Now Playing: Starfield

I feel like I could write two very different reviews of Starfield – one very positive, the other very negative. There’s not a single aspect of Starfield that isn’t flawed. It’s the game of a thousand nitpicks. A game in desperate need of a dozen or more quality of life improvements. And yet, I kind of love it. For me, Starfield is a perfect example of a game that’s far greater than the sum of its parts.

If you’re going to compare Starfield to other games in order to criticise it, then I think you should also compare those games to Starfield. Because no other game offers the same scope, variety or scale of Starfield. Very few games attempt to be this ambitious – and even fewer succeed in pulling it off. Other games may do the individual pieces better, but no other game combines them all in the way that Starfield does. As Todd Howard once famously said – it just works.

The main quest in Starfield revolves around the search for a set of mysterious, powerful artefacts. It is, I believe, the best main quest I’ve played in a Bethesda game. Admittedly, that’s not a high bar to clear, and the main quest in Starfield is certainly far from perfect – as I said, every aspect of the game has its flaws. But there’s some genuinely engaging missions to be found as you progress. And the way the main quest leads into a New Game Plus mode is both clever and exciting.

The most disappointing aspect of the main quest is – and this isn’t a spoiler because it’s in the damn trailer – the ‘space magic’ powers you can unlock. It’s not that the powers are bad as such – although how useful they are varies greatly. It’s more how you unlock them that’s the problem.

The powers in Starfield are the equivalent to the dragon shouts in Skyrim, but whereas in Skyrim you could discover shouts in various locations, in Starfield your powers are all acquired from the same copy / paste ‘temples’. I never ended up getting all of them because, honestly, it’s kind of dull and just not worth it.

As part of the main quest you’ll join an exploratory organisation called Constellation. Four members of Constellation serve as your main companions throughout the game. You can take these companions with you on any quest, anywhere, and by performing actions they approve of, you can improve your ‘relationship’ and unlock a unique mission for each.

The four Constellation companions are easily the best companions Bethesda have done, at least in terms of how much they interact with the content in which you’re engaged. I was pleasantly surprised by how many unique interactions each one has, not just as part of the main quest, but any quest. Oh, and these four companions can all be ‘romanced’ if you want to enjoy some incredibly awkward dialogue.

I do wish there was a little more – shall we say – moral variety, to the Constellation characters, but you can choose to leave them behind if you’re going to be doing something particularly unscrupulous. There are other companions you can recruit, but the Constellation four offer the most interactions.

That’s not to say that other companions aren’t worth adding to your crew – they all have a little backstory you can explore and each possesses their own unique skills and personality. Some you can simply hire, others you’ll unlock by completing various quests. Or, like most aspects of Starfield, you can choose not to engage with companions at all.

Like previous Bethesda games, Starfield offers a remarkable degree of player freedom. It allows you to engage with the content that you want to. Outposts are a perfect example of this. I’ve dabbled with outposts, constructing a few small mining operations on a couple of moons, but it’s not something I’m particularly interested in delving into – at least not yet.

But I don’t have to. I can choose to ignore the feature entirely. You, on the other hand, may want to spend hours constructing a complex network of cargo-linked outposts across multiple star systems. In the meantime, I can happily spend hours carefully designing and redesigning my fleet of ships. Hours – an obscene amount of hours. You, on the other hand, may simply stick with the starting ship and upgrade a piece here and there as required.

Don’t care for planetary scanning or exploration? Just don’t do it. Nothing is forced upon you. You’re free to try everything and stick with what you like. Speaking of exploration, I’ve seen some criticism of Starfield regarding its exploration or perceived lack of. Starfield is a game about exploration, but without exploration – at least, that’s how the criticism goes. But I can’t quite wrap my head around or agree with that assessment. There’s lots of exploration in Starfield, it’s just a different kind of exploration than you might be accustomed to from previous Bethesda games.

In Starfield you have a star map of around 100 systems and when you jump into a new system, you have no idea what you’ll find when you arrive. Some examples – I jumped into a system and discovered a space station, but the station wouldn’t respond to my hails. I docked and boarded the station only to discover it was an abandoned space casino inhabited by nefarious spacers with whom I engaged in a very fun zero-g fight.

Another example – I jumped into a system and picked up a distress signal. I followed it to a nearby planet and unlocked a multi-part side quest in which I helped a group of colonists drive a band of spacers out of their system. The point I’m making is this – I wouldn’t have seen or experienced any of these things if I hadn’t picked an unknown system and taken that jump. Exploration rewarded me with new content, new missions and new random encounters.

That said, I would agree that the randomly generated planetary points of interest are one of the weakest aspects of Starfield. The problem is – there’s too damn many of them. In my view there should have only been one or two per planet – and only the ones you can detect from orbit. Instead, the game randomly generates half a dozen or more wherever you land, all within walking distance. I assume this was done to give you that classic Bethesda feeling of exploring on foot and discovering cool things.

But, like I said, the exploration in Starfield is different to previous Bethesda games and this misguided attempt to mimic those doesn’t really work because they are generated and repeated far too frequently. There’s nothing wrong with empty worlds. It makes what you do find feel more special. But like so many features of Starfield, I can just choose to ignore it. So I didn’t bother with the randomly generated POIs unless I wanted to farm some loot or experience, or if I hadn’t seen that particular POI yet.

There are four faction quest lines in the game and, once again, I’d say these are some of the best Bethesda have done. Like everything else, they’re not without their flaws, but they each offer a fairly extensive and engaging experience, unique characters and locations, and they all lead to some interesting choices. I’d say the UC Vanguard line was my favourite overall – and also the most consistently good from start to finish – but I also really enjoyed the Crimson Fleet quests even if I felt less like a pirate and more like a spy.

You do get the option to properly join the pirates in the end but because Bethesda seem allergic to the notion of locking the player out of other content, the choice feels rather hollow as you can simultaneously be one of the most wanted pirates in the settled systems but also easily apply to become a space cop for the UC. I think this is one area Bethesda really needs to be bold and improve upon in the future – making big decisions like the one at the end of the Crimson Fleet line should have real consequences and gameplay implications going forward for the player.

Ryujin Industries is a quest chain that feels like something straight out of Cyberpunk 2077. It’s a story of corporate espionage in the city of Neon and conceptually, it’s really quite good. Unfortunately, the first several missions are some of the worst in the game. They’re incredibly dull, simplistic, easy and aren’t really any different to the randomly generated mission board quests. Thankfully, it does pick up and the final run of missions are pretty fun and engaging and offer a few different ways for the player to resolve things.

I’ve seen people say The Freestar Rangers faction chain is the weakest in the game but I have to disagree. The Ranger quests are more action focused than the other chains and as such, they provide a welcome change of pace. I do agree though that the quest chain as a whole feels a little unfinished, as if a couple of missions or potential options for the player are missing. It wrapped up much more quickly than I was expecting. I still enjoyed the ride though, and the rewards are pretty sweet.

As far as other side quests go, these are a real mixed bag. There’s so many I lost count and some are short and easy – little more than simple fetch or delivery quests – whilst others are extensive, multi-part chains featuring multiple characters, worlds and combat both in space and on the ground. The big issue I have with the side quests is how little experience you gain from their completion.

Actually, the game as a whole feels too stingy as far as experience gain goes, even for main and faction quests. And as much as I do like the new skills system, it does feel like a real grind to unlock and open up new skills. It just takes far too long to unlock lower tiers. This could be solved either by increasing the experience gain, removing tiers entirely, or simply by giving us more skill points to spend per level up.

The combat in Starfield is remarkably solid and fun. I generally stuck to ballistic weapons and had a pretty good time with it. The AI is . . . pretty bad, but it just about gets the job done. I also really enjoyed the weapon modification system to customise how they performed to my liking. Zero-g combat never gets old, especially when grenades are involved. Watching bodies and all manner of objects bounce around a ship with no gravity should never be this enjoyable.

Ship combat is fairly simple but also fun. A big part of what made it fun for me was designing my own ships and testing them out. Ships have a shield and hull rating that you’ll need to deplete in order to destroy them, but you can also target specific systems (with a skill unlock) and disable their engines in order to board and seize them.

You have a boost ability for a temporary speed increase – but also useful for evading an enemy missile lock. And then you have ship thrusters you can use to swing around a target without slowing down. It’s a shame that so many of the main and faction quests don’t actually involve much – if any – ship based combat because it’s a really enjoyable aspect of the game once you get the hang of it.

Something Bethesda have always been good at, especially with the Elder Scrolls games, is the world building and lore and that’s a trend that continues in Starfield. I know some players would have preferred a more Mass Effect type experience with a variety of alien races to interact with but frankly, I’ve been there and done that and I’m totally okay with Starfield focusing on humans and how we can f**k things up all on our own. So less Mass Effect and more Firefly and The Expanse.

I love the setting and the history and I love how aspects of that tie into the main quest. The UC Vanguard quest line is also a great (if biased from the UC viewpoint) way to get up to speed on the various conflicts that have occurred since humans departed Earth. There’s more depth here than you might realise with both of the major factions – The UC and the Freestar Collective – not quite being the idealised societies they like to portray. Digging into both of them via quests and character conversations reveals that both have their problems.

Visually, Starfield looks great. Interior detail – particularly ships – is staggering, and I love the ‘NASA-punk’ aesthetic. Exterior locations can prove to be a more mixed visual experience depending upon the generated terrain or lighting but overall, it’s easily the best looking Bethesda game yet.

It’s also the most polished Bethesda game yet. Once again – not a high bar to clear – but worth giving praise for. That’s not to say you won’t encounter any bugs – this is still a Bethesda game after all and it has its fair share of Bethesda ‘jank’ but overall, I’m very pleased. Performance could be better, but I think that problem will solve itself when / if they patch in proper DLSS support.

With future expansions, updates and mods, Starfield will only grow and improve over time. It’s exciting to think where Starfield will be in 5 years. Starfield certainly isn’t a perfect game but I can’t help but applaud its ambition and just how successfully it puts all of these (flawed) pieces together. If you’re a big fan of ‘space stuff’ like me, you’ll probably get more out of it than someone who’s not. I think it helps if you’re also a fan of Bethesda’s previous games and their style – you’ll also likely be more tolerant of the occasional jank.

I can understand why others may not enjoy Starfield as much as I did, why they may think it dated, but for all its flaws, I still think Starfield is a pretty remarkable game and experience. It’s the kind of game that reminds me why I still love and enjoy playing video games. It’s a one of a kind experience. The kind of game that doesn’t come along very often. A game I’ve already lost myself in for 200 hours and yet, I still want to keep going. There’s a lot more space out there for me to explore.

8/10

Coming Soon: Starfield

Now Playing: Hi-Fi Rush

Hi-Fi Rush is a rhythm-based action game in which you play as Chai, a young, wannabe rock star. When his cybernetic surgery goes wrong, Chai is labelled a defect and hunted by the evil Vandelay Technologies. In terms of gameplay – with its combos, parries and special attacks – Hi-Fi Rush is very reminiscent of games like Bayonetta or Devil May Cry.

But if, like me, you start trying to play it like one of those games, you might struggle. Because Hi-Fi Rush is very much a rhythm-based action game. You don’t just have to hit the right combos – you have to hit them in line with the beat. Your overall grade for each combat encounter is determined by three values – Score, Clear Time and, most importantly, Just Timing – how in tune with the beat you were. And everything is in tune with the beat, not just your attacks – jumps, dodges and parries also align and can help you boost your attack and chain together your beat combo from one enemy to the next.

Hi-Fi Rush is the kind of game that has you tapping your foot in tune with the music, not just because the music is a perfect fit for the action, but because it helps you get into the flow of the underlying beat. Whilst playing Hi-Fi Rush I developed an unconscious habit of tapping my fingers in tune to the beat even when I wasn’t playing it.

Combat can feel a little messy whilst you try to get ‘in tune’, but there is a helpful beat guide that you can put on the screen to learn. Once you do get the hang of it, however, you’ll discover that Hi-Fi Rush has a very fun, creative and stylish combat system. It does not, I admit, have as much depth or variety as the aforementioned Bayonetta or DmC games, but there’s enough here to keep you engaged throughout the entire game and the extensive post-game content.

You won’t just be fighting throughout each level, as Hi-Fi Rush also has a fair amount of platforming. Like the combat though, the world also moves in beat to the music, so timing jumps from one platform to the next, or ascending in an elevator isn’t just about going from A to B, it’s also about keeping the rhythm going.

You may play as Chai, but you won’t be on this adventure alone. You’ll encounter some new friends as you go who you can call upon to join you in battle, and each partner has a special skill that will be useful for dealing with specific foes. They can also join you for partner combos and parries as well as some wonderfully animated special attacks.

There are several boss fights in the game, all of which offer a varied experience. There’s also special enemies that can initiate ‘rhythm attacks’ in which the action is temporarily paused as you have to parry or dodge several attacks in timing to the unique beat of the attack. It might sound a little strange, but it makes perfect sense once you’ve done it a few times and it’s another reminder that Hi-Fi Rush is as much a music rhythm game, as it is an action game.

Visually, the world and characters of Hi-Fi Rush are absolutely gorgeous and exceptionally animated. It really does feel like you’re playing through a Saturday morning cartoon. The game is fun, and it feels like a labour of fun – it’s the kind of game that you can tell the developers had a real blast putting together.

The main story will probably take you about 12 hours or so but there’s good replay value in the form of collectibles to find (but not a ridiculous amount) and secret areas you can only unlock on your second run. There’s also plenty of post-game content and challenges to undertake. These can, admittedly, feel a little bit of a grind though, so I didn’t finish them all.

Hi-Fi Rush is the kind of game I want to see more of. It’s a smaller scale and (presumably) smaller budgeted original title that doesn’t outstay its welcome. It may be fun and intentionally tongue-in-cheek, but that doesn’t stop it from hitting a few emotional beats too. It mixes up the levels and environments and has a decent selection of enemy types.

Overall, I really don’t have much, if anything, to criticise about Hi-Fi Rush. The visuals, animations and sound are all excellent. The gameplay is fun, clever and engaging. If I were to criticise something it would be that the combat options are somewhat limited as you’ll likely unlock all of your combos and most of your special attacks long before you reach the end, so there’s nothing really new to explore on a replay or in the post-game challenges.

But aside from that, Hi-Fi Rush is easily one of the most fun and refreshing games I’ve played in years. If you love video games – and particularly the arcade style games of say, the Dreamcast era, then it’s the kind of game you really have to check out. I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.

9/10

Gallery: Forspoken

Now Playing: Mass Effect 3 Remastered

This one has been a long time coming. I really wasn’t sure I wanted to revisit Mass Effect 3. But I felt like enough time had passed that I was ready to tackle it. And maybe it wouldn’t hurt so bad this time. And, honestly, it didn’t. This edition of the game includes all of the DLC and extended ending content. I still don’t think the ending is good, but it’s certainly better than how the game released.

Which is a good thing, I guess, but it also means that anyone playing ME3 for the first time this way probably won’t quite understand why it was so hated at release. Because the extended ending took an ending that was absolutely terrible and made it ... just kind of bad. Let’s be clear – it’s still not good, but it’s not quite the vicious kick in the balls the original release was.

I remember back then when most people said it was only the ending that was bad and the rest of the game was fine. I disagreed then and I still disagree now. Mass Effect 3 has a lot of problems beyond the ending. The opening is, in many ways, just as bad as the ending. It feels rushed, abrupt, like you’re simply being railroaded from one point to the next – Earth, Mars, The Citadel – with major plot points either poorly explained or not explained at all.

The Crucible is the ultimate ass-pull, but it’s one I could get behind if it was properly set up or introduced. ME3 doesn’t even try. Nor does it explain why Cerberus now has a massive army and fleet which doesn’t exactly make sense for what has previously been portrayed as a clandestine, cell based organisation. But you know, I can live with that too. It certainly gives the game a little more enemy variety.

What really strikes you during the opening though is the lack of interactive dialogue. Not only do you have less options when you do get some, but a lot of dialogue in ME3 isn’t interactive at all. You just sit back and listen as Shepard responds without any input. And then we have the absolutely awful ‘dream’ sequences which . . . no.

It’s clear that ME3 has stripped any semblance of being an RPG away in favour of a more linear, third person shooter experience in which you’re not really a part of the story, you’re just along for the ride. And Shepard? Shepard is no longer your character. I already wrote a lengthy post about this back in July 2014, so I won’t repeat myself here.

The game does pick up though, most notably in the Tuchanka quests. That’s easily the best part of ME3, although the Rannoch stuff is a close second. Those parts of the game, even if the gameplay aspects aren’t great, are at least very satisfying from a narrative perspective because they’re dealing with events and characters and plot threads established all the way back in ME1 and they can be resolved in multiple and satisfying ways. They’re exactly what I wanted all of ME3 to be.

Unfortunately, once you’re past those the quality noticeably drops. Everything feels rushed again and you’re led through a series of linear missions that feel like glorified horde mode maps in which you just fight mindless waves of mindless enemies. Kai Leng is one of the worst and most embarrassing villains I’ve even seen. I don’t mind the Illusive Man plot in the sense that his motivations and actions (minus the massive army and fleet) do fit the character – he doesn’t just want to destroy the Reapers if he thinks he can control and utilise them.

That’s why I don’t mind the ‘Control’ ending as an option, even if I’d never pick it. It, to me, is the true renegade option because it’s exactly what Cerberus and the Illusive Man wanted, albeit not with Shepard at the helm. Don’t get me started on Synthesis. That shit is completely f**king stupid even with the expanded ‘explanation’ provided in this edition. It feels like it’s the option the developers really wanted us to pick given it requires the highest ‘war score’ but it’s so poorly explained and makes such little sense that why would anyone want to?

It’s also only set up at the very end of the game. At least Control is established earlier on, Synthesis is just tossed in like this grand, supreme idea but it doesn’t make any f**king sense. Speaking of war score or war assets or whatever you want to call it – what a f**king waste of time. I remember prior to release when we all thought ME3 would have a wider scale, more elaborate take on the Suicide Mission of ME2.

Where your choices determines not only if you’ll win but what the cost will be – not only who lives or dies but what races survive. But hey, if you can’t be so elaborate, then at least the war assets factor into the ending in some way, right?

Wrong! They really are just for a score that unlocks the three endings. If you think you might at least see some of those assets appear in cinematic scenes or whatever, think again. Imagine if you saved the Rachni and then you at least got to see a scene of a Krogan squad being saved by Rachni allies? Wouldn’t that be fun? Or when I secured the loyalty of some mercenary groups. What if they showed up at a key point and helped turn the tide? Give me f**king something. Anything.

Even with the extended content, the ending of ME3 still feels abrupt, weird, nonsensical and rushed. There’s no proper epilogue reflecting on what you did or the choices you made. No, it’s not as terrible as at release but it’s still pretty bad. You know, I thought I’d gotten over my anger towards ME3 but I’ve now realised this review has turned into another directionless rant.

I think I’ll stop here. I’m glad I played ME3 again, I guess, if only to remind myself of the things I did like about it. Because there are some genuinely great moments in ME3. It’s a shame the rest of the game, the ending in particular, is so bad or lacklustre in comparison. I’m not going to say this ‘remastered’ edition is bad because I think, overall, new players will probably enjoy it. But they’ll never know what it was like. They’ll never understand the anger or the pain.

5/10

Starfield: First Impressions

I was wary of Starfield. I had two key concerns – bugs and writing. The last major Bethesda game I played was Fallout 4, a game that was broken as all fuck on release. Crashes. Bugs. Broken quests. Would Starfield do better? I mean, how could it do worse? And then we have the writing – Bethesda have always been good with their world building and lore (at least as far as the Elder Scrolls series goes) but their quest and (most notably) character writing has always left something to be desired.

Even Skyrim, a Bethesda game I have a lot of love for and sunk 600 hours into – not to mention 100 hours in the (heavily modded) VR version – is plagued with some very mediocre writing. Bland characters. Bland quests. Fallout 4 wasn’t just bland – it was bad. I’ve heard some of the DLC was an improvement, but I never gave it a shot.

I’ve now played Starfield for 30 hours and I feel ready to share my initial impressions. In terms of bugs, I’m pleased to report that Starfield may just be the most polished Bethesda game yet. That’s not to say my experience has been entirely bug free – oh no, this is still a Bethesda game, after all. But thankfully these bugs have been minor and easily resolved with a simple reload. Nothing broken. No crashes. PC performance is good but not great so there’s certainly room for some improvement there.

The opening few hours are slow (gameplay) but engaging (story). There’s a lot to learn, but I don’t think Starfield does a perfect job of managing your progression through the early content. It doesn’t explain everything well, and some things it doesn’t explain at all. This is a game where you’ll need to be willing to experiment to see what works and what doesn’t.

To address my other key concern – the writing – Starfield may be Bethesda’s best work yet. Once again, they nail the world building and lore. I love the history, the factions and the style. But the quests I’ve completed have also been really engaging and, somewhat surprisingly, the main quest (so far!) has been too. In previous Bethesda games, even when the side / faction content has been decent, the main quest has been terrible (Oblivion is a perfect example). Starfield – at the moment – feels like it’s knocking both out of the park.

And the characters! Actual characters?! In a Bethesda game?! And not just main / companion characters – even minor characters feel well written and are interesting to interact with. Even random, ‘radiant’ quest characters I’ve encountered have a remarkable degree of thought put into them.

Facial animations are good – for a Bethesda game. I mean, this ain’t exactly Cyberpunk 2077 quality, but given how many characters there are, I’m still quite impressed. And the VA, right across the board, has been excellent. And ‘impressed’ is how I’d sum up my time with Starfield thus far. The more I play, the more impressed I am.

The scope of the game is massive. The attention to detail is staggering. The combat is really good – even if the AI (and pathfinding) could use a little more work. I can spend hours customising my ship and I’ve not even touched outpost building yet. I understand some people may be disappointed that Starfield isn’t as seamless as something like No Man’s Sky but to be frank, I don’t see the two as remotely comparable.

In fact, there’s nothing that’s really comparable to what Bethesda have achieved with Starfield in terms of the sheer amount of content, quests, characters, combat, customisation, RPG mechanics and locations. Nothing even comes close. Such ambition – and the fact that they appear to have pulled it off – is to be applauded.

No, it’s not perfect. Yes, there are limitations. And I’m already making a list of quality of life improvements / mods I’d want. But I’ve never played a game quite like Starfield. It feels like something special.