Starfield faces growing criticism months after launch

While Starfield launched to positive reviews, fan sentiments around the game have soured in the months since launch. The game already had a mixed reception in Steam user reviews but in recent weeks, the game has dropped to a mostly negative rating.

Despite its expansive gameplay, Starfield faces mounting criticism from players. Key complaints include the lack of engaging dungeons, barren planets, and the absence of essential Quality of Life elements like detailed maps. Originally met with mixed feedback on Steam, Starfield's overall rating has nosedived to ‘mostly negative' in recent weeks. Analysing nearly 89,000 Steam user reviews, a subset of over 7,000 December reviews underscores this significant shift.

This doesn't seem to be a case of review bombing exactly, as while some of the recent reviews do have low playtime numbers, a lot of them have dozens to hundreds of hours of playtime. It does seem a bit odd that someone would play a game for over 100 hours only to decide they didn't like it, so there is clearly still some power in Bethesda's usual RPG formula – why else would you play the game for so long?

Personally, I really enjoyed my time with Starfield. I played it for weeks and ended up jumping into a New Game+ playthrough. I don't think it is the best game of the year, but it has certainly been one of my favourites in 2023, despite its flaws. While many are now burned out with Bethesda's typical RPG formula, I still very much enjoy it and I appreciated Bethesda's re-commitment to player choices and impactful decisions after being thoroughly underwhelmed by Fallout 4.

One thing is for sure, if Bethesda wants to recapture the awe of the masses and have another undisputed hit like Skyrim, it will need to make some more technical leaps with The Elder Scrolls 6.

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KitGuru Says: Have you played much of Starfield since it came out? Do you think the negatives are overblown, or do you think Bethesda needs to rethink its approach to game design for future titles? 

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