I'm about 20 hours in and yeah, it's nowhere near something like Skyrim.
Last month I played Skyrim for the first time on Series X. Had no issues with graphics or performance. The game was simply fun. I've put close to 100 hours in it and only got tired in the last 5 or so, because I spent a lot of time building my houses.
Compared to Skyrim, I feel I have no freedom with Starfield. There's nothing to discover here. Just another outpost with pirates and crap loot.
Side quests are atrocious because of all the menuing. Let me compare 2 of the same quests in Skyrim and Starfield.
Skyrim:
- Enter town,(depending on size can have load screen) talk to NPC, get quest.
- Open map select where to go.(load screen) Either directly at the objective or a little ways off.
- Walk to the objective, talk to person, get item.
- Open map, fast travel back,(load screen) talk to NPC.
- End quest
Starfield:
- Enter town on ship from orbit. Press X to select landing point. Hold square to land. Landing animation plays. Hold Square to exit ship (loading screen)
- Run to a train transport (loading screen)
- Run through a huge empty city to get somewhere, usually with another loading screen
- Get quest
- Run to train, go to space port (load screen)
- Run to ship, hold aquare to enter cockpit (load screen)
- Hold triangle to take off (animation plays)
- Press start, select system, press X to select landing spot, hold square to land (animation and load screen)
- Hold Square to exit cockpit (load screen)
- Talk to NPC, get item and then repeat everything in reverse.
It just takes ages to do anything.
I gave up on exploration because it comes down to landing on a planet, seeing a structure 500 meters away and running to it, only to find the same outpost you've seen a million times.
Faction quest are better. Better stories and better "set pieces" if you can call them that. Still, a lot of them come down to running around a place, talking to people to get clues on how to break in somewhere.
metro.co.uk
