(Spoiler Free)

So, I finally finished Starfield and want to give my personal experience with this game.

The best game comparison to Starfield is The Outer Worlds, another IP I enjoyed a lot of. If you are expecting a No Man Sky type of game with Starfield, you will be disappointed. Starfield is not a No Man Sky and that's not a bad thing. Let's get into it. 

GAMPLAY

It's nothing revolutionary, it plays like a Bethesda game, its similar to The Outer Worlds which is a good thing since The Outer Worlds plays quite well. Starfield does have a lot of load screens but after the 1 initial big load, everything takes seconds, which in my playthrough, did not affect my enjoyment with the game. Afterall, I played through The Outer Worlds and all its DLCs which had horribly long load times on last gen systems.

The best part of Starfield for me which is what Bethesda nailed was the ship customization and base building. The freedom to create your own personal spaceship at its fidelity is top of its class. The Ship building in itself is worth it in itself. The base building also is fantastic, though not something I did a lot of since I lived on my ship, however you could build some crazy castle like bases with turrets, towers, resource gathering and multi style buildings. Starfield nails the building scene very well. 

My biggest issue with Starfield is the amount of times you need to pause the game to change abilities, check Inventory, Scanning Planets and Fast Traveling, something you will do a lot of, and it can break up the gameplay flow. Also wanted to add the random NPCs can look outdated in major cities when getting up close. Also, I am never a fan of over-encumber systems.

VISUALS/SOUND

This game looks incredible, the scenery of planets and space look amazing. This game looks like a next gen game, and it shows. I completed my playthrough on Series X at 30fps however I revisited it again with the 60fps mode and Bethesda has done an amazing job to achieve 60fps without losing that next gen look. If you haven't played Starfield yet, I recommend going Performance mode (60fps) as the sacrifices are barely noticeable in the visual department. I really enjoyed seeing the variety of environments, different creatures, different planet surfaces and that lonely space feeling where some planets emptiness adds to the immersion. If you are looking for that next gen space game, Starfield won't disappoint you, but if you are expecting a free flying No Man Sky game, you will be disappointed. 

One little neat feature i noticed was your in-game screen shots become part of your loading screens. So, take some good ones.

STORY

After finishing the game and did a round of the end game, the story was a little predicable but serviceable, I cannot really get into it too much without spoiling it. The game takes a little long to open up, so once you put some hours into it, get your ship, learn how to fly it, the game comes to life. It was interesting to learn more on what is going on once you start breaking into the 1/3 mark. With the new DLC Shattered Space coming, it will be interesting in seeing where Bethesda go with this IP. It has a great foundation to evolve even further upon release. 

OVERALL

I had great fun with Starfield, it takes a little while to get into the game loop, but once you break into it, the game opens up and it becomes a unforgettable experience. It's not a game where I feel like playing from the start again, but the game offers so much content and some of the best experiences with the game is from its side quests, from exploring alien infested planets, to infiltrating the Pirates bases to space battles to dealing with science experiments that have gone wrong. This game was good, and one of Bethesda's most polish as I rarely noticed any glitches, outside of some rare moments of NPCs clipping though walls and floors. Play it for yourself. Its free on GamePass, its worth checking it out. 

DLC

Shattered Space DLC is coming which will add land vehicles etc. This will add another dimension to the games land exploring and many more features to come. 

Those who have played it or those planning on playing it in the future, I will be happy to discuss more with you, its negatives, positives, concerns and more.

"Starfield is not a No Man Sky and that's not a bad thing, I am in fact glad it isn't as I do not enjoy NMS, sorry for those who do. Starfield is a Fallout in space"

Since I did not enjoy Fallout 4, I will be taking a pass on Starfield.

Bethesda shown what direction they wanted to go with Fallout 4 and how talented the main studio is and they lost me as a fan. While that wasn't a bad game per say, it's not the direction for me, nor is F76 or Starfeild. I appreciate your review, though.

I've seen a lot of people try to invalidate Starfield criticism by blaming the console wars but that does not work for me.  Many of those who are disappointed with the game are PC gamers and long-time fans of Bethesda.

It is also NOT Skyrim/Fallout 4 in space, which is a big reason why those Bethesda fans are unhappy with it.  

Personally, I feel like it threw away the best parts of Fallout 4 and several aspects of that game that I hoped it would build upon.  In fact, despite being a much newer game, I would say that it went backwards from Fallout 4 in multiple areas, which I find to be absolutely baffling.

Most prominently, exploration is but a shell of what it was in previous titles and quickly becomes boring once you've been to the same copy/pasted location 5+ times.  This is a massive downgrade from the thrill of crawling through downtown Boston.  The game also makes you waste far more time running from one point of interest to the next over empty terrain.

Actually, I've never played a game that respected my time less.  It felt like most of my play-time was spent either running or dealing with inventory.  At least console commands and batch files helped on PC.

Speaking of downgrades, building outposts is nowhere near as fun or rewarding as it was in Fallout 4.  They took one of my favorite things and made it clunky and annoying.

On the other hand, they did a great job with ship building, which is easily one of Starfield's best aspects.

I was also very disappointed in the writing for many of the quests, which forced players into nonsensical directions with limited options.  The Freestar quest, in particular, had many people very unhappy.  

I could have written several pages of criticism and analysis last year but now it's been months since I've touched it.

Meanwhile, in 2009:

Quite the opposite for me. Fallout 4 is one of my favorite games out there, and the best of all Fallout games to me (and I do not play with mods); I finished it with every ending and still play some playthroughs of Survival today. I love it. Fallout 76 is also a fantastic game (if you like Fallout 4, so probably not for you, too), esp. today with all the updates (I found it bad when it came out that there were no NPCs. That was just weird).

I personally never had any issues with Starfield. I agree that the game could have been better, but it is a great game nonetheless. I love space, and I loved Fallout 4, so I was really hyped for it. 

I have to admit that I didn't think the game was as good as I wanted it to be, but I had a lot of fun playing it. The latest update makes it really smooth to play on a console, too (I'm playing it on PC mainly).

Different strokes but in F4 did you not think the writing has little consequence at the small scale as well as the whole overall arc, not just is the game "go here and kill everything" the main faction endings just ends up as a choice to eradicate one of them off the face of the Earth. 

I platinumed the game and again, it's not bad but it, for me is where Bethesda chose to follow the money and trends and screw over the fans by diverting from what the fans were there for in the first place. Choices. Dialogue trees. Interesting consequences. More emergent exploration and things hidden away well enough that some gamers may never see it. Instead, here's your content, consume it and don't think. 

Not sure why you say the game gets a lot of undue negativity when it has a similar MC score to Fallout 4 and other recent Bethesda games. Stream review has nothing to do with its exclusivity. It seems to me that reviewers have stopped giving Bethesda a free pass and are demanding more from them, that's all. 

Most wRPGs are a jack of all trades and a master of non, filled with non-sense to do, the exploration is OCD triggers, and even the world they try to sell, rarely ends up being charming enough for me to continue.

I am glad you enjoyed the game but from what I watched or read, it's just another Bethesda game, which isn't a bad thing because the audience is clearly there. 

Fair, I don't enjoy Fallout games either. 

Did you enjoy The Outer Worlds? Starfield is alot like that.

I have yet to play either NMS or TOW. I have played Elite Dangerous and was completely disappointed in it - even bought it on blind faith, cost me $15, based on the fact that I loved playing the original Elite game on the C-64.