STARFIELD

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 completed the main Starfield game and the Shattered Space expansion. I played around 240 hours and reached level 82. I would give the game a 3/5 rating. The game was mostly glitch-free. The graphics and audio were fine. The characterization was okay. The scripted main missions were adequate and somewhat interesting. The scripted side missions that I played were, overall, okay. I left a lot of side missions uncompleted.

The problem for me was the procedural generation scenarios on planets. The developers scripted a few dozen scenarios and when you land on the planet, the system would place some of those scenarios on the planet to find. After doing the same scenarios 10-15 times, it became very stale and it killed my desire to explore planets. When I say the "same" scenarios, I mean EXACTLY the same including where all objects and hostiles were placed. So, after a few times, you knew exactly where the next hostile would be. So, it would just be going through the motions.

Although I built a few outposts, I never really found motivation to do so. I collected a lot of credits to spend so I never felt the need to sell resources. The star ship building was difficult and I abandoned that. The ships I obtained by theft or purchase were adequate for completing my missions.

Overall, I mildly enjoyed the game. I believe it was worth the 240+ hours I played. Toward the end, I did feel some desire to play something else. I didn't have high expectations, so I wasn't that disappointed.

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 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:

id recomend this game but only to people like me. what i mean by that is that if you tend to mod the crap out of games, then this might be for you. sure, the game has problems, a lot of problems. but when you grow up playing modded fallout 4 on the xbox that crashes every 10 minutes like i did. well you get used to it. and to be honest, i have to give it to bethesda. the fact that they were able to make this game with such a janky engine is definitly impressive. so yeah, if youve been playing games like fallout skyrim, ect and your ok with the bethesda jank. then give this a try. but try to only get it when its on sale. this game is "fun" but its not worth 70 dollars.

ps sorry for the bad grammer im kind of an autistic idiot

I get why people hate this game...but the weirdest thing is I played it without looking at a single review or score or rating, and I loved every minute of it. By the time I saw the mixed ratings on steam, I was already into it.
It's a very shiny game, with really good gun combat, gorgeous graphics, fun mini-quests mixed in with bad ones. Plenty of jank, but that's exactly what makes Bethesda games good. They go way over-ambitious on everything they do, and end up making genre defining games that excel in ABC but they obviously ran out of deadline to polish XYZ. You play their games for the ABC, and then mods (if you can be bothered) fix the XYZ.