Starfield is supposed to be Bethesda’s candidate for Game of the Year. Unfortunately, recent user reviews on Steam have fallen to record lows in recent weeks.
The honeymoon phase for Bethesda’s space exploration RPG appears to have long passed. Gamers are now scrutinizing Starfield with a fine-tooth comb, giving fair and insightful feedback on what can be improved with the game. Its player ratings on Steam reflect this, hitting an all-time low for Bethesda’s biggest release as a result.
Starfield now has a 64% positive score on Valve’s storefront. The new rating is significantly lower than Fallout 76, which is Bethesda’s most-panned title before the release of Starfield. The rating for the space ARPG is defined as Mixed rating on Steam.
Players on the Starfield subreddit have weighed on the record-low ratings for the game. While most gamers enjoy their time in the game, many agree that Starfield hasn’t captured the magic of Skyrim or Oblivion. It doesn’t help that it was shipped with quest-breaking glitches and technical issues.
One user pointed out that Bethesda added too many planets that are devoid of quality content. The user explains that if Bethesda opted for a lower number of planets that condensed the content it would have been better for the game. Being overly ambitious in terms of scale has hurt the overall gameplay.
Others complain that dungeons feel empty or disconnected from the lore of the game. Players feel that completing the dungeons isn’t worth it because of the lack of variety and lore. Bethesda’s attempt to populate the empty space with procedurally generated content has apparently backfired.
“It really felt like they misunderstood what people liked about exploring in Bethesda games,” user Modron_Man said. “Speaking personally, I loved going into new dungeons in Fallout and TES to see the little stories that they had; infinite same-y dungeons really doesn’t work as well for me as a lot of dungeons with their own micro-stories.”
The Steam score is significant because it comes from a community that actually had to shell out for the full $70 price. And unlike Metacritic, which has been review bombed by trolls, gamers need to own a copy of the game to give a rating on Steam.
With that said Starfield will be getting official modding support early next year. The Shattered Space DLC is also coming to the game in 2024. Given how Skyrim improved with the expansions and community-generated content, Starfield may see a rise in ratings when the new content arrives.
However, it is quite worrisome that AAA games need more content in the form of mods and DLCs to actually make it a good game. Games should ship in the best possible state but it hasn’t been the case for many games especially highly anticipated titles like Redfall and Starfield. Hopefully, Bethesda has some magical plan to satisfy users and restore the studio’s reputation as the premiere RPG maker in the industry.
