Cismontane

So I'm a devoted TES and Fallout fan, and Skyrim modder. Despite some flaws, I'm loving Starfield and I'm excited to see it develop into the next great BGS modding platform. I've played around a hundred hours, including early access. First, performance. - I'm running a i9 13900KF CPU, RTX 4080 GPU, with lots of RAM and a SSD. Initially, I found performance in very populated spots to be 40-60 fps (I fixed the maximum at 60 fps) at 4K and max settings without turning on FSR sharpening, but then I started tweaking my GPU settings, including forcing ReBAR (before the nvidia patch), and, without compromises, the game is now performing at 57-60 fps reliably. - I think I saw one noticeable stutter so far, and I've had zero CTDs. This is still without using FSR and I'm not using the DLSS mods (for fear they wouldn't play well with my own tweaks). - Please patch in DLSS, 2, 3 and DLAA. I think story, side quests, and characterization are all superb - the best I've seen in a BGS title so far (or, at least, on par with Fallout New Vegas). - The narrative structure strongly evokes TES Oblivion for me. The main quest is very strong. It started out strong for me, evoking, for some reason, the Skyrim overhaul mod, Legacy of the Dragonborn, (where you join an exploration and treasure-hunting guild), but the twists and turns are amazing and genuinely surprised me. - The Constellation cast are, by far, BGS's most developed characters, and the writing is universally strong. - The side quests are next level. Groundpounder, First Contact, A Failure to Communicate, Breach of Contract, Out on a Limb, and Overdesigned are all superb in their own way, and I haven't even started relating the faction quests, which are some of the best I've played in a RPG. Period. - I strongly disagree with the sentiment I saw from some critics complaining about a slow start. The learning curve is steep, but the story started out very strong. It just doesn't twist into something spectacularly unexpected until about 15-20 hours in, following the main questline, but, again, I stress, the twist was completely unexpected. Nothing like that happened at any point for me in past BGS titles. Gameplay is a bit of a mixed bag. - Gunplay is quite good for a RPG, My favorite gun is basically identical to the AR I liked so much in the Fallout games (shoots better than all the new fangled tech the game imagined). And I was able to upgrade it into an effective sniper (playing a stealth sniper, basically). But it took me most of my playthrough before I acquired the skills and the weapon I needed for this build. This means that I feel like I was investing in skills leading to the build I wanted, but without actually being able to play that build for ages. - I find the travel mechanic to be very inconsistent. There should always be an option to land your ship, for example, and walk to any quest markers, but, I found, if you selected a quest marker, the game would just teleport you to it, sometimes, bypassing the spaceship landing altogether. This is also quite inconsistent. Sometimes that happens and sometimes you could land as normal. BGS should work on fixing fast travel and traversal, to make it consistent,. Ship -> Star System -> Planetary Orbit -> Landing site -> Quest Marker on foot should ALWAYS be an option. I shouldn't ever have to pick a random bartender near the spaceport as a questmarker, to land my ship there, instead of being forced to teleport straight to the Lodge. - The exploration mechanic, though, works for me. I do not find the procedurally generated planets to be a problem, and creature design is seriously amazing. It really does feel like you're discovering new species. Although, seeing a nearby human settlement next to supposedly undiscovered biomes can feel a bit weird. I feel they could've cut down on the radiant human encounters on more remote planets quite a bit, for immersion purposes. - I personally am OK with the encumbrance system, but inventory management is a mess. This is the future. It should always be possible to access your ship's inventory remotely, especially in populated areas. Productivity aids, like inventory management and storing lists, with sub-folders, of your inventories, cargo hold, and outpost inventories should all be there. - Ship design is a lot of fun, an incredibly deep. - Outpost building could be stronger, with more form options. This feels like a downsizing from Fallout 4. -Bugs are minimal, and mostly limited for me to BGS's characteristically poor character pathing (NPCs still block doorways), and there are some floating objects, like trees. - A in-game HUD clock and calendar would helpful. Kind of difficult to track sleep cycles. - City maps please. Overall, I feel this is the strongest BGS title to date, even with the reservations I cited above, and I strongly recommend this game to anyone who has enjoyed BGS RPGs in the past.

So far, my experience has been very positive. This is a beautiful, lovingly crafted game. I'm still in the first act (which I also played during early access): only had yesterday evening to play so far. PC gamers, this is the 2023 title that's must truly made for us. Some quick points and bug experience report: 1. Very well-optimized. 4K60 (which I fixed), max settings and the game doesn't even blink (Nvidia RTX4080 graphics card, i9 13900KF CPU, SSD). Doesn't even come close to maxing out GPU use. 2. 1.0 is surprisingly bug-free. 3. Lots of interactable NPCs and other content added in Act I 4. Story, character development, and writing, are all superb, all blowing away even previous Larian titles. 5. I find toggling between multiple choice wheels when using controller to be immersion breaking. I'm very much convinced that this game is best played with keyboard. 6. Nothing more than minor bugs and inconveniences. The biggest one I observed is that I think the economy may be a little broken (to the player's advantage). I made a couple of purchases that I don't think I was properly charged gold for, or, at least, the right amount of gold. Also, a minor inconvenience at the launcher. The launcher defaults to DX11, forcing one to remember to change the setting to Vulkan (the more sophisticated graphics API option) each time, at launch.

A darkly moody arcade shooter that more than does nostalgic justice to this 23 year+ franchise.... it shows more than tells early on, which can be a bit disorienting, but it also fits with the premise.