Starfield is Bethesda’s latest sci-fi role-playing game and Microsoft’s biggest release this year. Microsoft acquired Bethesda a few years ago in order to bolster its lineup of first-party games. With titles like Deathloop and Ghostwire: Tokyo already being announced for multiple platforms, it was going to be a while before gamers saw Bethesda games becoming fully exclusive to Microsoft platforms.
In 2023, that time has finally come. With the disappointing reception to Redfall back in May, it was important that Starfield deliver an experience that’s out of this world. Needless to say, Starfield has some astronomical expectations — and it manages to meet some of them.
Launching on Xbox Series X, Series S and PC, Starfield boasts beautiful graphics, amazing world-building and fun side quests. It’s also Bethesda’s least buggy game to date. However, some of the game’s space-faring mechanics, such as ship controls and planetary exploration, are half-baked.
Is Starfield one of the best games of 2023? Here are our thoughts after spending 35 hours with the game, completing the main story and doing several side quests.
If you're looking for an immersive space exploration game in the vein of The Elder Scrolls or Fallout, you'll find a lot to love in Starfield.
What we liked about it
Incredible visuals and immersion
Starfield looks incredible on Xbox Series X, especially when you’re traveling through space. The gravity warps — when you’re jumping from one planet to another — are the most impressive visual aspects. The cutscene is exactly what you’d expect from something like Star Trek. When you warp your ship to another location, a cascade of light surrounds you and the revving up of engines really adds to the sense of immersion.
The various cities through the game are teeming with life and activities. New Atlantis is an exciting metropolis where you can see citizens just going about their days. Neon is a fitting name for its city, as it’s infused with bright and dripping lights. It’s reminiscent of settings in games like Cyberpunk 2077 and Stray.
Bethesda also did a great job with the user interface. The Star Map shows all of the different cities and planets you can visit, and you can zoom into them and gain information about what kind of resources and fauna are on certain planets. Its straightforward and analytical design reminds me of Mass Effect’s space travel menu.
I really appreciated Starfield’s fast-travel system because it allowed me to get to my next story or side quest destination quickly. All you have to do is go to your mission objective menu, mark a main or side quest and then choose the option to just set a course, allowing you to simply fast-travel. Not only is Starfield expansive, but it also respects your time. Loading times vary when fast-traveling or going to other areas. If you’re just exiting a building, the load times are fast. If you’re grav-jumping to a different galaxy, the loading times are longer, but they’re not particularly egregious.
Starfield’s combat isn’t as impressive as its other aspects, but it doesn’t necessarily detract from the game either. It has elements of a looter shooter like Borderlands where you can pick up different weapons that enemies sometimes drop, but it doesn’t offer the same kind of frenetic action found in that series — it feels passable.
Starfield also has a glut of different skills you can invest points in. Like to run in guns blazing? Put all of your points into making your pistols and laser weapons more powerful. As a natural item hoarder myself, upgrading the Weightlifting skill was my priority so I could carry more resources. I also prefer talking my way out of situations, so I invested in the Persuasion skill in order to avoid bloodshed. One of Starfield’s charming aspects is being able to approach the same situations differently, and Bethesda pulled it off well.
Great world-building
The game’s story revolves around collecting mysterious space rocks called Artifacts, which have an unknown origin. Starfield manages to incorporate compelling sci-fi story concepts like humanity finding a new home amongst the stars while also adding in philosophical concepts. Is there a bigger power out there? What’s out there for humanity beyond the stars? The story is interesting enough to keep players going. Without going into specific story spoilers, I also really enjoyed how the game’s central revelation neatly ties in with a certain game mechanic, which was the icing on the cake for me.
Just going through the critical path will take about 15 hours, but it’s the side quests that make Starfield incredibly fun, charming and entertaining. One of the earliest quests I encountered was some sort of fraud scheme. When I thought I had our suspect, they tried to get me to join over on their side. This twist immediately made this little side adventure much more interesting. There was another side quest I came across where a famous night club DJ lost her hard drive of new songs. Upon finding out it was stolen by a mega fan of hers, I successfully persuaded him to return it instead of having to give him psychedelic drugs in exchange.
These seemingly random NPCs scattered throughout Starfield offer what seem to be mundane side quests. But these side quests contrast with the grandeur of space travel, and provide a grounded perspective of Starfield’s world. Tackling all of these different side quests adds many more hours of gameplay and discovery along with Starfield’s critical path.
Surprisingly low number of bugs
Bethesda games have garnered a reputation of having many bugs upon release, and it’s understandable that many fans are worried that Starfield would be the same. After all, Redfall had plenty and it was a huge point of contention in an already below-average game. However, it’s surprising that Starfield doesn’t have many at all.
The only time I experienced a bug was when I returned to the home base, the Lodge. For some reason, all of the character models glitched out and I could only see the NPCs’ eyes and mouths. To be more specific, the visual glitches were exactly the same ones that plagued Assassin’s Creed Unity almost 10 years ago. A simple reset of my Xbox console solved that issue. Aside from that one instance, Starfield’s overall gameplay experience ran quite smoothly.
What we didn’t like about it
Cumbersome ship controls
One of Starfield’s gameplay mechanics is being able to navigate your spaceship to travel to other planets. Along the way, you may come across hostile ships and you can engage in combat with them. You can also temporarily allocate energy to bolster your shields, or exchange them to enhance your gravity warp abilities. In these cases, I really felt like I was the captain of my own ship and it was pretty satisfying.
While the space warfare mechanics can be fun, the controls are frustrating. In particular, just moving the spaceship around is a pain. The movements are entirely too knee-jerky and sensitive to the point that it’s difficult to dock your ship on space hubs and satellites. There were many instances where I’d accidentally crash into something I meant to land on, only for the hit to deplete my ship’s shields and hull health.
Dull planets and slow exploration
Starfield’s biggest flaw is that many planets are rather boring. Sometimes there are enemy bases scattered across planets, but they feel like copy-and-pasted assets just randomly placed. What makes this part even more frustrating is that there’s no vehicle to quickly roam around planets on. This makes planetary traversal such an unwieldy experience. You also have an oxygen meter that doubles as stamina, and having to wait till it replenishes before being able to run again really ruins the pacing of exploration.
Bottom line
Starfield is a solid Bethesda game, and fans of the studio’s other franchises like The Elder Scrolls and Fallout will enjoy it. Those who are looking for a more combat-focused experience from Bethesda along the lines of Deathloop or Wolfenstein should look elsewhere. But Starfield is still worth giving a shot since it’s included in Xbox Game Pass.
The world that Bethesda crafted in Starfield through its side quests and characters is interesting and compelling, while the main story offers just enough wonder to keep players engaged for hours. While there are a few kinks in the ship, Starfield ultimately sticks the landing.
In a stacked year filled with phenomenal releases like The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, Diablo IV and Final Fantasy XVI, Starfield faces stiff competition in being considered one of 2023’s best games across all platforms. However, Starfield’s solid foundation at least earns it a spot as one of the best Xbox games.