2023-09-14 11:00:00
After many years of waiting, we have already been able to try Bethesda’s new work, Starfield. Will it have met our expectations?
Bethesda has many incredible sagas to its credit, but it is in the western role where it has stood out above all. And the American developer and publisher has been in charge of such iconic sagas as The Elder Scrolls or the latest titles in the Fallout saga, both very popular sagas with great recognition. But Bethesda wanted to create something new, and from there Starfield emerged, its first original IP in more than 25 years. For this reason, and due to the studio’s track record, when the game was announced at E3 2018 people went crazy. Now, more than 5 years since that day, we have Starfield in stores, and here in the Xbox Community you can learn about our experience with this space odyssey.
The Constellation, a guild of explorers
The main story of Starfield has a very simple start. The Earth has become an uninhabitable planet, so human beings have had to leave to look for a better place in the ends of space. Our protagonist, who we must create from scratch, is in a mine on a remote planet, encountering a strange artifact, which upon coming into contact with it, causes him to experience strange visions and hear a kind of celestial music. This fact draws the attention of The Constellation, a group of space explorers that is interested in this type of artifacts.. Thus begins a spectacular science fiction story, which although it takes too long to start, once you get into it, you won’t be able to stop playing.
Even though heThe main story of Starfield has a fairly long duration of about 25 hours, this is just the tip of the iceberg of what the title has to offer us, taking more than 120 hours to complete everything. The game is full of side quests and faction quests. These, by the way, are very well developed. And each faction has different motivations. For example we have the United Colonies, a faction that seeks to maintain order in the different systems or on the contrary we have the Crimson Fleet, who are bloodthirsty pirates who travel through space plundering planets and ships. And the best thing is that we can join all of them without any type of negative impact on others. It should be noted that not all of the game’s missions are so well developed, as there are some simpler ones that are basically messenger missions.
An immensity of biblical proportions
The Starfield universe is immense. I remember the first time I opened the star map (a map where all the systems and planets are located, and which is very useful for using fast travel) and I had an overwhelming feeling. And it’s true, Starfield is overwhelming due to the size of its universe. The title has about 100 star systems, all of them with a good number of planets and moons that are fully explorable. Starfield makes you feel like a speck of dust, it makes you curious about the unknown and at the same time a little afraid of not knowing what that planet you are landing on is going to hold for you, or that ship stranded in the middle of the immensity of the space that has issued a distress signal. I have rarely felt these emotions with a video game, but Bethesda’s work has achieved it. And all this without counting on the mods, which will expand the experience even more.
Do you have the ship’s license?
Exploration is the central axis of Starfield and it is very satisfying both on the ground and in our ship. Starfield is not a conventional open world, it is composed more like many separate mini open worlds with their loading times. Forget about landing your ship on a planet, getting off to explore and taking off again with your ship into space without loading times as happens in No Man’s Sky. In Starfield this entire process is separated by loading times. Just as we cannot travel with the ship from one planet to another. This process is done through fast travel. It is true that you can really travel between planets, but the distances are so great that it will take hours to do it.
Although the use of the ship seems to be a bit limited, the reality is that we can perform many actions with it. We can explore the orbits of the planets and encounter a multitude of random events, ships to trade with, missions, special stations to explore and meteorites to destroy to obtain resources. It is understandable that many users are disappointed since we are not facing a real open world, but it is understandable given the size of the Starfield universe.
Between scans, combats and probes
Exploration on foot also has its ups and downs. And the fact is that the majority of planets have been generated procedurally, having some points of interest that have been made by hand, which are very satisfying to explore. But during the journeys, there are few things to do, we can only obtain resources or scan the fauna and flora if that planet has it. This made it feel like I was taking long walks to the different points of interest where all the secrets and events hidden on the different planets are located. Despite this, A very positive aspect of the planets is that each of them, depending on their distance from their star or their characteristics, can have different gravity, have or not oxygen, can be icy, rocky, or even have radioactivity, having to use a different equipment on each planet.
During our adventures, on many occasions we will have to use force to resolve various situations. This used to be the weakest point in previous Bethesda games, but in Starfield I have noticed a very noticeable improvement in this aspect. TBoth with the first-person view and the third-person view, combat is very satisfactory, both with firearms and melee weapons, because the aiming is very precise.. It is true that the third-person view still has ample room for improvement, but it is clear that Bethesda has worked hard to correct this aspect.
Something that doesn’t work so well is the stealth system, something rudimentary and very similar to previous works by the studio. lThe enemy AI also needs a noticeable improvement, although in my opinion, the AI of our companions is even greener. The enemy AI can be improved but it does its job, they cover themselves, they surround you… but the companion AI is another story. They don’t attack enemies that are just a few meters away, they leave you trapped because they stay still in the middle of doors or hallways… Many times they seem more of a nuisance than a help.
Personalization is a gift
Another aspect that has pleasantly surprised me is the degree of customization that Starfield has. In addition to creating our character with a wide customization selector as in previous games from the American studio, we can create bases on different planets and edit our ship as we want. If we talk about In addition to choosing the physical appearance, character creation will allow us to choose the past of our character, making this influence the future.. For example, in my adventure I have chosen to be a former military doctor, so my knowledge in medicine is very good. Furthermore, I chose to have a very luxurious house on a paradise planet, in exchange for paying a fairly high mortgage. The possibilities are endless.
Settlement on planets using bases is very similar to the settlements in Fallout 4. Virtually all the objects we collect serve as resources to later create our settlement. We cannot create a base anywhere, first we must study the planet and discover if it has the necessary resources for life.
The customization of the ships is the icing on the cake, and it is very deep. We can edit our ship both aesthetically and in its operation. We can paint it any color we want and add countless decorative elements. Impressive creations by many users have already been seen. But what is really important is the customization of its operation. We can improve the engine, missiles, shields… all elements are customizable, as long as we have credits… (in addition, each ship has different stats) It should be noted that the control of our ships is very simple and intuitive, being able to choose in the middle of a battle which aspects of our ship to enhance depending on the situation.
Audiovisually, crazy (almost always…)
Starfield is overall a very nice game. Although it uses the Creation Engine 2 engine, which has been around for quite a few years, the game leaves very beautiful impressions. Both the use of lighting, textures, particle and physics effects, everything is recreated with outstanding care. It is true that all the locations are not so well crafted, for example New Atlantis, the main city of the game, looks duller than others, with a fairly low quality of textures. If we talk about the characters, the main ones are very well done, not so much other NPCs such as pedestrians or ordinary citizens. Although One aspect that surprised me in the worst way is the facial expressions.. The characters’ voices do not match the gestures they make with their mouths.
Artistically, Starfield is amazing. The game has a very charismatic and beautiful NASA-Punk vibe. A special mention to the artistic design of ships and interiors, reminiscent of films like Alien or video games like Alien: Isolation. As for the technical aspect, in Series If we talk about bugs, Microsoft was right that it is the most polished Bethesda game so far. We did not find any serious problems or failures, perhaps some minor graphics that are not of major importance, such as corpses with spasms or people crossing the occasional fence.
Starfield’s voice acting is at a high level in both its original English and Spanish versions.. The voice actors have done a great job and are actors who have already worked on games like Fallout 4 or Skyrim. The soundtrack also has an outstanding level, making your skin crawl when complemented by the emotional moments or beautiful scenes that make up the game.
Starfield Conclusions
Starfield is not a perfect game at all, but I can say that it is the best and most complete work to date from Bethesda Game Studios. It is a game that has made me feel insignificant, to reflect on the universe, to be afraid and curious about the unknown. Starfield has generated feelings in me that very few works of entertainment have achieved. And ultimately, this is the important thing about any work, whether it is a book, a movie, a painting or a video game. The title may have bad facial expressions, some worlds may be a little empty, or all the missions may not be at the same level, but when you enter its world and feel everything that I have been able to feel, you will forget all these small mistakes and you will feel proud to be a video game lover.
Starfield
79.99€
Pros
We find ourselves with an immense title, with a thousand and one possibilities. In many moments the game is simply beautiful. Its combat, very entertaining. Its customization, both of ships, characters and settlements.
Cons
The procedural generation of planets has played against the title Space exploration quite limited The facial expressions are embarrassing
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