STARFIELD

6/10 It not terrible but it's not great either. The universe is big and filled with planets but at the same time most are rng instances with the occasional pre-built story location. It looks visual stunning but underneath it's somewhat hollow and empty.

Basically, it's a big box that looks good and has loads of details but inside there is loads of empty/dead space.

I like this game but come into it for the sandbox, not the RPG. Starfield is more sanitized than Disney Star Wars, and absolutely nothing interesting goes on in any of the faction questlines. However, the tinkering of ships, making outposts, doing bounties and making your own fun still makes the game worth playing if you look at it with that approach. This is all my opinion of course, take it as you will.

I genuinely love Starfield. The world-building, the freedom, the ships, the outposts it’s everything I wanted in a Bethesda space RPG. I’ve sunk hundreds of hours into one character, pushing them well beyond level 300, and I still find new things to do.
But here’s the problem: Bethesda designed Starfield as a long-haul game, not a short replayable one.
Outposts are built to expand, link resources, and grow over time.
Ship building is a massive time investment, meant to evolve with your character.
The whole premise is that your universe grows with you.
And yet… the engine can’t sustain it.
Without a proper save file cleaner, the game slowly chokes itself with leftover data ghost scripts, orphaned quests, broken references. Eventually your once-great save risks crashing, bloating, or stuttering until you’re told the only “solution” is to restart.
Restarting is fine in Skyrim or Fallout where each playthrough can feel fresh. But in Starfield? Restarting means deleting years of investment in outposts, ships, and character progression. That’s not replay value that’s punishment for long-term players.
Yes, modders have stepped in with experimental save cleaners, but this should not be left to unpaid volunteers. Bethesda knows this problem has existed since Skyrim. If Starfield is truly meant to be “a game you can play forever,” then we need official tools to keep forever saves stable.

i don't think this is a bad game, but it's definitely disappointing.
i should preface this with the fact that i do have some bias, as i find sci-fi to be a much more boring setting than their other series in a fantasy or post-apocalyptic world. that said, i still have lots of issues with this game which go far beyond my lack of interest in the setting.
the gunplay in this game is a major improvement over any previous bethesda games. it still doesn't feel as good as other modern first-person-shooters, but i don't think it needs to. i really feel like it's gotten to a point where the gunplay is as good as it needs to be for what is really an open-world-rpg first, first-person-shooter second. a small gripe i have however, is that the gun designs themselves are a bit uninteresting. in their pursuit of a nasa-punk visual theme, a lot of the guns don't actually make sense in how they would function. which i think is fine! however while the fallout series has plenty of guns which wouldn't make functional sense in the real world, their designs can be really unique and interesting. i found the guns in starfield to be unfortunately really forgettable - i think the corporate dystopia theme of the game played into this in a negative way, i would have liked to have more weapons i could get attached to. there wasn't any "starting 10mm pistol" to get fond of, nor was there much in the way of single-appearance unique weapons like the junk jet or deliverer from fo4. all uniques were just name and stat changes (sometimes with a paintjob swap) of an existing, normal weapon type. actually unique uniques do take more work but i feel like they're really important in giving the player something to get attached to over the course of gameplay. also, the really fun weapon (and armour) upgrade system from fallout 4 is back, but i feel like it's implemented far worse in this game. there is not nearly as much visual change with the upgrades in starfield, and overall it just feels like a much more shallow, uninteresting system which is easy to ignore for your entire playthrough. considering the potential shown by the already good system in fo4, i'm really disappointed that the modularity of weapons and armour took a major backstep rather than introducing further depth.
a quick touch on character progression perks is that the system feels a little more rpg-ish and encourages specialisation at the start which is nice, but i really feel like far too many perks are simple number boosts, there is not nearly enough unique abilities in the perk trees to feel gratifying enough to specialise into. number-based stat improvements are boring and don't feel rewarding. specialisation as a whole also falls of a cliff, as this game strongly urges the player to spend lots of time on one single character, which means you'll become a jack of all trades at some point anyway. it makes the upgrade system feel rather meaningless.
touching on clothes and armour, the modular multi-part armour system from previous games is gone, but i feel like it hasn't sufficiently been compensated for. the armour system in this game is so disappointingly inexpressive. you always have to be wearing a spacesuit in this game (unless you're in oxygenated settlements) which is fine, that makes sense. my problem is that the spacesuits are so incredibly samey and boring. they all take up one single equipment slot for the body, along with a helmet for the single head slot, and that's it. what's worse is that the spacesuit upgrades (using the fo4 upgrade system) don't make any visual change to your suit whatsoever, meaning that the only way to get a new look is to find a different type of spacesuit alltogether - of which there are only a limited number of types. the limited amount of equipment slots, and further limited alterations to that equipment means the total number of combinations for your look is really small, and that's just really disappointing as someone who values customising their character a lot. it's a shame when they introduced a genuinely really impressive new character creator.
one major gripe i have there however is the small number of hairstyles, with no long-hair options. this feels like more of a cop-out to fit in spacesuit helmets than anything actually reasonable, more hairstyles are needed not just to make your character feel unique, but for npc variation too. the character creator in every other way is a major upgrade though, and the reintroduction of traits and the background system is super cool, i only wish it affected your playthrough more strongly to encourage specialising and trying multiple different characters out.
the most important parts of these games for me are the quest design, characters, and open world though, and unfortunately, these three aspects are where the game flounders the most. i'll try keep it brief to not hit the character limit, but essentially:
i found the quest design to be an improvement in some ways (the basis of most quests was really interesting), and the game makes an effort to have the player express themselves conversationally in the quests. however these points of expression feel shallow, as one recurrant theme in the quests of this game is the lack of outcome diversity. you constantly feel railroaded into one or at most two outcomes, which cheapens the effect of you expressing anything different in conversation. the most divergent outcomes come from the ending of faction questlines - however even these divergences lack npc responsiveness and integration into the world, which makes it feel like your choice didn't really matter.
characters have improved in some ways and fallen flat in others. the follower system in starfield is fantastic, the followers each feel far more fleshed out and grounded in the world, their reactivity is really important, and i think this is one of the best thing starfield does, and needs to carry into future bethesda games. the problems here are that there are only 4 unique followers in this game which have this fantastic depth, and they're all rather samey since they're from the same main story faction. i feel no reason to use the more generic followers when they don't feel like real characters who react to what i do the same way the main four followers do. i just want more of this good system, that's all.
outside of the four major followers, i did unfortunately find a vast majority of characters in this game to be bland and forgettable, even compared to other bethesda games. the innoffensiveness of the four main followers can even include them in this conversation, despite them having the most depth in the game. i unfortunately just did not find there to be any jarl balgruufs or ulfric stormcloaks or nick valentines or mr houses in this game. i wasn't particularly excited to see anyone or learn more about anyone, it's a major point of disconnect between me and this game's setting, there aren't many people in the game's world that i actually care about.
finally, the open world. or worlds. this is the worst part, unfortunately. bethesda's strengths are in their interconnected open world design. and this game just doesn't have that interconnectedness. they still kill it at the atmosphere and visual design of the environments, but the world (or galaxy in this case) struggles to find meaning when everything you do, and everywhere you go, is so separated from everything else. the world is cohesive and makes sense, i just struggle to find meaning or enjoyment when it doesn't feel like there's anywhere to call home - not even my ship. having a thousand different worlds doesn't make the game feel bigger, it just makes every world feel smaller, and that lack of the human touch in an interconnected world design squanders bethesda's biggest strength.
i do think this game gets far too much undeserved hate, i think it's a good game, but not a great one. 6.9/10.

I uninstalled Starfield twice—only to reinstall it and get completely pulled back in.
Here’s how I think you can best enjoy the game:
1. Install StarUI.
It’s a simple mod that improves the interface. Just drop the files in the right folder—done.
2. Treat it like a meditation.
If you're after constant action, this isn't the game. But it’s perfect for when you want to fully engage with something. Too interesting to have a podcast or netflix in the back, too chill to get your addrenalin up like CoD / Warzone etc.
Id say: It’s chill, but immersive.
3. Stick to normal difficulty.
The scaling is poor—harder settings just make enemies tanky and drawn-out. It’s single-player and story-focused, so crank it to normal and enjoy the ride.
4. Get into the story.
Bethesda does narrative and world-building better than most. Even side quests and random notes can be surprisingly touching. A lot of small moments hit hard, even if they don’t show up as major quests. Generally, among the many dialouge options, it feels like there is a "human" option. Meaning that usually if you pay a bit of attention and just dont act rude most dialouge develop very logical and beneficial for you. The goal is to avoid shootouts and instead get everything for free. There will be plenty of opportunities to kill enemies.
5. Use fast travel.
Yes, there are a lot of loading screens—but that’s true for every Bethesda game. Accept it, and the experience flows much better.
6. Build your ship, not your base.
Base-building is deep but complicated. Early on, focus on upgrading your ship with storage and workbenches. Bases are mostly for farming and aesthetics and can be frustrating at the start.
Starfield has plenty of flaws, and much of the criticism is valid. But unlike No Man’s Sky or Elite Dangerous, this feels like a more grounded, adult sci-fi game. If you come for the story and the beautifully crafted universe, you’ll find something special. The graphics and design are excellent—and the fact that this whole world exists just for you on your PC makes it feel oddly personal.

The ONLY way this game is good is with the Star Wars Genesis mod pack which completely changes & overhauls the game. Big recommend for THAT, the standalone is dookie. If you have to ride the coattails of your most successful games LITERALLY "AS THE STEAM DESCRIPTION" for the game you are trying to sell, it's probably no bueno.
Get the Star Wars Genesis mod here, go support this lovely team of developers who managed to turn a trash game into a worthy experience:

First playthrough you'll hate it because its not like Fallout or Elder Scrolls. You'll also think there is too much fast travel. Then after a break or your 2nd plathrough you'll lose that expectation and start to like the gameplay loop for what it is. It's still very much a Bethesda game, it has towns and people you can talk to for missions. Sell stuff, buy Stuff. Factions to join. It's just separated more because main locales are on different planets. Play it like it's your first Bethesda game and you'll love it. Play it while comparing it to other Bethesda games and you'll hate it.