Support NeoGAF

[Banjo64]

Responding to individual user reviews is a small time move, that’s pretty unprecedented for a publisher the size of Bethesda.

Responding to tell the reviewers they are effectively wrong takes this beyond small time and in to the realm of absurdity.

We’ve seen countless examples of bad/mediocre games that have silently and diligently improved over the years to the point where they are quality games: NMS, Sea of Thieves, MCC, Cyberpunk etc. Whilst Starfield didn’t launch in as poor a state as any of them, they could definitely take feedback on board and continue patching the game.

 

[Solidus_T]

It has the same issues as Tears of the Kingdom, yet only one game receives proper criticism.

Going after Tears of the Kingdom? The persecution complex runs so deep.

 

[Buggy Loop]

It has the same issues as Tears of the Kingdom, yet only one game receives proper criticism.

What?

One of them is sold as an RPG, but a bad one at it
The other is sold as an adventure and delivers

One of them is sold as an endless exploration possibilities across >1000 planets, but is boring procedural.
The other is sold as the ultimate Hyrule sky - ground - underground sandbox world with physics and crafting to traverse this massive handcrafted map.

One of them is filled with loading screens
The other almost none?

Do tell how they have the same issues.

 

[Lucifers Beard]

It has the same issues as Tears of the Kingdom, yet only one game receives proper criticism.

You're out of your fucking mind mate.

 

[Dampf]

One of them is sold as an endless exploration possibilities across >1000 planets, but is boring procedural.
The other is sold as the ultimate Hyrule sky - ground - underground sandbox world with physics and crafting to traverse this massive handcrafted map.

That is it right there.

Most of these sky islands are copy pasted and look identical to each other with the same deliver green orb from point A to point B quests. Variety in the sky is abysmal, the best by far is the tutorial area.
The depths are empty and boring, with the same copy pasted mines and enemy camps all over the place. You find DLC from the past game there as a reward for exploring it.
Hyrule is largely the same as in BOTW, with the addition of caves that also are repetitive. If you've seen one, you've seen them all.

Both games suffer from the quantity vs quality syndrome.

 

[ungalo]

Must be hard for Bethesda that this time it's not about the bugs but their core philosophy that people are questioning.

Although it's not entirely true because they essentially sacrificed exploration in Starfield. But that does show that if they planned to essentially enhance their procedural technology while thinking the core design is unquestionable, they'll get obliterated again with TES 6.

I'm not for a 180 degree turn, but the lead designers must definitely reflect on what happened with the game.

 

[R6Rider]

Both games suffer from the quantity vs quality syndrome.

Agree with this 100%

 

[Punished Miku]

That is it right there.

Most of these sky islands are copy pasted and look identical to each other with the same deliver green orb from point A to point B quests. Variety in the sky is abysmal, the best by far is the tutorial area.
The depths are empty and boring, with the same copy pasted mines and enemy camps all over the place. You find DLC from the past game there as a reward for exploring it.
Hyrule is largely the same as in BOTW, with the addition of caves that also are repetitive. If you've seen one, you've seen them all.

Both games suffer from the quantity vs quality syndrome.

I don't truly agree since it's my #1 and #2 GOTY this year, but I can follow the logic in your points here. I loved TotK but your characterization of the sky and depths does make some sense. I think you're downplaying the strengths the game has, but you did correctly point out areas that could be improved.

 

[mckmas8808]

If you're playing it like previous Bethesda games, meaning you land somewhere and wonder around looking for stuff, you're not gonna have a good time. Like at all. Actually, it will be a terrible time.

I think that's why people are so disappointed in this game.

Sounds like a pretty good explanation to me.

 

[yet_another_alt]

I can buy the excuse that space is largely empty but the capital of a space faring civilization being as tiny as an SNES era JRPG town is just too depressing. Actually it wouldn't surprise me if someone can recreate New Atlantis in RPGmaker and all it would take is 5 map screens. I remember people laughing at the Night City map reveal cause it was so tiny but now it's considered the peak of RPG cities.

 

[Lokaum D+]

Please generate Disneyland on the entirety of the surface of the planet, in less than half a second, on every planet I visit, just like in the real world. Sounds totally reasonable.

yeah, it must be so hard to do something close to that, a "landble" planet full of things to do or discovery, enemies to kill, alien races to discover, player bases to visit, coop, dog fight, galactic travel at real time, just imagine.

 

[ZoukGalaxy]

They are really... desperate to take the time to "educate" bad reviewers in lame mode "it's a you problem". They probably feel a deep void everywhere inside and ouside themselves, like the game, finally.

 

[AeonGaidenRaiden]

If it had come out in 2016, it would’ve been impressive tech. But it’s 2023. We’ve been spoiled with game that look better and above run better.

The characters dont look that great but I wouldnt say the overall graphics look bad.

 

[Gavon West]

I've said it before but let me repeat myself: it's equally amazing and dog shit at the same time. It's a weird game. Definitely deserves all the criticism it's getting. Some truly baffling design decisions around every corner.

I don't care what people say, it's a fantastic game. And it's definitely an ongoing franchise for the Xbox platform. They'll take the feedback and apply it. That said though, I think it makes sense that not all the planets will be Goldilocks planets. If a planet I land on didn't have much to do on it, there were always plenty of others to explore. Love the game. Bring on the sequel.

 

[Gamer79]

Its boring by design? That sucks!

 

[Unknown Soldier]

Shouldn't Bethesda be spending time working on the promised patches instead of wasting time copy-pasting replies to Steam reviews?

 

[DryvBy]

I put in 45 minutes and it's not boring until you space travel. Then it's just trash.

 

[Sorcerer]

Didn't Tim Schaffer do this same exact thing when Brutal Legend got review bombed? He told people they were playing it wrong and went into detail about the proper way to play the game. LOL!!!
Completely Tim's fault for hiding the fact the game was an RTS and people only found out when they played it at home.

 

[Sorcerer]

"As spotted by social media account JuiceHead, the team has taken the slightly unusual step of explaining to the people leaving these negative reviews that the game is good, actually. It has then asked them to consider the amount of effort that went on behind the scenes to make a game of such scale."

This is so wrong on so many levels. You can't force people to like your game because you put "effort into it".

 

[Damian black]

"As spotted by social media account JuiceHead, the team has taken the slightly unusual step of explaining to the people leaving these negative reviews that the game is good, actually. It has then asked them to consider the amount of effort that went on behind the scenes to make a game of such scale."

This is so wrong on so many levels. You can't force people to like your game because you put "effort into it".

Yep. Words arent goong to change how someone feels about a game.
Making the game more fun to play will.

 

[Starbuck2907]

I try to play it doing zero exploration, just linearly advancing the story doing only the main quest, and I still got bored pretty quick.

I heard some of the side quests are actually better than the main story.

 

[Damian black]

Or fucking long range comms instead of going all the way to some outpost to deliver a one line message.

Thats another thing that is infuriating. You have to go to a character to get a quest, then go do the quest, then go back to said character to say "jobs done".
This is fucking ancient obsolete design.
Even cyberpunk got this right with the use of the cellphone.

 

[I'm nobody]

It just works

 

[SJRB]

I heard some of the side quests are actually better than the main story.

I put 30 hours in the game and I can confidently say that not a single quest qualifies as good. The main quest is an empty, boring disaster but pretty much all side content is aggressively mid as well. Quests send you on "epic missions" but the game's burdensome structure just makes it seem like annoying busywork because of how tedious it is to actually go from one location to another, and the payoff is never worth it because the game lacks any kind of memorable location or character. You feel nothing while you go through the motions.

Literally no one in the world thinks it is good quest design to travel to another solar system (including the obligatory 9 loading screens), talk a guy into giving you his key card, and returning to the quest giver in the previous solar system (including obligatory 9 loading screens). It's bland, uninspired, mundane trite. Absolute bottom of the barrel content that might've been okay back in 2011 in Skyrim because the journey was the adventure, but here it's just... awful.

 

[Zuzu]

I put 30 hours in the game and I can confidently say that not a single quest qualifies as good. The main quest is an empty, boring disaster but pretty much all side content is aggressively mid as well. Quests send you on "epic missions" but the game's burdensome structure just makes it seem like annoying busywork because of how tedious it is to actually go from one location to another, and the payoff is never worth it because the game lacks any kind of memorable location or character. You feel nothing while you go through the motions.

Literally no one in the world thinks it is good quest design to travel to another solar system (including the obligatory 9 loading screens), talk a guy into giving you his key card, and returning to the quest giver in the previous solar system (including obligatory 9 loading screens). It's bland, uninspired, mundane trite. Absolute bottom of the barrel content that might've been okay back in 2011 in Skyrim because the journey was the adventure, but here it's just... awful.

I agree with this. The main quest is rubbish and the major side quest lines that I tried were mediocre or average as well (I tried the Crimson Fleet and Ryujin Industries quest lines). There may be much shorter individual quests that are better than the main story quests but the major quest lines I tried were all mostly dull and boring.

 

[sertopico]

These must be ChatGPT responses.

They are PR...ocedurally generated.

 

[b0uncyfr0]

People still playing SF, why though?

Come back to in 3 years when its worth playing (like CP)

 

[Impotaku]

It’s wild to see Bethesda in damage control, they obviously don’t have much faith in what they made if they spend their free time replying to neg reviews. Reeks of desperation.

 

[jm89]

This sounds so ridiculous, i have to wonder if it's a PR stunt.

 

[Thirty7ven]

People still playing SF, why though?

Come back to in 3 years when its worth playing (like CP)

But Starfield is not like CP and mods or patches won’t fix its structural and creative problems.

 

[b0uncyfr0]

But Starfield is not like CP and mods or patches won’t fix its structural and creative problems.

Naturally. I'm expecting Todd to fix it, and if they don't - it'll just fall off like F76.

 

[sigmaZ]

I try to play it doing zero exploration, just linearly advancing the story doing only the main quest, and I still got bored pretty quick.

That's a feature

 

[Astray]

And it's definitely an ongoing franchise for the Xbox platform.

Yeah that's not looking likely at all lol.

This bullshit is happening because they feel the need to save the franchise.

 

[mitch1971]

"You're playing it?!" - Todd Howard

Fixed

 

[knguyen]

I can feel the disappointment of people who got onto Bethesda hype train before the game released, They did a really good job manipulated people into thinking it would be a perfect space game.

 

[GHG]

 

[Fredrik]

Nope. This game is still living rent free on GAF for no particular reason.

Its a solid 8 in my eyes, the MC score its bang on. A flawed gem. Done with it for now but ill be back for the DLC for sure, any maybe a bit of sight seeing from time to time.

The reviews are anything from a 5/10 to a 10/10. Its neither. Lots of people in the OT loved it though, myself included.

It’s not just GAF, it’s everywhere. For me this is the game that broke gaming discussions, people has turned digital, apparently a divisive game like this can only be complete shit (loud majority) or a masterpiece.
Metacritic’s 86 (PC) and 83 (Xbox) is spot on. PC - 9/10 (mods and 100+ fps) and console - 8/10 (no mods and 30fps).

I still play it 3 months after release. Way over 200 hours now. Main reason why it’s my personal GOTY. But I rarely talk about it because liking it is triggering so many people that it’s no point, I just do the occasional post in the OT where people are more chill.

 

[Sorcerer]

I love how its suggested if you do not like the game, finish it and start with a new character in new game+. Who has that many hours to play a game they don't like? Why would it be a revelation the second time around?

 

[jm89]

You'd think they'd learn from the past?

Not sure what they thought they'd achieve. But recent reviews are tanking even further.

The smart move is to continue improving the game where possible and not argue with users valid criticisms of the game. But this is Bethesda.

 

[YeulEmeralda]

Making games boring by design? They must want the German audience.

 

[winjer]

Bethesda is probably waiting for modders to do the work and improve their game.

 

[Flutta]

But engagement.. something something.