On the surface, Starfield looks like a fiddly game lover’s dream. It presents a pristine picture of a vast and highly technical space universe, where things like oxygen, gravity, and the inner workings of spaceships seem like they’ll matter. It offers thousands of locations to explore and new settlements to get lost in, alongside dozens of potential usable skills and play styles
In practice, it’s perhaps Bethesda’s most accessible game, featuring only surface-level takes on all of its systems, and painting over everything with a huge layer of mechanical cruft in the hope that you won’t notice how simple it is. It fills its digital world with thousands of buttons and switches but then doesn’t allow you to touch most of them. This fundamental disconnect between its visual design and its actual play mechanics is, in my opinion, a main reason that it left so many players disappointed when it launched a year ago.
When you look at other Bethesda franchises like Elder Scrolls, it’s easy to get an idea of what they expect from you. You’re a person with a sword and maybe some magic spells, and you go on quests using those tools. The interfaces and game mechanics have become more streamlined and user friendly over the years and sequel releases…
