*S*T*A*R*F*I*E*L*D* / Starfield

Going to replay the main story mission and see how it's changed, so far so same, no one except the ship technician has noticed I'm flying a ship no one has seen before and because we haven't discovered space wizard powers yet no one is in awe of my awesomeness.

I guess stuff would change when you meet the starborn again? they would recognise you, but very few others would?

I thought the ending was really cool. Probably the first example of a game that successfully stuck a landing to a flight that never took off. Really had me thinking.

Nothing- it’s just not a very good quality game.

It’s fine, but just feels like a game they lost interest in developing further at some point.

It’s got it’s moments but I feel they realised the 1000 planet concept wasn’t really going to work and then didn’t want to expend many more resources on it.

I would have liked it a lot more if it was Oblivion with guns in space. This was too far from their mould. Hollow, because 1000 planets means lifeless procedural generation, which you'd have hoped NMS was a big red flag for. It's one thing procedurally generating where the trees and hills are in a coherent environment with a history, full of hand-crafted locations, quite another to use procedural generation to create 1000 different-coloured versions of the same irrelevant planet. It certainly felt smaller than any other Bethesda game.

Quintessential 7/10.

No Barrett I don't love you, you're old and fat and I'm all young and buff. I don't even particularly like you. You're just lucky I want all the powers in the first playthrough this time around.

I didn't know this was a thing. Probably would have figured it out eventually because I only have 7 empty slots on the powers grid, and I keep finding upgrades to the same ones rather than new ones.

Funnily enough I was wondering yesterday whether I should bother romancing all 4 companions - I picked Andreja first time around, then found Sarah's post-shag one liners so extremely cringey that I wasn't going to bother with Sam or Barrett. But maybe Barrett gets a look-in after all if there's actually a completion reason to do it.

Currently just started NG++ so it's the perfect time to do it too...

EDIT - actually on further reading I now understand what you mean about it being necessary if you want to get them in the first playthrough specifically... I'm in more of a NG++ kind of vibe now, can't imagine going back to the very beginning again! (And I already have that power you get from Barrett anyway...)

And then all of a sudden the game throws some good content at me.
End of the UC Vanguard undercover op...

Great stuff!

Too bad this came just after a mission where the head dude of cyberpunk clone town threatened me. He was going to implicate me in a murder and put a bounty on my head.
Which was the final straw so I decided to murder him once and for all.
Bullets went straight through him, didn't even react, nor did the guard just outside...Guess the game needs him for another mission so he's invulnerable...
Boo...

So the best two missions were in the Vanguard storyline for me. And the main storyline is now at a point where I don't want to progress any further. Following the religious, stupid cap wearing dude from Constellation around because a word reminded him of something spiritual.
We're scientists! Go hang with the snake people if you want to talk about stuff like that!

Anyway. I think I finally have a good description of just what's generally wrong with the game.
It's like Bethesda used a quite pretty, technically competent version of "3D RPG Maker Studio" and only paid for the "Sci-Fi Content Library" added package.

No matter how old the supposed ship or outpost is all the stuff inside is the very same you have on your ship now. Lights still work, computers are all OK (and just why does even the janitor's supply closet require 14 supercomputer workstations to function?), whole bases are copy pasted around the various planets/moons, the whole "hey there total stranger, do you want to do this illegal thing for me?" and at no point are you at risk of ever feeling like an explorer.
Jump into a new system and it's a 20% chance of "Yaarr matey, surrender ye cargo of face the locker", land anywhere and there's either a structure in sight or some other ships land close by...
It's like immersion is something they didn't care about.
Also, in one mission people crash landed so they built a tree house and as a door they used the massive airlock from their ship. Which still works after like 15 years. Everything must be running on Duracell or something...

I'll see if the Ryujin story is interesting, otherwise that might be it for me.

Everything could have been streamlined if they'd set expectations early. Have a star system per faction with handcrafted explorable areas. Have fewer but more meaningful powers and don’t be so stingy with the magic bar etc.

The only powers I use with any regularity are Sense Star Stuff, Personal Atmosphere, Elemental Pull and Creators Peace. Although Inner Demon is fun.

Space chores simulator.

so I'm about 72 hours in, and it really seems like you aren't meant to get to bottom of skill tree in first couple of playthroughs. Seems like you won't hit a range of them until you NG+ a few times off the main story. Unless you XP farm or something, but I've done a few of the side questlines and hardly hit the sides

Definitely agree with that neilch - I’m on NG++ and after doing my usual stealth and carry weight boosts, I ploughed everything into the perks that let you build better stuff- weapons, gear, ships. Then went to the better buy and sell perk, and the first scavenger perk, for more credits quicker- really helpful at the start of NG+.

Haven’t put a single point into combat, no regrets.

Thanks, that's really useful because I was wondering which factions offer the best rewards, so that's given me something to focus on.

I'm feeling very overwhelmed currently. Everywhere I go a keep picking up more and more missions, more crew, and I've got no idea what to prioritise.