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We have a rare difference of opinion at KitGuru this week. While Matt has loved Starfield from start to finish, Mustafa is less impressed. In today's KitGuru Games, Mustafa offers his critique of Starfield and its space-exploration offering.
When Todd Howard walked on stage during E3 2018 all those years ago and promised to show us a brand new space sci-fi adventure 25 years in the making, I – like many others – had one thought in my mind “this is No Man’s Skyrim but (hopefully) good”. Many of us were still burned at the time by the launch of Hello Hames’ far too overhyped indie experience, claiming to present us with 18 quintillion planets, all explorable from top to bottom – each telling a unique story.
Now, all these years later No Man's Sky has been transformed into one of the most impressive redemption stories in the entire industry, with Sean Murray and the team having worked tirelessly to match and eventually even exceed initial expectations. That said, even the launch version of No Man's Sky got at least one thing right. It was a core dedication to this singular aspect which made NMS such an exciting prospect – and why its initial lack of content was disappointing. Even so, after a quarter of a century in conception, Bethesda Game Studios' Starfield is here, but unfortunately in my opinion it misses the mark in the most important aspect for a space-exploring experience – that being the one thing which Hello Games managed to get right from the off: Presentation.
What do I mean by this? Well, one needs to look no further than the very initial splash screen of No Man's Sky to understand how Hello Games' emphasis and importance placed upon the concept of presentation helped make what I deem to be the ultimate space exploration experience. Before you even press the start button players are presented with the infinite vastness of space, showcasing a ‘starfield' of near limitless possibilities. Upon pressing start, the game's loading screen is masked by a dolly zoom through the universe and it's countless stars, some of which have weird and unfamiliar names placed upon them; moving too fast for you to absorb the details, but just slow enough to let you understand that these are all places which you may or may not come across during your travels. Additionally during this interim loading period, players are actually already given control, with you able to subtly look left, right, up and down using the camera – almost as if you were a passenger aboard a ship, looking outside the window as it careens through space. The game hasn't even started yet, but already you are actively exploring space thanks to the careful considerations made by Hello Games to ensure an immersive experience.
