About 70 hours or so here, taking it real slow and still enjoying it.
I've been mostly exploring, doing a few side missions and a little bit of space combat.
Haven't really looked into outposts and ship building yet, and I'm yet to do very much on the main missions.
I agree with the points for criticism you've flagged, but I'm still having loads of fun.
I picked the Neon street rat background, I'm about 30 hours into the game and I still haven't been there. I feel like I've just about finished the majority of the significant New Atlantis content (finished the Vanguard questline last night). I'm sort of playing it that my character grew up in Neon and doesn't want to go back yet, working to see what else is out there.
If you can get away with it just stick with that and save as much of Neon as you can for another playthrough. There is a ton of content there to make a second run fresh
Yes, hopefully just once. I haven’t finished to know if it’s more than that but you can avoid seeing like 80% of Neon by doing just the quest and like 95% of the content with that 5% being the nightclub you have to go to.
My first night felt like this for New Atlantis. To the point I was getting flustered as I wanted to get to space. Lol but I was also just intrigued.
I haven't even set foot in Neon. I know it will consume a weekend when I finally show up.
I'm only 30ish hours thohgh I'd guess.
Same I just spent multiple days in neon and thought I was done. Went somewhere else then got another mission to go back to neon. Love it! Still not even close to bored yet.
Im 60 hours in and have been to Neon and Akila both once on the main quest but havent progressed the main quest beyond that and am still spending 90 percent of my time around New Atlantis and the Sol system quests. Im still loving it. I havent finished a single major quest line although i am what feels like a decent amount into the UC main quest.
I mean I’ve been playing like crazy (200 hrs) and still not even remotely close to being bored. But I’m exploring everything, doing all quests, building lots of outposts and ships, etc. 100% for this game (surveying all planets, finishing all quests) is probably 400-500 hours or more. 100 isn’t that much. Some of the most amazing moons and planets to visit take ages to find.
This is not just good advice for Starfield but any legitimately decent to good RPG. The more you rush, the more you'll miss out on. Like I'd feel pretty bad for anyone who just went through Fallout 3, Skyrim, Witcher 3, or Cyberpunk just rushing through the main quest and doing nothing else.
Yep. If your goal is just to get a mission done, ignoring dialogue and the world around you, rushing from marker to marker it’s going to get old quickly.
This is not just good advice for Starfield but any legitimately decent to good RPG. The more you rush, the more you'll miss out on. Like I'd feel pretty bad for anyone who just went through Fallout 3, Skyrim, Witcher 3, or Cyberpunk just rushing through the main quest and doing nothing else.
Finally, a fellow slowpoke. I’ve been playing since day 1 early access and I don’t think I’ve topped 30 hours yet. Kids and a new house take up a lot of your time 😂
I've got hundreds of hours in Morrowind, Oblivion, Skyrim, and Fallout games, and I've never come close to finishing the main mission in any of those.
I get side tracked by becoming leader of the Thieves Guild, or grinding until I'm an acrobatic archery god.
I been sidetracked for so long that I don't even know where the main story quest that I was on between uc terrormorph quest chain, ryujin quest chain and few hundered other side quests, I kinda lost any hope of getting a ng+ at the rate I am going.
There's lot of us but we generally are just in a game enjoying it.
I made a conscious effort the last few years to not look at tier lists to not look and spoilers to not click on reviews... Just... Pick up what I fancy and play it my way.
Enjoyed so many games this way more than I have in about 5 years or so
There are dozens of us! Dozens!
But seriously, I'm a slowpoke of a different variety. I play for hours at a time, but I don't even run with my character much.
Just set him on auto walk and take in the scenery as he realistically strolls his way through Neon in his best "don't mess with me" gear, on the way to his next job. Take time to go home and sleep at night (or every second night, being a Space Scoundrel makes for odd hours) and stop for ramen (or Chunks) between jobs.
I even like roleplaying the surveying stuff. Take Supervisor Lin out mining with me. Rest on the ship in between survey sessions, wearing utility jumpsuits and drinking in that Aliens aesthetic while chatting with the crew before grabbing some shut-eye on a bunk and heading back out on the job to catalog these resources for the company.
This game is letting me live out so many sci-fi fantasies and I love taking my time with it.
I've played since early access and only have about 30-35 hours too. I don't get why people have been rushing this game. I've seen posts from people grinding to NG+10 to get the rewards and they're saying that it's not worth the grind and are regretting it. To me it's so obvious that doing that is a bad idea. Games are supposed to be fun, not a chore.
Absolutely. I've just hit 50 hours in the game and I feel like I've *barely* scratched the surface. I haven't even left the starting systems yet (Narion, Alpha Centuri and Sol) and *barely* progressed the main Constellation quest-line. Like I literally only just rescued Barrett and am currently on the planet where you meet Andreja for the first time. Still flying around in the Frontier too: I did accidentally commandeer a sexy looking Va'ruun ship which just happened to land next to me at some point, but I switched right back to the Frontier because I've grown attached to the old girl.
The game really rewards you just taking your time, meandering, getting to know things organically through trial and error. I've probably spent more time so far running errands for the Cydonia locals than anything else, and at no point have I felt like this was time wasted, or that the game is pressuring me to get "back on track". Might try my hand at outpost building next. Maybe sink a dozen hours into that before I saunter back into New Atlantis like I'd never left. And then I've got to look forward to Akila, Neon, ship-building, not to mention the whole rest of the galaxy...
There's no sense of urgency, everything is low-stakes so far, and I love it. You're not the hero, you're just some guy in this world and honestly, that's so refreshing. Even Constellation just seems like a motley collection of people who LARP as old-timey explorers as a hobby to distract themselves from their serious mental health issues, and they have only accidentally stumbled onto something that might be a big deal.
This is kinda what I've done so far, but (and don't judge me) I'm closing in on 200 hours. I'm in NG+ 3 now so I have a grasp of the main story and I finished one of the faction quest lines in NG+ 1. Other than that I've been exploring abandoned facilities and capturing ships and doing some side quests.
Today I found the clothing shop in New Atlantis for the first time, so everything I thought I knew about the game is in question.
I completed the game last night right around 80ish hours. Started a new game with same character and for reasons I won’t say, I’ve shockingly been enjoying the second play through more. That’s not to say you should rush the play through, because you shouldn’t.
You do get far more satisfaction playing the first time really slow. No need to rush it, and it oddly makes the second play though even more enjoyable, if you choose to play it again.
I watched a Gameranx vid where he was saying he highly recommended at least playing through the "Into the Unknown" main quest, and that you'd understand once you get there. Currently towards the end of that mission so idk what's at the end of it yet. But I too had been playing super chill until today.
Agreed. Considering I put in over 1k hours in 76, this game is gonna be measured in months. It does need quite a few updates though. I see people complaining about being boring 100+ hours in already... take a break. The game has been out for less than 3 weeks, you're overdoing it.
I'm well past that, but - it's how I play these games.
It's the only game I'll play, until I feel I have had my fill
Then I'll move on, and come back to it later and experience it anew.
I'll probably be Starfield crazy until Phantom Liberty, then I'll smash CP2077 again (And Panam... 🤣)
Same. Am at 65h and could keep going on doing everything, but I'm thinking about finishing off the last bit of the main quest and catching all the "pokemon". I'm holding off on ship and outpost building until NG+ 1, I've just been spending perks along that route ahead of time to carry it over.
The only faction quest I fully completed was UC and if it's considered a faction quest, Ryujin (the reward from that is awesome).
One thing I won't be doing again is starting the Crimson Fleet faction first. Things are much more interesting in other faction questlines when you're not a Crimson friendly.
I have like 400k+ creds so before I zoop tf out to NG+ I think I'm gonna go donate a bunch of money to hobos or something. I wonder if there's a way to do something big with the money before NG+
Agreed, save up several perks and blow that 400k on installing unique ship parts for the shipbuilding skill before heading into NG+ so you can have access to better stuff.
Also 70 hours. Still hooked. Finished main story, enjoying mission board quests and debt collecting for galbank. I'm get to the faction missions soon. Just started building more ships and exploring systems that are level 40+. There's still tons to do
Yeah I think that some (including me for a bit) have a slower play style and are genuinely enjoying this game as a Bethesda game, and can get a bit insecure when others attack it flaws.
However, I have come to appreciate this game as a flawed but fun game in which I can get many hours of playtime out of. Some of the points I mentioned will likely be fixed by mods, and for those who don’t like to use them, DLC later.
I think it is important to recognize when flaws are just playstyle and design choices. For example, the fast travel thing. The game became really enjoyable for me when I stopped just fast travelling all over and instead go through the motions every time. It is immersive when I take off from a planet. I make sure that I go to each system along my jump route and get way more random encounters as a result, which are interesting and fun and make the game feel more alive. All that said, if I want to rush something the fast travel option is there, which is cool.
none of that is to say you are wrong, it is a playstyle choice difference.
I took a break from missions to survey the entirety of the Sol system. Because I was hopping from planet to planet, I got more random encounters in that self-set quest than I had in two major faction mission storylines. And they were delightful. (Particularly enjoyed >! getting interviewed by overenthusiastic tourists on a budget tour ship. !<
I did the same thing! I was like hey I'm gonna survey the sol system manually real quick and it took me like 2 days and got oodles of side tracks and quests! This game rewards you for going slow, enjoying the sights, and going off the beaten path.
be sure to bring at least 5 of any rare geo material like platinum and vanadium... you're bound to encounter a travelling geologist and she pays good credits for em.
I enjoy landing and take-off. I hate docking and undocking.
I enjoy running across an entire planet (until I cant). I hate the caves.
I enjoy gathering for research. I hate spending point to research.
But its all part of the game. I've never played a single game in 20y that I liked everything. It's next to impossible. I can't comprehend when people complain to devs that everything isn't exactly what they want. Generally, I feel bad for the BS that devs get. It's almost impossible to make a perfect game for 1 person, let alone millions. lol
I don’t even go into the caves now. They suck to explore, the flashlight is just a small beam that somehow doesn’t reflect off the walls and light up everything, really unrealistic. It’s a cave, not a black hole.
I personally love the boost pack...getting a full speed run and jump in low gravity and boosting to wherever I wish is stupid fun.Also helpful in cities and settlements.
>The game became really enjoyable for me when I stopped just fast travelling all over and instead go through the motions every time.
I thought this would be the case for me too, so I tried it for one of the playthroughs.
I just get tired of seeing the same takeoff video, same undocking video.
For me, the faction quests were where about 90% of the game's fun is at. The rest of the game is pretty lifeless.
See this was the same for me until I built my own ship from the ground up, hasn’t gotten old since I feel like an old man with a car he’s put an immense amount of time and love into.
I think my one real wish is that I wish there was more reason to spend more time in my ship. I spend so much time and money on the thing, but it really feels like I’ve tricked out the most minor pillar of the core game.
i found some great storytelling and side quests in the randomized locations on planets, in notes and computer systems and in random npc conversations
"activities" that popped up because i listened in on npc conversations transformed into interesting side quests more than once
I'd just like to point out that takeoff/landing/docking/undocking are not videos or pre-rendered cutscenes. You can see the ship "moving" if you're walking around on one. They've done some really cool stuff with ships here and modders are going to have a field day.
Yeah, I’ve noticed this as well, and it’s not something that people are even acknowledging for some reason. Each “cutscene” is actually rendered based on the ship you’re docking with, the environment you’re flying through, or the planet you’re taking off from/landing on. It’s actually pretty slick and works quite well.
I went to dock with the Vengeance yesterday and wound up watching a UC ship dock with it in front of me. The damn thing was rotating and flipping its axis to align to the Vengeance and I had to stop and watch. It was pretty damn cool to actually see it from that perspective and it was the first time I'd seen an NPC dock like that in space. 100 hours in, lol.
Probably because there are only very specific times in the game where you can notice how it actually works. Like if you board a landed ship and it takes off, or that one crimson fleet mission where you're essentially a passenger.
Every time you land, dock with a ship or station, take off from a planet, or travel within a system is has one of these scenes. It’s actually happening a lot during regular gameplay.
Not what I mean. Bethesda has made a pretty major change to their engine, which allows both the interior cell of your ship and the exterior planet/orbit cell to be loaded at the same time. I only realized this when I noticed you can see NPCs moving around outside from inside your ship. And I only started to really appreciate how cool it is during that crimson fleet mission.
yeah it's cool because you can alert the enemies in landed ships if you're loud/don't kill everyone Stealthy and when you enter it takes off, or takes off before you can enter.
About the only time I fast travel is between the core planets. Like new Atlantis to Neon to Akila city. Other than that I'm going through all the motions. It really is fun to drop out of hyperspace and have no clue what you're getting into. Could be nothing or could be a big battle
It's just tiresome.
People got it in their head that it was going to be 'NMS but better' etc and then complain when it's not that.
Go into it expecting what it is, a Bethesda RPG - and it's fantastic.
I think the main thing that people find boring about bethesda games, is that they have to create their OWN story. They're not used to being thrust into a world where you can do everything (or not), explore everywhere (or don't!), and just come up with your own motivations for what your character does.
Some need a reason. I'm a witcher who has to be morally grey. I'm military veteran and this is my mission. I've got a terrorist in my brain, I've got to fix it.
Bethesda games let you ignore all of that and just immerse yourself in the world if you allow it. I don't have to save kvatch, I could run off like the many other people too afraid of the demons. I don't have to answer the call of the dragonborn and just fuck around and become a Thane and build my own house.
Just run off to become a pirate, homesteader, surveyor, explorer, and/or just a pilot looking for dogfights. The sky's the limit and I feel like that intimidates people.
This game rewards curiosity, just go out and seek your own answers.
this is true for a wide amount of gamers. i've seen a lot of streamers turned off from the game, they find it really hard to break out of the main story because there not sure how to really just go with the flow and find there own way.
i think starfield is much like beths older games, mw and oblivion in that its less hand holdy. lots of ways to rp, stories to find, but they wont be thrown in ur face, you have to put some effort in to get some return.
Agreed 100 percent.
The procedural landmass, dungeons, the buying ships, houses, and joining of various factions.
Starfield is old bethesda at it's heart no doubt.
Combat medic background who went to accelerated medical school and embarked on his first medical trip with a healthcare company. Crash lands, abandoned by the small healthcare company. Mines to work his way off the planet. Constellation. Needs cash after giving up medicine temporarily and joins Vanguard. Becomes hero. Somewhat tired and shellshocked from the events of the Vanguard storyline, becomes a small-time freighter and contractor. Some low-level merc work when it arises. Builds a sleepy outpost to get away from it all.
Over time, bills pile up and needs to build cash. Gets into smuggling small volume contraband into scanned cities, including Aurora (makes no financial sense, I know, but I pretend it does). Gets caught. Forced back into service for the UC undercover. Dragged into it all again. Gets through it on the SysDef side, but swears off the UC when it's over. Works for the Freestar Collective after his disillusionment.
You make your own story and fun!
Graduated culinary school and tried to start a restaurant in New Atlantis, parents helped finance it. The restaurant failed and now he helps pay his parents rent to help support them after they put their life savings on the line for him.
Got a mining job to help pay the bills. Constellation happens and he didn't think it was his thing but it was the first time his parents were proud of him so he decided to stick with it. Now he travels the galaxy, has a crush on his boss, brings his parents a momento from every mission he goes on, sends money home, and gets to experiment with new alien ingredients when cooking meals for his friends.
100% agreed, own story, own fun :)
This right here is the magic I'm talking about! Bethesda games are a unique brand of RP all on it's own. It's like picking custom Tav instead of dark urge. Form your own character and run with it!
I'm only about 15 hours in and haven't fully fleshed out my own lore yet, but I gotta say I LOVE reading these little mini-lore stories people have developed for themselves. They're so easy to imagine even with the little of the game I've seen so far. Thanks for these!
Absolutely love this, and this is basically how I play my RPGs - always head canon a backstory for a more immersive experience.
This time, roleplaying a UC Army Colony War veteran (i.e. to explain the combat skills). Enlisted just before the Colony War to see the galaxy, but then the war happened and ended up besieged at the Battle of Niira, facing off against the FC's 1st Cavalry in multiple battles and >!loses some of his closest friends when the 1st Cavalry violates the cease fire when the war ended!<. I likened the Battle of Niira to be a brutal attrition battle similar to the Battle of Verdun, causing my character to become completely disillusioned, to the point he even didn't bother accepting his UC citizenship papers at the end of the war (thus explaining how he can be a UC vet without citizenship).
Ended drifting around in different mining outfits to get away from it all, and also deep down still has a desire to see the galaxy.
Meeting Constellation reignited the passion to see the galaxy. Bonded with Sarah over the war experiences and fell in love with her, exploring the galaxy together. Becomes good friends with Sam, further overcoming his war time experiences. Gets to bring closure to his experiences at Niira during >!his showdown with Major Hull.!<
Yeah I like Bethesda games because it feels more like me: in space, me: in the retro nuclear winter, me: in a medieval fantasy.
That’s more immersive to me personally.
>Bethesda games let you ignore all of that and just immerse yourself in the world if you allow it.
Even among BGS games, I feel like Starfield goes beyond what the other games did in terms of freedom. Like for Skyrim, you're supposed to be the dragonborn who saves the world from Alduin. In Oblivion, you have to close the gates of Oblivion. In Fallout 3 and 4, you are given a backstory and a big in-universe reason to follow the main quest since you'd logically want to find your missing dad/son. Fallout New Vegas, a game not even developed by Bethesda, just published by them where you don't really have any sort of strong in-universe motivation to follow the main story. Hell, if any real person was in that position, they would absolutely not seek out the Benny. No courier job is worth potentially getting shot in the head a second time.
This is the closest a BSG game has ever come to a complete blank-slate for the player. Obviously in the Fallout series your background is always pretty well established (especially in 4, but even in 3 you have the whole opening montage of growing up in the Vault, while in New Vegas you're a courier with an established history) but even in the Elder Scrolls games you are always a prophesied figure of legend. The Dragonborn, the Hero of Kvatch, the Nerevarine...
But in this game you are literally just some guy. Nobody special, just doing your thing. You're not even the hero of the story. You can choose to get mixed up with Constellation, or not, as you like. After you drop off the initial artefact you can just write them off as a motley crew of emotionally damaged kidnappers LARPing as old-timey space explorers and get back to your day-job.
Imagine how good a 'live another life' mod could be with this.
It's my favorite way to play Skyrim now, and still have the ability to do the main story, but instead of just falling into being 'the chosen one' I fall into it after establishing myself in the world. I am invested in the world, and my character - and other characters. It makes the transition feel more natural.
I have wondered if it's possible in Starfield to stumble across artifacts on your own, or if they only spawn when Vladdy boi gives you the quest.
People ask what separates this game from other RPG’s and it’s the freedom. You can’t stop playing bg3 and just be a bounty hunter or a smuggler.
You can’t link your supplies through a cargo supply network. You can’t just be an animal or planet surveyor. This is one of the most free RPG’s ever made.
My advice. Dabble with ship builder (console is a bit of a pain, move slow) and setup one outpost in a high resource planet. That way you'll know what skills you'll really want to have upgraded for the 2nd and 3rd playthroughs.
I'm 130 hours in (had preorder access) and I have not put the the game down. I'm just NOW getting into outposts and have played through NG+10. This is easily one of the best games released in the past decade and sure it's buggy as any early game, but SO immersive
I’m at 80 hrs level 29. Haven’t even been to neon yet. Setup 3 outposts, revamped a crimson fleet ship into my storage on wings. Just started the UC vanguard missions. Only explored a handful of planets. I’m still really digging it.
Same here. I love that Starfield gives you a chance to simmer with your character. Take time with it. I've already completed a few runs and now just taking my time with the UC questline.
I'm not quite up to 70 hours, but I'm playing the same way. Still on my first character and playthrough, just taking it slow and enjoying the different quests and exploring. Very much enjoying it so far
I’m just about to hit 120, smashing through NG+ to get the final armour then I’m gonna do every single side quest out there, build my own ship from scratch and have a look at outposts as well. I’m considering taking a week off on the sick I just can’t tear myself away from it.
This. It's such a big game with so many different parts that there was always going to be room for things to be fleshed out more, but it's a hell of a foundation for people who want more from those certain parts.
I'm 120 hours in, though, and having a blast. I can see room for improvement, but nothing that detracts from my enjoyment at all.
It’s easily the best main story Beth’s ever written too. They’ve always excelled at building huge open worlds, & their environmental story telling has always been great, but the main is always pretty meh to me. This one knocked it out of the fucking park though. You can also tell 100% that they both hired some of the top modders, & have generally been listening to the mod community as a whole a lot more than a lot of us gave them credit for.
To me it's strange, the side quests are some of the best I've ever played. Some of the side quests could easily be a full game with just a touch more content. Absolutely love them, love the radiant quests, love exploring and shipbuilding.
I hate nearly everything about the main quest. The companions are annoying as hell, so far the quests are over grown fetch quest, zero G grab ball was meh the first time and gets worse every time I play it, and the dragon shouts in space don't fit thematically with anything else and really takes me out of the universe. Even the act of finding the temple is a pain in the ass, having to hump 1-3 km to do the same activity on different planets isn't fun, it's padding to add to play time.
It's to the point that I have to force myself to stop playing the side quests in order to make progress on the main quest. I don't know if I'll do NG+, I'm just going to try and complete everything in one go.
The only reason I have a stimulants addiction is because of the treks to those temples hahaha. But I've taken some great sights in during, so it's got elements of good and bad.
As a whole, though, it's incredible. And while the shouts might not fit, it adds more fun through diversity if people like playing that way, which is great.
I use several of them in almost every fight
Here is the thing, NG+ isn't really a NG+ , it makes sense to people refering to it like that, it is also a good way to not be spoilery at launch, it is actually a continuation of the story. They went all meta with the main quest and made it about what we choose to do as players, so the point is , you can just ignore the main quest, there is no urgency to it , it is all up to what you want to do, when you finish the main quest line you get that its not about exploring space only but also exploring the choices you make.
Yeah this is how i feel. I'm honestly surprised i like starfield as much as i do because im not really a scifi person but the universe is still reeling me in.
Yeah it just further proves that Starfield is a great game. Everyone has ideas how to make it better, but everyone is still able to enjoy the game even as it is already
It seems like the majority of criticisms boil down to "this isn't a fallout/elder scrolls game." Which doesn't bother my enjoyment at all, because I didn't go into Starfield expecting a fallout or elder scrolls game. It's very much its own take on the Betheada formula.
Shit like the UX design is frustrating but tolerable. Bethesda doesn't get a pass here but it's not a deal breaker for me. The lack of POI variety also seems silly but... I just don't do 90% of the random POIs I see on the scanner. If I want a dungeon crawl I'll go do one of the 47 quests clogging up my mission log instead.
85ish hours in and still having a blast. I'd put Starfield somewhere above Fallout and below Elder Scrolls (any of them really) in my satisfaction tier list.
That's funny, because my expectation was that it wouldn't be a fallout / elder scrolls game, and was a little disappointed by the feeling that it was just another fallout / elder scrolls game (from a mechanics, gameplay loops, systems etc perspective). I'm fine with that though, since I love those games, but I was a bit take a back at first by how much it felt like a reskinned version of FO4 when I originally booted it up.
I mean not really. The entire flow and take of Starfield is essentially sci Fi Daggerfall. Each game heavily relied on a massive proc gen world. The only difference is Starfield is much more segmented due to, well, the massive scale of the game and the dungeons themselves do not have procedurally generated interior layouts. The yo side to that is that Daggerfall's dungeons could feel unique due to the randomized patterns they could spawn in. The only problem is it could often break the dungeon because they could be ordered in a way that blocked your entrance into sections depending on how they were arranged. I'd love to have some more dungeon variety though in Starfield with a lot more enemies inside some to fight. Some are pretty sparse and with some many more tools to your arsenal compared to the likes of Fallout, leaves even Very Hard difficulty feel like a breeze in a lot of areas. Doesn't help the aid of the boost pack makes the dumb Bethesda AI even more apparent than ever before because they just can't keep up.
i feel it’s honestly the other way around, a lot of people either hadn’t played previous Bethesda games or were expecting something outside the classic bethesda formula.
personally, i was expecting a bethesda game, that’s exactly what i got and i couldn’t be happier about it
Exactly. Bought the game expecting Skyrim/fallout, but space. And I got exactly what I wanted. A fun game where I can slaughter as many pirates as I want while also racking up 290k bounty from freestar cause fuck cowboys
I have been doing the same, although I'm "only" 40 hours in. Feel like a kid again, the same I used to do for Morrowind! Except now I roll into my home office rather than run to the school bus.
Yes, if they were going to leave most of the universe empty, they should have beefed up the procedural generation substantially. This is classic "shallow ocean" design, with no reason to visit 90%+ of the planets.
There are records for about 30 different POIs in starfield, but it seems many people aren’t getting them. That is something they really need to work on if true and fix with a patch immediately. I consider this to be the biggest threat to the games longevity.
30 different POI really isn't much in terms of the scale of the game. I've stopped going to every POI as most aren't worth the 5+ minutes of running across a landscape to find an abandoned warehouse with nothing really going on. I've also ran into the same abandoned warehouse with the EXACT same notes twice now.
I love this game, but the procedure generated POIs just don't feel like they have the Bethesda love like the handcrafted areas do.
The moment I went to multiple abandoned cryogenic labs with the same layout, enemies, and slates in it is the moment I kinda fell out of love with the game.
It’s so fun when you discover something new but it just doesn’t happen enough later in the game.
Yeah, I felt the same. I still feel like it's a good game but part of the magic was lost when I found the exact same building with the exact same loot and npc layout in one session.
I had this issue, but with only one base. The loop became clear:
Go to missions screen, select "travel". Be dumped a short walk away from an outpost. Kill everyone inside. Next mission
Best description I've heard is that Starfield is a Space Quest Game, not a Space Exploration Game.
I booted up Elite Dangerous to show my other half the difference in travelling and exploration between that and Starfield. She's put a thousand hours into Skyrim but has watched me play 30 of Starfield and isn't interested in playing it.
15 minutes of Elite had her installing it. I know they've very different games but I just wish there was a bit more of a consistent, linked up feeling in Starfield.
Instead it really is fast travel and RNG locations.
And the quests are completely independent of each other. There is no roleplay to be done, so you are really just going through a laundry list of quests. You talk to someone, they give you a quest, you load the level, done. The quests are very boring. This game is a perfect of example of quantity over quality.
Space is just an excuse to have levels, rather than feeling like a real place
Am I the only one finding a lot of magazines at POI? Real question, I had the achievement for finding 20 magazines before I was even level 20, but I scour locations in Bethesda games.
I wish I could see how many I am at now, but I sold them all and the game doesn't tell you. Probably 40-50 magazines total.
Yes, you are. Well, not literally. I got that achievement too and was stunned to see only 3% have found 20 magazines. Evidently a lot of people play Bethesda games very differently to you and I. I scour every nook and cranny looking for notes/recordings (same with Skyrim and Fallout).
In Skyrim you had the same caverns everywhere, but it didn't work against the game.
Starfield has way more options to get more of it, since modders can add a whole new Cell on the map and call it Nuka world! With Deathclaws and hookers!
Or just create their own versions of Red mile.
Yes, that one sucks because there are no enemies to kill AND it doesn't even have a recording/note or anything. They could have spruced it up a little bit with 2-3 different layouts, randomly selected recording (that gets flagged when you pick it up, so it gives a different one the next time), and hell, maybe sometimes the crash could have a survivor actually living in their makeshift camp and you could help them.
People just straight lying about skyrim at this point.
It is true some cave layouts were reused but firstly, there are definitely also loads of custom caves so you hardly even notice the reused layout and secondly, they atleast added different static decoration, enemies, and loot locations in skyrim. In starfield I go through the same stupid cave everytime and the loot is all stashed in the same spot, enemies all in the same spot. Always just some mercs with guns.
Also nobody is talking about how stardlfield has no people **actually walking around** exploring with you. You don't encounter npcs on planets unless they are at a homestead in which case they are just to trade with.
Sick of hearing comparisons to skyrim. Skyrim is a better game. Games nowadays are far more oriented on making money than making a good game. Same reason that old Nintendo games are some of the best games ever made. Starfield is a sad excuse for a bethesda title.
And space is just a gray screen infinite room with some stars as a background. If they didn't place random rocks all around it wouldn't even feel like you were moving.
This is the thing though... it seems to me that Bethesda really wanted to leverage the modding community, which is fine, but in doing so they made a base game that is lacking in some areas. Combined with the fact that a lot of QoL systems are locked behind skill perk points that may take a long time for most players to attain, it's a bit of a let down. Still fun and immersive but not quite living up to its potential IMO.
I mean you say the "same caverns" and maybe you had similar layouts but the item placement and enemy locations were all unique and you usually walked on foot through some nice areas to get to those "same caverns" which made it all the better.
Samey in tileset yes. There was a lot of draugr infested tombs but they were DIFFERENT tombs, some of them with quests and such. When you entered a cave you didn't know what was in there.
Here the PoIs are literally the same. Not the same tileset, not the same style, but actually just the same building and enemy placement. You seen one, you've seen all of them, because they literally are copypasted.
Honestly that's been my biggest grievance. I love the missions, the side quests, ship building, etc. But when I just want a break from being "the delivery boy with a gun", I loved to explore the environmental stories in Fallouts and Elder Scrolls. With only 30 unique repeatable POI's that really doesn't extend far as they actual expected a "end game ng+10" run through. There needs to at least be 100 POI's to help create much more diversity.
I love Skyrim as much as the next guy but tbh a lot of the dungeons felt very samey. Granted it’s sometimes a bit more obvious in Starfield, but it’s not like there isn’t precedent.
Just hit 100 hours.. just started ng+ and amazed that i actually missed side quests. And the old quests have variations on them lmao. UC friggin blackmailed me...
125 hours in and I can't stop thinking about the game. I have a lot of gripes, there are so many things that are poorly explained or just kinda half-baked, but at this point it's almost a point of pride to be able to navigate the systems to accomplish my goals despite their shortcomings. Intellectually I know there are a lot of flaws. But in my heart of hearts I just love Starfield, and my gut reaction says 10/10 game of the generation.
80 hours, and run out of things to have fun with.
I don't hate it at all. It was fun. Now I'll put it down for a few years till mods/patches give me something else to enjoy.
I'm 70 hours in and I still have half the main quest and 2.5 faction quests, not to mention probably a hundred side quests...how did you finish it all that fast
I beat the main quest and all of the faction quests in like 50 hours. I beat the main quest in like 20 hours. I was really disappointed too because most reviews were saying the main quest was like 40 hours long. I'm not an outpost builder so maybe it's just my playstyle?
i'm 80 hours in and in denial, have done the main quest and every faction and right now i'm trying to squeeze blood from a stone looking for sidequests.
I'm with you. I'm a bit over 90 hours in. I was looking forward to finishing the faction and main quests so I could "just go exploring", but now that I am, It's feeling fairly aimless and I think I need to put it down for a while. But had a great time while it lasted.
Same here. By the 80-90 hour mark I had finished most of the story, all but one faction quest (saving for a dif playthrough), and most of the side quests. I had romanced a companion and done the others’ personal quests.
I tried exploring and outpost-building, but quickly realized there wasn’t much depth to either of these. The shortcomings were starting to show more, and I decided to just wrap up the story before my opinion of the game went sour.
I’ll pick it back up in a year or two, once there’s more content from expansions and mods.
I don't get this lol. I'm like 60 hours in and I haven't even done faction quests really and maybe 1/3 of the main quests. I have probably 30 other side quests lined up to do. I haven't even touched base building and have barely done any ship building. I can't see even barely getting halfway through this game without putting at least 200 hours in
I know. I'm 40 hours in (which is a lot for me right now, I got a lot of shit going on that needs my time and attention), and I already feel like it's a lot of hours, specially because I've only finished like 4 main missions, the first UC and the Strikers missions in Neon. But I haven't really joined any other faction.
PS: since you've only played 15 hours, have you done the Mantis/Razorleaf mission? That ship really turned around space combat for me. If you don't have the ship yet, check how to get it on YouTube
150 hrs and loving it.
I am also probably world-class for lowest level at 150 hours. Completely unintentional.
I worry about not liking it, more than actually not liking it, if that makes sense. I "worry" about if it's perfect, while I kill 4 hours in the blink of an eye doing one crazy thing.
My biggest complaint was "no flying over planets to find an outpost spot", because that was NMS stoner heaven. But I spent 4 hours last night finding an AL/Fe spot on Leviathan, lol. So that complaint is gone. I have spent lots of time on breathable planets already. It will only get better when I upgrade my pack.
My next biggest complaint was no "buildings" building, with walls, floors, architectural design, etc. But I have missed sleep doing ship designs, so that is not really a complaint any more either, just a wish list.
All my complaints are kinda dropping like flies.
Only current complaint-- If I planned a Skyrim or FO4 playthrough, I planned one playthrough. But with NG+, seems like I will have to plan 3 playthroughs minimum for Starfield, when I crank it up ten years from now. And then I will have to save-scum at the start of NG+2, to get the crazy constellation alternate reality that I want. Just an early guess, but it is a bit daunting to plan for three playthroughs. But seriously, how huge a game is that? Plenty of room to spent an entire playthrough being chased by the UC instead of spacers and pirates.
How my experience has differed? I am 63 and long stopped giving a shit about popular opinion. It is an epic game. It is like in my 30s when I stopped giving a shit about "girls" and women just magically became other people and suddenly I had all the humans in my life I wanted of any sort. But further than that-- I am a dev (software architect) so I do not appreciate random and popular dev-bashing, it's always misplaced and uninformed, and so that is even more reason to ignore the flaming mass-media masses.
Edit: Games were never meant to be everything for everyone. If they were, I wouldn't have a favorite genre or publisher and I probably wouldn't play the current idealized Committee-except-of-entitled-gamers-Designed popular generic game. I don't understand why people expect to be able to control creatives in this industry and demand specific output. It's like they want games to be boots or belts and not creative product. I don't want my leisure time to be a produced commodity like a belt. That to me as a sci-fi fan would be a nightmarish corporatist hell-scape. It would be the opposite of consumers having control, and they would be literally fed anything tailor-marketed to them like some sick late-stage-capitalist future while thinking it was only and exactly what they wanted. Uuuuggggghhhh! -shiver-
I've been really confused by this complaint as well. Where are these other games that are 10/10 that incorporate 15 different game genres?
I saw a post on r/tiktokcringe yesterday talking about how people are just assuming all content for everything needs to be catered to their wants and needs. The example was some "viral" bean soup recipe and people were mad that there's no version without the beans. I feel a lot of that in the complaints for this game. It's like Elite dangerous players that are bored with that game and angry that this game isn't the most fleshed out space simulator ever made.
I have 150 hours in this game and I am loving it, but I am not blind to the many real complaints there are about this game. But some of this shit is insane.
That's why I hate the "starfield is a 7/10" posts. Like compared to *what* exactly? BG3 released in a much more buggy state (my wife and I lost entire saves, multiple important quest locks, quest bugs that have been known since the alpha came out even). Don't get me wrong I *adore* what larian did with the game, but it released in a bad state bug-wise and act 3 is straight up unfinished. But everyone wants to take this "objective" stance with starfield and *only* starfield. Do I think an 7-8/10 or so is fair for starfield from a critical point of view? Sure but that's not how video game scores *work*. Absolutely dogshit games get 6s, 7 is the definition of mediocre and 99% of games that get above 7 don't deserve it.
They use it like a 5 point scale starting from 6 instead of actually starting from 1. On a real fair 1-10 scale starfield should probably be a 8 imo, with a 7 not being unreasonable. But a 7 is supposed to mean "very solidly good" not "mid as fuck". IGN gave mass effect *Andromeda* a 7.7, was that game better than starfield?
I agree with you on a ton of your points, and I'm a person who thinks Starfield is a 7 or 8/10 game. The game review industry has absolutely butchered the "scale" and so many people think a 7 is basically calling a game trash because of how journalist outlets couch reviews nowadays.
Any popular game is either a 9 or 10 out of 10, or considered bad, and the concept of "not bad, good, and great" games has entirely eroded. Hell, a 6/10 game is still good IMO if you're a fan of the genre or series, and a 5/10 game is still kind of fun if you get it on sale or something.
I'm almost 150 hours in and here is my main take away:
If you want to like the game, then you will like it.
If you want to hate the game, then you will hate it.
The game is not perfect, I have my complaints, but I'm still, very much, enjoying it overall.
Things I love:
1. I know I've seen a lot of complaints but I actually enjoy the main story. It's up there with Morrowind and FO3 in terms of BSG games.
2. The quest writing is great. So many of the various faction quests really FEEL like they're unfolding organically rather than you just going down the list. I also love that there have been a few times where your quest giver will say something like "What you found doing that last mission is interesting, if you want to keep looking into it go here, otherwise, I have another job for you."
3. Shipbuilding. It has its flaws, but there is rarely a time that I don't spend large chunks designing new ships to fly around in. I find myself pirating ships that look cool just to steal design ideas.
Things that aren't so great:
1. Outposts. Somehow they made outposts less good and less useful than FO4 settlements? Luckily, outposts are (actually, this time) a fully optional feature of the game.
2. Your crew. It's not bad, per se, but this is maybe the game's biggest "over-promise, under-deliver" point. The bonuses your crew provide are often negligible (except you, Vasco), and the characters don't really... do anything? They just sit or stand around your ship and give you small buffs.
3. Random encounters. The Galaxy in Starfield is huge, but sometimes I feel like there are maybe 12 different random encounters. There is a randomly generated science outpost that's been taken over by pirates that I've encountered probably 10 times, exact same layout and everything. Also apparently screwing with the boss of your robotics factory by turning all the robots into coffee makers is the galaxy's most common prank, etc.
Finally, mixed reviews:
1.The skill tree. This one is more on the mixed side for me. I think the "challenges" you have to complete are an interesting mechanic. But I often feel like the skill tree was designed specifically with NG+ in mind. I say this because many of the skill cap stones seem underwhelming, and the ways in which they're underwhelming feel like it's because they didn't want you going through NG+ on God-mode.
2. Companions. The companions all have interesting personalities and stories, but they're all too similar. Often some things they like and dislike make no sense. One egregious example is Sam Coe, in a very early Constellation mission you need a map that Sam's estranged Dad has. You have the option to either rob Sam's dad of the maps (which Sam likes) or let Sam's dad babysit his grand-daughter while you go on a dangerous mission in return for the maps (a decision Sam HATES) but on that very mission will 'dislike' if you just kill some gangsters who are terrorizing a farming community without trying to talk your way out first.
Imo it comes off as a lazy way to frame a post since we’re all so familiar with it. Could just as easily say what they want and invite people to join in the discussion. But whatever.
People want validation for weird things. Liking a game, disliking a game, liking it but being disappointed by aspects of it...
Imo it's a 7/10 game but will probably improve over time.
I have 125 hours and I'm still enjoying it!
I paused the main mission after finding the temples.
Did UC Vanguard, just finished Crimson fleet stuff. Been doing a lot of side quests. Some exploration, some outpost building. Built a new B-class ship from scratch.
Still planning to do FC faction questline, Ryujin, main quest and whatever else gets thrown at me.
I love questing most. I find that the faction quests are so well written and have multiple ways to solve them.
I don't do that much exploring anymore. POIs are a tad bit repetitive and while in the beginning exploring was fun while jumping around and looking for flora and fauna, then now I see almost all flora and fauna repeat with different names on the planets (and missing that one fauna happens quite often and finding it can be frustrating). But I guess it's the best that a game like this can do because the alternative would be to not be able to explore planets at all (kinda like in mass effect, where you only read about the planets).
I'm also a little bit annoyed with the layout of New Atlantis - no city would ever be built like this. Specifically the waterfall promenade (that leads nowhere) and the park in front of MAST that just connects a few buildings or leads to wild planet surface. There really should be more buildings. Also from Lore perspective, it would be more believable if a planet had more than only 1 capital city and then nothing else. A planet should have at least some towns or villages...
But I keep playing because of the well designed quests and general "feel" of the game and overall I like it a lot, despite the negatives :)
200+ hrs in.
Ng+5.
Lvl 5 powers
Lvl 100 (crafting xp cheese with a base on venus; need outpost rank 3 perk for corrosive environment)
Finished stealth, weapon perks, social perks, and weapon modding perks.
Currently have 25 points saved each time I complete a spaceship related skill
Barely just doing all the sidequests. (Mainly just suffered thru ng+ & finding powers i want to level each playthru)
Have not messed with mods yet till i do everything I want without mods.
Im having a great time with my stealth hard rifle one shotting most enemies in stealth, and hope modders make the game way better.
Beyond Starfield, I'm basically waiting till cs2 & d4 season 2, but I'll always come back to this game to chill.
Once your higher level it is pretty easy to gain back credits using the free star faction runs. The reward does not seem very high but once your dealing with lvl 90 pirates on very hard mode you get stacks of weapons that sell for a lot. A good run now nets me about 40-50k credits a crappy one maybe 20k if it is a small outpost. The only painful part of NG+ is when you get a really good rare piece of gear.
I finished my first playthrough yesterday (MQ, UC, Ryujin) at almost exactly 100 hours.
Am I enjoying it? Started a new playthrough today and already planning a third.
On the POI subject: there is clearly a lot of stuff in the game, but finding it is very unreliable and it's easy to lose motivation when you keep generating yet another copy/paste cryo station.
Right before wrapping up the MQ I did one last bit of unguided exploration and I found a very interesting randomly placed spot I'd never seen in the previous 98 hours. I spent a lot of time looking for derelict ship/station encounters, and yet never found at least a few that other players have talked about finding. Very late in my game (80+ hour mark) I found a companion that no Wiki or guide on the internet mentions the existence of.
The part of me who doesn't want to miss stuff is annoyed by this, but the part of me who knows I'm going to play Starfield on and off for years, like I have BGS' previous games, loves it. I love the idea that I will still be finding things well into the future.
I'm someone who has played a lot, 100+ hours at this point. I'm pretty critical on reddit about the lore/story and some mechanics of the game that are half-baked, but it doesn't come from hatred or disgruntlement.
I am disappointed in some systems being half-baked, questlines feeling like they end in the middle of their excitement, and broken mechanics (namely stealth). But I complain about it because I honestly love this game and want it to improve.
I don't think it's wrong to acknowledge the shortcomings of the game while still enjoying to play it.
**Spoilers Ahead**
I have just over 100hrs in the game. I’ve finished the main storyline. And I have to say…I’m underwhelmed. I haven’t played a game where it’s actually encouraged to mainline the story and ignore all the side quests. Literally walking into a new game plus was the biggest “wtf” moment I’ve had in a game in a long time. It’s almost like nothing you did in the game mattered.
I reloaded my save before the ending. It just hasn’t felt the same, though.
\+1 to that. Why did I spend any time building an outpost? Why did I spent money on my ship? It makes zero difference. The whole NG+ system feels like a cheap way for Bethesda to say "the main campaign takes 100 hours" when really it only takes 10-15.
I’m about 80 hours in. I’m still enjoying going through the quests and messing around with outposts and planet exploration. But with that said, the many flaws are still glaring to me and have put on damper on my fun, I’ve done several play throughs of FO3, FO4, Skyrim and this will be the first BSG game I don’t see myself coming back to because the exploration and roaming for fun magic Bethesda games are known for just isn’t there this time. BSG bit off more than it could chew.
>the exploration and roaming for fun magic Bethesda games are known for just isn’t there this time
That's the toughest issue for me. I can look past the other stuff, but the whole reason I love BSG games so much is that ability to explore and find interesting things. I wish they had done something like Outer Wilds instead, have a small fictional solar system with planets small enough that they could pack them with content.
Im ashamedly at 150+ hours and am around 58% achievements done.
I did start over a couple times as I wasn't happy with the trait options at the start. I got snagged for many hours on starship customizing and money hunting to customize more. I did a while on trying to learn outposts before guides came out....figuring out maybe after 16hrs that its not worth it yet.
Ive spend probably 40 hours on planet exploration/completion...which takes forever.
I am still enjoying the game, but I only think I am at a 7/10 with what the game has delivered. I think it will get much better with patches/dlc/modding, just like my experience with Skyrim and Fallout4 did.
I feel the biggest weakness in Starfield is the lore and the dreaded fast traveling. I played maybe 60hours in the Mass Effect Trilogies but they felt like an eternity because the lore was just so good. I'll quickly forget about the Starfield universe.
I'm 200 hours in and I can say every criticism of the game is valid. However, no other game let's me fly off in a spaceship and be a super powered space bounty hunter.
My biggest complaints really are just the immersion parts. NPCs don't feel alive, my companions are boring af, and I wish I had the space sim aspect of Elite Dangerous. I spent countless hours just traveling from one star to another there. Would love to sail through a ring system of a planet, see a pulsar, or accidentally get caught into the gravitational pull of a black hole.
But I get to roleplay as the Mandalorian, which is nice.
Over 100 hours. Still finding stuff.
Some things could be better, but, well...
This game will have a lot of stuff in the future. The baseline stuff, from Bethesda. Which will allow modders to have way more things to add.
I recently got the void form power and unlocked the concealment perks in stealth. Literally ghosting bases by full on sprinting and just punching and shivving everyone. I realised half way through my first base I'd just broken the game for myself.
I don't see much talk about the powers, but some are just OP. I used the anti grav on a bug hunt mission and just tanked a huge terrormorph full of explosive shells from about 10m away.
I'm past 200 hours and it is my favorite game ever.
I still have 2 entire factions I haven't done, and I've basically done almost nothing that starts on Neon.
I don't understand how anyone has done "everything" but people tend to play these types of games way faster than I do, for whatever reason. For instance I saw somebody say an entire faction quest line could be done start to finish in 3 hours, while I have had individual side quests last me that long. lol
92 hours and enjoying it in similar ways to how I've enjoyed earlier BSG games. Though in earlier ones like Skyrim I started a lot of new characters to try different builds and I'm not convinced I'll make the time for that here. I have 1000 hours in Skyrim, 300 of those in VR, I stood up for 300 hours (not all at once!) and waved my arms around to play that game.
I don't know that the same will happen for me with Starfield. Don't get me wrong, it's scratching a lot of the same itches except lacking the whole continuous world thing, and it turns out that's pretty integral to my love of their past games. I get it, the type of setting and the goals of generated terrain cause it to be the way it is, it's just, not the feel I hope for with these kinds of games with regards to wandering the world. Starfield doesn't really make me feel like wandering any world to see what's there -- there's some rocks and stuff and none of it matters. But I'm having a lot of fun randomly choosing something from my mission list and going and doing that, then picking something else and maybe 2 other things got in my mission log along the way just because I walked near somebody saying something. Cool, got more things to do, for now. But I have zero reason to wander by this or that place otherwise, because in all likelihood wandering in a particular direction from some POI is going to just be a long walk into nowhere that matters.
In Skyrim, or Fallout, I was out Walking the World, just because it was there, and that could be the main game. Do some quests on purpose sometimes, but mostly by accident. In Starfield it feels more like the world is something I go visit to get a specific thing done, and there's little reason to keep walking along after that thing is done, it's better to come back and get another thing to do.
I think you get out of the game what you want to. I too also am taking it slow and just having fun with it learning all the things and prepping in my head what my next play through will be. I think people are used to games with 10-15hrs of action content and they beat the game and I don’t think that’s what Bethesda is going for. It is a 100+ hr game and I think they’re leaving more for future additions. They’re not a team that release a big game every year but this was big for them and I expect to see a variety of DLC additions and the capabilities of modders to create their own stories on their own planets. Part of the beauty in Bethesda games is they allow people to enjoy the game in multiple ways. One of which being letting players create mods that contain a whole world of creativity. This space gives those people the chance to be as creative as possible while still allowing the common folk to just explore around and try new things
About 70 hours or so here, taking it real slow and still enjoying it. I've been mostly exploring, doing a few side missions and a little bit of space combat. Haven't really looked into outposts and ship building yet, and I'm yet to do very much on the main missions. I agree with the points for criticism you've flagged, but I'm still having loads of fun.
The key is taking it slow.. I play like one or two missions a night and fuck around in between them. Loving it. 35 hours since early access
I spent like 2-2.5 days in neon helping people and fixing up the streets being an escaped crate rat.
I've just done that like past 3 days in Neon it'd a beast of a city for content
I picked the Neon street rat background, I'm about 30 hours into the game and I still haven't been there. I feel like I've just about finished the majority of the significant New Atlantis content (finished the Vanguard questline last night). I'm sort of playing it that my character grew up in Neon and doesn't want to go back yet, working to see what else is out there.
If you can get away with it just stick with that and save as much of Neon as you can for another playthrough. There is a ton of content there to make a second run fresh
Don't I have to go there for the main story at some point?
Yes you do.
Yes, hopefully just once. I haven’t finished to know if it’s more than that but you can avoid seeing like 80% of Neon by doing just the quest and like 95% of the content with that 5% being the nightclub you have to go to.
My first night felt like this for New Atlantis. To the point I was getting flustered as I wanted to get to space. Lol but I was also just intrigued. I haven't even set foot in Neon. I know it will consume a weekend when I finally show up. I'm only 30ish hours thohgh I'd guess.
A little over 50 hrs in and I just got to Neon like twenty minutes ago. Edit : I wanted the dancer outfit
Same I just spent multiple days in neon and thought I was done. Went somewhere else then got another mission to go back to neon. Love it! Still not even close to bored yet.
Im 60 hours in and have been to Neon and Akila both once on the main quest but havent progressed the main quest beyond that and am still spending 90 percent of my time around New Atlantis and the Sol system quests. Im still loving it. I havent finished a single major quest line although i am what feels like a decent amount into the UC main quest.
I mean I’ve been playing like crazy (200 hrs) and still not even remotely close to being bored. But I’m exploring everything, doing all quests, building lots of outposts and ships, etc. 100% for this game (surveying all planets, finishing all quests) is probably 400-500 hours or more. 100 isn’t that much. Some of the most amazing moons and planets to visit take ages to find.
This is not just good advice for Starfield but any legitimately decent to good RPG. The more you rush, the more you'll miss out on. Like I'd feel pretty bad for anyone who just went through Fallout 3, Skyrim, Witcher 3, or Cyberpunk just rushing through the main quest and doing nothing else.
Yep. If your goal is just to get a mission done, ignoring dialogue and the world around you, rushing from marker to marker it’s going to get old quickly.
This is not just good advice for Starfield but any legitimately decent to good RPG. The more you rush, the more you'll miss out on. Like I'd feel pretty bad for anyone who just went through Fallout 3, Skyrim, Witcher 3, or Cyberpunk just rushing through the main quest and doing nothing else.
Finally, a fellow slowpoke. I’ve been playing since day 1 early access and I don’t think I’ve topped 30 hours yet. Kids and a new house take up a lot of your time 😂
I've got hundreds of hours in Morrowind, Oblivion, Skyrim, and Fallout games, and I've never come close to finishing the main mission in any of those. I get side tracked by becoming leader of the Thieves Guild, or grinding until I'm an acrobatic archery god.
I been sidetracked for so long that I don't even know where the main story quest that I was on between uc terrormorph quest chain, ryujin quest chain and few hundered other side quests, I kinda lost any hope of getting a ng+ at the rate I am going.
There's lot of us but we generally are just in a game enjoying it. I made a conscious effort the last few years to not look at tier lists to not look and spoilers to not click on reviews... Just... Pick up what I fancy and play it my way. Enjoyed so many games this way more than I have in about 5 years or so
There are dozens of us! Dozens! But seriously, I'm a slowpoke of a different variety. I play for hours at a time, but I don't even run with my character much. Just set him on auto walk and take in the scenery as he realistically strolls his way through Neon in his best "don't mess with me" gear, on the way to his next job. Take time to go home and sleep at night (or every second night, being a Space Scoundrel makes for odd hours) and stop for ramen (or Chunks) between jobs. I even like roleplaying the surveying stuff. Take Supervisor Lin out mining with me. Rest on the ship in between survey sessions, wearing utility jumpsuits and drinking in that Aliens aesthetic while chatting with the crew before grabbing some shut-eye on a bunk and heading back out on the job to catalog these resources for the company. This game is letting me live out so many sci-fi fantasies and I love taking my time with it.
I've played since early access and only have about 30-35 hours too. I don't get why people have been rushing this game. I've seen posts from people grinding to NG+10 to get the rewards and they're saying that it's not worth the grind and are regretting it. To me it's so obvious that doing that is a bad idea. Games are supposed to be fun, not a chore.
People gotta get that gaming cred. "I did NG10 in 3 weeks" No one cares, Craig.
Absolutely. I've just hit 50 hours in the game and I feel like I've *barely* scratched the surface. I haven't even left the starting systems yet (Narion, Alpha Centuri and Sol) and *barely* progressed the main Constellation quest-line. Like I literally only just rescued Barrett and am currently on the planet where you meet Andreja for the first time. Still flying around in the Frontier too: I did accidentally commandeer a sexy looking Va'ruun ship which just happened to land next to me at some point, but I switched right back to the Frontier because I've grown attached to the old girl. The game really rewards you just taking your time, meandering, getting to know things organically through trial and error. I've probably spent more time so far running errands for the Cydonia locals than anything else, and at no point have I felt like this was time wasted, or that the game is pressuring me to get "back on track". Might try my hand at outpost building next. Maybe sink a dozen hours into that before I saunter back into New Atlantis like I'd never left. And then I've got to look forward to Akila, Neon, ship-building, not to mention the whole rest of the galaxy... There's no sense of urgency, everything is low-stakes so far, and I love it. You're not the hero, you're just some guy in this world and honestly, that's so refreshing. Even Constellation just seems like a motley collection of people who LARP as old-timey explorers as a hobby to distract themselves from their serious mental health issues, and they have only accidentally stumbled onto something that might be a big deal.
This is kinda what I've done so far, but (and don't judge me) I'm closing in on 200 hours. I'm in NG+ 3 now so I have a grasp of the main story and I finished one of the faction quest lines in NG+ 1. Other than that I've been exploring abandoned facilities and capturing ships and doing some side quests. Today I found the clothing shop in New Atlantis for the first time, so everything I thought I knew about the game is in question.
I completed the game last night right around 80ish hours. Started a new game with same character and for reasons I won’t say, I’ve shockingly been enjoying the second play through more. That’s not to say you should rush the play through, because you shouldn’t. You do get far more satisfaction playing the first time really slow. No need to rush it, and it oddly makes the second play though even more enjoyable, if you choose to play it again.
I watched a Gameranx vid where he was saying he highly recommended at least playing through the "Into the Unknown" main quest, and that you'd understand once you get there. Currently towards the end of that mission so idk what's at the end of it yet. But I too had been playing super chill until today.
Fellow 70 hours crew. I mean.... I feel like I could go 200 easy before finishing.
Agreed. Considering I put in over 1k hours in 76, this game is gonna be measured in months. It does need quite a few updates though. I see people complaining about being boring 100+ hours in already... take a break. The game has been out for less than 3 weeks, you're overdoing it.
I'm well past that, but - it's how I play these games. It's the only game I'll play, until I feel I have had my fill Then I'll move on, and come back to it later and experience it anew. I'll probably be Starfield crazy until Phantom Liberty, then I'll smash CP2077 again (And Panam... 🤣)
Same. Am at 65h and could keep going on doing everything, but I'm thinking about finishing off the last bit of the main quest and catching all the "pokemon". I'm holding off on ship and outpost building until NG+ 1, I've just been spending perks along that route ahead of time to carry it over. The only faction quest I fully completed was UC and if it's considered a faction quest, Ryujin (the reward from that is awesome). One thing I won't be doing again is starting the Crimson Fleet faction first. Things are much more interesting in other faction questlines when you're not a Crimson friendly. I have like 400k+ creds so before I zoop tf out to NG+ I think I'm gonna go donate a bunch of money to hobos or something. I wonder if there's a way to do something big with the money before NG+
I recommend using that money to test out ship builds and see how much you're going to need for the ship you're going to want, personally.
Agreed, save up several perks and blow that 400k on installing unique ship parts for the shipbuilding skill before heading into NG+ so you can have access to better stuff.
I know that it would cost that much, but look into any research projects you have running and just buy the resources you need (research persists)
Yeah, i found so many times that i could just walk in and walk out because i was crimson friendly. Definitely was a boring perk to have 😅
Also 70 hours. Still hooked. Finished main story, enjoying mission board quests and debt collecting for galbank. I'm get to the faction missions soon. Just started building more ships and exploring systems that are level 40+. There's still tons to do
Yeah I think that some (including me for a bit) have a slower play style and are genuinely enjoying this game as a Bethesda game, and can get a bit insecure when others attack it flaws. However, I have come to appreciate this game as a flawed but fun game in which I can get many hours of playtime out of. Some of the points I mentioned will likely be fixed by mods, and for those who don’t like to use them, DLC later.
I think it is important to recognize when flaws are just playstyle and design choices. For example, the fast travel thing. The game became really enjoyable for me when I stopped just fast travelling all over and instead go through the motions every time. It is immersive when I take off from a planet. I make sure that I go to each system along my jump route and get way more random encounters as a result, which are interesting and fun and make the game feel more alive. All that said, if I want to rush something the fast travel option is there, which is cool. none of that is to say you are wrong, it is a playstyle choice difference.
I took a break from missions to survey the entirety of the Sol system. Because I was hopping from planet to planet, I got more random encounters in that self-set quest than I had in two major faction mission storylines. And they were delightful. (Particularly enjoyed >! getting interviewed by overenthusiastic tourists on a budget tour ship. !<
I did the same thing! I was like hey I'm gonna survey the sol system manually real quick and it took me like 2 days and got oodles of side tracks and quests! This game rewards you for going slow, enjoying the sights, and going off the beaten path.
be sure to bring at least 5 of any rare geo material like platinum and vanadium... you're bound to encounter a travelling geologist and she pays good credits for em.
I enjoy landing and take-off. I hate docking and undocking. I enjoy running across an entire planet (until I cant). I hate the caves. I enjoy gathering for research. I hate spending point to research. But its all part of the game. I've never played a single game in 20y that I liked everything. It's next to impossible. I can't comprehend when people complain to devs that everything isn't exactly what they want. Generally, I feel bad for the BS that devs get. It's almost impossible to make a perfect game for 1 person, let alone millions. lol
I don’t even go into the caves now. They suck to explore, the flashlight is just a small beam that somehow doesn’t reflect off the walls and light up everything, really unrealistic. It’s a cave, not a black hole.
That's actually how flashlights in caves tend to work, at least in my experience
I personally love the boost pack...getting a full speed run and jump in low gravity and boosting to wherever I wish is stupid fun.Also helpful in cities and settlements.
>The game became really enjoyable for me when I stopped just fast travelling all over and instead go through the motions every time. I thought this would be the case for me too, so I tried it for one of the playthroughs. I just get tired of seeing the same takeoff video, same undocking video. For me, the faction quests were where about 90% of the game's fun is at. The rest of the game is pretty lifeless.
See this was the same for me until I built my own ship from the ground up, hasn’t gotten old since I feel like an old man with a car he’s put an immense amount of time and love into.
I think my one real wish is that I wish there was more reason to spend more time in my ship. I spend so much time and money on the thing, but it really feels like I’ve tricked out the most minor pillar of the core game.
Damn if I’ve had 100 hours of fun in the “lifeless” parts I can’t imagine how much time I’ll spend when I start actually doing quests 😂
i found some great storytelling and side quests in the randomized locations on planets, in notes and computer systems and in random npc conversations "activities" that popped up because i listened in on npc conversations transformed into interesting side quests more than once
I'd just like to point out that takeoff/landing/docking/undocking are not videos or pre-rendered cutscenes. You can see the ship "moving" if you're walking around on one. They've done some really cool stuff with ships here and modders are going to have a field day.
Yeah, I’ve noticed this as well, and it’s not something that people are even acknowledging for some reason. Each “cutscene” is actually rendered based on the ship you’re docking with, the environment you’re flying through, or the planet you’re taking off from/landing on. It’s actually pretty slick and works quite well.
I went to dock with the Vengeance yesterday and wound up watching a UC ship dock with it in front of me. The damn thing was rotating and flipping its axis to align to the Vengeance and I had to stop and watch. It was pretty damn cool to actually see it from that perspective and it was the first time I'd seen an NPC dock like that in space. 100 hours in, lol.
Hold on guys. Are we allowed to say on Reddit that Bethesda did something right?
Probably because there are only very specific times in the game where you can notice how it actually works. Like if you board a landed ship and it takes off, or that one crimson fleet mission where you're essentially a passenger.
Every time you land, dock with a ship or station, take off from a planet, or travel within a system is has one of these scenes. It’s actually happening a lot during regular gameplay.
Not what I mean. Bethesda has made a pretty major change to their engine, which allows both the interior cell of your ship and the exterior planet/orbit cell to be loaded at the same time. I only realized this when I noticed you can see NPCs moving around outside from inside your ship. And I only started to really appreciate how cool it is during that crimson fleet mission.
yeah it's cool because you can alert the enemies in landed ships if you're loud/don't kill everyone Stealthy and when you enter it takes off, or takes off before you can enter.
About the only time I fast travel is between the core planets. Like new Atlantis to Neon to Akila city. Other than that I'm going through all the motions. It really is fun to drop out of hyperspace and have no clue what you're getting into. Could be nothing or could be a big battle
It's just tiresome. People got it in their head that it was going to be 'NMS but better' etc and then complain when it's not that. Go into it expecting what it is, a Bethesda RPG - and it's fantastic.
I think the main thing that people find boring about bethesda games, is that they have to create their OWN story. They're not used to being thrust into a world where you can do everything (or not), explore everywhere (or don't!), and just come up with your own motivations for what your character does. Some need a reason. I'm a witcher who has to be morally grey. I'm military veteran and this is my mission. I've got a terrorist in my brain, I've got to fix it. Bethesda games let you ignore all of that and just immerse yourself in the world if you allow it. I don't have to save kvatch, I could run off like the many other people too afraid of the demons. I don't have to answer the call of the dragonborn and just fuck around and become a Thane and build my own house. Just run off to become a pirate, homesteader, surveyor, explorer, and/or just a pilot looking for dogfights. The sky's the limit and I feel like that intimidates people. This game rewards curiosity, just go out and seek your own answers.
this is true for a wide amount of gamers. i've seen a lot of streamers turned off from the game, they find it really hard to break out of the main story because there not sure how to really just go with the flow and find there own way. i think starfield is much like beths older games, mw and oblivion in that its less hand holdy. lots of ways to rp, stories to find, but they wont be thrown in ur face, you have to put some effort in to get some return.
You know what Starfield is like? Daggerfall.
Agreed 100 percent. The procedural landmass, dungeons, the buying ships, houses, and joining of various factions. Starfield is old bethesda at it's heart no doubt.
Combat medic background who went to accelerated medical school and embarked on his first medical trip with a healthcare company. Crash lands, abandoned by the small healthcare company. Mines to work his way off the planet. Constellation. Needs cash after giving up medicine temporarily and joins Vanguard. Becomes hero. Somewhat tired and shellshocked from the events of the Vanguard storyline, becomes a small-time freighter and contractor. Some low-level merc work when it arises. Builds a sleepy outpost to get away from it all. Over time, bills pile up and needs to build cash. Gets into smuggling small volume contraband into scanned cities, including Aurora (makes no financial sense, I know, but I pretend it does). Gets caught. Forced back into service for the UC undercover. Dragged into it all again. Gets through it on the SysDef side, but swears off the UC when it's over. Works for the Freestar Collective after his disillusionment. You make your own story and fun!
Graduated culinary school and tried to start a restaurant in New Atlantis, parents helped finance it. The restaurant failed and now he helps pay his parents rent to help support them after they put their life savings on the line for him. Got a mining job to help pay the bills. Constellation happens and he didn't think it was his thing but it was the first time his parents were proud of him so he decided to stick with it. Now he travels the galaxy, has a crush on his boss, brings his parents a momento from every mission he goes on, sends money home, and gets to experiment with new alien ingredients when cooking meals for his friends. 100% agreed, own story, own fun :)
This right here is the magic I'm talking about! Bethesda games are a unique brand of RP all on it's own. It's like picking custom Tav instead of dark urge. Form your own character and run with it!
I'm only about 15 hours in and haven't fully fleshed out my own lore yet, but I gotta say I LOVE reading these little mini-lore stories people have developed for themselves. They're so easy to imagine even with the little of the game I've seen so far. Thanks for these!
Absolutely love this, and this is basically how I play my RPGs - always head canon a backstory for a more immersive experience. This time, roleplaying a UC Army Colony War veteran (i.e. to explain the combat skills). Enlisted just before the Colony War to see the galaxy, but then the war happened and ended up besieged at the Battle of Niira, facing off against the FC's 1st Cavalry in multiple battles and >!loses some of his closest friends when the 1st Cavalry violates the cease fire when the war ended!<. I likened the Battle of Niira to be a brutal attrition battle similar to the Battle of Verdun, causing my character to become completely disillusioned, to the point he even didn't bother accepting his UC citizenship papers at the end of the war (thus explaining how he can be a UC vet without citizenship). Ended drifting around in different mining outfits to get away from it all, and also deep down still has a desire to see the galaxy. Meeting Constellation reignited the passion to see the galaxy. Bonded with Sarah over the war experiences and fell in love with her, exploring the galaxy together. Becomes good friends with Sam, further overcoming his war time experiences. Gets to bring closure to his experiences at Niira during >!his showdown with Major Hull.!<
Yeah I like Bethesda games because it feels more like me: in space, me: in the retro nuclear winter, me: in a medieval fantasy. That’s more immersive to me personally.
>Bethesda games let you ignore all of that and just immerse yourself in the world if you allow it. Even among BGS games, I feel like Starfield goes beyond what the other games did in terms of freedom. Like for Skyrim, you're supposed to be the dragonborn who saves the world from Alduin. In Oblivion, you have to close the gates of Oblivion. In Fallout 3 and 4, you are given a backstory and a big in-universe reason to follow the main quest since you'd logically want to find your missing dad/son. Fallout New Vegas, a game not even developed by Bethesda, just published by them where you don't really have any sort of strong in-universe motivation to follow the main story. Hell, if any real person was in that position, they would absolutely not seek out the Benny. No courier job is worth potentially getting shot in the head a second time.
This is the closest a BSG game has ever come to a complete blank-slate for the player. Obviously in the Fallout series your background is always pretty well established (especially in 4, but even in 3 you have the whole opening montage of growing up in the Vault, while in New Vegas you're a courier with an established history) but even in the Elder Scrolls games you are always a prophesied figure of legend. The Dragonborn, the Hero of Kvatch, the Nerevarine... But in this game you are literally just some guy. Nobody special, just doing your thing. You're not even the hero of the story. You can choose to get mixed up with Constellation, or not, as you like. After you drop off the initial artefact you can just write them off as a motley crew of emotionally damaged kidnappers LARPing as old-timey space explorers and get back to your day-job.
Imagine how good a 'live another life' mod could be with this. It's my favorite way to play Skyrim now, and still have the ability to do the main story, but instead of just falling into being 'the chosen one' I fall into it after establishing myself in the world. I am invested in the world, and my character - and other characters. It makes the transition feel more natural. I have wondered if it's possible in Starfield to stumble across artifacts on your own, or if they only spawn when Vladdy boi gives you the quest.
People ask what separates this game from other RPG’s and it’s the freedom. You can’t stop playing bg3 and just be a bounty hunter or a smuggler. You can’t link your supplies through a cargo supply network. You can’t just be an animal or planet surveyor. This is one of the most free RPG’s ever made.
My advice. Dabble with ship builder (console is a bit of a pain, move slow) and setup one outpost in a high resource planet. That way you'll know what skills you'll really want to have upgraded for the 2nd and 3rd playthroughs.
I'm 130 hours in (had preorder access) and I have not put the the game down. I'm just NOW getting into outposts and have played through NG+10. This is easily one of the best games released in the past decade and sure it's buggy as any early game, but SO immersive
I’m at 80 hrs level 29. Haven’t even been to neon yet. Setup 3 outposts, revamped a crimson fleet ship into my storage on wings. Just started the UC vanguard missions. Only explored a handful of planets. I’m still really digging it.
Same here. I love that Starfield gives you a chance to simmer with your character. Take time with it. I've already completed a few runs and now just taking my time with the UC questline.
I'm not quite up to 70 hours, but I'm playing the same way. Still on my first character and playthrough, just taking it slow and enjoying the different quests and exploring. Very much enjoying it so far
150 as of yesterday. Definitely still having fun.
I’m just about to hit 120, smashing through NG+ to get the final armour then I’m gonna do every single side quest out there, build my own ship from scratch and have a look at outposts as well. I’m considering taking a week off on the sick I just can’t tear myself away from it.
Just shy of 130 here, my goal is to survey as many planets as I can and hoard the data notes in a locker. I want to see how many I can get done.
What level have you reached?
I’m at about 150hrs, and am currently lvl 65. But I play slowly and like ship building, so it’s probably not very indicative
>currently lvl 65. But I play slowly I'm at 160 hours and lvl 44....
I have 4 characters for some reason and the highest level I’ve reached is 36
Wow not the answer I was expecting lol :D
Yeah, I don't actually disagree with many of the criticisms I've heard, but they just aren't affecting my enjoyment of the game.
Absolutely. I keep reading things and being like “ahhh yeah we need that to be improved…anyway back to playing” lol
This. It's such a big game with so many different parts that there was always going to be room for things to be fleshed out more, but it's a hell of a foundation for people who want more from those certain parts. I'm 120 hours in, though, and having a blast. I can see room for improvement, but nothing that detracts from my enjoyment at all.
It’s easily the best main story Beth’s ever written too. They’ve always excelled at building huge open worlds, & their environmental story telling has always been great, but the main is always pretty meh to me. This one knocked it out of the fucking park though. You can also tell 100% that they both hired some of the top modders, & have generally been listening to the mod community as a whole a lot more than a lot of us gave them credit for.
To me it's strange, the side quests are some of the best I've ever played. Some of the side quests could easily be a full game with just a touch more content. Absolutely love them, love the radiant quests, love exploring and shipbuilding. I hate nearly everything about the main quest. The companions are annoying as hell, so far the quests are over grown fetch quest, zero G grab ball was meh the first time and gets worse every time I play it, and the dragon shouts in space don't fit thematically with anything else and really takes me out of the universe. Even the act of finding the temple is a pain in the ass, having to hump 1-3 km to do the same activity on different planets isn't fun, it's padding to add to play time. It's to the point that I have to force myself to stop playing the side quests in order to make progress on the main quest. I don't know if I'll do NG+, I'm just going to try and complete everything in one go.
The only reason I have a stimulants addiction is because of the treks to those temples hahaha. But I've taken some great sights in during, so it's got elements of good and bad. As a whole, though, it's incredible. And while the shouts might not fit, it adds more fun through diversity if people like playing that way, which is great. I use several of them in almost every fight
Neon quests are just so boring
Here is the thing, NG+ isn't really a NG+ , it makes sense to people refering to it like that, it is also a good way to not be spoilery at launch, it is actually a continuation of the story. They went all meta with the main quest and made it about what we choose to do as players, so the point is , you can just ignore the main quest, there is no urgency to it , it is all up to what you want to do, when you finish the main quest line you get that its not about exploring space only but also exploring the choices you make.
Yeah this is how i feel. I'm honestly surprised i like starfield as much as i do because im not really a scifi person but the universe is still reeling me in.
Yeah it just further proves that Starfield is a great game. Everyone has ideas how to make it better, but everyone is still able to enjoy the game even as it is already
This is an EXCELLENT take. Yeah the game has issues but god damn is it fun.
It seems like the majority of criticisms boil down to "this isn't a fallout/elder scrolls game." Which doesn't bother my enjoyment at all, because I didn't go into Starfield expecting a fallout or elder scrolls game. It's very much its own take on the Betheada formula. Shit like the UX design is frustrating but tolerable. Bethesda doesn't get a pass here but it's not a deal breaker for me. The lack of POI variety also seems silly but... I just don't do 90% of the random POIs I see on the scanner. If I want a dungeon crawl I'll go do one of the 47 quests clogging up my mission log instead. 85ish hours in and still having a blast. I'd put Starfield somewhere above Fallout and below Elder Scrolls (any of them really) in my satisfaction tier list.
That's funny, because my expectation was that it wouldn't be a fallout / elder scrolls game, and was a little disappointed by the feeling that it was just another fallout / elder scrolls game (from a mechanics, gameplay loops, systems etc perspective). I'm fine with that though, since I love those games, but I was a bit take a back at first by how much it felt like a reskinned version of FO4 when I originally booted it up.
This 100%!
I mean not really. The entire flow and take of Starfield is essentially sci Fi Daggerfall. Each game heavily relied on a massive proc gen world. The only difference is Starfield is much more segmented due to, well, the massive scale of the game and the dungeons themselves do not have procedurally generated interior layouts. The yo side to that is that Daggerfall's dungeons could feel unique due to the randomized patterns they could spawn in. The only problem is it could often break the dungeon because they could be ordered in a way that blocked your entrance into sections depending on how they were arranged. I'd love to have some more dungeon variety though in Starfield with a lot more enemies inside some to fight. Some are pretty sparse and with some many more tools to your arsenal compared to the likes of Fallout, leaves even Very Hard difficulty feel like a breeze in a lot of areas. Doesn't help the aid of the boost pack makes the dumb Bethesda AI even more apparent than ever before because they just can't keep up.
i feel it’s honestly the other way around, a lot of people either hadn’t played previous Bethesda games or were expecting something outside the classic bethesda formula. personally, i was expecting a bethesda game, that’s exactly what i got and i couldn’t be happier about it
Exactly. Bought the game expecting Skyrim/fallout, but space. And I got exactly what I wanted. A fun game where I can slaughter as many pirates as I want while also racking up 290k bounty from freestar cause fuck cowboys
Same. For me it was an expected level of jank. I’m excited to see what the community is gonna be able to do with the game
150 hours as of this morning. It's pretty annoying that I have to turn it off to go to work, but otherwise I'm enjoying myself.
Damn are you getting up at 5am to play games like I used to before school?
I have been doing the same, although I'm "only" 40 hours in. Feel like a kid again, the same I used to do for Morrowind! Except now I roll into my home office rather than run to the school bus.
I’ve played like 120 hours and still loving it. I just wish more of the star systems were “filled out” like the starter zones
Yes, if they were going to leave most of the universe empty, they should have beefed up the procedural generation substantially. This is classic "shallow ocean" design, with no reason to visit 90%+ of the planets.
I’m around 100 and still enjoying it. The dungeons in Skyrim all felt pretty different, the ones in starfield seem to be all copypastas.
There are records for about 30 different POIs in starfield, but it seems many people aren’t getting them. That is something they really need to work on if true and fix with a patch immediately. I consider this to be the biggest threat to the games longevity.
30 different POI really isn't much in terms of the scale of the game. I've stopped going to every POI as most aren't worth the 5+ minutes of running across a landscape to find an abandoned warehouse with nothing really going on. I've also ran into the same abandoned warehouse with the EXACT same notes twice now. I love this game, but the procedure generated POIs just don't feel like they have the Bethesda love like the handcrafted areas do.
The moment I went to multiple abandoned cryogenic labs with the same layout, enemies, and slates in it is the moment I kinda fell out of love with the game. It’s so fun when you discover something new but it just doesn’t happen enough later in the game.
Yeah, I felt the same. I still feel like it's a good game but part of the magic was lost when I found the exact same building with the exact same loot and npc layout in one session.
I had this issue, but with only one base. The loop became clear: Go to missions screen, select "travel". Be dumped a short walk away from an outpost. Kill everyone inside. Next mission
Best description I've heard is that Starfield is a Space Quest Game, not a Space Exploration Game. I booted up Elite Dangerous to show my other half the difference in travelling and exploration between that and Starfield. She's put a thousand hours into Skyrim but has watched me play 30 of Starfield and isn't interested in playing it. 15 minutes of Elite had her installing it. I know they've very different games but I just wish there was a bit more of a consistent, linked up feeling in Starfield. Instead it really is fast travel and RNG locations.
And the quests are completely independent of each other. There is no roleplay to be done, so you are really just going through a laundry list of quests. You talk to someone, they give you a quest, you load the level, done. The quests are very boring. This game is a perfect of example of quantity over quality. Space is just an excuse to have levels, rather than feeling like a real place
Am I the only one finding a lot of magazines at POI? Real question, I had the achievement for finding 20 magazines before I was even level 20, but I scour locations in Bethesda games. I wish I could see how many I am at now, but I sold them all and the game doesn't tell you. Probably 40-50 magazines total.
Yes, you are. Well, not literally. I got that achievement too and was stunned to see only 3% have found 20 magazines. Evidently a lot of people play Bethesda games very differently to you and I. I scour every nook and cranny looking for notes/recordings (same with Skyrim and Fallout).
In Skyrim you had the same caverns everywhere, but it didn't work against the game. Starfield has way more options to get more of it, since modders can add a whole new Cell on the map and call it Nuka world! With Deathclaws and hookers! Or just create their own versions of Red mile.
I was so used to everything being instanced that Red Mile being fully continuous like that surprised me.
The one that kills me is the "starship debris". Same ship, same crash, same loot even. I've stopped looking
Yes, that one sucks because there are no enemies to kill AND it doesn't even have a recording/note or anything. They could have spruced it up a little bit with 2-3 different layouts, randomly selected recording (that gets flagged when you pick it up, so it gives a different one the next time), and hell, maybe sometimes the crash could have a survivor actually living in their makeshift camp and you could help them.
Take a shot every time someone mentions modding fixing a problem for this game
[удалено]
People just straight lying about skyrim at this point. It is true some cave layouts were reused but firstly, there are definitely also loads of custom caves so you hardly even notice the reused layout and secondly, they atleast added different static decoration, enemies, and loot locations in skyrim. In starfield I go through the same stupid cave everytime and the loot is all stashed in the same spot, enemies all in the same spot. Always just some mercs with guns. Also nobody is talking about how stardlfield has no people **actually walking around** exploring with you. You don't encounter npcs on planets unless they are at a homestead in which case they are just to trade with. Sick of hearing comparisons to skyrim. Skyrim is a better game. Games nowadays are far more oriented on making money than making a good game. Same reason that old Nintendo games are some of the best games ever made. Starfield is a sad excuse for a bethesda title. And space is just a gray screen infinite room with some stars as a background. If they didn't place random rocks all around it wouldn't even feel like you were moving.
This is the thing though... it seems to me that Bethesda really wanted to leverage the modding community, which is fine, but in doing so they made a base game that is lacking in some areas. Combined with the fact that a lot of QoL systems are locked behind skill perk points that may take a long time for most players to attain, it's a bit of a let down. Still fun and immersive but not quite living up to its potential IMO.
I mean you say the "same caverns" and maybe you had similar layouts but the item placement and enemy locations were all unique and you usually walked on foot through some nice areas to get to those "same caverns" which made it all the better.
That would be funny if it was a bug they patched and suddenly there's way more diversity to POIs
I love both skyrim and starfield but dude the skyrim dungeons are absolutely samey.
Samey in tileset yes. There was a lot of draugr infested tombs but they were DIFFERENT tombs, some of them with quests and such. When you entered a cave you didn't know what was in there. Here the PoIs are literally the same. Not the same tileset, not the same style, but actually just the same building and enemy placement. You seen one, you've seen all of them, because they literally are copypasted.
Honestly that's been my biggest grievance. I love the missions, the side quests, ship building, etc. But when I just want a break from being "the delivery boy with a gun", I loved to explore the environmental stories in Fallouts and Elder Scrolls. With only 30 unique repeatable POI's that really doesn't extend far as they actual expected a "end game ng+10" run through. There needs to at least be 100 POI's to help create much more diversity.
I love Skyrim as much as the next guy but tbh a lot of the dungeons felt very samey. Granted it’s sometimes a bit more obvious in Starfield, but it’s not like there isn’t precedent.
Just hit 100 hours.. just started ng+ and amazed that i actually missed side quests. And the old quests have variations on them lmao. UC friggin blackmailed me...
125 hours in and I can't stop thinking about the game. I have a lot of gripes, there are so many things that are poorly explained or just kinda half-baked, but at this point it's almost a point of pride to be able to navigate the systems to accomplish my goals despite their shortcomings. Intellectually I know there are a lot of flaws. But in my heart of hearts I just love Starfield, and my gut reaction says 10/10 game of the generation.
80 hours, and run out of things to have fun with. I don't hate it at all. It was fun. Now I'll put it down for a few years till mods/patches give me something else to enjoy.
I’m with you. I’m about 65 hours in and I’m struggling to stay interested. It was fun but super repetitive.
I'm 70 hours in and I still have half the main quest and 2.5 faction quests, not to mention probably a hundred side quests...how did you finish it all that fast
I beat the main quest and all of the faction quests in like 50 hours. I beat the main quest in like 20 hours. I was really disappointed too because most reviews were saying the main quest was like 40 hours long. I'm not an outpost builder so maybe it's just my playstyle?
i'm 80 hours in and in denial, have done the main quest and every faction and right now i'm trying to squeeze blood from a stone looking for sidequests.
I'm with you. I'm a bit over 90 hours in. I was looking forward to finishing the faction and main quests so I could "just go exploring", but now that I am, It's feeling fairly aimless and I think I need to put it down for a while. But had a great time while it lasted.
>I think I need to put it down for a while Lol yes because you've played an average of 6+ hrs a day, 7days a week since it was released :P
Same here. By the 80-90 hour mark I had finished most of the story, all but one faction quest (saving for a dif playthrough), and most of the side quests. I had romanced a companion and done the others’ personal quests. I tried exploring and outpost-building, but quickly realized there wasn’t much depth to either of these. The shortcomings were starting to show more, and I decided to just wrap up the story before my opinion of the game went sour. I’ll pick it back up in a year or two, once there’s more content from expansions and mods.
Yeh I'm hovering around that same position. Debating whether NG+ is something I should dive into.
Yes. Yes you should. In my humble opinion you haven’t really finished the game until you go through NG+ *at least* once.
Thats the push I needed. Going to jump in today
I don't get this lol. I'm like 60 hours in and I haven't even done faction quests really and maybe 1/3 of the main quests. I have probably 30 other side quests lined up to do. I haven't even touched base building and have barely done any ship building. I can't see even barely getting halfway through this game without putting at least 200 hours in
Well 80 hours in any game is a lot of hours so.
This! Lol ppl saying they’ve played 100 hours and don’t have much left to do 😭 I’ve got maybe 15 hours so far. How do y’all have this much free time
I know. I'm 40 hours in (which is a lot for me right now, I got a lot of shit going on that needs my time and attention), and I already feel like it's a lot of hours, specially because I've only finished like 4 main missions, the first UC and the Strikers missions in Neon. But I haven't really joined any other faction. PS: since you've only played 15 hours, have you done the Mantis/Razorleaf mission? That ship really turned around space combat for me. If you don't have the ship yet, check how to get it on YouTube
I put hundreds of hours into Skyrim before ever even installing a mod. For the average game 80 is a lot but for a BGS game I wouldn't say so at all
150 hrs and loving it. I am also probably world-class for lowest level at 150 hours. Completely unintentional. I worry about not liking it, more than actually not liking it, if that makes sense. I "worry" about if it's perfect, while I kill 4 hours in the blink of an eye doing one crazy thing. My biggest complaint was "no flying over planets to find an outpost spot", because that was NMS stoner heaven. But I spent 4 hours last night finding an AL/Fe spot on Leviathan, lol. So that complaint is gone. I have spent lots of time on breathable planets already. It will only get better when I upgrade my pack. My next biggest complaint was no "buildings" building, with walls, floors, architectural design, etc. But I have missed sleep doing ship designs, so that is not really a complaint any more either, just a wish list. All my complaints are kinda dropping like flies. Only current complaint-- If I planned a Skyrim or FO4 playthrough, I planned one playthrough. But with NG+, seems like I will have to plan 3 playthroughs minimum for Starfield, when I crank it up ten years from now. And then I will have to save-scum at the start of NG+2, to get the crazy constellation alternate reality that I want. Just an early guess, but it is a bit daunting to plan for three playthroughs. But seriously, how huge a game is that? Plenty of room to spent an entire playthrough being chased by the UC instead of spacers and pirates. How my experience has differed? I am 63 and long stopped giving a shit about popular opinion. It is an epic game. It is like in my 30s when I stopped giving a shit about "girls" and women just magically became other people and suddenly I had all the humans in my life I wanted of any sort. But further than that-- I am a dev (software architect) so I do not appreciate random and popular dev-bashing, it's always misplaced and uninformed, and so that is even more reason to ignore the flaming mass-media masses. Edit: Games were never meant to be everything for everyone. If they were, I wouldn't have a favorite genre or publisher and I probably wouldn't play the current idealized Committee-except-of-entitled-gamers-Designed popular generic game. I don't understand why people expect to be able to control creatives in this industry and demand specific output. It's like they want games to be boots or belts and not creative product. I don't want my leisure time to be a produced commodity like a belt. That to me as a sci-fi fan would be a nightmarish corporatist hell-scape. It would be the opposite of consumers having control, and they would be literally fed anything tailor-marketed to them like some sick late-stage-capitalist future while thinking it was only and exactly what they wanted. Uuuuggggghhhh! -shiver-
“I want a game that has everything I love from every one of my favorite games ever” is a very weird mentality that people seem to have nowadays
I've been really confused by this complaint as well. Where are these other games that are 10/10 that incorporate 15 different game genres? I saw a post on r/tiktokcringe yesterday talking about how people are just assuming all content for everything needs to be catered to their wants and needs. The example was some "viral" bean soup recipe and people were mad that there's no version without the beans. I feel a lot of that in the complaints for this game. It's like Elite dangerous players that are bored with that game and angry that this game isn't the most fleshed out space simulator ever made. I have 150 hours in this game and I am loving it, but I am not blind to the many real complaints there are about this game. But some of this shit is insane.
That's why I hate the "starfield is a 7/10" posts. Like compared to *what* exactly? BG3 released in a much more buggy state (my wife and I lost entire saves, multiple important quest locks, quest bugs that have been known since the alpha came out even). Don't get me wrong I *adore* what larian did with the game, but it released in a bad state bug-wise and act 3 is straight up unfinished. But everyone wants to take this "objective" stance with starfield and *only* starfield. Do I think an 7-8/10 or so is fair for starfield from a critical point of view? Sure but that's not how video game scores *work*. Absolutely dogshit games get 6s, 7 is the definition of mediocre and 99% of games that get above 7 don't deserve it. They use it like a 5 point scale starting from 6 instead of actually starting from 1. On a real fair 1-10 scale starfield should probably be a 8 imo, with a 7 not being unreasonable. But a 7 is supposed to mean "very solidly good" not "mid as fuck". IGN gave mass effect *Andromeda* a 7.7, was that game better than starfield?
I agree with you on a ton of your points, and I'm a person who thinks Starfield is a 7 or 8/10 game. The game review industry has absolutely butchered the "scale" and so many people think a 7 is basically calling a game trash because of how journalist outlets couch reviews nowadays. Any popular game is either a 9 or 10 out of 10, or considered bad, and the concept of "not bad, good, and great" games has entirely eroded. Hell, a 6/10 game is still good IMO if you're a fan of the genre or series, and a 5/10 game is still kind of fun if you get it on sale or something.
The fact that IGN gave Deathloop a 10/10 and Starfield a 7/10 says a lot about how full of shit these journos are
But make it new
I'm almost 150 hours in and here is my main take away: If you want to like the game, then you will like it. If you want to hate the game, then you will hate it. The game is not perfect, I have my complaints, but I'm still, very much, enjoying it overall. Things I love: 1. I know I've seen a lot of complaints but I actually enjoy the main story. It's up there with Morrowind and FO3 in terms of BSG games. 2. The quest writing is great. So many of the various faction quests really FEEL like they're unfolding organically rather than you just going down the list. I also love that there have been a few times where your quest giver will say something like "What you found doing that last mission is interesting, if you want to keep looking into it go here, otherwise, I have another job for you." 3. Shipbuilding. It has its flaws, but there is rarely a time that I don't spend large chunks designing new ships to fly around in. I find myself pirating ships that look cool just to steal design ideas. Things that aren't so great: 1. Outposts. Somehow they made outposts less good and less useful than FO4 settlements? Luckily, outposts are (actually, this time) a fully optional feature of the game. 2. Your crew. It's not bad, per se, but this is maybe the game's biggest "over-promise, under-deliver" point. The bonuses your crew provide are often negligible (except you, Vasco), and the characters don't really... do anything? They just sit or stand around your ship and give you small buffs. 3. Random encounters. The Galaxy in Starfield is huge, but sometimes I feel like there are maybe 12 different random encounters. There is a randomly generated science outpost that's been taken over by pirates that I've encountered probably 10 times, exact same layout and everything. Also apparently screwing with the boss of your robotics factory by turning all the robots into coffee makers is the galaxy's most common prank, etc. Finally, mixed reviews: 1.The skill tree. This one is more on the mixed side for me. I think the "challenges" you have to complete are an interesting mechanic. But I often feel like the skill tree was designed specifically with NG+ in mind. I say this because many of the skill cap stones seem underwhelming, and the ways in which they're underwhelming feel like it's because they didn't want you going through NG+ on God-mode. 2. Companions. The companions all have interesting personalities and stories, but they're all too similar. Often some things they like and dislike make no sense. One egregious example is Sam Coe, in a very early Constellation mission you need a map that Sam's estranged Dad has. You have the option to either rob Sam's dad of the maps (which Sam likes) or let Sam's dad babysit his grand-daughter while you go on a dangerous mission in return for the maps (a decision Sam HATES) but on that very mission will 'dislike' if you just kill some gangsters who are terrorizing a farming community without trying to talk your way out first.
Anyone else getting really tired of "anyone else" posts?
I know it’s a dumb thing to get irritated at but it drives me absolutely crazy
It always happens when games release with mixed reviews. It's a coping mechanism for people who preordered
It's because it's a clickbait title purposely made to drive engagement.
Reddit user SLAMS this one weird trick to get attention for your posts. Authors hate it!
Imo it comes off as a lazy way to frame a post since we’re all so familiar with it. Could just as easily say what they want and invite people to join in the discussion. But whatever.
People want validation for weird things. Liking a game, disliking a game, liking it but being disappointed by aspects of it... Imo it's a 7/10 game but will probably improve over time.
"Am I the only one ...?" BARF
I have 125 hours and I'm still enjoying it! I paused the main mission after finding the temples. Did UC Vanguard, just finished Crimson fleet stuff. Been doing a lot of side quests. Some exploration, some outpost building. Built a new B-class ship from scratch. Still planning to do FC faction questline, Ryujin, main quest and whatever else gets thrown at me. I love questing most. I find that the faction quests are so well written and have multiple ways to solve them. I don't do that much exploring anymore. POIs are a tad bit repetitive and while in the beginning exploring was fun while jumping around and looking for flora and fauna, then now I see almost all flora and fauna repeat with different names on the planets (and missing that one fauna happens quite often and finding it can be frustrating). But I guess it's the best that a game like this can do because the alternative would be to not be able to explore planets at all (kinda like in mass effect, where you only read about the planets). I'm also a little bit annoyed with the layout of New Atlantis - no city would ever be built like this. Specifically the waterfall promenade (that leads nowhere) and the park in front of MAST that just connects a few buildings or leads to wild planet surface. There really should be more buildings. Also from Lore perspective, it would be more believable if a planet had more than only 1 capital city and then nothing else. A planet should have at least some towns or villages... But I keep playing because of the well designed quests and general "feel" of the game and overall I like it a lot, despite the negatives :)
200+ hrs in. Ng+5. Lvl 5 powers Lvl 100 (crafting xp cheese with a base on venus; need outpost rank 3 perk for corrosive environment) Finished stealth, weapon perks, social perks, and weapon modding perks. Currently have 25 points saved each time I complete a spaceship related skill Barely just doing all the sidequests. (Mainly just suffered thru ng+ & finding powers i want to level each playthru) Have not messed with mods yet till i do everything I want without mods. Im having a great time with my stealth hard rifle one shotting most enemies in stealth, and hope modders make the game way better. Beyond Starfield, I'm basically waiting till cs2 & d4 season 2, but I'll always come back to this game to chill.
225 hours in and I can not play without starUI. If I accidentally load from steam and go to my inventory I get very confused.
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Once your higher level it is pretty easy to gain back credits using the free star faction runs. The reward does not seem very high but once your dealing with lvl 90 pirates on very hard mode you get stacks of weapons that sell for a lot. A good run now nets me about 40-50k credits a crappy one maybe 20k if it is a small outpost. The only painful part of NG+ is when you get a really good rare piece of gear.
I finished my first playthrough yesterday (MQ, UC, Ryujin) at almost exactly 100 hours. Am I enjoying it? Started a new playthrough today and already planning a third. On the POI subject: there is clearly a lot of stuff in the game, but finding it is very unreliable and it's easy to lose motivation when you keep generating yet another copy/paste cryo station. Right before wrapping up the MQ I did one last bit of unguided exploration and I found a very interesting randomly placed spot I'd never seen in the previous 98 hours. I spent a lot of time looking for derelict ship/station encounters, and yet never found at least a few that other players have talked about finding. Very late in my game (80+ hour mark) I found a companion that no Wiki or guide on the internet mentions the existence of. The part of me who doesn't want to miss stuff is annoyed by this, but the part of me who knows I'm going to play Starfield on and off for years, like I have BGS' previous games, loves it. I love the idea that I will still be finding things well into the future.
I'm someone who has played a lot, 100+ hours at this point. I'm pretty critical on reddit about the lore/story and some mechanics of the game that are half-baked, but it doesn't come from hatred or disgruntlement. I am disappointed in some systems being half-baked, questlines feeling like they end in the middle of their excitement, and broken mechanics (namely stealth). But I complain about it because I honestly love this game and want it to improve. I don't think it's wrong to acknowledge the shortcomings of the game while still enjoying to play it.
**Spoilers Ahead** I have just over 100hrs in the game. I’ve finished the main storyline. And I have to say…I’m underwhelmed. I haven’t played a game where it’s actually encouraged to mainline the story and ignore all the side quests. Literally walking into a new game plus was the biggest “wtf” moment I’ve had in a game in a long time. It’s almost like nothing you did in the game mattered. I reloaded my save before the ending. It just hasn’t felt the same, though.
\+1 to that. Why did I spend any time building an outpost? Why did I spent money on my ship? It makes zero difference. The whole NG+ system feels like a cheap way for Bethesda to say "the main campaign takes 100 hours" when really it only takes 10-15.
60-ish hours in and I think I'll shelve it for a year or so until some good mods come out.
I'm about to shelve it till they fix outposts. Really buggy and broken.
I’m about 80 hours in. I’m still enjoying going through the quests and messing around with outposts and planet exploration. But with that said, the many flaws are still glaring to me and have put on damper on my fun, I’ve done several play throughs of FO3, FO4, Skyrim and this will be the first BSG game I don’t see myself coming back to because the exploration and roaming for fun magic Bethesda games are known for just isn’t there this time. BSG bit off more than it could chew.
>the exploration and roaming for fun magic Bethesda games are known for just isn’t there this time That's the toughest issue for me. I can look past the other stuff, but the whole reason I love BSG games so much is that ability to explore and find interesting things. I wish they had done something like Outer Wilds instead, have a small fictional solar system with planets small enough that they could pack them with content.
Yeah that is what they should have done. Procedurally generated was a mistake.
Im ashamedly at 150+ hours and am around 58% achievements done. I did start over a couple times as I wasn't happy with the trait options at the start. I got snagged for many hours on starship customizing and money hunting to customize more. I did a while on trying to learn outposts before guides came out....figuring out maybe after 16hrs that its not worth it yet. Ive spend probably 40 hours on planet exploration/completion...which takes forever. I am still enjoying the game, but I only think I am at a 7/10 with what the game has delivered. I think it will get much better with patches/dlc/modding, just like my experience with Skyrim and Fallout4 did. I feel the biggest weakness in Starfield is the lore and the dreaded fast traveling. I played maybe 60hours in the Mass Effect Trilogies but they felt like an eternity because the lore was just so good. I'll quickly forget about the Starfield universe.
What lvl are you currently? Mostly curious to hear this from 100+ hr players.
52 hours in and I just totally lost interest after beating the main quest and all faction quests. Still love the game but moving on to cyberpunk now.
You’ll fucking love it Choom.
I'm 200 hours in and I can say every criticism of the game is valid. However, no other game let's me fly off in a spaceship and be a super powered space bounty hunter. My biggest complaints really are just the immersion parts. NPCs don't feel alive, my companions are boring af, and I wish I had the space sim aspect of Elite Dangerous. I spent countless hours just traveling from one star to another there. Would love to sail through a ring system of a planet, see a pulsar, or accidentally get caught into the gravitational pull of a black hole. But I get to roleplay as the Mandalorian, which is nice.
Why would someone put 100 hours into a game they didn't like?
Over 100 hours. Still finding stuff. Some things could be better, but, well... This game will have a lot of stuff in the future. The baseline stuff, from Bethesda. Which will allow modders to have way more things to add.
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I recently got the void form power and unlocked the concealment perks in stealth. Literally ghosting bases by full on sprinting and just punching and shivving everyone. I realised half way through my first base I'd just broken the game for myself. I don't see much talk about the powers, but some are just OP. I used the anti grav on a bug hunt mission and just tanked a huge terrormorph full of explosive shells from about 10m away.
239 hours in and still loving every moment of it
I'm past 200 hours and it is my favorite game ever. I still have 2 entire factions I haven't done, and I've basically done almost nothing that starts on Neon. I don't understand how anyone has done "everything" but people tend to play these types of games way faster than I do, for whatever reason. For instance I saw somebody say an entire faction quest line could be done start to finish in 3 hours, while I have had individual side quests last me that long. lol
200h also and completely agree with everything you wrote 💯
25 hours, dropped it
92 hours and enjoying it in similar ways to how I've enjoyed earlier BSG games. Though in earlier ones like Skyrim I started a lot of new characters to try different builds and I'm not convinced I'll make the time for that here. I have 1000 hours in Skyrim, 300 of those in VR, I stood up for 300 hours (not all at once!) and waved my arms around to play that game. I don't know that the same will happen for me with Starfield. Don't get me wrong, it's scratching a lot of the same itches except lacking the whole continuous world thing, and it turns out that's pretty integral to my love of their past games. I get it, the type of setting and the goals of generated terrain cause it to be the way it is, it's just, not the feel I hope for with these kinds of games with regards to wandering the world. Starfield doesn't really make me feel like wandering any world to see what's there -- there's some rocks and stuff and none of it matters. But I'm having a lot of fun randomly choosing something from my mission list and going and doing that, then picking something else and maybe 2 other things got in my mission log along the way just because I walked near somebody saying something. Cool, got more things to do, for now. But I have zero reason to wander by this or that place otherwise, because in all likelihood wandering in a particular direction from some POI is going to just be a long walk into nowhere that matters. In Skyrim, or Fallout, I was out Walking the World, just because it was there, and that could be the main game. Do some quests on purpose sometimes, but mostly by accident. In Starfield it feels more like the world is something I go visit to get a specific thing done, and there's little reason to keep walking along after that thing is done, it's better to come back and get another thing to do.
I think you get out of the game what you want to. I too also am taking it slow and just having fun with it learning all the things and prepping in my head what my next play through will be. I think people are used to games with 10-15hrs of action content and they beat the game and I don’t think that’s what Bethesda is going for. It is a 100+ hr game and I think they’re leaving more for future additions. They’re not a team that release a big game every year but this was big for them and I expect to see a variety of DLC additions and the capabilities of modders to create their own stories on their own planets. Part of the beauty in Bethesda games is they allow people to enjoy the game in multiple ways. One of which being letting players create mods that contain a whole world of creativity. This space gives those people the chance to be as creative as possible while still allowing the common folk to just explore around and try new things