Starfield Madness has Officially Begun!

Before you ask...no, I'm not currently playing Bethesda's shiny new space-RPG Starfield.  I am, however, engaging in a sort of voyeuristic enjoyment of reading reviews and social media hubbub.  The hype train for Starfield has been running at full steam for quite awhile now and it's nice to finally see some actual impressions from players.

Firstly though, just let me say that I think the whole "premium edition" offering that lets people play a few days prior to release feels a little bonkers to me.  People are paying $99.99 to play 5 days earlier?  (I mean, sure, you do get the soundtrack, a digital artbook, and some sort of "story expansion" too)  Kudos to the corps for figuring out a way to get people to pay extra for basically nothing.  I suppose you do get the pleasure/bragging rights of doing something before most people, but I think I'd just save that $30 and wait (that's like half the price of another big name game!).  I also gotta kudos them for dropping the premium access before a holiday weekend in the U.S. Plenty of time to enjoy that extra $30 worth of game that you paid for.

If you haven't seen or read any reviews yet, the good news is that they're mostly positive.  The metacritic score is currently sitting at 88, which isn't Baldur's Gate 3 level of greatness, but it's not bad (and yes, you do sort of have to take metacritic scores with a grain of salt).  Games that are 80+ generally pique my interest, so that's encouraging.  The only full length review I read was from PC Gamer and they gave it a score much lower than the 88--a 75.  Some of the things that I was skeptical about are mentioned in the PC Gamer review.  Those 1,000 planets...yeah, it seems like they're a pretty mixed bag.  The reviewer mentions finding a few unique ones, but that most of them have a copy-past exploration type of format that involves running, finding a thing, and then leaving.  Another review I saw mentioned the fact that the story is pretty forgettable--which, quite honestly, squares with my experiences in Skyrim and the Fallout series.  To me, Bethesda's games are more about interacting with the world and experiencing all the weirdness that comes with that rather than a deeply engrossing and focused story.  It sounds like Starfield follows that formula but does have some improvements to gameplay.

I'm not going to be running out and buying Starfield any time soon, but it does sound like something I'd be interested in at a future date.  Maybe when it starts going on sale.  I'm glad that people are saying mostly positive things about it even if it doesn't sound like the next gaming masterpiece.

Happy gaming and Labor Day weekend!