Starfield's Steam rating falls to "mostly negative," can Bethesda still save its RPG?

[midian182]

What just happened? Starfield, an RPG that excited gamers for years before release with the promise of being Skyrim in space, is ending 2023 with its Steam Recent Reviews rating at Mostly Negative. Even the overall rating is Mixed, which will doubtlessly disappoint Bethesda and Todd Howard.

Being Bethesda's first original IP in decades meant Starfield garnered a lot of hype in the years following its 2018 announcement. The game even made it onto Steam's best-seller chart months ahead of launch thanks to the slew of pre-orders.

But Starfield's reviews were far from universally positive. Some reviewers genuinely loved it, handing out scores of 8, 9, and even 10 out of 10. Others were disappointed by many elements, finding it resoundingly average. And you'll find plenty of people who downright hate the game.

Starfield certainly isn't finding much love on Steam. Of the 87,000 user reviews it has gained since launch, only 65% are positive, earning it a Mixed rating. The more damning part is the Recent Reviews section, which covers all reviews over the last 30 days. There have been around 7,500 user reviews across the last month, a mere 31% of which were positive, earning Starfield a Mostly Negative rating.

A look at the negative reviews shows the same complaints aired by most people who dislike Starfield: Mediocre, boring, vast emptiness, loads of loading screens, awful AI, etc.

Bethesda started making the situation even worse last month by replying to some of these negative reviews. One game dev responded to the emptiness complaint by writing: "When the astronauts went to the moon, there was nothing there. They certainly weren't bored." Addressing the loading-screen issues, the same developer asked the reviewer to consider the amount of data within the game. There was also the Starfield developer who said on X that gamers are "disconnected" from "the realities of game development."

Loooong𧵠(1/15) Funny how disconnected some players are from the realities of game development, and yet they speak with complete authority. I mean, I can guess what it takes to make a Hostess Twinkie, but I don't work in the factory, so what the hell do I really know? Not a lot.

– Emil Pagliarulo (@Dezinuh) December 13, 2023

Starfield only received two nominations at this month's game awards – Players' Voice, where it was voted out in the first round, and Best RPG – losing out on both awards to Baldur's Gate 3.

Bethesda isn't giving up on Starfield, of course. A recent end-of-year update revealed that the company is aiming to release updates every six weeks starting in February, introducing everything from quality-of-life improvements to content and feature updates. Players can expect new ship customization options, new ways to travel, city maps, extra gameplay options, and more.

Bethesda will no doubt be hoping Starfield can mirror Cyberpunk 2077 and No Man's Sky, recovering from a terrible launch to become a game adored by many. But like those titles, it'll take a few years before Starfield reaches that point - assuming it ever does.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/101335-starfield-steam-rating-falls-mostly-negative-but-can.html

 

[Eldritch]

For anyone who wants to see the absurd replies from Bethesda to the Negative reviews.
Bethesda Is Responding to Negative Reviews of Starfield on Steam

 

[Bl00dyMinded]

I played 4 hours of it and was disappointed. Even more for a game this big and it doesn't support Ultra Wide HD is beyond me.

 

[m4a4]

Honestly, it just feels like the "cool game to hate on" at this point.
A lot of the thumbs downs I see have 40+hrs in it (or have hundreds, just meming that it's boring/mid), and I feel like this is where the "Steam should add a 3rd option for reviews besides the binary choice of yes/no" would actually be more accurate.

That said, mod support would certainly help them. I bet a lot of people are anticipating that to turn things around.

 

[godrilla]

My biggest gripe is its not balanced enough. The dogfight is extremely challenging but the first person hand to hand combat is extremely easy even at maximum difficulty. Might just wait till upcoming update or patch that is being talked about to continue. I am currently on level 18 .
I have not installed any Mods yet either.
Some issues were with NPC clipping and glitching out but it was a one time occurrence.

I am playing at 4k maximum settings with dlaa on getting around 70 fps minimum. The fov slider is set to maximum which makes the game look way better than default fov imo.
The game definitely needs some fixes imo.
Cyberpunk 2077 took a few years to get to where it's today.

 

[nnguy2]

Put in about 15-20 hrs. Mediocre at best. I think their biggest problem is making a game that is accessible to everyone and you end up with a very bland game. The pacing feels off, npc romance feels off, and the world doesn't have a "lived in" feel.

 

[McKocoa]

For a "new IP" it shared almost every mechanic of Fallout 4 (and some with FO86). Some examples: The crafting, companions, the enemy AI, the leveling, the looting, base building, weapons, shooting feel, and the SAME clunky bugs! The main quest story was unfulfilling and the whole ordeal seemed to be a blatant copy of no man's sky, the only thing that kept me going a little bit further (just like no mans sky) was exploration of high-level planets and a dumb and boring loop of starship upgrades and ship purchasing. I liked the world building, mostly. And I did like exploring random planets because everything else was boring.

 

[TomSEA]

No one wanted this game to be successful more than me. But I put in about 15 hours and finally quit. It's just a bad, bad game. I felt like I was working at a job I didn't like, rather than playing a game I should be loving.

I'll give it a year or two when Bethesda is done with all their add-ons, and the mod community has had a good turn at it before I try again.

 

[SG736F6]

I put about 42 hours into it. I enjoyed it enough to play through it several times. Didn't care to unlock everything. Overall, it was fun while it lasted but felt old real quick. I'd say the game is mediocre at best. There are a lot of weird bugs, sometimes funny ones. Nothing quite like talking to someone and having a random NPC in the background suddenly fall through the floor or float straight up into the sky. There was also NPC's who wouldn't face me while I spoke with them, a lot. OH, and I almost forgot how often facial textures wouldn't load and characters would look at me with eyes and mouth but no face. I received the game for free with my new video card, but I certainly wouldn't pay $60+ for it. I would have never purchased it at all, honestly. It was a nice little bonus with my card though. I had more fun playing through The Outer Worlds, which I found to be a similar yet very different experience, and far less buggy. This just felt like Fallout in space, to me, and the only Fallout I've ever enjoyed was the first game when I was a kid. The game felt kinda soulless and empty.

 

[Nobina]

This game feels almost exactly like Fallout 4 with planet jumping a.k.a. loading screen simulator. That's the issue, it's not a "new" game. Similar to AC and FC games, it's just more of the same. The main focus of the game is exploring, but IMO it's the worst part of the game. What can you explore? It's a bunch of empty planets with copy/paste buildings and caves, probably generated by AI. Characters and story are goofy. Overall, the game is not terrible because Fallout formula is not terrible, but it's old and it shows. Compare this game to other similar games like CP2077 and it's night and day difference.

 

[ScottSoapbox]

Stupid parallel dev.

I don’t have to know how a Twinkie is made to know if I enjoy eating it or not.

 

[winjer]

I played for a few hours, but gave up, because it was so boring.
It was also poorly optimized. And the graphics, often looked rather poor. Although ships looked good.

 

[Theinsanegamer]

IDK why anyone expected otherwise. Bethesda games are wider then the pacific ocean with the depth of a piss puddle. People bought it to CONSOOOM. They should know better, given how poorly they were treated by Bethesda the last half decade, but gamurz have short memories.

And no, it wont be saved. Bethesda has NEVER saved their own work. NMS is a fluke. The thing that has saved bethesda trash has been modders, who have long given up on starfield because its a boring puddle.

But much like saints row, it'll take another 3-4 games before people finally figure out that you have to stop supporting bad behavior to change said behavior.

 

[toooooot]

My bigger concern is modders not being excited to make mods for it.
Has it got any new features yet? Without mods it will indeed die soon.

 

[toooooot]

Put in about 15-20 hrs. Mediocre at best. I think their biggest problem is making a game that is accessible to everyone and you end up with a very bland game. The pacing feels off, npc romance feels off, and the world doesn't have a "lived in" feel.

Some might say that I pay too much attention to politics, but is it not the plague of most games today?
Everything has to have a widely accepted rules, nothing should offend anyone, race quotas, etc etc. What excitement can be left after all requirements worked and implemented?
Games like other work of arts such as movies or music are supposed to be made by excited people.

 

[Theinsanegamer]

Some might say that I pay too much attention to politics, but is it not the plague of most games today?
Everything has to have a widely accepted rules, nothing should offend anyone, race quotas, etc etc. What excitement can be left after all requirements worked and implemented?
Games like other work of arts such as movies or music are supposed to be made by excited people.

Yeah but that has nothing to do with starfield though. Saints row: self owned? Yeah. But not starfield. Bethesda games have long been boring sketchpads that the modders made tolerable. Starfield is just so bland that even modders cant be bothered now. The simplest answer: the few talented people that made interesting stuff are long gone, and bethesda has become a paint by numbers MS studio, just like 343.

But it was one of the best selling games of the year, so bethesda will learn nothing.

 

[puckle]

Honestly, it just feels like the "cool game to hate on" at this point.
A lot of the thumbs downs I see have 40+hrs in it (or have hundreds, just meming that it's boring/mid), and I feel like this is where the "Steam should add a 3rd option for reviews besides the binary choice of yes/no" would actually be more accurate.

That said, mod support would certainly help them. I bet a lot of people are anticipating that to turn things around.

I played it 'till the end, but only because I felt I'd have wasted my money otherwise. I really had to force myself to get through it by the end. I don't have much money to spend on games, so I was tossing up between Starfield and BG3. Having got BG3 for Christmas, I really wish I'd got that first and read the reviews for Starfield. There were good bits, but mostly boring and repetitive bits. What really took the biscuit for me was when I'd cleared out a lab and collected my reward. I chose another mission from a notice board and was clearing out the very same lab again just a few minutes later. It really hit home how small this vast game really is.

 

[Theinsanegamer]

I played it 'till the end, but only because I felt I'd have wasted my money otherwise. I really had to force myself to get through it by the end. I don't have much money to spend on games, so I was tossing up between Starfield and BG3. Having got BG3 for Christmas, I really wish I'd got that first and read the reviews for Starfield. There were good bits, but mostly boring and repetitive bits. What really took the biscuit for me was when I'd cleared out a lab and collected my reward. I chose another mission from a notice board and was clearing out the very same lab again just a few minutes later. It really hit home how small this vast game really is.

An infinite number of the same room. 3700 variations of "bandit with pistol". 16 times the detail.

 

[yukka]

I played a good 30-40 hours of it before I quit. I enjoyed the space ship building and specced in the skills to unlock all the combinations as quickly as possible.

Where it came apart was the emersion and the quests that went nowhere. Right at the beginning you are going mining and there’s loads of dialogue but the miners aren’t really doing much. You get the impression early doors that they are just window dressing - a fabrication to get the story started. This is backed up when you do some “mining” which is “shooting a laser at a rock” for 10 seconds and you get congratulated for a job well done.

There’s the infamous “jewel of mars” or something where you walk to a cave and shoot a rock and go back to the quest giver and they say “you found it? It was a joke! Keep it” and that’s it. Really odd, like the person doing that quest quit for the afternoon instead of finishing the job.

There were the huge aliens that had you battling in the rain and the dark with robot sentries which was cool and terrifying, then the second encounter with them when they were befuddled by plot armor and just stood at a distance while I shot them with a rifle. Previous experience utterly ruined. Again, AI dev went home early.

Then there was joining the corp. loads of build up that just sputtered weakly to a standstill. A quest to go through 5 doors with a set of stairs for good measure, an on rails conversation followed by going back through the same five doors (don’t forget the stairs - or was it a lift/loading screen?) and then someone congratulating me on a job well done. I’d opened five doors. Then we went through a door and I was given the traditional ceremony to join - one person (the same one) saying a sentence or two then walking away. I think I had to follow them back to the original room for the start of a different quest. Maybe.

It’s just not very “good”. I’m a bit worried about Elder Scrolls Six to be honest, if it’s just Starfield lvl quest lines but less loading, it’s going to be even older and out of date.

 

[Puiu]

Honestly, it just feels like the "cool game to hate on" at this point.
A lot of the thumbs downs I see have 40+hrs in it (or have hundreds, just meming that it's boring/mid), and I feel like this is where the "Steam should add a 3rd option for reviews besides the binary choice of yes/no" would actually be more accurate.

That said, mod support would certainly help them. I bet a lot of people are anticipating that to turn things around.

Having 40 hours doesn't mean he should give it an overwhelming positive rating, not at all. It didn't turn into a game that is cool to hate, it just stopped being overhyped by fanboys. I've never seen a more insane response of a fanbase attacking anyone for saying it isn't a 10/10 game or "game of decade/generation".

I've played hundreds of hours in Planetside 2, I would still not rate it above a 5 or 6 because I know that it is a very flawed game. Just because I liked that one thing it did well doesn't make it a 10/10 game.

The worst part? I have no idea what Starfield does well at all.

 

[mountains]

Hopefully Bethesda can figure out how to do it's game and engine updates without destroying some existing mods like it has with games like Skyrim. Most mod authors are only involved for a limited time before moving one, so getting new updates to many existing mods can be tough. Bethesda risks demotivating a vibrant community, maybe it's last loyal base.

Don't get me wrong. The modding scene for Skyrim is still going strong, but Bethesda makes it challenging sometimes.

My guess is with Starfield they were banking on the modding community filling up the emptiness and fixing bugs. That may still happen, but you have to draw people in. And hurry up and stabilize the game/engine so modders can save this project before it is too late. Make it as mod author and mod user friendly as possible!

 

[Theinsanegamer]

Hopefully Bethesda can figure out how to do it's game and engine updates without destroying some existing mods like it has with games like Skyrim. Most mod authors are only involved for a limited time before moving one, so getting new updates to many existing mods can be tough. Bethesda risks demotivating a vibrant community, maybe it's last loyal base.

Don't get me wrong. The modding scene for Skyrim is still going strong, but Bethesda makes it challenging sometimes.

My guess is with Starfield they were banking on the modding community filling up the emptiness and fixing bugs. That may still happen, but you have to draw people in. And hurry up and stabilize the game/engine so modders can save this project before it is too late. Make it as mod author and mod user friendly as possible!

Breaking the mods was totally intentional. They've wanted to push the paid Creation Club system since fallout 4.

 

[MaestroIT]

... I received the game for free with my new video card, but I certainly wouldn't pay $60+ for it. I would have never purchased it at all, honestly. It was a nice little bonus with my card though....

I received the game for free when I bought a Logitech Gaming mouse like 10 days after the game release. $60 new game for free with a $120 mouse!!!

 

[Eldrach]

The biggest gripe I have with the game, was all the promises from Bethesda. This game took a very long time to make as they had to overcome technical hurdles no company in the entire industry had managed to do before.

Then it came out - and I see none of it. Stupid AI, load screens everywhere, every conversation feels like torture due to long monologes while staring at someones face. The story is bland, the world doesn’t even have maps, walking around planets takes forever, your inventory is tiny, the loot is pretty boring. Skyrim was filled with these small secrets everywhere you went - this game has 990 locations with nothing - and 10 locations with almost nothing

 

[yukka]

The biggest gripe I have with the game, was all the promises from Bethesda. This game took a very long time to make as they had to overcome technical hurdles no company in the entire industry had managed to do before.

Then it came out - and I see none of it. Stupid AI, load screens everywhere, every conversation feels like torture due to long monologes while staring at someones face. The story is bland, the world doesn’t even have maps, walking around planets takes forever, your inventory is tiny, the loot is pretty boring. Skyrim was filled with these small secrets everywhere you went - this game has 990 locations with nothing - and 10 locations with almost nothing

I can live with small inventories and boring loot if the core story telling/role playing part of the game was next gen. I can’t think of anything in the chats etc you have with anyone that had any evolved concepts. I saw examples of conversations you couldn’t steer in the direction you wanted - topics mentioned by the character that you couldn’t question them around. I thought there was an AI system in there that would talk around topics and increase choices but I don’t know if that’s true. I feel we should have been able to say “wow the Starfield quest stuff was truly next level, I’ve never seen anything do that before” and that be the bar everyone has to reach but it hasn’t raised the bar or even updated it in any particularly standout/noticeable way.

Oblivion and Skyrim had the same questing style and due to technical constraints the level of interaction and story branching was acceptable and the games were very enjoyable. Starfield uses the same style but feels like there are less choices to make and there should be the technical capability now to do something better. What Skyrim had over Starfield in particular was walking out of a door and being able to walk to any location on the map discovering stuff on the way. People have make entire stealth archer playthroughs just role playing hiding in bushes and sniping their way across the whole map. But there are loads of sandbox games now. You can do that kind of stuff without it being a Bethesda title so what’s left to differentiate Bethesda and every other game is Bethesdas reputation for solid world building. For Starfield that feels that it’s showing its age now. It’s not enough and ES6 can’t be the same system over again.