Starfield came out six months ago with good reviews and mixed audience reception. So how did Xbox’s most important new franchise of the past decade fizzle out so quickly? Can Bethesda spark fresh interest in the franchise in 2024?
In this video we take a look at how Starfield was announced, how it launched, the industry consensus six months on, and what it will become in the future. We interview industry experts, content creators and journalists to bring you a well-balanced comprehensive retrospective on one of 2023’s most anticipated, and underwhelming games.
Special thanks to:
Luke Woodward from Starfield Signal https://www.youtube.com/@starfieldsignal | https://twitter.com/starfieldsignal
Jordan ‘NorZZa’ Tyack https://www.youtube.com/c/norzza | https://twitter.com/norzzatv?lang=en
Joel Franey from GamesRadar https://www.gamesradar.com/author/joel-franey/ | https://twitter.com/joelfraney?lang=en
Christopher Livingston from PC Gamer https://www.pcgamer.com/author/christopher-livingston/ | https://twitter.com/_clivingston_
https://www.youtube.com/@FutureGamesShow
00:00 Starfield Announcement
00:42 The Hype Begins
03:24 Starfield Launches
03:45 Critical Reception
08:50 Public Reception
10:25 Are People Still Playing Starfield?
11:13 Game Of The Year
13:10 Bethesda Responds To Criticism
13:40 Updates Since Launch
14:41 Starfield The Shattered Space DLC
18:17 Can Bethesda Save Starfield in 2024?
19:54 Starfield 2?
#starfield #bethesda #xbox
#FutureGamesShow #fgs
Produced and edited by Matt Phillips
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The biggest problem was the lack of emergent gameplay found in previous series like Elder Scrolls and Fallout. And that’s because they replaced the explorable open world with loading screens, and large expanses of absolutely nothing.
The world of Starfield is technically massive, but in terms of content you actually would want to interact with it’s smaller than any previous open world game Bethesda have created.
You don’t even get to experience taking off from or landing on planets, like in so many other space exploration games.
I like starfield. I had low expectations so I wasn't expecting a game changer. I just wanted Fallout 4 in space and that's pretty much what I got. I still enjoy playing starfield.
Almost 600 hours into it and 100% on Steam and enjoyed it. Took a little break to play a few other games and look forward to starting a new playthrough as a pirate in the next couple of weeks.
Starfield feels like such a nothing burger. It's just vibes and asethetics. It's Pinterest the Game.
Starfield is just another in the trend of worse and worse Bethesda games. I don't see it getting any better until the people who have been in positions of power in the company are moved to a position where they don't make decisions.
I don't think they should be fired, they just shouldn't be making decisions. The company is still trying to run like a 100 team in one location and it's 4x+ that in multiple locations.
The Creation engine actually needs to be rebuilt from the ground up l, not just have them muck about with the last version and say it's "new".
I'll check in on Starfield about 6-10 months after the creation kit comes out and see what modders have done. Not really inspired to do anything else.
Bethesda has a creatively bankrupt and broken development process that has to be retooled. Particularly, the writing (overall narrative design, world building) needs a complete rebuild. Starfield is an incoherent grab bag of referential fiction and bad ideas. It rarely attempts anything original, and falls flat when it does.
On top of that, it's a mechanically slim shooter inside of an unstable sandbox. There isn't much room for emergent gameplay, unique character builds or even role playing.
Bethesda, as it is currently constituted, is not a AAA level studio. It needs better leadership.
OOF. "biiters and sours with time" missed that video. Dig your videos! Thanks! Subbed!
wasnt expecting a full on documentary but i love it. more please
Thanks for inviting me to be a part of this! Always keen to talk some Starfield.
I feel like no matter what you think about Starfield, comparing it to games like Cyberpunk and BG3 is really unfair to all of them. Starfield wasn't trying to target the same people as those other games. The only thing any of these have in common is they're rpgs.
Extra dispirited considering they put off making elderscrolls for this. I lost all confidence in this company.
I put well over 150 hours into the game, that said, I think a huge amount of what held it back for me was the way it felt like the unnecessary grind of doing an activity to upgrade your character but then also needing a skill point. Perhaps it was to force you to really sculpt the character, but it really felt like a disconnect that I had to focus on using a skill to grind it up at the sacrifice of just playing the game and naturally getting the upgrade later.
If you could manage fleets and added capital ships that alone would be enough to get me to redownload
I got about 2 days playtime in it, but then I just couldn't be arsed to carry on. The fact that an anomaly quest on the main story seemed to glitch out, so I couldn't continue the main game didn't help. It's a good game in essence, but there's not enough variety. It's the same Bethesda gameplay loop, no matter what it looks like.
Great edit guys! Good job showing different perspectives and exploring the crazy enigma that is Starfield. Happy to be a part of it.
I laughed at Starfield from release. The moment I played the intro and fell asleep playing it I uninstalled. I said the game was absolute trash and boring without playing an hour and I was completely right. I’m so glad I didn’t waste my time or money on it. I’m not a fan of it but pc gamepass saved me money😂
I played it half way through and never went back to it
What really bothers me is that it isn’t a dumpster fire. It was a competent decent game with so much potential and missing out on that is so frustrating. If it was garbage I could have easily ignored it and moved on but theres so much potential that makes it feel like a decent first draft of something that COULD have been wonderful. Plus, why on Earth did this freakin game launch without city maps, like there aren’t even physical maps in main cities!? That one improvement could get me back on the Starfield train.
When a plus point is there's only a few bugs and then it struggles to get a your attention. Incredibly average if I'd paid directly for it instead of Game pass then I'd want refund
I'm the only person who loves SF and never bought a ticket to the hate-train
The game was so mid lol I played the crap out of it at least 200 hours though lol