the fan base. I mean a minecraft in space sounds cool and all but nobody really wants that. What starfield is, is a nearly unlimited unending world builder. It's potential is limited only by a few base mechanics that had to be there to prevent game breakers. Adding a decision based mechanic to the game would have limited the future possibilities of what this game could be. I think Bethesda took great care to ensure that every faction in the game could survive in their present incarnation (or a related incarnation with the escape of naeva mora) in any and all future content. With the advent of shattered space less than a week away from the day I type this we will see our first taste of what an actual threat to the galaxy looks like for each faction and how the base factions handle a real threat. How would Russia, NATO, and other global powers actually handle an alien invasion? Or the rise of a Para military power? Or a zombie apocalypse? Better said how would a galaxy of independent competing powers at peace deal with the rise of a corporate giant strangling galactic commerce like the trade confederation of star wars or the arrival of a long dead cult from derp space? What would it mean for our free star Rangers to have to band together with their political rivals the United Colonies to battle an extragalactic threat to humanity or a galactic pandemic. Anyway, like I said, the future of this game is unlimited and how Bethesda handled the base game ensured that whether you are a Vanguard a ranger or a crimson fleet pirate you can enter that future without the base game effing it up.

I see two potentials for a sequel: 1 where we go into the pre starfield story during the wars. Or a Mass Effect 2 style of execution for a second game telling a follow up story where it is affected by how you chose to end the game. Like if in Starfield you chose the Microbe or the Aceles there’s a problem with that choice and you have to help as terromorphs are starting to make a resurgance and wreak havoc. Fringe members of the Crimson Fleet come back to break out Delgado and infiltrate Sysdef as spies until the right time. Leaving the vigilence in shambles from the assault. The Freestar Collective finally recovering from Ron Hope’s death/retirement have begun to build up their Ranger recruitment efforts as more encounters with the last remaining members of The First at key military facilities leads to some speculation they may try to bring back Mechs in an effort to retalliate against the FC and UC… Igniting tensions between the two factions just as things are on the mend.💁🏽‍♂️💁🏽‍♂️💁🏽‍♂️

I personally think that the starborn part of the main quest should have been an optional quest line since it was just a way to make ng+ a cannon and emmerson purposes for the most part.

Excellent synopsis of what has been left "unsaid", yet felt by many: WHY is it that, according to Steam, I have 5954hrs on Fallout4, yet only 277hrs on Starfield? It's not just that I really, REALLY liked the Settlement system in FO4, it was playing/re-playing all out the Faction Quests in the exact way, and for the same reasons that you've just described. I even tried the remarkably convoluted and time wasting "Settlement System" in Starfield and it just left me thinking "Meh .. why bother"? Zero impact on the game

Constellation is basically starfield's Railroad. They are just there to make the story work out but don't really feel fledged out, but more like an afterthought

Given that the Unity has aspects of time travel (ie going back to the beginning if the story), how about an NG+ variant where you go back to the middle of the Colony War or some other significant historical event. We really need CK2 so modders can explore these opportunities.

They tried so hard to make the Freestar Collective "space cowboys" that they want me to believe Akila City has no roads, just a muddy path as it's main street. In 250 years they couldn't pave the street? In 250 years they couldn't deal with the local fauna? If Akila was a new settlement, slapped together, fine. The FC should have a city capital. And how do they all have Southern US accents? New Atlantis is stupidly small. Give me some proc-gen streets stretching into the distance just for flavour. There's no way either city has such a tiny population.

I think this is genuinely a terrible idea. You are asking them to make a main quest that feels important and time sensitive. Thats usually the very thing everyone complains about in games like this. "Why am I messing around shooting this fatman and bandits while wearing a bear suit when my character should be worried about his supposedly infant son being kidnapped?"

The game builds up more and more anticipations with aliens on futuristic spaceships attacking you, then you feel extremely let down because there are no highly advanced alien civilization outside the settled systems, its just humans with a space skyrim name + ''press z to do cool yet useless power'' the futuristic stuff is never explained, and the one question you have at the beginning ''who made these artifacts'' is never answered. The answer is most likely a corny ''canonically the devs cool uh haha'' Maybe i'm alone in this, but when starborns starts randomly landing in planets near your ship early on, I got super excited, thinking that in the super far high level systems there would be alien settlements and we'd come back to mars with super advanced alien gear that space pirates do not have. I felt so let down when I realized that's just not the case.

The funny thing is that I felt the same about skyrim, the civil war was a more exiting storyline than the main quest

It would’ve been better imo if the ending choice wasn’t stay vs go, but ‘stay, destroy the unity, and work to make *this* universe the one of hope’ vs ‘go, potentially dooming another universe to chaos as you move on for greed or opportunity’ or something

Regarding terrormorph. I did that questline fairly early in a playthrough, so later I came across an Azeles fighting a terrormorph and winning.

You raise many good points. My thinking is that the base game is only Act 1 of a traditional Bethesda 3 Act story. Shattered Space is being sold as a "story expansion." The story is about finding the artifacts and going through the unity. So how do they expand on that? I think we're going to meet the Starborn. Who are they? Where do their ships come from? I think Act 3 will introduce us to "the creators." Our character teases that when we go through the unity. "Maybe someday you'll meet them."

I have a feeling that the "Shattered Space" we will encounter in this Autumn's DLC will be one of two things (maybe even both, but hopefully at least one or the other): Either war will break out between the UC and FC, thereby "shattering" the fragile peace of the Settled Systems, or a jump through the Unity will bring us into a universe that has been greatly altered (negatively) by the Starborn and it's up to the player to fix it somehow. If they really want to give us high stakes, it could be something that threatens all versions of the universe through the Unity itself. Time travel could be another big idea with high stakes, perhaps even giving us an opportunity to go back and save the Earth from its doomed fate.

Bethesda is too afraid to weave stories into each other because that comes with the price of someone missing out on certain questlines in their first playthrough. The starborn stuff should almost be something that doesnt even come up until after the terrormorph crisis and somehow is related to it. It should just be an ongoing mystery

Crazy how parallel universes are canon and yet they passed up on the opportunity to use that as a solution to the essential character issue

I am a tossed between the UC and FC quest line. But overall I liked everything there was. Agree they could do more to improve on each story I mean expand the quest lines more, even the side quests. Pass someone on street or chat with the security people and have new quests generating.

This was a very fair and objective video, a fresh take from the rage bait slop that dominates Starfield yt algorithm. Subbed

Vanguard was awesome. I think one of the things I was a bit bummed out by was that, even if we were involved in rising tensions with the factions, making a secondary struggle for the player to continue caring about others and the fate of humanity as they amass starborn power would've been good. How do you continue to care for the world and others when you get closer and closer to becoming godlike? Make it a serious philosophical struggle on top of seeing and affecting the factions and characters in a given universe.

9:05 - 9:20 Overstatement of the century. And the argument for mechs in starfield is just as weak as it was in Oblivion "Levitation was made illegal!" Then why are there a bunch of necromancers around if that was made illegal as well? Why not have a handful of boss battles with mech pilots that have been fully integrated with the suit so they couldn't survive without it?

For a guy that looks like Harry Potter was just a normal dude...that's a decent take!

Something he said made me figure it out. These types of games are good because you can make choices. In Skyrim you can delete one of the best factions from the game in one mission, just cause. Then proceed to have a whole life with a family in some random town. Then you have an Obsidian game like New Vegas, that brings choice to the next level. I remember needing to get someone from an NCR base while they hated me. Long story short, my only option to proceed was to "No Russian" the place to get her, and the game let me. That was the moment I fell in love with this style of RPG Now take Starfield. I remember playing as a space pirate thinking I could be the bad guy. I needed a key from someone at a party, but everyone there was quite rude. The character I was playing as wouldn't have put up with the run around, so I decided I'd "no Russian" this place as well, only to find out that the place was full of un named essential NPCs. At this point I was incredibly frustrated. I was now going on a rampage, not to stay in character, but just to feel like I could affect the game world at all. I took out everyone on that ship that i could and got a little slap on the wrist from the quest giver. Everyone in the galaxy should've been gunning for me after that party, but I still have people telling me I'm a hero on some planets. After that I never played Starfield again.

While I have a lot of fun playing and think there are a lot of great things about this game, IMO the biggest issue feels like the writers and devs wanted to build their own world with something for every player to do, but the problem is that none of the questlines (aside from the UC Vanguard like you pointed out) feel like they have any implications for everyday life. There is no visible impact in the game for any of your "major" choices, which makes it feel like the story would have happened anyway without the main PC, making it so you dont feel rewarded, or vice versa there are no consequences. It feels like they had multiple people or groups working on different factions in the game, and so they were forced to stop the stories before they would start conflicting with the other faction stories or the main quest. You talk about it a bit with the Freestar quest, but as another example, when fending off the Hunter in New Atlantis, you can subdue him pretty quickly and make it to your ship and take off (on very easy combat difficulty) before he has a chance to do any damage to New Atlantis, but when you come back, the spaceport is completely in shambles despite you successfully defending it and making a proper escape. It is just so unsatisfying. You don't see the Terrormorph solution enacted, Hope's arrest stops the mercenary attacks and then your work as a ranger is the same as the vanguard, The crimson fleet doesn't seem to get any stronger or weaker despite you either retaking the key or destroying the equivalent to homeland security, and all the latter does is make your friends mad. The ryujin questline is great as a side story and the additional espionage quests are easy extra credits, but the only impact of that is the little ryujin logo under infinity ltd's HQ, and the general public doesn't react to them killing dozens of people in secret human trials. It feels like they wouldve been better off making 5 separate indie games and fleshing each of the questlines out, rather than leaving them the way they are so that the galaxy remains largely the same no matter what you do.

Personally I feel the idea of the way the story plays out, is after making multiple play throughs you will end up feeling like the the emissary or the hunter.

Great video! I love your content. You make your points very clear and you do so in a way that is very positive and avoids negativity! I agree that the Vanguard quest was the best in the game. Ryujin was fun too, but definitely felt like a "side quest". Same for the Crimson Fleet. If you were roleplaying your character as a pirate type though, that quest would be perfect for you. TBH, I barely even remember the Freestar quest, which is disappointing. I liked them a lot too. A very "Firefly" vibe to me. I also enjoyed the main quest, but I agree with what you said about it being so insular. I'd never really thought about it before until I saw this, and it makes perfect sense. What Constellation is doing it a monumental shift in everything that the human race knows and understands, and they don't tell anyone? That does seem kind of odd. Maybe we'll see something in a sequel. Like they did decide to share and then utter chaos that ensues because of it.

The main problem with the game for me isn't the lack of conflict over the Starborn, it's the Starborn themselves. The plot seems to be about meeting a bunch of selfish sh*theads and then becoming one yourself. I prefer to be more altruistic than that. I have no problem with the lack of major conflict between the factions, it allows you to interact with them all. I'll agree that Vanguard is the standout quest though.

Bethesda should hire this guy!

Yeah Main quest feels more like a Guide to NG+ & basically just gives the player a sense of purpose within the Story but Carrie’s no real sense of Urgency which is actually kinda “smart”. The game constantly prompts you to go off the path exploring & Join factions cos that’s where the action is at. Unfortunately the games very unfinished do exploration isn’t great but with updates & DLC it should turn out awesome

The Hunter attacking Constellation definitely WAS memorable, but to me it was not memorable in a good way.

Main story was a real kick in the teeth when you know what happens. Very well done. FC questline was definitely the weakest. Liked VG and Crimson Fleet. I actually used stun grenades and weapons on the CF ending -- really, really disappointed that was not accounted for.

What good are the outposts? They give you lots of building materials while you are building outposts, but when you 've maxed out on outposts what do you do with the surplus of building materials? Need some X4 Foundations ship building factories to send the surplus to. I hate the red square health bar over enemies.

Also, how can there have been a massive 3 year intergalactic war - if the factions are simply a handful of tiny settlements??? 🤷🏻‍♂️🤦🏻‍♂️🤣

The exploration aspect of the main quest would have been 1000x better if we were actually exploring uncharted space and not our own well traveled backyard that for what ever reason no one in the couple hundred years bothered to document anything about beyond system and planet names!!!

The faction quests are arguably the best aspects of Starfield. Much better than the main story which I found a bit boring.

Really appreciate your insights

My question is, will Shattered Space go back in time and you will get your wish, or will it go forward and be a new war?

I was sad that you can’t use mechs I mean the raiders and pirates wouldn’t care about the law and used them.

Great video, lot of your points make a bunch of sense!

Vanguard questline was fun, and far more interesting than the Constellation "fetch quest."

The narrative of Starfield...is the narrative of Starfield. If you miss it......its okay. Space is huge. But if you want a game with war.....play Skyrim.

I’m waiting for an alternate start mod along with some longer additional questlines to completely remove all the Unity and Starborn bullshit.

Essentially, just like all Bethesda games. Some of the sidequests are more interesting and memorable than the main quest.

Haven't given it much thought but now that you mention it, I felt more conflict from the companions overly single minded aspect, no matter how much or what you do, some of them just don't see the bigger picture.

Too me it’s stupid that after you collect all of the artifacts you have to go to unity and lose everything. I was upset when I came back and lost my ships guns , and money , no point in upgrading everything and building an out post

the main quest takes a back seat

I think going with the whole NASA Punk vibe showed that Todd Howard really doesn’t have a clue in regards to what will get folk excited. Not saying that I didn’t like the game but at times it felt like it was all over the place aesthetically. Does it want to be Firefly or The Expanse? No it wants to be Star Trek or does it want to be Knights of the Old Republic? I really hate in the game that people always treat you like you are a child & even though you have selected you are from a planet your questions to an NPC imply you don’t know about famous history, e.g “What is MAST?” “What are Spacers?” I do wonder how long they actually did work on the game because so much of it feels rushed. Do you know the new Varuun DLC is about a Grav Drive disaster? So the same as the vanilla game? I think there might be an issue with the writers.

The main quest line is great until the hunter attacks the eye and new atlantis, it's downhill after that. What they should have done is made the starborn to be an extraterrestrial race from a galaxy far, far away and these particular starborn were evil and banished, kind of like general zod in superman. The artifacts could have been pieces to a portal to the starborn home world and the evil starborn wanted to return and enact revenge, hence their desire to get the artifacts. Constellation decides to stop these evil starborn from returning to their home world or destroying our world. The end.

The faction side quests are well made, but the main story is "meh" and the main reason is that if there is no mystery and no real answer it gets pointless. The protagonist is chasing artifacts and competing with Starborns and no one knows who made them or why and if it is supposed to be the answer to the big question. It would have been better if the main story had been represented by an alien race and a derelict starship with the technology and means to propel humanity to other star systems. Bethesda's main story doesn't work.

Honestly Skyrim was similar, the dragons, other than helgen never really were a threat, the civil war should have been more of the main story.

I do admit the main story was lacking and felt like it was a footnote not something substantial. As for the faction quest i really did enjoy the crimson fleet one but i do wish you could have ousted Delgado and took over the fleet and made a third faction that you could control and use to keep both the Freestar Colective and UC in check. The fact that the factions quest were not connected at all was kind of a bummer but I do like that they did not end up making you the leader of said faction like in Skyrim, but I think they could have done something to make it feel like your actions meant something. It just was kind bland that after you completed the quest it was business as usual. I think that Bethesda missed a great opportunity to create a really engaging narrative. It feels that there was no narrative hook on any of the missions or felt you really had no skin in the game.

I kinda wish the main quest was something else as well. So that way you could complete it and stay in the universe. But I still like how the main story ends as well. It just works ,haha.

It's all building towards the coming war with the Starborn and the Creators. The DLC will end the isolation of House Va'runn. Then you turn your attention to eliminating the Starborn threat thru an inter-universal war with the factions united. Then you meet the Creators. Since you got their attention. Will you destroy them? Or will they destroy you? Or something else? It will most likely be up to you.

We need a uc vs freestar collective mod asap

Why do so many sci-fi and fantasy games/movies/books etc have to revolve around war? War does not make story telling better. War would not improve Starfield in any substantial or meaningful way. The existential threat in the Vanguard quest line is not terrormorphs, but Vae Victis. Solving the issue of the terrormorph threat was always going to be resolved and you knew that as soon as you started the quest line. The most important choice the quest line gives you is how to deal with Victis. Are the terrormorphs the enemy or is Victis the enemy? What does your character do when face to face with a person who plans mass murder? Having Victis killed will likely help the settled systems avoid war in the future. Victis and the UC are creating an artificial problem to stoke fear in hopes of starting a war. The Freestar and UC don't need to come together or butt heads fighting about terrormorphs because you solve the true issue by dealing with Victis. But the player never actually sees Victis executed or dealt with in any way....so Bethesda could be setting itself up for possible DLC. The writers did a really good job because they created a war criminal who is contained and isolated yet convinces the player the true threat is the terrormorphs, when the actual threats are him and the UC leaders who protect him. The fact that this idea is being suggested on the internet shows the influence of Vae Victis in players actual lives. He has convinced players that war is so necessary that they are lobbying Bethesda via RU-vid to make this happen. And I find that disturbingly interesting.

Great video, thank you

i feel like the main story is written to be a dead end in the first place, how can someone make sequel to that? another story of like "First Contact" (like Halo or Mass Effect) or like incoming alien threat (Also Mass Effect, or maybe Three-Body Problem) would be better, heck even plotlines like the show The Expanse (how humanity reacts on the face of the unkown) makes more intriguing world and conflict than Starfield. On the other hand, Outerworlds only do Space Capitalism but they managed to make it fun and intriguing

Am i the only one who who can't put himself in another Starfield run becouse jou know it's all the same again?

I beg to differ.. I am a bit tired of games totally go the war path .. it’s refreshing to have a story that is not about you vs them

Needed to be exploration of all systems instead of them already being there, hey recon this system, we don’t know what’s there, here’s some tech to keep you covert, report back, establish relationships on the planet, yadda yadda. And then you start seeing a bigger threat to Humanity and then need to lay groundwork for resistance in every system , capture tech. Yeah the overall plot sucks.

So the one RU-vidr that likes starfield enjoys it more for the things that aren't even in the game 😮‍💨

Starfield is a REAL lightweight game... fun, but lightweight. It lacks depth, variety and real imagination. Anyone who grew up playing games can easily see and feel that this game is absent of real substance, a thin story with limited options to do things differently, zero impact on the environment around you, it just doesn't pull you in. It does nothing great, nothing we haven't seen before or seen done better elsewhere.

There's the Creator question too. The artifacts the temples and all the Starborn gear they are so absessed with getting to the unity the intelligence that built all this is completely ignored. I don't want another Dwemer Bethesda. Even the Starborn and when your in the Unity completely evade the question.

Sounds to me like you wanted mass effect instead of starfield.

I think it’s a missed opportunity that you don’t choose a starting point. Akila, Neon, Jemison. Either start as a Ranger who stops a bank robbery, Join the UC and become a street rat, join the gang join ryujin and then get the attention of Sarah and the like. With the Ranger, UC or Ryujin start you get a good intro to the game world. And each could end with you coming into contact with an artifact kicking things off.

The freestar ranger questline was really fun wish it were a little longer. Had an 80s cop movie vibe.

Fall out obsession with building settlements would’ve been perfect for this game. They have a whole organization to help people build their own settlements freaking space to choose the planet. And they totally ignored that.

I don't feel the main quest is a main quest at all. I just see it as a NG+ mechanism to wrap up your game after you have done everything there is to do and start over while keeping your perks and skills. There is no threat to any of the worlds and they are pretty much oblivious to the Starborn. I feel the same as you about the UC Quest. Shattered Space will probably feel more like the main quest when it arrives. I hope they create a DLC that finally reveals the creators of the artifacts and that they are none too happy with what the humans are doing with them.

I would theorize that the Freestar Collective questline was cut short. In order for it to continue along expected tropes (without much in the way of spoilers), the plot would escalate with us getting framed for a crime, kicked out of the Freestar Rangers, and then having to use our connections to directly petition the Council of Governors to finally settle matters in a public confrontation where we lay out all our evidence. That's at least two more mission levels, a ream of dialogue, and potential issues with individual governors being influenced by other missions. At the end of the day, the product has to be shipped when the product has to be shipped.

Given how new the universe/lore was to us all, I felt the starter location should have been the old earth sleeper ship, we’d have been learning about the lore at the same time as our character. Maybe that would have been a little too close to Fallout vaults though.

Agreed that the UC story is definitely the best faction quest and probably better than the actual main quest. I just started a new playthrough after not playing since my launch playthrough and I was surprised at how much foreshadowing there was for the UC quest line especially in the first pirate outpost you go to with VASCO at the start of the game.

One of the things i hated was the size of the main citys and how each faction only had one city. They've been exploring the universe for 200 years and in all that time they only built one city each. I found that very annoying

The most thoughful and insightful thinkpiece on Starfield that I've read. I agree especially that there's not enough real conflict or zero-sum win-lose among factions. You can join ALL the factions, even Crimson Fleet, and everyone else is OK with your simultaneous loyalties.

Interms of role-playing as whatever I want. Ryugin, freestar, Crimson fleet, then UC. With Ryugin you could really be whoever you wanted to be, but thrusted into a corporate world. With the freestar I felt you could really ramp up what kinda ranger you wanted to be for better or worse. The Crimson fleet had really good role-play but also really bad role play at times. For UC you were just a yes man or a yes man that always asked about money.

I don't think the game needed a "fate of the universe" threat. I like that it was a more introspective game about your own perception of reality and what to do with the information you come to possess. It definitely didn't execute that concept in the most graceful or interesting way, but I appreciate that there was never a Big Sky Hole that we needed to an Avengers about.

I gotta say, I agree that the Vanguard questline is my favorite. Where I really really disagree with you on though is the main quest. I love how disconnected it is from all the other factions, how it leaves so much room for you to explore and take things slow, how it doesn't have world-ending stakes and bigger conflicts. To be honest, maybe I am getting old, but I get a little tired of stories in most media always leading to war and conflict and death. The main quest in Starfield seem to take another approach though. Instead of the threat destroying the physical world around you, it destroys your very understanding of how the world works. The existence of the Unity, the Starborn and the way things unfold with them kept me asking more questions without answering anything. I love how different Starborn you meet have adopted different life lessons from it. Some went to pursue power and domination over others, some wanted to uplift and be a shepard, and some just wanted to make money and live a life of luxury.. When I think of the main quest I always think of the part where we're on the trail of the Pilgrim. That story really stuck with me. Although we read his writings, I still wonder where he is now.. how many unity dives he went into.. what was his original world like.. and are we ever going to find him.. If there is one thing I would change it would be either to condense the artifact hunt quests (make each temple hold 3 artifacts/powers at once), or expand the temples. Keep the "puzzle" as it is, just make a dungeon that leads to that chamber at the end. Either way, what we got is not a dealbreaker for me or anything, but I do understand why so many people get tired of them after a while. Oh and btw, have a sub from me!