I cannot understand how godd howard, in his infinite wisdom, thought it would a good idea to completely remove the two things people play and love their games for, the sandbox and the freeroam exploration 🤷🏻♂️ I liked some of the handcrafted content but, outside of that, there is just a vast, empty & totally pointless galaxy to do nothing with 🤷🏻♂️🤦
Honestly it really feels like they created a blank canvas game so the mod community would be able to finish the game for them , they def know what they did for Skyrim and gave us a huge base for ppl to do the same here , which is absolutely lazy but unfortunately the game will prob end up being really dope when the modders get their hands on it
@@gangaim08only for those that capable of modding and run the modded game...not any pc can play starfield, even more the modded one. Skyrim mod can takes a lot of memory to run..cant imagine this one. But yeah, modders are amazing things that happened to gaming, especially bethesda. Their games wont hold up this long without mods.
@@gangaim08 if you can’t even start to explain how, it sounds like cope, mods can only do so much, they improve upon the core, if the core is rotten it will only be putting lipstick on a pig.
The cities in Morrowind make sense. You literally have the farms and mines where resources come from that cities love off of, and people working then. Every person has a home, a role, it makes sense, and that's, it makes sense in physical space in how spread out things are and the logistics of the cities.
The issues most people have with the characters isn't from misunderstanding them; it's from not having the variety in choice of _who_ you can have as your companions. All of the essential companions come from the same club and share the same morals despite whatever their individual personalities are, so you can't do anything with them that they don't like and that restricts you into playing _their_ way.
I definitely wish there were companions who didn't care if you filched credits from a chest here and there. One of my characters is TRYING to be a space pirate but keeps getting "so and so disliked that" messages every time I kill a freighter captain to take their ship and cargo. Well duh. She's a pirate. Players are free to do what they want, as long as it's morally good, otherwise forget bringing a companion with you. I shot a non-hostile robot once with Andreja and she flat out yelled at me and went back to the ship. WTF? I'm sure it's something with her backstory, but come on.
My main issues with Starfield: (1) Lack of features, from transitions to NPC reactions and everything in between, we got a stripped down version of the engine that makes everything seem cheap and immersion breaking. (2) Linear Story. There is only one way to approach the plotline and only one avenue (Constellation) in order to achieve Starborn. Plot hole warning: I think just about every faction would be VERY interested in an individual who was gaining powers by interdimensional means, and NOT in a good way. Which brings up the next point, (3) No interactions between factions. The UC plotline doesn't interact with the Freestar Collective, nor do the Crimson Fleet. House Varunn is the upcoming DLC but will its story be contained to its own space as well? Yes, there is a side mission where UC & Freestar work together for self-defense, but it doesn't carry over to other plotlines and we never hear of it again. (4) Incomplete systems. I know this should hover around the first point, but I do need to point out the gaping hole that I imagine was to combine the settlement and the ship systems to make bases more of a necessity than a feature. From the interviews I understand this was removed because it might have been "too complicated" for us. Spoiler: We were supposed to use the bases as "gas stations" because our ships were supposed to use fuel. This would have necessitated their use on Helium rich airless moons instead of full biospheres and thus proved unattractive for game presentation. (Censored expletive here). Guess they were scared of bad trip planning. Add to this the news of the Senior Bethesda staff retiring immediately after release and I understand what the game was: The Minimal Contractual Obligation before they could cash-out and leave. I can hope things will improve for the final release but right now, if it wasn't for game pass I'd be really pissed over what I would have paid.
Yeah I talked a lot of about the half-baked mechanics in my first video, but these are all pretty much my main gripes too. Like with Fallout 4, there's the bones of something that could be great, but it was just not executed nearly as well as it could have been.
@@DailyCorvid Everything's too sterile. Feels ike a first draft where you just outline things happening or general idea of what characters would say. Emil's not a good writer, but it just seems like there was an extra rush to finish the vast amounts of shit the were trying to cram inside this game. So it didn't get finishing touches to make it more believable and is just there to provide basic context on what's going on.
Glad to hear someone mention that stupid quest where you are forced to steal the artifact from that collector. That was so bad. My character has made predominantly good choices within the game. When I got to that mission I was like "Eh, okay. There must be a few ways of completing this mission." Well I was wrong. I struck up a conversation with three mercs and bantered with them for a bit. Then I had a chat with the main guy himself and I ended up liking him. He seems like an OK guy just doing his thing. Then he was nice enough to take his new friend (me) down to his vault to show off his new addition. He didn't want to sell it to me and I had no other option but to grab and dash. Turns out now I've got to get back to my ship and there's only everyone I encountered on the way trying to kill me. So I'm forced to turn around and ruthlessly murder everyone on the ship that gets in my way (sorry guys! I just really want this artifact OK?). I leave old mate collector alone because he wasn't such a bad guy. I was the bad guy here. Maybe there'll be some emergent revenge plot come out of this? Oh wait I can't jump out of the system because I'm in combat. So I am now forced to straight up blow this bro's ship into smithereens, killing him. Sorry friend I'm on a quest. Todd made me do it. I later discovered that you can attack the main guy once and he will surrender, allowing you to leave the ship without resistance. But still, what the hell man? This quest was whack and felt so out of character for me. Also regarding the whole freedom to do anything you want style gameplay, I've always thought the best way to address this would be to have two seperate gamemodes - a standard gameplay mode much the same as we have now but then a sandbox mode that lets you break the game like the old Morrowind days. Give players the choice how they want to play.
Bro said the buildings in cyberpunk create an illusion of depth but doesn't realize that 75% of the dialogue options are literally just regurgitated fillers meant to pad out Todd's "OVER 50,000 LINES OF DIALOGUE" statement. Player: What does this do? NPC: gives a non answer" Literally just look at the keeper's dialogue when discussing the starborn.
Regarding companions, it's not that I'm upset that Sarah doesn't like me doing things she disagrees with, it's that every companion shares the exact same moral and ethical outlook. Sarah doesn't like what I do, Sam doesn't like what I do, Andreja doesn't like it. It's like playing a game of D&D where everyone plays the lawful stupid paladin except you, so you either get constantly shit on, or you play the way your companions tell you to play.
Exactly this. No one misunderstands Sarah's character because it's made bleedingly obvious the type of person she, along with everyone else at Constellation, is. Fallout 4, for all of it's many issues, at least had a diverse band of companions to choose from that would react differently to choices you made. Starfield is so grossly over-sanitized.
@@blumoon131 Having a Raider companion, a Junkie, or a corruptible companion (like Vette in SWTOR) would be a game changer. At the very least a companion that doesn't mind if you're sometimes a murderer hobo.
“Interactive cities”? What exactly can you interact with in any of the cities in Starfield? NPCs ignore you even if you’re aiming a gun at them. I guess you can interact with shopkeepers, like any other video game in existence.
The yes man ending in fnv isnt a failsafe at all. Alot of the base game & even lonesome road push you in that direction. Reminding you time & time again that the other 3 endings are just repeating history
I knew it was over when i heard -DRAGONBORN- STARBORN! NOOOOOO, IT'S NOT TRADITIONAL MAGIC, IT'S SPACE MAGIC!!!! NOOOOOO, IT'S NOT SHOUTS, IT'S HABILITIES!!!! BUYER'S REMORSE, BUYER'S REMORSE, BUYER'S REMORSE
It's all but confirmed that the writer, Emil Pagliarulo, phoned it in. His rationale was that players don't care about the story. Of course, when the story isn't very good players gravitate towards aspects of the game that are more enjoyable.
NG+ could have had a reason beyond grinding powers or redoing quests, it could be a reset option if really piss off factions, or kill "essentials" as it, bounty board, okay we're cool
NG+ DOES have a reason. It literally is stated by the other you. Do you want to start your life over at another universe? Or are you happy with your life in your own universe?
@@helderoliveira2994 That's a story reason and an incredibly weak one at that. The biggest problem is that Bethesda designs games so that players can see as much as possible in a single play through. Combine that with the severe lack of choices in Starfield and "new game plus" just doesn't have any incentive for the player to choose. It's like Emil couldn't think of any way to give the game an ending and then just decided to not give it an ending at all.
@@helderoliveira2994 That's the lore reason but Starfield is still a videogame and needs a gameplay reason for a game feature. Sure you can save constellation and if there was an existing way to skip sections of a quest there is now a Starborn way of doing it. From a gameplay aspect it really is just to grind powers. The whole deep meaning of continually playing the same game is ultimately pointless is bull. Especially since Bethesda and Todd want this to be the next Skyrim the reality is they saw alternate start mods and wanted to incorporate one in the game. The sad thing is all they had to do was lock content based on your actions. Your Vanguard well sorry you can't be a Ranger. Didn't let the other fractions know heatleeches are terrormorphs well after some time there systems have terrormorphs increasingly attacking. Mass Effect 2's NG+ had no story reason for existing but because you could mess things up so badly there was a gameplay reason to replay. Starfield could have given us unique stories with each NG+ just by tweaking and locking content instead we get chase the light 240 times.
NG+ Needed more variations in every instance, but overall I enjoyed it. IMO, In one universe, Terrormorphs causing a Zerg invasion and mechs being rebuilt to fight them. In another, the Crimson Fleet conquering the UC and the remnants of the UC being like Star Wars rebels. In another universe, the FC is in trouble because Akila's star is entering supernova stage. And in another, House Va'Ruun is crusading once more. There is just so much potential that they could do with the multiverse.
This game has so many inconsistent design choices its dizzying. One of their former devs basically said in an interview that they intentionally dont lock anyone out of any of the experiences (when contrasted with BG3). So you can both shoot your way out of the UC SysDef ship, join the Crimson Fleet, further decimate the UC SysDef navy, then go to the United Colonies capital and stroll into another branch of their miliatry and become a unlikely hero, all by just paying your bounty. All of that is fine if you want a player to be able see everything. But if you design your ending around NG+ then it doesnt make any sense. Game pushes you towards NG+ but also goes out its way to make sure you can do everything in a single playthrough, eliminating one good reason to do NG+. The feeling of your choices being meaningless is the result of both of these mechanics, exaggerated by them being combined. Your choice in identity (pirate/war hero/ranger/corporate agent) doesn't really impact your overall game. By being every role you end up not really being any role. If you do everything and experience all the major content the devs wanted you to see, starting a new game erases all your decisions anyway. Game has very good things in it to be sure, it also fights itself. Feels like it was made by committee. No singular vision to unify everything.
Most of this review is Just "Most people hated this specific thing and they had a valid reason for hating it but I LIKE IT and i have no reason besides ... vibes... i guesss" followed by, "here is a critique of the game that has been proven to be a bad thing, but I either dont think it matters or believe you guys arent seeing the vision becuase *insert half baked reason here*""
By your logic, starfiled made cities smaller to flesh their interiors out but If cyberpunk had a loading screen for ever vehicle or building you wanted to enter you could go into every building in that game too.
I don't know enough about game dev or tech limits to know if that's true, but it really doesn't matter. A big city simply has to sell the illusion of scale and density. Sure have places the player can go in and interact with stuff but it doesn't have to be everywhere. At least from a realistic perspective from someone who has lived in a major city all their lives you can't walk in to any building you want and have an in depth or fulfilling interaction. Especially not in the more commercial areas filled with huge skyscrapers of offices or heavy residential areas that require a key or security check to enter. What you do see is an neverending wave of people everywhere and buildings so numerous and tall you only see small pieces of the sky at a time. New Atlantis being the only place that seems intended to be a big city (Akila is a small town no matter that they say and Neon is a oil rig) fails to sell scale or density. It's looks like it was designed by someone who has lived exclusively in the suburbs imagining what a big city would be like.
This isn't at all what I meant. I was more comparing design philosophies. Both have their pros and cons. Illusion of depth isn't bad, and in Cyberpunk's case is very intentional to drive you toward the main narrative more, while Bethesda wants to allow some more exploration. That all being said, the amount of load screens in this game is quite atrocious and it's a real toss up on if there will actually be anything interesting or worthwhile behind them.
They're not cities they're unfurled out spaceships. Cities require roads. And much of the eatablishments in the settled systems were abandoned, hard to maintain or survive in thanks to very aggressive animals. Even in the farm out posts on different planets, you'll hear the one or two civilians constantly shooting at violent territorial fauna. It's no wonder the varuun stay in space.
Cyberpunk wants you to explore neon filled alleyways, abandoned places, combat areas find shards and learn the lore instead of random people's homes that add nothing to the narrative. Cyberpunk went for the mega city aesthetic and nailed it. And no you still wouldnt need loading screens if they opened up more interiors as they already have done with Phantom Liberty's Dogtown. Its doable, but imagine the time theyd have to spend to do it.
On the Yes Man thing… It’s the anarchist path. It’s completely valid and feels like building your own government, or rather alliance of independent communities, which to an anarchist character is much more interesting than working for one of the tyrants. You get to make real political decisions and shape the world in the way you see fit. If you just murdered everyone that’s your own fault.
This is a good point. I should note I love New Vegas and have done every ending at least twice. I just feel that narratively, compared to all the others, it's the weakest because it serves the purpose of having to be a backup while also rectifying a lot of story and character choice. It's hard line to walk, and New Vegas does do it well. My writing process is... a mess as I've kinda just jumped into trying to write long form videos after doing no practice on writing or researching so I often forget to specify, clarify, or make points until after the video is finished. But because of that, I greatly appreciate comments like this.
@@BillO62 I'm pretty sure he's just saying he thins the Yes Man option is the weakest of the bunch. You could even argue it's a cop-out to ensure that players who "went murder hobo" can finish the game. I think Yes Man is fine, but the others are more interesting and Yes Man is also the hardest to get a "good" ending with.
@@BillO62 I didn't say it was necessarily a cop-out, but one can argue that it was. The main argument I can think of is how easy it would be to remove Yes Man entirely and not change much of anything else. Pretty much all of his quests are just House's quests, but you interact with Yes Man instead. It's a fine way to end the game, but I tend to ignore it most of the time.
@@BillO62 anarchy literally means "no rulers," & every end slide, no matter your choices say "anarchy ruled the streets. The courier ruling an anarchic region is about as logical as an anarchic government like op said, cant have both. When you look at that ending as reigniting that "great experiment of individualism" that died with early america (something that lonesome road eludes to) it's easily the most interesting ^^
Todd Howard: What's not to understand? You play the game, I get money, win-win! Me: But the game is dogshit *awkward pause* Howard: What are you trying to say exactly
The story was awful. A couple of scifi movies put together. The world feels like it was made for you instead of you being just someone living within the world.
I think the overall problem is the presentation of the story, the pacing, and the lack of actual character choice in the game. The fact that this game has new game plus and yet still has unkillable npcs and quests that you can't lock yourself out of is a detriment. That and lacking any acrual cohesion to the overall narrative of the story woth the gameplay elements is very poor. A space game, where space doesn't actually matter or play any real part, as well as no real exploration in a game about exploration is very sad. No sense of wonder, discoveries, exploring already explored worlds...the disconnect in the gameplay with the story is very bad.
That's the issue though. It's groundhogs day. Your reward for finishing that tiny deeper part of the game, is repeating it 9 more times to max out your powers so you're so OP, all the shallow parts are agonizingly boring. Weeeeeeeeee!
One thing I have issues with, when it comes to the writing and consequences of going through the Unity, Sam Coe's questline revolves around restoring a relationship with Cora's mother, Lillian hart, yet when it comes to the Unity, Sam shows not the slightest consideration of Lillian in allowing young Cora to go through the Unity. She would be devastated
@@seththepotate You gave a really good, unbiased account of the game and that's coming from someone with nearly 500 hours in to it. There is no such thing as a perfect game and I wish people would cut Bethesda some slack, because they put a lot of effort into making something that is entertaining. I personally am seriously impressed at the level of architectural design and the attention to detail, in the sheer amount of clutter that populates the locations you visit. Not to mention the accompanying soundtrack that always heightens the tension. My main character has completed all the character and faction quests, with the exception of Ryujin and will not go through the Unity. My second character is on NG+6 and once I've completed NG+10, I will have a leisurely time without having to pursue Artifacts or the Unity.
Entering the Unity contradicts the lore and all relationships established. It's nonsense. It also has nothing to do with exploration since exploration is about returning with knowledge. It would only make sense if you could return. It's like someone watched Interstellar and missed the point that his goal was to return to his daughter to see he had saved her...that his love was what drove him. But they claimed NG+ was for exploration and providing info for those who followed. What? How?
@@XNY_Music They really did put a lot of effort, and created so much that look good, works well, and fun! But also... missed so much. For setting comparison, see Firefly or The Expanse. Those universes had people and societies with history, they had their own customs and slang. It motivated them, changed what they desired and held dear. Now let's look at the Freestar Collective. BS did a great job on their architectural design! You walk the street and can't wait to buy a cowboy hat! But then... they talk a lot about 'loving freedom' but how are you more free there vs the UC? What can you do? Is there anything different? Do they let you target practice in town where the UC will freak out? Where is their slang? Their collective injuries as a society that trigger them? They talk about those UC jerks b/c of the civil war, but I never see any action. No restrictions on where you can fly b/c you are flying the UC flag, they don't charge you more b/c of your UC uniform, not talk to you or block you from taking quests. Just hollow words like they are cosplaying a character.
@@jasonbow1926 Not only that but there the ones who weaponized mechs to a devastating effect. Where is there any sign of that in there society? There should be robots tending fields, cleaning houses, maybe a "droid" market for your outposts. I believe the UC would engage in biological war fair I can't even see Freestar putting up a fight much less being smart enough to master robotics for war. I don't know maybe there was a note hiding some where that explains everything and makes sense of all the lore oddities but unlike a Fallout or Elder Scrolls game I have no interest in seeking it out.
Bethesda has an obsession with making you feel like you have a choice but refuses to actually give you a choice. They did the same thing in Fallout 4 where it's completely impossible to fail any of the quests outside of the ones they want you to fail. It would be much better if they just dropped the act and said "do this" rather then "you can choose to do this or this" but both option have the exact same outcome so it was pointless to be given the choice to begin with. Once you notice that's what they do it's impossible to stop noticing it.
just remember that any opinions you choose in this game mean nothing, it effects nothing, changes nothing and has no effect on the game. this game is not a real RPG and is one of the most on rails games iv played pretending to be a "do anything , be anyone game". i think people are upset or disappointed with starfield cos Todd and Bethesda lie !!!!
So basically it's NOT plot contrivance that Terramorphs attack at the most convenient time at New Atlantis because of the background on how they are made....yea, I don't think so.
This question is the difference between being immersed in a game and not .. when I’m not being immersed in a game, I will quickly start to ask myself “what am I even doing? What’s the point of this?” But when I am completely immersed, hours will go by and I’ll go “oh shit it’s 11:00 already? I need to go to sleep”
When will developers realize WE DONT CARE about the quantity of planets there are to visit. We want lore and quality missions like Mass Effect in space. If we wanted vastness, we would play Elite:Dangerous which has an ABSURD amount of systems to explore. Quality > Quantity
This game should have been 2 to 3 times bigger than outer worlds and no more. There should have been more handcrafted, unique and roleplaying-centric content in it and damn it, there should have more than 3 damn whiteruns to depict human civilization.
Interestingly you liked what I hated about the story. I really hated how they shoe-horned us into Constellation based on nothing more than basically a "c'moooon!" I don't mind it being obligatory to join in game, but at least make SOME effort to drag me in. "You touched the membership stone so now you are one of us" just doesn't cut it for me. I want to have real reasons. In this sense I would have preferred if the touching of the artifact might have left some kind of damage that Constellation had some experience with. Then I would have to go there to heal or get a cure for whatever ailed me. And then I owed them, or could be enlisted. I hate to be manipulated, especially when it is done clumsily or forcefully. My other beef is that Constellation seems completely irresponsible. They are okey with that I alone get all manner of powers, to do with as I like, and they have no checks on what I do with them. For all they know I could be bending their minds to my will and slowly remake the universe as my personal empire. They don't even bother to check if my powers has limits. To me that is hard to swallow, and more powerfantasy than scifi. But the worst part to me is the actual point of the story. In a story about exploration and discovery, the end is not more exploration - but the rehashing of what you have already done. Not to explore the new, but to just keep revisiting what you already know, again and again and again. To me that is not discovery, it is hell. And the only good reason I see for NG+ is that levelling is such a drag that it just feels better to restart the whole dang game but with much of the skills intact. The powers are basically pointless, except the "atmosphere" one, where you reset your oxygen-CO2-levels. Still, I appreciate your clip, and you do have some points - not all is horrible with Starfield, it has is bright moments. I just wish they hade skipped the whole "dragonborn in space"-thing and gone more hardcore scifi. But that is me. 🙂
Oh, I was so hopeful I'd hear about the deep lore that is the Infinite Addendum and 2 religious figures having repeating digits being the key to finding the Unity. I wanted to hear you laud the writing in such exquisiteness that led to such a great epiphany.
Jeezy...the whole way the Keeper figures out that I need to go to the second planet in the Indum system was so contrived. Only but Emil Pagliarulo could write such nonsense..
No, sorry, but you're wrong on the Constellation attitude. Not because Sarah dislikes what you do, but because all of them dislike what you do. And of course she doesn't boot you from Constellation. Doing that would mean your actions have consequences, and Starfield works really, really hard to make sure nothing it does has consequences, because maybe that might make someone feel something. Now, having the player have no impact on how the story unlocks isn't a deal breaker. That's pretty much par for the course for any JRPG. But if you want to do that sort of thing, do it right. Don't lie and say you have freedom, and then not have it. I'll also say that, of the various RPGs I've played, and I've played a lot, I can't think of another one where I've been less invested in the main companions. I think part of this is because of that sameness, that they're all good people, and that they're kind of bland and poorly written, for the most part. But another part of it is that I don't really have to try to please them or get to know them. All I have to do is have them with me, let time tick by, and they'll grow to like me more and more. It is yet another aspect where my actions have no consequences. All in all, Starfield has two big problems: Your choices don't matter and most systems are implemented to a basic, functional level, with no further thought, effort, or polish put into it, even when the issues are super obvious and so are some simple improvements.
I absolutely loathed the quest where you are forced to steal the artifact from the guy, especially since he's so likable. That right there shows how limited player choice is in this game. All of the Constellation crew had been on my ass about my decisions and then suddenly they're all fine with us stealing and possibly killing for an artifact, not for something that could save someone's life or a city, but for a piece of metal. And you have no choice but to do it if you want to proceed with the main quest. At least there were multiple ways to finish quests in Skyrim. At least in Skyrim I could tell Delphine to FO when she asks me to kill Partysnacks. Man this game really pissed me off. What a horribly, horribly written quest.
Completely disagree on Yesman concept regarding Starfield. With Starfield's apptoach to ng+ you should be able to kill everyone because you'd have a chance not to be an idiot in ng+.
welllll.... what's above ground in New Atlantis *IS* a mega-mall. That's what you learn about The Well. All of constellation's characters except for Maheo are too emotionally fragile.
A good follow-up on Part 1. Looking back about a year later, this Part still is valid. They fixed some of the issues you brought up in Part 1--less so with the fundamental issues you have here. All this said, I continue to play and love Starfield, with about 700 hours in. I've only had two characters that I've played with at any length, both of which are over level 200. Although I have a ton of games on my pending list that I bought months (or even years) ago, I still keep coming back to Starfield. No, it's not perfect--but I've found it so engaging that I (as of yet) have little desire to try anything else. I'm sure that time will come, but I haven't reached it yet. I really enjoyed your comments about the NPCs, especially Constellation. They have a depth that few companions reach in other games--Serana in Skyrim probably is the most comparable. It makes the impact of the Hunter killing one, and you leaving the universe, far more deep and profund, and it can reach the level of investment you can have with an important character in a great book. And that, too me, is a welcome level of immersion that isn't easy to achieve.
People who praise Starfield's writing basically just have convinced me at this point they haven't read any sci-fi other than Bethesda games and pre-teen level novels. The writing and voice directing are juvenile.
@ih8theinternet When I'm watching Flash Gordon, I don't try to convince people its Asimov's foundation trilogy. If you honestly think that Starfield is deep and engaging sci-fi, you haven't played or read much sci-fi. its a shallow trope loop that abandons its most interesting ideas or locks them behind level grinds to extend otherwise empty gameplay. If they had leaned all the way into gritty survival, or all the way into space adventure rpg they could have had a good game. but its two bland games half finished then stiched together.
I really enjoyed the absence of both outraged disgust and hyperbolic enthusiasm in your presentation. What are you, some kind of rational adult or something? 😊 Starfield content has been 'unavoidable' since the release, but genuinely captured my interest from its launch because of its 'space theme' which in general has instant appeal to me. My first views of Starfield came from the 'early access' gamers declaring it better than sex (or whatever) but there's since been a growing and substantial cohort of discontent about the game. It seems a lot of people got carried-away with their own ideas of what the game would be, only to discover that Bethesda somehow never thought to ask them to personally design, program and manage it to suit their own ideals and tastes. I didn't follow any of the pre-release presentations/promos etc. that Bethesda churned out over the last year, BUT i have seen some clips (without commentary) of Todd Howard talking about the 'cutting edge tech' , how they created 'planets' and all the 'amazing' stuff the player would be able to do, the creative and interesting features it would have, and I noticed right away he pretty much just strung superlative adjectives together without explaining or illustrating anything... just pure 'sales-pitch' with no substance. Todd REALLY 'OVERSOLD' this game, ESPECIALLY to Bethesda's faithful fans of Fallout (2?) and Skyrim (which I've never played but from the playthrough videos I've seen of these, appear to me to be very appealing and deserving of a substantial fandom). I was really quite shocked in viewing initial Starfield gameplay to hear gamers describe the graphics and environment as "AMAZING!", when they clearly are no such thing...( your clips from Skyrim, despite being lower resolution~~ i think~~ look and 'feel' so much better, despite being 10 years old ). I wonder how the people who actually worked on it feel? Anyway...good job on your video and commentary.
Haha thanks. I don't know if "rational" is the best descriptor, but I'll take it. Yeah I think the biggest problem plaguing modern gaming as a whole is overselling marketing to build hype. (Also like the corporatization and commodifiaction, but that's a whole other thing.) Either it's full of generalized statements meant to have people speculate or is just done way too early and things unfortunately change.
People like being sold to and Todd is very good at selling to gamers, without coming across as a salesperson and he expertly wielded superlatives like a politician. He is a gamer, through and through and He knows how to whet your appetite. Yes, you're probably right about people's expectations, but didn't the same thing happen with No Man's Sky?. Starfield was sold as a space exploration game set and you use your imagination and your past experience of Bethesda games, namely Fallout 4 and Skyrim, to set your expectations. You make no mention of actually playing Starfield, so I'm assuming that you're basing your view on the reviews that you've read or seen.
18:02 - In my opinion the essential mechanic should be: If you kill an essential NPC a screen should pop up "Do you want to deliver the finishing blow?" with some extra text telling you in a lore friendly way that this can lock you out of questions. And then you can click "Yes" or "No." And if you click no, they just get downed. If you click yes, you perform a finishing move on them that kills them permanently.
This was a very well thought out and articulated review and not what I was expecting. Definitely made me look at some of the characters and story segments from a different point of view. I'll be the first one to admit that I sometimes don't fully understand plot points and etc. Very good video. Liked and subscribed 👍
I can still have fun exploring all the different planets, and enjoy doing the mission board missions when I get to a new civilian outpost. Just wish there was more depth to these outposts and were more like small cities, and more unique people to talk to, even if they are AI generated. The AI idea wasn’t even bad, but it just needs way more content in each star system. Hoping a future update will add way more people, AI locations, and a purpose to the player created outposts
3:29 SQ42 wasn't so much as announced as, in line with the wording of CIG's video overview, declared ready for polishing. It is always part of the project, and it's just that most people, backers included, don't quite grasp what SQ42 is beyond a singleplayer campaign. It has in fact been described somewhere during the project's development as essentially a beta for the project- which makes sense in that SQ42 will rely more on everything other than network performance compared to the MMO portion itself.
Interesting! Yeah I don't exactly follow Star Citizen's update stuff so at least on my end it was more an announcement. Though I'm definitely more interested in SC now...
really appreciated some of your points in this vid man. although, i had the worst experience playing it on series x, 30fps lock, no fov slider, confusing menus. i'm still more of a lover of cyberpunk especially after the next gen update and more recently 2.0. i'm probably going to give starfield another go in a couple months/years when modders and updates do their thing, just like cyberpunk. as always love ur stuff bro
I think you got the "state of the galaxy" wrong. At around the 4min mark you say 1) I misunderstood the lore 2) I believed UC propaganda. But did you? So lets look at population growth in the last 100 years. As prosperity grows and povery falls, pop growth goes up a lot. At a certain point in prosperity, it falls again. I would say, by the time Earth faced its problems in Starfield, it have around 20-30 billion humans. Now UC tells us they evacuated all, but did they? It does not seem very realistic even with their grav drive. What they actualy managed is hard to say. But lets look at other games like Starlancer and Freelancer, Earth launched a couple of colony ships with couple 100k people. I would say the UC managed to save at least 1-10 million people. Now we can look, again, at Freelancer, or just at our own pop grows of the last 100 years. Its been 200 since Earth evacuation, so it is safe to assume that in 200 years a population of 1 million would grow to 20 million with roughly 1.5% pop growth per year. Now lets look at the faction conflict we got in the game, it was no small "behind the house" skirmish, but a full scale war. This 3 backwater villages we got in the game could never ever support a war of that scale, judging by the number of ships and spacestations and outpost across thousands of planets. So yah UC propaganded a lot and yah maybe we misunderstand the lore, but we are not stupid and can not believe what we see because it is unbelievable, no matter how someone wants to excuse and paint it. And it could have been made believable with very easy tricks. 1) do not let the player explore the whole planet, let player land only on few locations. 2) add a texture to the planet that is not just blue and green, but also looks like a city from orbit. 3) let the player only land on the spaceport and do not let them go somewhere else, after all there is not much to be seen, or how many of you actualy visited every town on earth? 4) place another key location somewhere else on the planet (like New Atlantis in north hemisphere and THe Lodge in south). And now imagine a studio that is working on this for a decade with millions of $, they could certainly come up with better ideas. Whatever, there are millions of people and the certainly did not die all in the war, so they have to be somewhere. And image if UC managed to save 25% of Earths population... that would be 5billion. Nah, this is something Bet screwed up royaly and there is no excuse. The Mass Effect "galaxy" feels bigger and more alive and there are not that many locations we can actualy visit... the embasy district on the Citadel, well not realy that bigger than New Atlantis, or is it?
My problem with the game is that the main story and characters are just so incredibly boring. I can forgive everything else about the game. Modders can make most of it better anyways. But I can only forgive that if they nail the story.
The problem I had with the companions was they weren't just boring, but some of them were actually annoying to have around. Which in turn made me not care about the main quest, since they're the primary drivers of the storyline. I didn't feel any impact from some story beats because I didn't care about any of the people in Constellation.
@@helderoliveira2994 or you know, hearing the same comment every time I enter a star system. Or having them trying to talk to me during a firefight. Or hearing the exact same comment from each individual follower every time I walk past the same piece of art. Or heaven forbit I pick up a piece of loot and become overnumbered. I actually dont play as a psychopathic killer, I'm usually more of a goodie too shoes, so I never had them yell at me for killing people. They were still uninteresting and insufferable to be around
After playing bg3, I realized how a non problem is to let people kill your npcs. Larian just pops another npc into the role of the one you killed, some of them even appear earlier in the story than they should if you killed the dude that they are replacing.
@@helderoliveira2994 There are consequences. And not all NPC's are replaceable, some of them are. For example. You can kill Zevlor in the Grove and he will be replaced by his second-in-command (makes sense), but you are permanently locked from his story and obviously he won't help you in the end.
I may have a contrary opinion, but I don't see all of the mundane undeveloped planets as boring and wasted. I did not expect BGS to give me a complete and filled galaxy because that would have been and nearly endless and impossible task. Rather, I see the galaxy designed as a platform for development. One of the things that bugged me about Fallout is that the play are seemed limited for development as the boundaries were pretty much filled to the brim. When major expansions came along, they had a tacked-on feel and not integral with the world already created. Starfield is different in that the boundaries already created are galaxy-wide and there is almost endless territory for future development without having to tack on new star systems. When expansions inevitably come, the planets and stars are already there and anything added will feel more naturally a part of the existing ecosystem. I for one, enjoy getting down on a planet, even barren ones, and doing a little surveying (except for scanning those elusive and annoying sea creatures). I guess my impression about the undeveloped galaxy is not so much disappointment about what it is as much as excited about what it is likely to become. To me they were creating a canvas more than a complete game.
there's a big difference between voicing a negative opinion and being an asshole. there's plenty of people here who have expressed unhappiness, disappointment, and negativity towards the game and I chatted with them about it. The operative phrase is a "pointedly negative comment" more akin to just being an ass than having a convo. And that was more to say I'm not going to give my time, effort, and energy to straight negativity.
Hmmm... the execution is so terrible that the only feelings I had were of disgust and indifference... the writing in this game is childish and amateurish at times. I think the dialogue is pointless if it doesn't have influence over what happens in the game. And having to listen to NPCs drone about their feelings every hour or so was nearly insurmountable. I'm surprised people got an emotional reaction to this game's square and moralizing characters... mostly caused by bad writing on the part of the writers.
"The Yes Man independent Vegas ending is fucking boring". Really? You think being a pre-war wagie, an NCR boy scout, or a Legion simp are more entertaining? The independent ending's only as fun as you make it man. Sounds like a skill issue.
I did try to bring first artefact to constelation and then left to play free before: talk to Sarah at the begining of the Loghe. Lost of fun. Oh and you can take Vasco
Good Video , i agree mostly with what you said and especially with the effectiveness of how "High Price to Pay" plays out , it affected me deeply for the first time because i had Sarah with me for around 80 hours before reaching this point . But here my 2 cents on a few specific things you said. 14:25 "If i want to grab this item for Nevae i have to use the Persuasion System" - Here a few alternatives : You can Pickpocket the ID from the NPC , or you can go back later to the safe after you disabled Life Support and Lockpick it because the NPC that watched the place left , iirc. Or if you are fully commited to the Crimson Fleet you can just murder everyone and loot the ID from her corpse. Or if you have Void Form / Chameleon / Concealment / Operator Suit you can use that to not be seen. "Writing and Roleplaying" - Thats intentional , Bethesda does want you to be able to see all the content in one go , so they will never permanently lock you out of something intentionally. Thats why you can still do the UC SysDef and Crimson Fleet minor sidequests like collect evidence or the news logs or the fetch quest in the clinic and ecliptic outpost prior to chosing an ending and regardless of which ending you chose , you can even free the previously captured Crimson Fleet Captains when invading the Vigilance afaik ... but there is actually a way to Lock yourself out of UC SysDef , by getting introduced into this quest by getting caught commiting a crime and either outright refusing them or attacking them on the Vigilance and escaping. Since BGS usually dosnt do that i assume it was just un-intentionally by accident and thus they added this random NPC into Cydonia who hands you a Note to get back into the Crimson Fleet questline without UC SysDef Strings attached ... it is very clearly a patch work solution since the random NPC in Cydonia lacks refined Dialogue and Adler Kemp dosnt have a Dialogue line for this situation when you speak to him on the Vigilance , he defaults to the you trying to sell off Aurora on Cydonia dialogue line. Besides if you do that i also noticed messed up dialogue if you do the UC Vigilance quest after UC SysDef vs Crimson Fleet , and at some points they will refer to you as UC SysDef Agent and that you have been involved in the UC SysDef debacle which makes no sense if you refused the offer or attacked the people in the Vigilance since you never became a Agent to begin with. All of that makes me belief that it was originally unintentional to go this route at all. 20:35 "There is a distinct lack of companions that are truely cool with you playing an evil character" - Constellation Vasco , Crimson Fleet Jessamine Griffin , Crimson Fleet Mathis Castillo , Unaffiliated Betty Howser , Unaffiliated Mickey Caviar ... are totally fine with you playing a psychopath. Sure they are not "A Tier" like the main companions from Constellation , but they are at least "B Tier" and have a backstory a simple condition you need to fullfill to unlock them and give some random dialogue while exploring. Not like those "C Tier" no-name mercs / crew dudes you get at any Bar that do absolutely nothing and have no interesting dialogue at all. 22:25 "The Scow annoyed me" - You can not Convince Petrov to give you the Artifact , this is hard coded , its not the Persuasion Systems fault . And yes no matter what you do you will have to steal it from them. But i bet you didnt know you could instead of letting Petrov show you the Artifact , you can just tell him you look around on your own. If you do that you can look around almost everywhere without getting the tresspasing message ... for those spots you can sneak around , you can even get behind the vault and steal the artifact , you can also let the alien creatures escape as a distraction , you can totally get out there without being noticed or killing anyone ... as absolute safety meassure you can equip EM Weapons on yourself and your companion too. Other than that for the people that want to go the No Witnesses route and kill everyone for the extra loot its best to manipulate the games affinity check by only having Sarah and Andreja with high affinity this will guarantee you to have Andreja with you on the Scow and she is totally fine with chosing the No Witnesses option. Another way is kinda exploity , but you can just Shoot Petrov directly before even talking to him , if you downed him on this shot he will instantly give up and let you freeroam the entire ship and take whatever you want ... and you wont have to kill anyone but you will get a bounty for doing so. One of the things i enjoy in Bethesda games is to roleplay and experiment by finding the loopholes or unrefined edges of the boundaries what we could call Bethesdas rules on what they allow you to do or dont. 26:30 "In fact Barretts Companion Quest literally involves getting him a Power" - What ? I just finished his Companion Questline and it was all about Barretts dead Husband Ervin ... there was nothing that would let Barrett get a power. What are you talking about ? Did i miss something ? Is this some NG+ stuff ? (i havent started NG+ yet) 32:25 "What if one day he decided to just stop , to stay in the universe" - Well then The Hunter becomes another version of The Pilgrim or Keeper Aquilus ... The Pilgrim , The Hunter , Keeper Aquilus yeah .. different versions of the same person from different periods in their life time. So this guy has a surprising amount of screen time , you can not just encounter him in the quests but also talk to the Hunter in the Viewport Bar and then Akila Cities Bar prior to the Quest Into the Unknown ... same with the Keeper you can talk to him prior to Unity about if you / or if you not read Among the Grav Jumps and your thoughts on it , you can also talk to him after the Quest Unity for more insights on him and talk about your thoughts of the Unity and if you found your truth . He should also have some NG+ Dialogue when you reach that point , but i havent yet. "Themes of the Game and last thoughts" - Starfield is more Star Trek than it is Star Wars .... So i really enjoyed the mostly logical and understandable Hard Sci-Fi setting and the psychological and philosophical approach in writing especially for this settings Quests. Most games out there are either or but never all the things in one ... and im especially tired of very soft sci-fi high octane action stuff like Star Wars. Im also not a fan of real Space Sim games , the only one of those i liked is X4: Foundations and if i want to play that , i just play that. In other words : Starfield for me fills a spot that i didnt even know i wanted before i got it , and now i dont want to miss it anymore. Thats how much i like this game , and since the game is basicly only a foundation with how many features are very basic , it can only become better from here. ^^
Hey thanks for this comment! You've said a lot here that I want to reply to, so I'm gonna go piece by piece. In general, I'm not perfect, and my writing/research process is filtered through my incredibly scattered, forgetful brain so I did miss a lot of stuff or just didn't think about some things. I completely forgot that pickpocketing is a mechanic, to be honest. It's not something I ever found much use out of in the Fallout games I've played or in Skyrim, so it kind of disappears from my radar, but it being there is a nice choice. As for Bethesda wanting the player to be able to experience it all in one go, I do understand that's what they're going for, I just feel it's not a great design choice. Especially with the push for NG+ that would work as a perfect reset to be able to try out different paths and choices. If you could actually burn bridges with factions, it would give players more of a reason to push through into the unity to see how things would play out. But that's just how I personally feel. I know a lot of people do like this design choice, I just feel it strips away some really cool story beats. To be fair on the companion thing, like how I never got around to finishing the Crimson fleet line before I did this video, I also missed a lot of that stuff too. Which is my fault. I wanted to get these videos done before the hype died down because I wanted to have these conversations. And I *could* have seen this stuff if I didn't waste a precious 20 hours just surveying random planets for no reason. However, not having a truly evil main companion character (I would argue Vasco is more indifferent than anything) feels like a missed opportunity. Doesn't bother me though because I like to play good characters. I actually did spend like an hour trying to sneak my way around the Scow before settling on the route I felt I had to take, which added to the frustration because I kept getting lost (I am awful at navigating space in video games) but I didn't even think of half of these solutions and to be honest, you may have changed my mind a bit about it. It does suck that you absolutely have to get that artifact from him because there aren't alternate ones, but I suppose that's actually a bit realistic as sometimes you have to do what you have to do. Maybe the Power thing isn't actually a part of Barrett's quest. Like I said I only got around to doing Sarah's and Andreja's, and it *might* be a NG+ thing (I'm not sure because I didn't take him as a follower until I got into NG+), but yeah he does have a quest that involves taking him to a temple and getting him a power. I just assumed it was a part of his personal quest line, but hey I guess not. RIGHT I forgot about the whole pilgrim thing, and I guess I missed the subtext about him becoming another version of Aquilis. That's actually super interesting. Personally I'm a much bigger fan of Star Wars than Star Trek, and I did get some of that out of the game (with the space battles specifically). I am excited to see where the game goes from here but... there's a lot of work that needs to be done I think. I'm typically hesitant to call games "unfinished" but I think Starfield does fit the bill. Maybe it'll get better. We'll see.
@@seththepotate I added some numbers to keep better track of what we are talking about. 1. Thanks for your reply and dont worry , in my case its that english isnt my native language so dont get mad if i get something wrong or write essays to get my point accros. 2. - pickpocket - nothing to add 3. All in One Go vs Burning Bridges with NG+ in mind. - yeah i see your point , bethesda really could have allowed for such a consequence with the NG+ cycles. They could still have their All in One Go theme for the first playthrough or for whichever the player choses by simply giving dialogue options that would allow for a compromise between the factions. And for everyone else with other dialogue options going into full lock down choice + consequence situations. 4. Companions - You mean specifically a "A Tier" (like the Constellation guys) but Evil Companion , yeah having one of those fully fleshed out would be really nice to have , but i can understand that such a person with that mindset wouldnt fit Constellation as a Group. Its really weird because you meet Mathis Castillo really early in the Crimson Fleet Questline and you can start this Questline really early by simply commiting any crime and getting caught. Why they lock him behind the end of the Crimson Fleet Questline isnt really understandable and he is only a "B Tier" Companion. Bethesda could have made him really awesome and stand out if they would turned him into a "A Tier" Companion and allow you to take him with you for all Crimson Fleet Quests and beyond. Thet would have been really cool and since he can be introduced to the player relatively early it would also solve the problem of finding a suitable evil companion. 5. "I am awful at navigating space in video games" - Me too , well it also dosnt help that there are no interior maps at all , having Maps for Cities and Major Interior Quest Locations would have been nice. I must admit tho , that the Scow is one of those spots where i rather kill everyone and loot everything , so since everyone was dead i wasnt distracted by NPCs catching me tresspass , so i was able to take a good look around to memorize most of the location. If you go full on sneak in the Scow and you havent seen the layout at all it can be really tough , plus as soon as you take the artifact you get 500 credit bounty and all NPCs go into a somewhat alarmed state , you have to be extra carefull then to not get caught or it will turn into a massacre. So my advice is basicly kill everyone and get familiar with the layout and memorize your escape route , reload a earlier save and then best of luck to you , its by far the hardest part to sneak through in the entire game i would say. Even Ryujin Industries Questline was easier to sneak i felt. This is a perfect place to use everything at your disposal , sneak drugs for less noise , operator suit , chameleon effect on space suit , space suit sneak mods for less detection , or no space suit for less equipment mass for less noise , sneak and concealment skill ... Andreja is also helpfull since she is less likely to be seen with her own Concealment skill. 6. Barrett - Oh yeah i was wondering , this is defo not his Companion Quest so i just assumed its a NG+ thing , but thats cool , it means there are more changes to NG+ then what i originally expected. Without Spoiling to much , Barretts Companion Quest is all about him coping with the loss of his husband. I always felt like Barrett could need a bit more than that , but hey if i can get him a Power in NG+ that pretty much solves that for me. 7. Pilgrim , Hunter , Keeper Aquilus - nothing to add really , but i have to wonder if you can discover even more stuff about him 8. Starfield Unfinished - I tend to agree with you , even back in Skyrim the Vampire Mechanic felt unfinished and only after the release of Dawnguard i felt that it is more whole. Someone else once said : Bethesda games are at their worst on launch. And i fully agree with this statement. Starfield feels like a Framework or Foundation to add on to , because of the many features it has and introduces that lack polish or depth. I just hope that this lacking polish and depth comes from Bethesda and isnt only rellied on modders to fill. Imo modders can get creative by injecting into the Procedural Generation , Point of Interests and Radiant Mission Board Quests ... those places are perfectly designed as injection points for modders. But the Core stuff like Quests , Dialogue , moment to moment exploration , city and major location maps , weapon / space suit mods , Outposts , Spaceship Building , Space Combat that kinda stuff should first be addressed by Bethesda. Lots of stuff xD
@@ummerfarooq5383 You can only Persuade Petrov in showing you around , not in handing you over the Artifact. If you let Petrov show you around you have a faster way for the run n gun style , but if you are sneaky he will stand right in front of what you try to steal. So Persuading him is detrimental if you have a Stealth build.
So... basically what you're saying is the ending of this game is boring sh.t, but wait! That is the point! It has a deep meaning! Nah, it's just boring sh.t...
I'm new game plus 10 Venerator now, and to be honest, I'm bored now, But the game have great modding potential and hopefully the game devs will release some patches and updates that will improve overall gameplay.
Worth the wait! I like what you said about the ending stuff, but I would recommend you try heading to the unity with everyone, then just turn back. It really just adds some dialogue, but there are a few things said that help add to the themes, at least for me.
Turning back totally ruins any idea of having some sort of committed relationship or true friendships or logic. I mean even deciding to go gives some stupid dialog. Prior to going, you meet Starborn. None of them are decent people. They all attack you. One kills a friend. The Pilgrim's writings tell you how soul crushing changing realities is. The Hunter exemplifies that. The Emissary is no better and basically wants to form a cult to control who enters, though clearly no one should. If you don't side with either which to me is logical, then you're letting everyone just change universes. That's as stupid as the rest of it. The only logical choice really would be to destroy the artifacts and seal off the Unity but you can't. So, don't jump, go back to your friends. Before I went I told Sarah she had to let me go, I had to go. Funny, when I had told her she was the only thing that mattered to me. She was worried about whether we'd become like the Hunter...we will. So, I return and she's disappointed in me and pushes me to go. She tells me we both will one day. Now, that's love and commitment to a marriage. Everyone tells me I should go, what's my problem. It's some of the worst writing ever in a game. The story is totally contradictory from one minute to the next.
Idk, the way u explain it in the beginning made it seem 100% more interesting than it is. think about that, a person can explain it with more passion than the game has for itself, the whole games narrative is bland, made by committee to not offend anyone, if they had even cared to hire writers with even the smallest nugget of talent in a primarily narrative driven game then people would have less issue with everything else. Feels like you are letting them off the hook so much when u say its not bad writing. i dont think its even subjective, i mean that u bring up cyberpunk, which its writing brings the characters alive, you can feel their emotions, it doesnt matter how good lore is if you cant make people care about the characters.
This game would have been alot better if there were actually challenging enemies to engage with. The game is simply way too easy, even on very hard. No motivation to level up or develop my skills. After beating it once its like whats the point?
First playthrough: didn't side with hunter or emissary, killed them both. Allowed neurolink with ryujin. Went with Aceles. Let Andreja die. Killed Ron Hope. Married Sarah. Enslaved the ship orbiting paradiso. Was then forced into the unity before finishing spacer quest. Second playthrough: did everything the same but I saved both Sarah and Andreja. Denied neurolink and convinced the ship orbiting to move on with a new grav drive. My second playthrough I really didn't care about forming relations or really cared about the story because I did it right after I just did everything. Really don't see a point in a 3rd playthrough. I have corrected everything that I wanted to and if the enemies aren't going to scale to my level then I don't see a point.
4:34 - good ol' success. 0.01% survived, 99.99% population decline. Did someone bring the animals? Ain't got room for them, we'll solve the tiny egg bank collection later. Whoops, aggressive spider ponies.
Re: Essential NPCs/stories/choices and the negatives they create, if only there were a way to reset the universe if you screwed up too badly... Re: The main story. The issue I have is that I'm forced to join them. What is the negative if I'm allowed to say "No thanks" and take the pirate ship? Your issue with having to "find the fun" wouldn't be there. You would be able to say yes to Barrett, or you could open your quest log and go to the Lodge to join up. Easy, peasy, player choice lemons. Finally, overall I agree with many of the points you made. The one thing I disagree with is your placement of failure solely on the players to "not understand" a theme or the meaning of what Sarah says, etc. Everyone has a different set of skills. Some would make them a nightmare for gangs who traffic in sex slaves, and maybe those people don't have the same skillset you do when it comes to breaking down a story for themes or maybe they were done with BGS sometimes atrocious writing and had resorted to AAAAAing their way through conversations. My point being. If those themes were important, they should have been made clear. While some folks miss it or don't get it, others miss it because it's presented so poorly. Even my opinion that BGS writing is the food equivalent of a gas station hot dog is going to be different than others. I think the UC Vanguard quest is garbage. The most dangerous alien in the galaxy, that is over and over characterized in the game as super powerful? Yeah I killed a level 10 terrormorph while doing the tutorial. The leader of the UC needs me to make her decisions about something as dangerous as Terrormorphs? What the actual fuck, that is some childish ass nonsensical bullshit. At least have a section where you can go around to the other 4 people involved and convince them one way or another. Then it's not just Alex J Protagonist. Decision maker of the universe.
I didn't have to kill for the artifact...I pretty much went thru the whole game without havinh conflict if it wasnt absolutely necessary. Especially if you decide to go under cover for the UC...U cant kill people like that or you'll be looked at on the fleets side. I recently just realized to use the non lethal gunz to stop a person whos hostile if they're the only 1. Theres some dude that shoots at me everytime i walk in hope tech so instead of killing him i just knock him out with the non lethal beam...Im hooked on this game. I only played some of Spider-Man 2 & haven't even started on Mirage. Im not goin into the Unity until im all the way over & when i do ill be done with rhe game. I have no interest in starting from scratch
My only problem with companions was the nagging. Them constantly complaining because I want to loot everything just made me dislike them so much I just left them at the lodge. That being said quest bugs and bethesdas lack of patching to fix them finally made me quit playing.
There was no reason for so much of the game world to be empty nothing. For those who argue that its realistic I ask you this, you do realize this is a video game right? You want realism, get off your butt and go outside. Theres plenty of it there. Let video games be what they were always meant to be, an escape from reality, not a reminder of it.
The world are not all empty there's plenty to do on them. It's just not as interesting as their past games and for good reason. How are you realistically supposed to turn an Elder scrolls map and to a 1000 different planets. It's just not possible. starfield is best played when accepting quests and going to cool locations throughout those missions and doing a little bit of sidewandering whilst already on a planet for a specific mission.
Nah bro. This game is trash A literal fast travel simulator with fetch quests in between, with a couple bullet sponge brain dead AI So boring. Trash. Unfixable Conceptually, this is garbage. 1/10 Change my mind
Daggerfall had bigger cities but I'm pretty sure they were procedurally generated. The without spoilers, ending of the SysDef story is very disappointing IMO. Just really like... they didn't think through the implications at all. The rest of my comment is probably going to seem fairly negative, but that's because the game's most interesting aspects are its flaws. It's a pretty generic Bethesda game with all the upsides and downside of that. The combat is fun, which is a huge improvement over the last Bethesda game I played (skyrim) even though the weapon variety is very disappointing, the characters are really well acted, which I guess is unusual for Bethesda, but whatever. The space ship design is really enjoyable until you try to make a usable interior layout. Some of the quests are really good. Not everyone is capable of assembling the Armalary. You have to be rich or connected enough to be able to fly all over the settled systems and collect the artifacts then fight off the Starborn coming after you. So it's kind of a chosen one story, it's just that you're chosen by capitalism. This ties in with my overall problems with the main story. That it's basically a bait and switch. There is nothing "out there" to find out about as Sarah says in all the trailers. The only great mystery in all the universe is that nothing matters but the fucked up game some ancient alien wannabe god cooked up for anyone privileged enough to pay the entry fee, allowing you to enter an infinite cycle of repeating identical alternate universes to do the same thing over and over until you get bored. Nothing matters not because space is big, but because it's actually extremely small. There is nothing but this tiny section of the galaxy with these same identical humans repeating the same actions over and over in an eternal loop as petty demigods pursue power for its own sake around them. So uh... I actually had pretty much the opposite experience with it that you did I guess. The problems with the main story also tie in nicely with Bethesda's general lackluster game design and writing. Sarah was my wife in my first playthrough. The Hunter killed my wife... All of that is basically forgotten the instant she dies. She's just your friend who died, and it turns out that there are tons of alternate universes, so who cares? Bethesda just didn't imagine that you would really care about the companions so the fact Hunter killed your spouse then an alternate reality version of them shows up alive and fighting him is treated with near nonchalance. You barely talk about it before going on to deciding if you're going to side with your wife/best friend's murderer, or an alternate universe version of them. The disregard for the side characters is well demonstrated in the fact that you can't invite your own parents to your wedding. Since the parents are optional side content you can only get by picking a specific starting perk, they just didn't bother tying them into anything else. Designing a game that requires tons of menial tedious tasks and then making your story about how your game requires tons of menial tedious tasks is not profound. It's lazy and cynical. You decided to make the game this way. The fact that you know it's bad doesn't make it better, it makes it worse, because you knew it was bad and did it anyway. A lot of people have said that after playing through multiple NG+s they start to feel detached from the NPCs like the Hunter... but it's not like the Hunter. The Hunter isn't a gamer, he's an NPC in the game's multiverse. As far as he's concerned it's a real world and everyone in it is real. He just doesn't value their lives. The player on the other hand is just losing their ability to suspend disbelief after having the unreality of the world rubbed in their face for hours and hours by the game being designed in way that does that. Keeper Aquilus implies he used to be The Hunter, so the game answers the question of what he'd be like for us pretty clearly. I liked the lockpick minigame for the first several hours. Once it started throwing constant expert and master locks at me with nothing behind them I eventually just started not bothering to pick those locks anymore. It's not fun enough of a minigame for how much time it takes with such bad rewards. The Lower level locks are the ones I still did consistently because they were easy and quick.
Actually a very interesting take, and I appreciate you writing all this out. You're very right about the game's most interesting aspects being it's flaws and shortcomings. I could have honestly gone on for hours about what annoyed me/what I didn't like, but at this point everything there has already been said so I wanted to (try) to focus on what I more enjoyed. I did talk about the stuff like the combat and the ship designer in the last video, and yeah we pretty much fully agree on that, I think. Love love love the interpretation of it being a little bit of a chosen one thing due to economic circumstances and/or having the means to travel wherever. Fucking brilliant. Everything you say about the nature of the main story and the companions is really interesting too, and it's getting me thinking about it all in different ways. Starfield really does just kinda assume you won't really care about them, huh? Your favorite companion dies and the funeral and stuff is cool, but then afterward, who cares? You're making me wish I could go back in time and add like 10 minutes to the runtime of this video, because I could easily contrast it to how Cyberpunk handles Jackie, his death, and how it has a continued effect on V. (I'm working on a super rough outline for a deep dive into CPK2077 so it's on my mind a lot). This game was probably doomed from the start. I heard that for the 8 year development cycle, at least half of that was just engine upgrades and technical stuff. So this huge, sprawling, open world narrative driven game got only 3-4 years of *actual* development, which is... uh.. not a lot of time for anything more than mediocrity. But I don't know, for some reason I just still like it. Maybe I'm subconsciously forcing it or something because I really want a space game that's not NMS or Elite: Dangerous in the way there's a tangible reason for me to play. I should really play Mass Effect...
@@seththepotate Yeah, I think I sometimes give the impression that I hate the game, but I really just find it like, fine. It was a fun game when I played it and It'll probably get better in the future, assuming they don't go overboard with the microtransactions they seem to be planning to add. It's got the most potential of any Bethesda game I've played. Like, I'm not wild about the worldbuilding (why did they add and then remove mechs from the game's setting in backstory?) but there's so many systems for gameplay in place that modders could do so much with. Like, being able to use the nonlethal weapons to capture bounties and carry them in your brig... which feels like it should already be there... but if it was intended and left out then it should be possible for modders to add it. Such a weird game to talk about because I have such mixed feelings about it.
Isnt the Starfield timeline occur in the 24th century, only 300 years from now ? Thats not enough time for Earth to become legend or myth. Not by a long shot. Maybe 5000 years, but not 300.
They should have done sf for pc only. The crapbox limited its tech. Probably could have been nomans sky style planet entering without shitbox. Toddlers first priority is money. I hope sf is just a way to fund the next elder scrolls game.
There is no part of this game that is remotely enjoyable. Exploration is almost non existent and un-fun, bad shooting mechanics, boring quests, level ups are tedious and not exciting, ship flight is awful, ship building is nothing special, AI is braindead - both with enemies and companions, main plot is sooo un-original.
Honestly, you are justifying an incredibly bad game in the way it is organized with good elements, even the games from before are better and that in the time it came out, they have to evolve, more than 10 years have passed, the new generations will see this game as garbage like a Old school game for them, I'm sure that most of the people who support this game are fans of the company.
Im good, im not goin into the unity. I did the main quest, uc, 3 star rangers, & the last 1 was the crimson fleet if u wanna call it that b/c i went undercover to take them down. That was the last 1 i had to do & wouldve been a great way to end the game. I just decided to take a break & play Spiderman but i think this is a game ill always come back to to do something b/c if i had of went into the unity & ended it i would still feel complete b/c i did alot of stuff. I didn't just rush thru the main. But still theres alot more i can always come back to do just to be in the world. I did that with games that had nothing to do but i created something kuz i liked the world. In red dead 1 after u finish the mission where Jack gets revenge for John, i got the sheriff uniform & i would wake up from the house John built go to the train station early & wait until the police comes & nails the bounty poster on the wall & i would do maybe 3 bountys a day & when it started getting dark i would held home, go to sleep & do it again. I did the same in gta 5 whete i basically was a tow truck driver with Franklin. But this game actually has real jobs to do, so ill probably always come back from time to time, but im definitely not starting all over. This isn't 1 of those games that i enjoyed so much i want to start over b/c i didn't do everything. Usually if i start over ive done everything
One of the things that made me stop playing is when I realised how bad the sidequests were. After delivering the same person their 3rd coffee and disbanding a cool gang, I had enough. Also I think the whole setting holds Starfield back. Instead of an interesting sci-fi space setting with other sentient aliens, it's a boring one that's too realistic. I don't think nasa punk works.
I cannot understand how godd howard, in his infinite wisdom, thought it would a good idea to completely remove the two things people play and love their games for, the sandbox and the freeroam exploration 🤷🏻♂️ I liked some of the handcrafted content but, outside of that, there is just a vast, empty & totally pointless galaxy to do nothing with 🤷🏻♂️🤦
Honestly it really feels like they created a blank canvas game so the mod community would be able to finish the game for them , they def know what they did for Skyrim and gave us a huge base for ppl to do the same here , which is absolutely lazy but unfortunately the game will prob end up being really dope when the modders get their hands on it
@@gangaim08only for those that capable of modding and run the modded game...not any pc can play starfield, even more the modded one.
Skyrim mod can takes a lot of memory to run..cant imagine this one.
But yeah, modders are amazing things that happened to gaming, especially bethesda. Their games wont hold up this long without mods.
But when Buzz Aldrin went to the moon he wasn't bored! 😂😂😂 Insane logic there Todd.
@@gangaim08 if you can’t even start to explain how, it sounds like cope, mods can only do so much, they improve upon the core, if the core is rotten it will only be putting lipstick on a pig.
@@dennygunawan208I run over 200+ mods on fallout 4 on ps4 and rarely crash you’ll be fine with your toaster oven pc
The cities in Morrowind make sense.
You literally have the farms and mines where resources come from that cities love off of, and people working then.
Every person has a home, a role, it makes sense, and that's, it makes sense in physical space in how spread out things are and the logistics of the cities.
The issues most people have with the characters isn't from misunderstanding them; it's from not having the variety in choice of _who_ you can have as your companions.
All of the essential companions come from the same club and share the same morals despite whatever their individual personalities are, so you can't do anything with them that they don't like and that restricts you into playing _their_ way.
I definitely wish there were companions who didn't care if you filched credits from a chest here and there. One of my characters is TRYING to be a space pirate but keeps getting "so and so disliked that" messages every time I kill a freighter captain to take their ship and cargo. Well duh. She's a pirate. Players are free to do what they want, as long as it's morally good, otherwise forget bringing a companion with you. I shot a non-hostile robot once with Andreja and she flat out yelled at me and went back to the ship. WTF? I'm sure it's something with her backstory, but come on.
My main issues with Starfield:
(1) Lack of features, from transitions to NPC reactions and everything in between, we got a stripped down version of the engine that makes everything seem cheap and immersion breaking.
(2) Linear Story. There is only one way to approach the plotline and only one avenue (Constellation) in order to achieve Starborn. Plot hole warning: I think just about every faction would be VERY interested in an individual who was gaining powers by interdimensional means, and NOT in a good way. Which brings up the next point,
(3) No interactions between factions. The UC plotline doesn't interact with the Freestar Collective, nor do the Crimson Fleet. House Varunn is the upcoming DLC but will its story be contained to its own space as well? Yes, there is a side mission where UC & Freestar work together for self-defense, but it doesn't carry over to other plotlines and we never hear of it again.
(4) Incomplete systems. I know this should hover around the first point, but I do need to point out the gaping hole that I imagine was to combine the settlement and the ship systems to make bases more of a necessity than a feature. From the interviews I understand this was removed because it might have been "too complicated" for us. Spoiler: We were supposed to use the bases as "gas stations" because our ships were supposed to use fuel. This would have necessitated their use on Helium rich airless moons instead of full biospheres and thus proved unattractive for game presentation. (Censored expletive here). Guess they were scared of bad trip planning.
Add to this the news of the Senior Bethesda staff retiring immediately after release and I understand what the game was: The Minimal Contractual Obligation before they could cash-out and leave.
I can hope things will improve for the final release but right now, if it wasn't for game pass I'd be really pissed over what I would have paid.
Yeah I talked a lot of about the half-baked mechanics in my first video, but these are all pretty much my main gripes too. Like with Fallout 4, there's the bones of something that could be great, but it was just not executed nearly as well as it could have been.
main issue with starfield
(1) starfield
I'd probably enjoy Starfield more as a novel. The game feels at odds with itself.
@@DailyCorvid Everything's too sterile. Feels ike a first draft where you just outline things happening or general idea of what characters would say. Emil's not a good writer, but it just seems like there was an extra rush to finish the vast amounts of shit the were trying to cram inside this game. So it didn't get finishing touches to make it more believable and is just there to provide basic context on what's going on.
@@DailyCorvid not enough lewd?
Glad to hear someone mention that stupid quest where you are forced to steal the artifact from that collector. That was so bad. My character has made predominantly good choices within the game. When I got to that mission I was like "Eh, okay. There must be a few ways of completing this mission." Well I was wrong. I struck up a conversation with three mercs and bantered with them for a bit. Then I had a chat with the main guy himself and I ended up liking him. He seems like an OK guy just doing his thing. Then he was nice enough to take his new friend (me) down to his vault to show off his new addition. He didn't want to sell it to me and I had no other option but to grab and dash. Turns out now I've got to get back to my ship and there's only everyone I encountered on the way trying to kill me. So I'm forced to turn around and ruthlessly murder everyone on the ship that gets in my way (sorry guys! I just really want this artifact OK?). I leave old mate collector alone because he wasn't such a bad guy. I was the bad guy here. Maybe there'll be some emergent revenge plot come out of this? Oh wait I can't jump out of the system because I'm in combat. So I am now forced to straight up blow this bro's ship into smithereens, killing him. Sorry friend I'm on a quest. Todd made me do it.
I later discovered that you can attack the main guy once and he will surrender, allowing you to leave the ship without resistance. But still, what the hell man? This quest was whack and felt so out of character for me.
Also regarding the whole freedom to do anything you want style gameplay, I've always thought the best way to address this would be to have two seperate gamemodes - a standard gameplay mode much the same as we have now but then a sandbox mode that lets you break the game like the old Morrowind days. Give players the choice how they want to play.
Yeah wasted so much time trying to get that mission done without attacking anybody, in the end just killed everybody and looted everything.
Bro said the buildings in cyberpunk create an illusion of depth but doesn't realize that 75% of the dialogue options are literally just regurgitated fillers meant to pad out Todd's "OVER 50,000 LINES OF DIALOGUE" statement.
Player: What does this do?
NPC: gives a non answer"
Literally just look at the keeper's dialogue when discussing the starborn.
Regarding companions, it's not that I'm upset that Sarah doesn't like me doing things she disagrees with, it's that every companion shares the exact same moral and ethical outlook. Sarah doesn't like what I do, Sam doesn't like what I do, Andreja doesn't like it. It's like playing a game of D&D where everyone plays the lawful stupid paladin except you, so you either get constantly shit on, or you play the way your companions tell you to play.
Exactly this.
No one misunderstands Sarah's character because it's made bleedingly obvious the type of person she, along with everyone else at Constellation, is.
Fallout 4, for all of it's many issues, at least had a diverse band of companions to choose from that would react differently to choices you made.
Starfield is so grossly over-sanitized.
@@blumoon131 Having a Raider companion, a Junkie, or a corruptible companion (like Vette in SWTOR) would be a game changer. At the very least a companion that doesn't mind if you're sometimes a murderer hobo.
“Interactive cities”? What exactly can you interact with in any of the cities in Starfield? NPCs ignore you even if you’re aiming a gun at them. I guess you can interact with shopkeepers, like any other video game in existence.
The yes man ending in fnv isnt a failsafe at all. Alot of the base game & even lonesome road push you in that direction. Reminding you time & time again that the other 3 endings are just repeating history
I agree with this, constellation hq should be move to a neutral space.
I knew it was over when i heard -DRAGONBORN- STARBORN!
NOOOOOO, IT'S NOT TRADITIONAL MAGIC, IT'S SPACE MAGIC!!!!
NOOOOOO, IT'S NOT SHOUTS, IT'S HABILITIES!!!!
BUYER'S REMORSE, BUYER'S REMORSE, BUYER'S REMORSE
It's all but confirmed that the writer, Emil Pagliarulo, phoned it in.
His rationale was that players don't care about the story.
Of course, when the story isn't very good players gravitate towards aspects of the game that are more enjoyable.
NG+ could have had a reason beyond grinding powers or redoing quests, it could be a reset option if really piss off factions, or kill "essentials" as it, bounty board, okay we're cool
This is a super cool idea actually and would have given NG+ actual weight, as well as opening up more roleplay in general.
NG+ DOES have a reason. It literally is stated by the other you. Do you want to start your life over at another universe? Or are you happy with your life in your own universe?
@@helderoliveira2994 That's a story reason and an incredibly weak one at that. The biggest problem is that Bethesda designs games so that players can see as much as possible in a single play through. Combine that with the severe lack of choices in Starfield and "new game plus" just doesn't have any incentive for the player to choose.
It's like Emil couldn't think of any way to give the game an ending and then just decided to not give it an ending at all.
@@helderoliveira2994 That's the lore reason but Starfield is still a videogame and needs a gameplay reason for a game feature. Sure you can save constellation and if there was an existing way to skip sections of a quest there is now a Starborn way of doing it. From a gameplay aspect it really is just to grind powers. The whole deep meaning of continually playing the same game is ultimately pointless is bull. Especially since Bethesda and Todd want this to be the next Skyrim the reality is they saw alternate start mods and wanted to incorporate one in the game. The sad thing is all they had to do was lock content based on your actions. Your Vanguard well sorry you can't be a Ranger. Didn't let the other fractions know heatleeches are terrormorphs well after some time there systems have terrormorphs increasingly attacking. Mass Effect 2's NG+ had no story reason for existing but because you could mess things up so badly there was a gameplay reason to replay. Starfield could have given us unique stories with each NG+ just by tweaking and locking content instead we get chase the light 240 times.
NG+ Needed more variations in every instance, but overall I enjoyed it. IMO, In one universe, Terrormorphs causing a Zerg invasion and mechs being rebuilt to fight them. In another, the Crimson Fleet conquering the UC and the remnants of the UC being like Star Wars rebels. In another universe, the FC is in trouble because Akila's star is entering supernova stage. And in another, House Va'Ruun is crusading once more. There is just so much potential that they could do with the multiverse.
This game has so many inconsistent design choices its dizzying.
One of their former devs basically said in an interview that they intentionally dont lock anyone out of any of the experiences (when contrasted with BG3).
So you can both shoot your way out of the UC SysDef ship, join the Crimson Fleet, further decimate the UC SysDef navy, then go to the United Colonies capital and stroll into another branch of their miliatry and become a unlikely hero, all by just paying your bounty.
All of that is fine if you want a player to be able see everything. But if you design your ending around NG+ then it doesnt make any sense.
Game pushes you towards NG+ but also goes out its way to make sure you can do everything in a single playthrough, eliminating one good reason to do NG+.
The feeling of your choices being meaningless is the result of both of these mechanics, exaggerated by them being combined.
Your choice in identity (pirate/war hero/ranger/corporate agent) doesn't really impact your overall game.
By being every role you end up not really being any role.
If you do everything and experience all the major content the devs wanted you to see, starting a new game erases all your decisions anyway.
Game has very good things in it to be sure, it also fights itself.
Feels like it was made by committee. No singular vision to unify everything.
"yes man quest is fucking boring." YOU DONT SAY THAT! 😆
Most of this review is Just "Most people hated this specific thing and they had a valid reason for hating it but I LIKE IT and i have no reason besides ... vibes... i guesss" followed by, "here is a critique of the game that has been proven to be a bad thing, but I either dont think it matters or believe you guys arent seeing the vision becuase *insert half baked reason here*""
By your logic, starfiled made cities smaller to flesh their interiors out but If cyberpunk had a loading screen for ever vehicle or building you wanted to enter you could go into every building in that game too.
I don't know enough about game dev or tech limits to know if that's true, but it really doesn't matter.
A big city simply has to sell the illusion of scale and density. Sure have places the player can go in and interact with stuff but it doesn't have to be everywhere.
At least from a realistic perspective from someone who has lived in a major city all their lives you can't walk in to any building you want and have an in depth or fulfilling interaction.
Especially not in the more commercial areas filled with huge skyscrapers of offices or heavy residential areas that require a key or security check to enter.
What you do see is an neverending wave of people everywhere and buildings so numerous and tall you only see small pieces of the sky at a time.
New Atlantis being the only place that seems intended to be a big city (Akila is a small town no matter that they say and Neon is a oil rig) fails to sell scale or density.
It's looks like it was designed by someone who has lived exclusively in the suburbs imagining what a big city would be like.
This isn't at all what I meant. I was more comparing design philosophies. Both have their pros and cons. Illusion of depth isn't bad, and in Cyberpunk's case is very intentional to drive you toward the main narrative more, while Bethesda wants to allow some more exploration. That all being said, the amount of load screens in this game is quite atrocious and it's a real toss up on if there will actually be anything interesting or worthwhile behind them.
They're not cities they're unfurled out spaceships. Cities require roads. And much of the eatablishments in the settled systems were abandoned, hard to maintain or survive in thanks to very aggressive animals. Even in the farm out posts on different planets, you'll hear the one or two civilians constantly shooting at violent territorial fauna. It's no wonder the varuun stay in space.
Cyberpunk wants you to explore neon filled alleyways, abandoned places, combat areas find shards and learn the lore instead of random people's homes that add nothing to the narrative. Cyberpunk went for the mega city aesthetic and nailed it. And no you still wouldnt need loading screens if they opened up more interiors as they already have done with Phantom Liberty's Dogtown. Its doable, but imagine the time theyd have to spend to do it.
@@orbit1894 yet starfield has the following console command you can type: sgtm 10
Then look up
On the Yes Man thing…
It’s the anarchist path. It’s completely valid and feels like building your own government, or rather alliance of independent communities, which to an anarchist character is much more interesting than working for one of the tyrants. You get to make real political decisions and shape the world in the way you see fit. If you just murdered everyone that’s your own fault.
This is a good point. I should note I love New Vegas and have done every ending at least twice. I just feel that narratively, compared to all the others, it's the weakest because it serves the purpose of having to be a backup while also rectifying a lot of story and character choice. It's hard line to walk, and New Vegas does do it well. My writing process is... a mess as I've kinda just jumped into trying to write long form videos after doing no practice on writing or researching so I often forget to specify, clarify, or make points until after the video is finished. But because of that, I greatly appreciate comments like this.
@@BillO62 I'm pretty sure he's just saying he thins the Yes Man option is the weakest of the bunch. You could even argue it's a cop-out to ensure that players who "went murder hobo" can finish the game.
I think Yes Man is fine, but the others are more interesting and Yes Man is also the hardest to get a "good" ending with.
@@BillO62 I didn't say it was necessarily a cop-out, but one can argue that it was. The main argument I can think of is how easy it would be to remove Yes Man entirely and not change much of anything else. Pretty much all of his quests are just House's quests, but you interact with Yes Man instead.
It's a fine way to end the game, but I tend to ignore it most of the time.
@@BillO62 anarchy literally means "no rulers," & every end slide, no matter your choices say "anarchy ruled the streets. The courier ruling an anarchic region is about as logical as an anarchic government like op said, cant have both. When you look at that ending as reigniting that "great experiment of individualism" that died with early america (something that lonesome road eludes to) it's easily the most interesting ^^
Todd Howard: What's not to understand? You play the game, I get money, win-win!
Me: But the game is dogshit
*awkward pause*
Howard: What are you trying to say exactly
The story was awful. A couple of scifi movies put together. The world feels like it was made for you instead of you being just someone living within the world.
Your final thoughts are waaaaaaaaay tooo nice
I think the overall problem is the presentation of the story, the pacing, and the lack of actual character choice in the game.
The fact that this game has new game plus and yet still has unkillable npcs and quests that you can't lock yourself out of is a detriment.
That and lacking any acrual cohesion to the overall narrative of the story woth the gameplay elements is very poor. A space game, where space doesn't actually matter or play any real part, as well as no real exploration in a game about exploration is very sad. No sense of wonder, discoveries, exploring already explored worlds...the disconnect in the gameplay with the story is very bad.
Bro when Sarah dies I lost all my legendary weapons. I was LIVID
You can get them later. Maybe at the funeral. You haven't lost them
That's the issue though. It's groundhogs day. Your reward for finishing that tiny deeper part of the game, is repeating it 9 more times to max out your powers so you're so OP, all the shallow parts are agonizingly boring. Weeeeeeeeee!
Skipping starfield. Not worth playing.
Started boulders gate three, I love it
Same for me but the other way around
One thing I have issues with, when it comes to the writing and consequences of going through the Unity, Sam Coe's questline revolves around restoring a relationship with Cora's mother, Lillian hart, yet when it comes to the Unity, Sam shows not the slightest consideration of Lillian in allowing young Cora to go through the Unity. She would be devastated
Bro WHAT. That's wild. Like I said, sometimes the game amazes me and sometimes... my god
@@seththepotate You gave a really good, unbiased account of the game and that's coming from someone with nearly 500 hours in to it. There is no such thing as a perfect game and I wish people would cut Bethesda some slack, because they put a lot of effort into making something that is entertaining. I personally am seriously impressed at the level of architectural design and the attention to detail, in the sheer amount of clutter that populates the locations you visit. Not to mention the accompanying soundtrack that always heightens the tension. My main character has completed all the character and faction quests, with the exception of Ryujin and will not go through the Unity. My second character is on NG+6 and once I've completed NG+10, I will have a leisurely time without having to pursue Artifacts or the Unity.
Entering the Unity contradicts the lore and all relationships established. It's nonsense.
It also has nothing to do with exploration since exploration is about returning with knowledge.
It would only make sense if you could return.
It's like someone watched Interstellar and missed the point that his goal was to return to his daughter to see he had saved her...that his love was what drove him.
But they claimed NG+ was for exploration and providing info for those who followed. What? How?
@@XNY_Music They really did put a lot of effort, and created so much that look good, works well, and fun! But also... missed so much. For setting comparison, see Firefly or The Expanse. Those universes had people and societies with history, they had their own customs and slang. It motivated them, changed what they desired and held dear.
Now let's look at the Freestar Collective. BS did a great job on their architectural design! You walk the street and can't wait to buy a cowboy hat!
But then... they talk a lot about 'loving freedom' but how are you more free there vs the UC? What can you do? Is there anything different? Do they let you target practice in town where the UC will freak out? Where is their slang? Their collective injuries as a society that trigger them? They talk about those UC jerks b/c of the civil war, but I never see any action. No restrictions on where you can fly b/c you are flying the UC flag, they don't charge you more b/c of your UC uniform, not talk to you or block you from taking quests. Just hollow words like they are cosplaying a character.
@@jasonbow1926 Not only that but there the ones who weaponized mechs to a devastating effect. Where is there any sign of that in there society? There should be robots tending fields, cleaning houses, maybe a "droid" market for your outposts. I believe the UC would engage in biological war fair I can't even see Freestar putting up a fight much less being smart enough to master robotics for war. I don't know maybe there was a note hiding some where that explains everything and makes sense of all the lore oddities but unlike a Fallout or Elder Scrolls game I have no interest in seeking it out.
Bethesda has an obsession with making you feel like you have a choice but refuses to actually give you a choice.
They did the same thing in Fallout 4 where it's completely impossible to fail any of the quests outside of the ones they want you to fail.
It would be much better if they just dropped the act and said "do this" rather then "you can choose to do this or this" but both option have the exact same outcome so it was pointless to be given the choice to begin with.
Once you notice that's what they do it's impossible to stop noticing it.
Theres a reason why Todd is retiring after ES6. Hes getting old and doesnt have the same drive and passion anymore. It shows in Starfield.
ES6 will be four years at least. Maybe longer. I might be retired before Howard.
just remember that any opinions you choose in this game mean nothing, it effects nothing, changes nothing and has no effect on the game. this game is not a real RPG and is one of the most on rails games iv played pretending to be a "do anything , be anyone game".
i think people are upset or disappointed with starfield cos Todd and Bethesda lie !!!!
So basically it's NOT plot contrivance that Terramorphs attack at the most convenient time at New Atlantis because of the background on how they are made....yea, I don't think so.
This question is the difference between being immersed in a game and not .. when I’m not being immersed in a game, I will quickly start to ask myself “what am I even doing? What’s the point of this?” But when I am completely immersed, hours will go by and I’ll go “oh shit it’s 11:00 already? I need to go to sleep”
What it's like to play Starfield compared to what it's like to play Mass Effect.
When will developers realize WE DONT CARE about the quantity of planets there are to visit. We want lore and quality missions like Mass Effect in space. If we wanted vastness, we would play Elite:Dangerous which has an ABSURD amount of systems to explore. Quality > Quantity
This game should have been 2 to 3 times bigger than outer worlds and no more. There should have been more handcrafted, unique and roleplaying-centric content in it and damn it, there should have more than 3 damn whiteruns to depict human civilization.
Interestingly you liked what I hated about the story. I really hated how they shoe-horned us into Constellation based on nothing more than basically a "c'moooon!" I don't mind it being obligatory to join in game, but at least make SOME effort to drag me in. "You touched the membership stone so now you are one of us" just doesn't cut it for me. I want to have real reasons. In this sense I would have preferred if the touching of the artifact might have left some kind of damage that Constellation had some experience with. Then I would have to go there to heal or get a cure for whatever ailed me. And then I owed them, or could be enlisted. I hate to be manipulated, especially when it is done clumsily or forcefully.
My other beef is that Constellation seems completely irresponsible. They are okey with that I alone get all manner of powers, to do with as I like, and they have no checks on what I do with them. For all they know I could be bending their minds to my will and slowly remake the universe as my personal empire. They don't even bother to check if my powers has limits. To me that is hard to swallow, and more powerfantasy than scifi.
But the worst part to me is the actual point of the story. In a story about exploration and discovery, the end is not more exploration - but the rehashing of what you have already done. Not to explore the new, but to just keep revisiting what you already know, again and again and again. To me that is not discovery, it is hell. And the only good reason I see for NG+ is that levelling is such a drag that it just feels better to restart the whole dang game but with much of the skills intact. The powers are basically pointless, except the "atmosphere" one, where you reset your oxygen-CO2-levels.
Still, I appreciate your clip, and you do have some points - not all is horrible with Starfield, it has is bright moments. I just wish they hade skipped the whole "dragonborn in space"-thing and gone more hardcore scifi. But that is me. 🙂
Oh, I was so hopeful I'd hear about the deep lore that is the Infinite Addendum and 2 religious figures having repeating digits being the key to finding the Unity. I wanted to hear you laud the writing in such exquisiteness that led to such a great epiphany.
Jeezy...the whole way the Keeper figures out that I need to go to the second planet in the Indum system was so contrived.
Only but Emil Pagliarulo could write such nonsense..
No, sorry, but you're wrong on the Constellation attitude. Not because Sarah dislikes what you do, but because all of them dislike what you do. And of course she doesn't boot you from Constellation. Doing that would mean your actions have consequences, and Starfield works really, really hard to make sure nothing it does has consequences, because maybe that might make someone feel something. Now, having the player have no impact on how the story unlocks isn't a deal breaker. That's pretty much par for the course for any JRPG. But if you want to do that sort of thing, do it right. Don't lie and say you have freedom, and then not have it.
I'll also say that, of the various RPGs I've played, and I've played a lot, I can't think of another one where I've been less invested in the main companions. I think part of this is because of that sameness, that they're all good people, and that they're kind of bland and poorly written, for the most part. But another part of it is that I don't really have to try to please them or get to know them. All I have to do is have them with me, let time tick by, and they'll grow to like me more and more. It is yet another aspect where my actions have no consequences.
All in all, Starfield has two big problems: Your choices don't matter and most systems are implemented to a basic, functional level, with no further thought, effort, or polish put into it, even when the issues are super obvious and so are some simple improvements.
I still want to love it so bad 😭 it's every Bethesda game ever: I love this and I can't wait until they make a good one
I absolutely loathed the quest where you are forced to steal the artifact from the guy, especially since he's so likable. That right there shows how limited player choice is in this game.
All of the Constellation crew had been on my ass about my decisions and then suddenly they're all fine with us stealing and possibly killing for an artifact, not for something that could save someone's life or a city, but for a piece of metal. And you have no choice but to do it if you want to proceed with the main quest.
At least there were multiple ways to finish quests in Skyrim. At least in Skyrim I could tell Delphine to FO when she asks me to kill Partysnacks. Man this game really pissed me off. What a horribly, horribly written quest.
Completely disagree on Yesman concept regarding Starfield. With Starfield's apptoach to ng+ you should be able to kill everyone because you'd have a chance not to be an idiot in ng+.
welllll.... what's above ground in New Atlantis *IS* a mega-mall. That's what you learn about The Well.
All of constellation's characters except for Maheo are too emotionally fragile.
A good follow-up on Part 1.
Looking back about a year later, this Part still is valid. They fixed some of the issues you brought up in Part 1--less so with the fundamental issues you have here.
All this said, I continue to play and love Starfield, with about 700 hours in. I've only had two characters that I've played with at any length, both of which are over level 200.
Although I have a ton of games on my pending list that I bought months (or even years) ago, I still keep coming back to Starfield. No, it's not perfect--but I've found it so engaging that I (as of yet) have little desire to try anything else. I'm sure that time will come, but I haven't reached it yet.
I really enjoyed your comments about the NPCs, especially Constellation. They have a depth that few companions reach in other games--Serana in Skyrim probably is the most comparable. It makes the impact of the Hunter killing one, and you leaving the universe, far more deep and profund, and it can reach the level of investment you can have with an important character in a great book. And that, too me, is a welcome level of immersion that isn't easy to achieve.
People who praise Starfield's writing basically just have convinced me at this point they haven't read any sci-fi other than Bethesda games and pre-teen level novels. The writing and voice directing are juvenile.
@ih8theinternet When I'm watching Flash Gordon, I don't try to convince people its Asimov's foundation trilogy. If you honestly think that Starfield is deep and engaging sci-fi, you haven't played or read much sci-fi. its a shallow trope loop that abandons its most interesting ideas or locks them behind level grinds to extend otherwise empty gameplay.
If they had leaned all the way into gritty survival, or all the way into space adventure rpg they could have had a good game. but its two bland games half finished then stiched together.
28:03 - Love the color scheme.
Gold and fire engine red.
Tony Stark would like it.
I really enjoyed the absence of both outraged disgust and hyperbolic enthusiasm in your presentation. What are you, some kind of rational adult or something? 😊
Starfield content has been 'unavoidable' since the release, but genuinely captured my interest from its launch because of its 'space theme' which in general has instant appeal to me. My first views of Starfield came from the 'early access' gamers declaring it better than sex (or whatever) but there's since been a growing and substantial cohort of discontent about the game.
It seems a lot of people got carried-away with their own ideas of what the game would be, only to discover that Bethesda somehow never thought to ask them to personally design, program and manage it to suit their own ideals and tastes.
I didn't follow any of the pre-release presentations/promos etc. that Bethesda churned out over the last year, BUT i have seen some clips (without commentary) of Todd Howard talking about the 'cutting edge tech' , how they created 'planets' and all the 'amazing' stuff the player would be able to do, the creative and interesting features it would have, and I noticed right away he pretty much just strung superlative adjectives together without explaining or illustrating anything... just pure 'sales-pitch' with no substance.
Todd REALLY 'OVERSOLD' this game, ESPECIALLY to Bethesda's faithful fans of Fallout (2?) and Skyrim (which I've never played but from the playthrough videos I've seen of these, appear to me to be very appealing and deserving of a substantial fandom). I was really quite shocked in viewing initial Starfield gameplay to hear gamers describe the graphics and environment as "AMAZING!", when they clearly are no such thing...( your clips from Skyrim, despite being lower resolution~~ i think~~ look and 'feel' so much better, despite being 10 years old ).
I wonder how the people who actually worked on it feel?
Anyway...good job on your video and commentary.
Haha thanks. I don't know if "rational" is the best descriptor, but I'll take it. Yeah I think the biggest problem plaguing modern gaming as a whole is overselling marketing to build hype. (Also like the corporatization and commodifiaction, but that's a whole other thing.) Either it's full of generalized statements meant to have people speculate or is just done way too early and things unfortunately change.
People like being sold to and Todd is very good at selling to gamers, without coming across as a salesperson and he expertly wielded superlatives like a politician. He is a gamer, through and through and He knows how to whet your appetite. Yes, you're probably right about people's expectations, but didn't the same thing happen with No Man's Sky?. Starfield was sold as a space exploration game set and you use your imagination and your past experience of Bethesda games, namely Fallout 4 and Skyrim, to set your expectations. You make no mention of actually playing Starfield, so I'm assuming that you're basing your view on the reviews that you've read or seen.
18:02 - In my opinion the essential mechanic should be: If you kill an essential NPC a screen should pop up "Do you want to deliver the finishing blow?" with some extra text telling you in a lore friendly way that this can lock you out of questions. And then you can click "Yes" or "No." And if you click no, they just get downed. If you click yes, you perform a finishing move on them that kills them permanently.
This was a very well thought out and articulated review and not what I was expecting. Definitely made me look at some of the characters and story segments from a different point of view. I'll be the first one to admit that I sometimes don't fully understand plot points and etc. Very good video. Liked and subscribed 👍
I can still have fun exploring all the different planets, and enjoy doing
the mission board missions when I get to a new civilian outpost. Just wish there was more depth to these outposts and were more like small cities, and more unique people to talk to, even if they are AI generated. The AI idea wasn’t even bad, but it just needs way more content in each star system. Hoping a future update will add way more people, AI locations, and a purpose to the player created outposts
3:29 SQ42 wasn't so much as announced as, in line with the wording of CIG's video overview, declared ready for polishing. It is always part of the project, and it's just that most people, backers included, don't quite grasp what SQ42 is beyond a singleplayer campaign.
It has in fact been described somewhere during the project's development as essentially a beta for the project- which makes sense in that SQ42 will rely more on everything other than network performance compared to the MMO portion itself.
Interesting! Yeah I don't exactly follow Star Citizen's update stuff so at least on my end it was more an announcement. Though I'm definitely more interested in SC now...
Sq42 is 3 years away from what I just saw.
Master locks on empty weapon cases, mats that you dont need, cargo links are worthless. Things die, but loot is never exciting.
Essentially npcs need to go completely. Just let me have consequences Todd Howard please for literally anything
really appreciated some of your points in this vid man. although, i had the worst experience playing it on series x, 30fps lock, no fov slider, confusing menus. i'm still more of a lover of cyberpunk especially after the next gen update and more recently 2.0. i'm probably going to give starfield another go in a couple months/years when modders and updates do their thing, just like cyberpunk.
as always love ur stuff bro
Cyberpunk 2.0 is so good
The FOV update was like a week ago. It’s on console too.
I think the Eye of Magnus is an armillary .... 😮
Maybe the Great Serpent is Alduin 🐉 🤯 …
I think you got the "state of the galaxy" wrong. At around the 4min mark you say 1) I misunderstood the lore 2) I believed UC propaganda. But did you?
So lets look at population growth in the last 100 years. As prosperity grows and povery falls, pop growth goes up a lot. At a certain point in prosperity, it falls again. I would say, by the time Earth faced its problems in Starfield, it have around 20-30 billion humans. Now UC tells us they evacuated all, but did they? It does not seem very realistic even with their grav drive. What they actualy managed is hard to say. But lets look at other games like Starlancer and Freelancer, Earth launched a couple of colony ships with couple 100k people. I would say the UC managed to save at least 1-10 million people. Now we can look, again, at Freelancer, or just at our own pop grows of the last 100 years. Its been 200 since Earth evacuation, so it is safe to assume that in 200 years a population of 1 million would grow to 20 million with roughly 1.5% pop growth per year. Now lets look at the faction conflict we got in the game, it was no small "behind the house" skirmish, but a full scale war. This 3 backwater villages we got in the game could never ever support a war of that scale, judging by the number of ships and spacestations and outpost across thousands of planets. So yah UC propaganded a lot and yah maybe we misunderstand the lore, but we are not stupid and can not believe what we see because it is unbelievable, no matter how someone wants to excuse and paint it. And it could have been made believable with very easy tricks. 1) do not let the player explore the whole planet, let player land only on few locations. 2) add a texture to the planet that is not just blue and green, but also looks like a city from orbit. 3) let the player only land on the spaceport and do not let them go somewhere else, after all there is not much to be seen, or how many of you actualy visited every town on earth? 4) place another key location somewhere else on the planet (like New Atlantis in north hemisphere and THe Lodge in south). And now imagine a studio that is working on this for a decade with millions of $, they could certainly come up with better ideas. Whatever, there are millions of people and the certainly did not die all in the war, so they have to be somewhere. And image if UC managed to save 25% of Earths population... that would be 5billion. Nah, this is something Bet screwed up royaly and there is no excuse. The Mass Effect "galaxy" feels bigger and more alive and there are not that many locations we can actualy visit... the embasy district on the Citadel, well not realy that bigger than New Atlantis, or is it?
My problem with the game is that the main story and characters are just so incredibly boring. I can forgive everything else about the game. Modders can make most of it better anyways. But I can only forgive that if they nail the story.
The problem I had with the companions was they weren't just boring, but some of them were actually annoying to have around. Which in turn made me not care about the main quest, since they're the primary drivers of the storyline. I didn't feel any impact from some story beats because I didn't care about any of the people in Constellation.
@@michaelkerr6220 Lol I agree, in my playthrough Sam died and I was just like "oh okay, good"
@@michaelkerr6220 oh yeah how dare them call me out for being a complete psychopath?
@@helderoliveira2994 or you know, hearing the same comment every time I enter a star system. Or having them trying to talk to me during a firefight. Or hearing the exact same comment from each individual follower every time I walk past the same piece of art. Or heaven forbit I pick up a piece of loot and become overnumbered. I actually dont play as a psychopathic killer, I'm usually more of a goodie too shoes, so I never had them yell at me for killing people. They were still uninteresting and insufferable to be around
After playing bg3, I realized how a non problem is to let people kill your npcs. Larian just pops another npc into the role of the one you killed, some of them even appear earlier in the story than they should if you killed the dude that they are replacing.
No consequences at all. Great.
@@helderoliveira2994 There are consequences. And not all NPC's are replaceable, some of them are. For example. You can kill Zevlor in the Grove and he will be replaced by his second-in-command (makes sense), but you are permanently locked from his story and obviously he won't help you in the end.
I may have a contrary opinion, but I don't see all of the mundane undeveloped planets as boring and wasted. I did not expect BGS to give me a complete and filled galaxy because that would have been and nearly endless and impossible task. Rather, I see the galaxy designed as a platform for development. One of the things that bugged me about Fallout is that the play are seemed limited for development as the boundaries were pretty much filled to the brim. When major expansions came along, they had a tacked-on feel and not integral with the world already created.
Starfield is different in that the boundaries already created are galaxy-wide and there is almost endless territory for future development without having to tack on new star systems. When expansions inevitably come, the planets and stars are already there and anything added will feel more naturally a part of the existing ecosystem.
I for one, enjoy getting down on a planet, even barren ones, and doing a little surveying (except for scanning those elusive and annoying sea creatures).
I guess my impression about the undeveloped galaxy is not so much disappointment about what it is as much as excited about what it is likely to become. To me they were creating a canvas more than a complete game.
if you cannot leave negative opinion then what's the point so every thing is ok as long as we agree with you ..they is the definition of censorship
there's a big difference between voicing a negative opinion and being an asshole. there's plenty of people here who have expressed unhappiness, disappointment, and negativity towards the game and I chatted with them about it. The operative phrase is a "pointedly negative comment" more akin to just being an ass than having a convo. And that was more to say I'm not going to give my time, effort, and energy to straight negativity.
Hmmm... the execution is so terrible that the only feelings I had were of disgust and indifference... the writing in this game is childish and amateurish at times. I think the dialogue is pointless if it doesn't have influence over what happens in the game. And having to listen to NPCs drone about their feelings every hour or so was nearly insurmountable. I'm surprised people got an emotional reaction to this game's square and moralizing characters... mostly caused by bad writing on the part of the writers.
Sweet ass armor? It's a pinafore. I'm dressed like Dorothy of Kansas in Oz.
"The Yes Man independent Vegas ending is fucking boring". Really? You think being a pre-war wagie, an NCR boy scout, or a Legion simp are more entertaining? The independent ending's only as fun as you make it man. Sounds like a skill issue.
I did try to bring first artefact to constelation and then left to play free before: talk to Sarah at the begining of the Loghe. Lost of fun. Oh and you can take Vasco
If I had infinite lives…I’m pretty sure I’d sort out a few great investment opportunities and call eternity hacked.
Good Video , i agree mostly with what you said and especially with the effectiveness of how "High Price to Pay" plays out , it affected me deeply for the first time because i had Sarah with me for around 80 hours before reaching this point . But here my 2 cents on a few specific things you said.
14:25 "If i want to grab this item for Nevae i have to use the Persuasion System"
- Here a few alternatives : You can Pickpocket the ID from the NPC , or you can go back later to the safe after you disabled Life Support and Lockpick it because the NPC that watched the place left , iirc. Or if you are fully commited to the Crimson Fleet you can just murder everyone and loot the ID from her corpse. Or if you have Void Form / Chameleon / Concealment / Operator Suit you can use that to not be seen.
"Writing and Roleplaying"
- Thats intentional , Bethesda does want you to be able to see all the content in one go , so they will never permanently lock you out of something intentionally. Thats why you can still do the UC SysDef and Crimson Fleet minor sidequests like collect evidence or the news logs or the fetch quest in the clinic and ecliptic outpost prior to chosing an ending and regardless of which ending you chose , you can even free the previously captured Crimson Fleet Captains when invading the Vigilance afaik ... but there is actually a way to Lock yourself out of UC SysDef , by getting introduced into this quest by getting caught commiting a crime and either outright refusing them or attacking them on the Vigilance and escaping. Since BGS usually dosnt do that i assume it was just un-intentionally by accident and thus they added this random NPC into Cydonia who hands you a Note to get back into the Crimson Fleet questline without UC SysDef Strings attached ... it is very clearly a patch work solution since the random NPC in Cydonia lacks refined Dialogue and Adler Kemp dosnt have a Dialogue line for this situation when you speak to him on the Vigilance , he defaults to the you trying to sell off Aurora on Cydonia dialogue line. Besides if you do that i also noticed messed up dialogue if you do the UC Vigilance quest after UC SysDef vs Crimson Fleet , and at some points they will refer to you as UC SysDef Agent and that you have been involved in the UC SysDef debacle which makes no sense if you refused the offer or attacked the people in the Vigilance since you never became a Agent to begin with. All of that makes me belief that it was originally unintentional to go this route at all.
20:35 "There is a distinct lack of companions that are truely cool with you playing an evil character"
- Constellation Vasco , Crimson Fleet Jessamine Griffin , Crimson Fleet Mathis Castillo , Unaffiliated Betty Howser , Unaffiliated Mickey Caviar ... are totally fine with you playing a psychopath. Sure they are not "A Tier" like the main companions from Constellation , but they are at least "B Tier" and have a backstory a simple condition you need to fullfill to unlock them and give some random dialogue while exploring. Not like those "C Tier" no-name mercs / crew dudes you get at any Bar that do absolutely nothing and have no interesting dialogue at all.
22:25 "The Scow annoyed me"
- You can not Convince Petrov to give you the Artifact , this is hard coded , its not the Persuasion Systems fault . And yes no matter what you do you will have to steal it from them. But i bet you didnt know you could instead of letting Petrov show you the Artifact , you can just tell him you look around on your own. If you do that you can look around almost everywhere without getting the tresspasing message ... for those spots you can sneak around , you can even get behind the vault and steal the artifact , you can also let the alien creatures escape as a distraction , you can totally get out there without being noticed or killing anyone ... as absolute safety meassure you can equip EM Weapons on yourself and your companion too. Other than that for the people that want to go the No Witnesses route and kill everyone for the extra loot its best to manipulate the games affinity check by only having Sarah and Andreja with high affinity this will guarantee you to have Andreja with you on the Scow and she is totally fine with chosing the No Witnesses option. Another way is kinda exploity , but you can just Shoot Petrov directly before even talking to him , if you downed him on this shot he will instantly give up and let you freeroam the entire ship and take whatever you want ... and you wont have to kill anyone but you will get a bounty for doing so.
One of the things i enjoy in Bethesda games is to roleplay and experiment by finding the loopholes or unrefined edges of the boundaries what we could call Bethesdas rules on what they allow you to do or dont.
26:30 "In fact Barretts Companion Quest literally involves getting him a Power"
- What ? I just finished his Companion Questline and it was all about Barretts dead Husband Ervin ... there was nothing that would let Barrett get a power. What are you talking about ? Did i miss something ? Is this some NG+ stuff ? (i havent started NG+ yet)
32:25 "What if one day he decided to just stop , to stay in the universe"
- Well then The Hunter becomes another version of The Pilgrim or Keeper Aquilus ... The Pilgrim , The Hunter , Keeper Aquilus yeah .. different versions of the same person from different periods in their life time. So this guy has a surprising amount of screen time , you can not just encounter him in the quests but also talk to the Hunter in the Viewport Bar and then Akila Cities Bar prior to the Quest Into the Unknown ... same with the Keeper you can talk to him prior to Unity about if you / or if you not read Among the Grav Jumps and your thoughts on it , you can also talk to him after the Quest Unity for more insights on him and talk about your thoughts of the Unity and if you found your truth . He should also have some NG+ Dialogue when you reach that point , but i havent yet.
"Themes of the Game and last thoughts"
- Starfield is more Star Trek than it is Star Wars .... So i really enjoyed the mostly logical and understandable Hard Sci-Fi setting and the psychological and philosophical approach in writing especially for this settings Quests. Most games out there are either or but never all the things in one ... and im especially tired of very soft sci-fi high octane action stuff like Star Wars. Im also not a fan of real Space Sim games , the only one of those i liked is X4: Foundations and if i want to play that , i just play that. In other words : Starfield for me fills a spot that i didnt even know i wanted before i got it , and now i dont want to miss it anymore. Thats how much i like this game , and since the game is basicly only a foundation with how many features are very basic , it can only become better from here. ^^
Hey thanks for this comment! You've said a lot here that I want to reply to, so I'm gonna go piece by piece. In general, I'm not perfect, and my writing/research process is filtered through my incredibly scattered, forgetful brain so I did miss a lot of stuff or just didn't think about some things.
I completely forgot that pickpocketing is a mechanic, to be honest. It's not something I ever found much use out of in the Fallout games I've played or in Skyrim, so it kind of disappears from my radar, but it being there is a nice choice.
As for Bethesda wanting the player to be able to experience it all in one go, I do understand that's what they're going for, I just feel it's not a great design choice. Especially with the push for NG+ that would work as a perfect reset to be able to try out different paths and choices. If you could actually burn bridges with factions, it would give players more of a reason to push through into the unity to see how things would play out. But that's just how I personally feel. I know a lot of people do like this design choice, I just feel it strips away some really cool story beats.
To be fair on the companion thing, like how I never got around to finishing the Crimson fleet line before I did this video, I also missed a lot of that stuff too. Which is my fault. I wanted to get these videos done before the hype died down because I wanted to have these conversations. And I *could* have seen this stuff if I didn't waste a precious 20 hours just surveying random planets for no reason. However, not having a truly evil main companion character (I would argue Vasco is more indifferent than anything) feels like a missed opportunity. Doesn't bother me though because I like to play good characters.
I actually did spend like an hour trying to sneak my way around the Scow before settling on the route I felt I had to take, which added to the frustration because I kept getting lost (I am awful at navigating space in video games) but I didn't even think of half of these solutions and to be honest, you may have changed my mind a bit about it. It does suck that you absolutely have to get that artifact from him because there aren't alternate ones, but I suppose that's actually a bit realistic as sometimes you have to do what you have to do.
Maybe the Power thing isn't actually a part of Barrett's quest. Like I said I only got around to doing Sarah's and Andreja's, and it *might* be a NG+ thing (I'm not sure because I didn't take him as a follower until I got into NG+), but yeah he does have a quest that involves taking him to a temple and getting him a power. I just assumed it was a part of his personal quest line, but hey I guess not.
RIGHT I forgot about the whole pilgrim thing, and I guess I missed the subtext about him becoming another version of Aquilis. That's actually super interesting.
Personally I'm a much bigger fan of Star Wars than Star Trek, and I did get some of that out of the game (with the space battles specifically). I am excited to see where the game goes from here but... there's a lot of work that needs to be done I think. I'm typically hesitant to call games "unfinished" but I think Starfield does fit the bill. Maybe it'll get better. We'll see.
@@seththepotate I added some numbers to keep better track of what we are talking about.
1. Thanks for your reply and dont worry , in my case its that english isnt my native language so dont get mad if i get something wrong or write essays to get my point accros.
2. - pickpocket - nothing to add
3. All in One Go vs Burning Bridges with NG+ in mind.
- yeah i see your point , bethesda really could have allowed for such a consequence with the NG+ cycles. They could still have their All in One Go theme for the first playthrough or for whichever the player choses by simply giving dialogue options that would allow for a compromise between the factions. And for everyone else with other dialogue options going into full lock down choice + consequence situations.
4. Companions
- You mean specifically a "A Tier" (like the Constellation guys) but Evil Companion , yeah having one of those fully fleshed out would be really nice to have , but i can understand that such a person with that mindset wouldnt fit Constellation as a Group. Its really weird because you meet Mathis Castillo really early in the Crimson Fleet Questline and you can start this Questline really early by simply commiting any crime and getting caught. Why they lock him behind the end of the Crimson Fleet Questline isnt really understandable and he is only a "B Tier" Companion. Bethesda could have made him really awesome and stand out if they would turned him into a "A Tier" Companion and allow you to take him with you for all Crimson Fleet Quests and beyond. Thet would have been really cool and since he can be introduced to the player relatively early it would also solve the problem of finding a suitable evil companion.
5. "I am awful at navigating space in video games"
- Me too , well it also dosnt help that there are no interior maps at all , having Maps for Cities and Major Interior Quest Locations would have been nice. I must admit tho , that the Scow is one of those spots where i rather kill everyone and loot everything , so since everyone was dead i wasnt distracted by NPCs catching me tresspass , so i was able to take a good look around to memorize most of the location.
If you go full on sneak in the Scow and you havent seen the layout at all it can be really tough , plus as soon as you take the artifact you get 500 credit bounty and all NPCs go into a somewhat alarmed state , you have to be extra carefull then to not get caught or it will turn into a massacre. So my advice is basicly kill everyone and get familiar with the layout and memorize your escape route , reload a earlier save and then best of luck to you , its by far the hardest part to sneak through in the entire game i would say. Even Ryujin Industries Questline was easier to sneak i felt. This is a perfect place to use everything at your disposal , sneak drugs for less noise , operator suit , chameleon effect on space suit , space suit sneak mods for less detection , or no space suit for less equipment mass for less noise , sneak and concealment skill ... Andreja is also helpfull since she is less likely to be seen with her own Concealment skill.
6. Barrett
- Oh yeah i was wondering , this is defo not his Companion Quest so i just assumed its a NG+ thing , but thats cool , it means there are more changes to NG+ then what i originally expected. Without Spoiling to much , Barretts Companion Quest is all about him coping with the loss of his husband. I always felt like Barrett could need a bit more than that , but hey if i can get him a Power in NG+ that pretty much solves that for me.
7. Pilgrim , Hunter , Keeper Aquilus - nothing to add really , but i have to wonder if you can discover even more stuff about him
8. Starfield Unfinished
- I tend to agree with you , even back in Skyrim the Vampire Mechanic felt unfinished and only after the release of Dawnguard i felt that it is more whole. Someone else once said : Bethesda games are at their worst on launch. And i fully agree with this statement. Starfield feels like a Framework or Foundation to add on to , because of the many features it has and introduces that lack polish or depth. I just hope that this lacking polish and depth comes from Bethesda and isnt only rellied on modders to fill. Imo modders can get creative by injecting into the Procedural Generation , Point of Interests and Radiant Mission Board Quests ... those places are perfectly designed as injection points for modders. But the Core stuff like Quests , Dialogue , moment to moment exploration , city and major location maps , weapon / space suit mods , Outposts , Spaceship Building , Space Combat that kinda stuff should first be addressed by Bethesda. Lots of stuff xD
I have seen someone persuade petrov though.
@@ummerfarooq5383 You can only Persuade Petrov in showing you around , not in handing you over the Artifact. If you let Petrov show you around you have a faster way for the run n gun style , but if you are sneaky he will stand right in front of what you try to steal. So Persuading him is detrimental if you have a Stealth build.
So... basically what you're saying is the ending of this game is boring sh.t, but wait! That is the point! It has a deep meaning! Nah, it's just boring sh.t...
Imagine doing mental gymnastics to justify bad writing. Todd should hire you, if he has not already.
"as wide as the ocean but as deep as a puddle" -angry joe
That's been every Bethesda game since Fallout 3 (NV was a different studio), and Oblivion wasn't much deeper.
I'm new game plus 10 Venerator now, and to be honest, I'm bored now, But the game have great modding potential and hopefully the game devs will release some patches and updates that will improve overall gameplay.
UHM, ACTUALLY... DaGgErFaLl HaD tHe BiGgEsT CiTiEs
really though, great video and perspective, subbed ⚔
Worth the wait! I like what you said about the ending stuff, but I would recommend you try heading to the unity with everyone, then just turn back. It really just adds some dialogue, but there are a few things said that help add to the themes, at least for me.
Yeah if I was more professional about this I would have gone through ng+ 3 or 4 times but alas
Turning back totally ruins any idea of having some sort of committed relationship or true friendships or logic.
I mean even deciding to go gives some stupid dialog.
Prior to going, you meet Starborn. None of them are decent people. They all attack you. One kills a friend.
The Pilgrim's writings tell you how soul crushing changing realities is. The Hunter exemplifies that. The Emissary is no better and basically wants to form a cult to control who enters, though clearly no one should.
If you don't side with either which to me is logical, then you're letting everyone just change universes. That's as stupid as the rest of it.
The only logical choice really would be to destroy the artifacts and seal off the Unity but you can't.
So, don't jump, go back to your friends. Before I went I told Sarah she had to let me go, I had to go. Funny, when I had told her she was the only thing that mattered to me. She was worried about whether we'd become like the Hunter...we will.
So, I return and she's disappointed in me and pushes me to go. She tells me we both will one day. Now, that's love and commitment to a marriage.
Everyone tells me I should go, what's my problem.
It's some of the worst writing ever in a game. The story is totally contradictory from one minute to the next.
Im loving Starfield.
Im 400h in and still encouter new things to do...
💪😃👍
Idk, the way u explain it in the beginning made it seem 100% more interesting than it is. think about that, a person can explain it with more passion than the game has for itself, the whole games narrative is bland, made by committee to not offend anyone, if they had even cared to hire writers with even the smallest nugget of talent in a primarily narrative driven game then people would have less issue with everything else. Feels like you are letting them off the hook so much when u say its not bad writing. i dont think its even subjective, i mean that u bring up cyberpunk, which its writing brings the characters alive, you can feel their emotions, it doesnt matter how good lore is if you cant make people care about the characters.
To note you actually can convince the cabinet to let you into the archives during the first hearing. The terrormorph attack happens all the same.
This game would have been alot better if there were actually challenging enemies to engage with. The game is simply way too easy, even on very hard. No motivation to level up or develop my skills. After beating it once its like whats the point?
First playthrough: didn't side with hunter or emissary, killed them both. Allowed neurolink with ryujin. Went with Aceles. Let Andreja die. Killed Ron Hope. Married Sarah. Enslaved the ship orbiting paradiso. Was then forced into the unity before finishing spacer quest.
Second playthrough: did everything the same but I saved both Sarah and Andreja. Denied neurolink and convinced the ship orbiting to move on with a new grav drive. My second playthrough I really didn't care about forming relations or really cared about the story because I did it right after I just did everything. Really don't see a point in a 3rd playthrough. I have corrected everything that I wanted to and if the enemies aren't going to scale to my level then I don't see a point.
4:34 - good ol' success. 0.01% survived, 99.99% population decline. Did someone bring the animals? Ain't got room for them, we'll solve the tiny egg bank collection later. Whoops, aggressive spider ponies.
Re: Essential NPCs/stories/choices and the negatives they create, if only there were a way to reset the universe if you screwed up too badly...
Re: The main story. The issue I have is that I'm forced to join them. What is the negative if I'm allowed to say "No thanks" and take the pirate ship? Your issue with having to "find the fun" wouldn't be there. You would be able to say yes to Barrett, or you could open your quest log and go to the Lodge to join up. Easy, peasy, player choice lemons.
Finally, overall I agree with many of the points you made. The one thing I disagree with is your placement of failure solely on the players to "not understand" a theme or the meaning of what Sarah says, etc. Everyone has a different set of skills. Some would make them a nightmare for gangs who traffic in sex slaves, and maybe those people don't have the same skillset you do when it comes to breaking down a story for themes or maybe they were done with BGS sometimes atrocious writing and had resorted to AAAAAing their way through conversations.
My point being. If those themes were important, they should have been made clear. While some folks miss it or don't get it, others miss it because it's presented so poorly. Even my opinion that BGS writing is the food equivalent of a gas station hot dog is going to be different than others. I think the UC Vanguard quest is garbage. The most dangerous alien in the galaxy, that is over and over characterized in the game as super powerful? Yeah I killed a level 10 terrormorph while doing the tutorial. The leader of the UC needs me to make her decisions about something as dangerous as Terrormorphs? What the actual fuck, that is some childish ass nonsensical bullshit. At least have a section where you can go around to the other 4 people involved and convince them one way or another. Then it's not just Alex J Protagonist. Decision maker of the universe.
3:06 - you just became the ungrateful snooty in law.
I didn't have to kill for the artifact...I pretty much went thru the whole game without havinh conflict if it wasnt absolutely necessary. Especially if you decide to go under cover for the UC...U cant kill people like that or you'll be looked at on the fleets side. I recently just realized to use the non lethal gunz to stop a person whos hostile if they're the only 1. Theres some dude that shoots at me everytime i walk in hope tech so instead of killing him i just knock him out with the non lethal beam...Im hooked on this game. I only played some of Spider-Man 2 & haven't even started on Mirage. Im not goin into the Unity until im all the way over & when i do ill be done with rhe game. I have no interest in starting from scratch
This game is not a "next-gen" game, it's a poorly optimized game.
So, you havent played it?
@@dusermiginte4647 it's uninstalled collecting dust currently.
My only problem with companions was the nagging. Them constantly complaining because I want to loot everything just made me dislike them so much I just left them at the lodge. That being said quest bugs and bethesdas lack of patching to fix them finally made me quit playing.
Thanks
The fast travel is why i stopped playing. Warping around to every quest just got boring so fast
There was no reason for so much of the game world to be empty nothing. For those who argue that its realistic I ask you this, you do realize this is a video game right? You want realism, get off your butt and go outside. Theres plenty of it there. Let video games be what they were always meant to be, an escape from reality, not a reminder of it.
The world are not all empty there's plenty to do on them. It's just not as interesting as their past games and for good reason. How are you realistically supposed to turn an Elder scrolls map and to a 1000 different planets. It's just not possible. starfield is best played when accepting quests and going to cool locations throughout those missions and doing a little bit of sidewandering whilst already on a planet for a specific mission.
"If you play a game and you feel something, you win." I love this. Beautifully said.
You actually can be serious
Nah bro. This game is trash
A literal fast travel simulator with fetch quests in between, with a couple bullet sponge brain dead AI
So boring. Trash. Unfixable
Conceptually, this is garbage. 1/10
Change my mind
What if I were to tell you its coming to the ps5
@@ummerfarooq5383 why would that matter? Trash game is trash.
Plus everyone knows that actual gamers use PC
@@Carlifedaily it's NEVER coming to the PS5.
You made up your mind, probably based those opinions on some biased ponies videos about it...
How could I change something you don't have.
Daggerfall had bigger cities but I'm pretty sure they were procedurally generated. The without spoilers, ending of the SysDef story is very disappointing IMO. Just really like... they didn't think through the implications at all.
The rest of my comment is probably going to seem fairly negative, but that's because the game's most interesting aspects are its flaws. It's a pretty generic Bethesda game with all the upsides and downside of that. The combat is fun, which is a huge improvement over the last Bethesda game I played (skyrim) even though the weapon variety is very disappointing, the characters are really well acted, which I guess is unusual for Bethesda, but whatever. The space ship design is really enjoyable until you try to make a usable interior layout. Some of the quests are really good.
Not everyone is capable of assembling the Armalary. You have to be rich or connected enough to be able to fly all over the settled systems and collect the artifacts then fight off the Starborn coming after you. So it's kind of a chosen one story, it's just that you're chosen by capitalism. This ties in with my overall problems with the main story. That it's basically a bait and switch. There is nothing "out there" to find out about as Sarah says in all the trailers. The only great mystery in all the universe is that nothing matters but the fucked up game some ancient alien wannabe god cooked up for anyone privileged enough to pay the entry fee, allowing you to enter an infinite cycle of repeating identical alternate universes to do the same thing over and over until you get bored. Nothing matters not because space is big, but because it's actually extremely small. There is nothing but this tiny section of the galaxy with these same identical humans repeating the same actions over and over in an eternal loop as petty demigods pursue power for its own sake around them. So uh... I actually had pretty much the opposite experience with it that you did I guess.
The problems with the main story also tie in nicely with Bethesda's general lackluster game design and writing. Sarah was my wife in my first playthrough. The Hunter killed my wife... All of that is basically forgotten the instant she dies. She's just your friend who died, and it turns out that there are tons of alternate universes, so who cares? Bethesda just didn't imagine that you would really care about the companions so the fact Hunter killed your spouse then an alternate reality version of them shows up alive and fighting him is treated with near nonchalance. You barely talk about it before going on to deciding if you're going to side with your wife/best friend's murderer, or an alternate universe version of them. The disregard for the side characters is well demonstrated in the fact that you can't invite your own parents to your wedding. Since the parents are optional side content you can only get by picking a specific starting perk, they just didn't bother tying them into anything else.
Designing a game that requires tons of menial tedious tasks and then making your story about how your game requires tons of menial tedious tasks is not profound. It's lazy and cynical. You decided to make the game this way. The fact that you know it's bad doesn't make it better, it makes it worse, because you knew it was bad and did it anyway. A lot of people have said that after playing through multiple NG+s they start to feel detached from the NPCs like the Hunter... but it's not like the Hunter. The Hunter isn't a gamer, he's an NPC in the game's multiverse. As far as he's concerned it's a real world and everyone in it is real. He just doesn't value their lives. The player on the other hand is just losing their ability to suspend disbelief after having the unreality of the world rubbed in their face for hours and hours by the game being designed in way that does that. Keeper Aquilus implies he used to be The Hunter, so the game answers the question of what he'd be like for us pretty clearly.
I liked the lockpick minigame for the first several hours. Once it started throwing constant expert and master locks at me with nothing behind them I eventually just started not bothering to pick those locks anymore. It's not fun enough of a minigame for how much time it takes with such bad rewards. The Lower level locks are the ones I still did consistently because they were easy and quick.
Actually a very interesting take, and I appreciate you writing all this out.
You're very right about the game's most interesting aspects being it's flaws and shortcomings. I could have honestly gone on for hours about what annoyed me/what I didn't like, but at this point everything there has already been said so I wanted to (try) to focus on what I more enjoyed. I did talk about the stuff like the combat and the ship designer in the last video, and yeah we pretty much fully agree on that, I think.
Love love love the interpretation of it being a little bit of a chosen one thing due to economic circumstances and/or having the means to travel wherever. Fucking brilliant.
Everything you say about the nature of the main story and the companions is really interesting too, and it's getting me thinking about it all in different ways. Starfield really does just kinda assume you won't really care about them, huh? Your favorite companion dies and the funeral and stuff is cool, but then afterward, who cares? You're making me wish I could go back in time and add like 10 minutes to the runtime of this video, because I could easily contrast it to how Cyberpunk handles Jackie, his death, and how it has a continued effect on V. (I'm working on a super rough outline for a deep dive into CPK2077 so it's on my mind a lot).
This game was probably doomed from the start. I heard that for the 8 year development cycle, at least half of that was just engine upgrades and technical stuff. So this huge, sprawling, open world narrative driven game got only 3-4 years of *actual* development, which is... uh.. not a lot of time for anything more than mediocrity. But I don't know, for some reason I just still like it. Maybe I'm subconsciously forcing it or something because I really want a space game that's not NMS or Elite: Dangerous in the way there's a tangible reason for me to play.
I should really play Mass Effect...
@@seththepotate Yeah, I think I sometimes give the impression that I hate the game, but I really just find it like, fine. It was a fun game when I played it and It'll probably get better in the future, assuming they don't go overboard with the microtransactions they seem to be planning to add. It's got the most potential of any Bethesda game I've played. Like, I'm not wild about the worldbuilding (why did they add and then remove mechs from the game's setting in backstory?) but there's so many systems for gameplay in place that modders could do so much with. Like, being able to use the nonlethal weapons to capture bounties and carry them in your brig... which feels like it should already be there... but if it was intended and left out then it should be possible for modders to add it. Such a weird game to talk about because I have such mixed feelings about it.
A pointedly negative comment!
Ha! Bet you read it anyway, care or not... And the video was good, too! Positivity: restored.
Isnt the Starfield timeline occur in the 24th century, only 300 years from now ? Thats not enough time for Earth to become legend or myth. Not by a long shot. Maybe 5000 years, but not 300.
Fyi, 1000 planets is literally one-one-billionth of the milky way galaxy. Theres literally billions of stars in our galaxy
They should have done sf for pc only. The crapbox limited its tech. Probably could have been nomans sky style planet entering without shitbox. Toddlers first priority is money. I hope sf is just a way to fund the next elder scrolls game.
Ty
There is no part of this game that is remotely enjoyable. Exploration is almost non existent and un-fun, bad shooting mechanics, boring quests, level ups are tedious and not exciting, ship flight is awful, ship building is nothing special, AI is braindead - both with enemies and companions, main plot is sooo un-original.
Honestly, you are justifying an incredibly bad game in the way it is organized with good elements, even the games from before are better and that in the time it came out, they have to evolve, more than 10 years have passed, the new generations will see this game as garbage like a Old school game for them, I'm sure that most of the people who support this game are fans of the company.
I am returned to Ghost Recon Wildlands 😢😢😢😢
Im good, im not goin into the unity. I did the main quest, uc, 3 star rangers, & the last 1 was the crimson fleet if u wanna call it that b/c i went undercover to take them down. That was the last 1 i had to do & wouldve been a great way to end the game. I just decided to take a break & play Spiderman but i think this is a game ill always come back to to do something b/c if i had of went into the unity & ended it i would still feel complete b/c i did alot of stuff. I didn't just rush thru the main. But still theres alot more i can always come back to do just to be in the world. I did that with games that had nothing to do but i created something kuz i liked the world. In red dead 1 after u finish the mission where Jack gets revenge for John, i got the sheriff uniform & i would wake up from the house John built go to the train station early & wait until the police comes & nails the bounty poster on the wall & i would do maybe 3 bountys a day & when it started getting dark i would held home, go to sleep & do it again. I did the same in gta 5 whete i basically was a tow truck driver with Franklin. But this game actually has real jobs to do, so ill probably always come back from time to time, but im definitely not starting all over. This isn't 1 of those games that i enjoyed so much i want to start over b/c i didn't do everything. Usually if i start over ive done everything
Starfield is not a game, it is a DLC platform that will see service for the next 15 years.
I don't understand the loud music in the background.
I actually just married Sara and then did The mission that kills her and I was pissed and I haven’t touched the game since
One of the things that made me stop playing is when I realised how bad the sidequests were. After delivering the same person their 3rd coffee and disbanding a cool gang, I had enough. Also I think the whole setting holds Starfield back. Instead of an interesting sci-fi space setting with other sentient aliens, it's a boring one that's too realistic. I don't think nasa punk works.