Starfield (PS5) Review

Gameplay

Graphics

Audio

Narrative

Summary: Starfield makes planet side on PS5 and mostly sticks the landing.

3.6

One Step Beyond

After playing Starfield on PS5, I’m starting to wonder what all the fuss was about. What I’m saying is that when I review something, the main question I tend to ask myself is, did this thing succeed in what it set out to do?

Starfield is a hard science fiction RPG. That’s what the developers intended it to be. Now the hard part in hard science fiction is also the important part. If you were hoping Starfield is just like Fallout or The Elder Scrolls in space, I have some good news and some bad news for you.

The good news is that if you want to play Fallout in space, the fantastic Outer Worlds and Outer Worlds 2 already exist and have been available for quite some time.

The bad news is that Starfield isn’t the Elder Scrolls or Fallout, and it was never intended to be that. Yes, there are some supernatural elements, and the main story is about a group of explorers attempting to uncover some mythical McGuffins that reveal the mysteries of the cosmos. But ultimately, it’s still a game about what a post-Earth human society would probably look like, and how that would work, by extrapolating out from what space travel is actually like – that’s the hard part of hard Science fiction. The part that’s rooted in reality.

Unfortunately for people hoping to be Buck Bumble, space adventurer. The part of the whole experience Bethesda absolutely nailed with Starfield is what space exploration is likely going to be like when we finally take to the stars.

Yes, there will be planets teeming with life, with populations in the thousands, where civilisation continues as it always has. There will be rival factions, crime, political intrigue, and plenty of things to see and do. These worlds are great to walk around, and you’ll often ignore the main campaign to take in the sights and stumble upon side missions and other activities. This is Starfield at its best.

There are plenty of great characters to meet, you get your own insipid fan boy, it’s easy to end up in all sorts of mischief, you don’t always have to go for your gun since most altercations can be solved by talking people round using the rather nifty persuasion mechanics that have a satisfying amount of risk vs reward depending on how far you are willing to push someone. Though sometimes your percentage chance of success does screw you for no logical reason.

Though the times you do end up in a fight are, well, fine. The gunplay is easily the best in any Bethesda game to date. Although, admittedly, that is a bar you could trip over. Each weapon type feels unique, and there’s a palpable kick to heavier weapons, further enhanced by clever use of the DualSense’s adaptive triggers and haptics.

Enemies will also dive for cover and attempt to flank and pin you down in ways I would usually associate with a half-decent FPS. This results in some tense encounters where you really have to think about when you’re going to return fire and try to keep out of your foe’s crosshairs.

But here’s the part NASA doesn’t like talking about: travelling in space is, well, dull. That’s something Starfield really hammers home, too. Most celestial bodies, planets and moons, are uninhabitable. They’re barren rocks with little to no signs of life. In the far-flung future, they might have some sort of small outpost on them or a mine, if you’re lucky, and that’s about it.

Although I do respect Bethesda’s commitment to authenticity, the problem is that as a player. It’s not very fun or exciting. Likewise, having to confirm every step of travel to take you from one planet to the next. First, you have to either walk or fast travel to the spaceport, then get in your ship, then take off, then select which system you want to travel to, then engage your Grav Drive, to arrive in the right system, then travel to the planet, then decide where on the planet you want to touch down, then finally land.

Did I mention this is technically fast travel?

Thankfully, the dance of half a dozen menus has been slightly mitigated by the new Free Lanes update. This lets you pilot your ship between worlds in a single system. It also lets you flick on autopilot, tinker about with your ship, and get to know your crew better while heading to your destination.

It’s an improvement for sure, and diverting power to different systems certainly gives you the same giddy thrill your average Starfleet captain probably has when they move full power to the shields. However, it’s still fairly limited and is nowhere near the full space-trucking experience you’d get in something like Elite Dangerous.

Free Lanes also adds more customisation options for your weapons, more parts for the game’s surprisingly deep shipbuilding mechanics, and a better chance of finding some rare cruiser to commandeer if you’re in the mood for a little space piracy.

Though stealing ships to sell is not very profitable since you have to pay exorbitant registration fees to fence them. Moreover, all the random crap on the ship you pinched gets stuffed into the hull of your own, and you then have to sort through and sell it all. Made worse since there are no competing economies in space – everything costs the same everywhere. You can’t dig up minerals in one sector and sell them for a handsome profit in another where they might be scarce. You start the game playing as a miner, but the entire fiscal point of such operations isn’t represented at all.

Then there are so many materials and items and things to pick up that you’re constantly overencumbered. Whenever you are, you’ll slowly suffocate since your oxygen levels also double as your stamina. Meanwhile, your companions won’t shut the hell up about it.

This is exacerbated further by the fact that the UI is absolute trash. Trying to navigate through the myriad menus to get to your inventory, then sort it, then drop enough random junk to stop your character from keeling over is an exercise in tedium. When players have to double-tap buttons to go to the right sub-menu and scroll through three screens to exit, you should scrap your UI and start again.

However, Starfield looks superb on the PS5, even more so on the Pro. There’s a magnificent sense of scale, especially on some of the more settled worlds, where you get to see some beautiful architecture, with incredible swooping bridges and giant spires that make you feel tiny. Even when you’re wandering around what turns out to be another barren ball of rock, you can’t say that those rocky textures don’t look lovely, especially when you glimpse a new planetoid to cruise to on the horizon. (Fair warning, though, it’s probably just another lifeless husk, such is the nature of space exploration)

Bethesda has also allowed you to tweak the visual fidelity in useful ways, depending on whether you want to push for a native 4k 30 presentation or cut back on some bells and whistles and opt for a smoother 60-frame target while you’re exploiting the cosmos in all its splendor.

Final Thoughts

Despite its many foibles, I still found it hard to put Starfield down. It’s a Bethesda game like no other, in that it’s actually best experienced by sticking to the main path rather than picking a direction and seeing what trouble you get into. The fragmentation of its narrative and structure over dozens of small maps robs it of the same spirit of manifest destiny that Fallout and, to a lesser extent, The Elder Scrolls. You’re not drawn to towers in the distance, to dragons on the horizon; it’s more a case of I wonder what Earth is like now, or if that ship in the distance will open fire on me, and is there anything worth stealing in its hull?

It’s this fractious nature and the sheer drudgery of space travel that make it a tough sell to even fans of other Bethesda RPGs. But if you’re a sucker for secret sects and a cosmological mystery, chances are Starfield will be a trip into the bleak emptiness of space you’ll want to take.

About the Author

Gareth Newnham

Starfield (PS5) Review