Starfield, one of the most anticipated video games ever, is only about a week away from release, and reviews are in. So far, they’re pretty spectacular, clearly marking the game as a strong contender for Game of the Year.
In case you’re not familiar, Starfield is a role playing game (RPG) from Bethesda, the studio responsible for franchises like Fallout, Deathloop, and The Elder Scrolls. Starfield has been referred to as the “Skyrim in space,” so expectations are pretty high.
Add to that expectation the fact that this is Bethesda’s first new IP since The Elder Scrolls, and you’ve got a bonafide event on your hands. Here’s the official synopsis:
“The year is 2330. Humanity has ventured beyond our solar system, settling new planets, and living as a spacefaring people. From humble beginnings as a space miner, you will join Constellation – the last group of space explorers seeking rare artifacts throughout the galaxy – and navigate the vast expanse of the Settled Systems.”
The game has a 94% rating on the rating aggregation site opencritic, which gave it a “mighty” rating. Let’s take a look at some of the scores.
Destructoid gave the game a 10 out of 10: “In the end, Starfield is a genre-defining epic open-world RPG with a beautifully immersive universe, a captivating story, and fun and addicting gameplay the whole way.”
Forbes said, “… if you wanted a giant Bethesda RPG set in space with better combat and a whole lot of time to level and build things and explore and find secrets, yeah, this is it. They did it.” They scored the game 9.5 out of 10.
Over at Attack of the Fanboy, the praise is just as good. The review called it the “most ambitious game in the Xbox Game Studios library to date. It would not be a stretch to say this could be one of the most ambitious games ever made, and that it followed through with many of those goals with relatively low compromise.”
The legacy gaming site IGN wasn’t as effusive, but still begrudgingly admitted it was a hard game to ignore. They scored it 7/10.
“Starfield has a lot of forces working against it, but eventually the allure of its expansive roleplaying quests and respectable combat make its gravitational pull difficult to resist,” IGN said.
IGN also has the distinction of being the lowest score from a top critic so far. That’s not a bad record to have.
What about our own review? We gave the game 4.5/5.
“It might not do everything perfectly, but it does everything pretty well. Sure, there are bugs — character models will load without hair, or as floating eyeballs and mouths, and bodies will even ricochet into space with little warning, but those minor inconveniences don’t hold a candle to its overwhelming scope. It easily joins its predecessors as a title that will hold players’ attention for years to come.”
All of this is looking like maybe we can finally move on from Skyrim and it’s 200 remasters and remakes, and finally focus on something new and exciting from Bethesda. Unfortunately, the game is being released exclusively on PC and Xbox, so PS5 owners are out of luck for now.
Will it come to PS5? That seems about as likely as a Halo port, but you never know. In the meantime, it looks like Bethesda has a real winner on its hands.
Starfield releases on Sept. 6. The standard edition cost $70. There are special editions that cost up to $300.