Starfield – is it being overhyped? (pic: Microsoft)

A reader worries that hype for Starfield is getting out of control and suggests five reasons why the game could ultimately disappoint.

I admit it, I’m sick of hearing about Starfield. You could argue that’s my fault and not the game’s but actually I don’t blame either, it’s social media that’s driving me crazy. The constant back and forth between Xbox fans certain it’s already the Game of the Forever and PlayStation fans certain it’s the biggest con of all time has no middle ground and it’s exhausting.

So I’m going to try to offer that third way by saying I think it will probably be good but likely filled with problems, all of which can be guessed at the moment you hear Bethesda are making it – and definitely by paying basic attention to the trailers.

It’ll be on Game Pass, so I’ll play the game whatever it’s like, but for the record I’m mildly enthusiastic but, like the reader the other week, I’m looking forward to Star Wars Outlaws more. But what do I know?

The Jank

I’ll get the most obvious one out of the way first. Bethesda are infamous for their games being full of bugs, jank, and a general sense of needing a good six months more polish before they’re released. It’s the same for every one of their games and yet they never seem to accept it, acknowledge it or apologise for it. Bethesda make fun games, but I’ve noticed they do seem unusually arrogant, especially Todd Howard, for a developer whose games always have the same problems and never even seem to try and do something about it. The chances of Starfield being any different seem remote.

Facial Animation

Another thing that’s a running joke when it comes to Bethesda games, and yet they never seem to ever improve. They did say it was better during the Xbox Games Showcase but then in all the footage they showed afterwards it was still laughably bad. Like, slightly better than Fallout 4 but that’s it. Even before the faces animate, they look stiff and robotic, with really boring designs, so I think we can assume that that’s still something they’re going to struggle with.

Dialogue

I love Oblivion and Skyrim but I couldn’t tell you what the story was and I don’t know anyone that would care either. That’s fine, you can just ignore that, but the dialogue is always so hokey and basic, like the programmer wrote it and they never bothered to get someone more professional. And what do you know? It seems just the same in the Starfield trailers. Even their voice actors are usually bad and that doesn’t seem to have changed either.

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Action

One thing I will give them Is that I’m willing to believe that the shooting has got better in Starfield. What I saw in the trailers suggests it’s a lot better than Fallout and since I understand they got Id Software to help out that makes plenty of sense. The space combat though… that you can tell just by looking at it seems much less convincing. I’ll have to play it to be sure but I’m expecting that to be considerably less impressive than the gunplay, especially as Id Software can’t help with that, because it’s nothing something they have any experience with.

Lockpicking

This might seem a minor nitpick (ho ho!) but whoever edited the first gameplay trailer (the so-so one that everyone seems to have forgotten since the new one came out) really shouldn’t have left the lockpicking sequence in, as it was a giant red flag showing that despite the new name and setting this is really just a reskin of Elder Scrolls and Fallout. I don’t know about you, but lockpicking is not something I associate with sci-fi adventures and finding it’s still in the game, because that’s something Bethesda has always done, makes me think that the whole experience will be disappointingly familiar.

By reader Dalton

The reader’s features do not necessarily represent the views of GameCentral or Metro.

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A reader worries that hype for Starfield is getting out of control and suggests five reasons why the game could ultimately disappoint.