Starfield

I have played the heck out of this game, so it probably will seem odd that I'm giving it a negative review. I have spent a lot of time modding either with others' mods, or my own. They have improved the clunky UI , improved control over connections (doors) between ship modules, added different rotation and orientations for the ship pieces for further customization, dramatically improved the character visuals, added new clothing options for more customization, added variety to the location encounters by varying the location and number of enemies you will encounter at a point of interest, decluttered the pointless alternate versions of each organic resource, gave fuel tanks a reason to exist, beyond being a secondary distance modifier that just requires you to break your multi-jumps into multiple smaller multi-jumps, delayed the start of the high level quests until it is reasonable to consider taking them on (rather than just having them happen immediately on finishing the tutorial section)..... and yet it is missing something. Also some of these mods throw big monkey wrenches into the balance of the game, so that your pretty new outfit makes you far stronger, or negate thinking or planning about what to equip in which situations. The base game loop is really good for gun fights, until / except that at higher levels enemies become bullet sponges without mods that adjust it. The ship combat can be interesting, especially if you really go into min-maxing your ship, and get AI mods to fix the enemies' predeliction to just go out, turn around, and come straight at you, which is largely a result of having almost entirely front facing weapons, causing you to do the same. Customizing your ship can be fun, but I definitely recommend mods to add more rotations and flips of the base modules... and placing your own doors(mod - Place Doors Yourself) rather than relying on the base game's choices is a must imo. Unfortunately, many of those same mods again start to throw the balance out the window, replaced with OP options, or at least not thoughtfully balanced..... then again, you could take a long time adjusting the base game's balance to make more sense already. ( I know, because I have) The main story is.... meh. The artifacts and temples get repetitive after about three, the temples especially as they are also tediously frustrating without mods where you're sure you did what you were supposed to, but somehow you didn't. Many of the powers are either great bordering on OP or pointless. Completing the side quest chains provides no real adjustment to the game universe other than a small mention when you "complete" the game which leads right back into a new game+ version of the universe, with some changes, but nothing dramatic outside of the main faction. The expansions do add a bunch of much needed variety to the points of interest that appear on each planet, but without mods, you still get to memorizing where pretty much every mob is in each one. I think Terran Armada had a lot of potential as what I initially thought it was going to be... remnants of the original earth that have transferred consciousness into robots, to get a bit of a Cylon vibe, but instead they're deserters that are only stronger because they... found a "rare" resource that you can find all over the place? The NPCs are... ok, but the followers are terrible. Between them moving in front of my shots, somehow taking bullets to the face without consequences, and them being multipersonality about whether I should be picking up things, or not. No, that ammo isn't jumk, Sarah. "Might as well take what we can", to "Why are you hoarding all that junk" is just a ridiculous see saw. And I really want to kick that 12 year old looking, 5 year old acting Cora out of the airlock. No Sam, a ship going on combat runs against pirates is a TERRIBLE place for a child, dumbass. Ship crew are, basically empty bodies occupying space on your ship, getting in your way (as will the companions), all to get a small boost to some part of the ship's capabilities. Ultimately if you really want Fallout 4 but with spaceships, it can scratch that itch.... but it's missing a compelling story line (as opposed to Skyrim, Morrowind, or even Oblivion) that keeps you engaged in the world, and learning more about the lore behind the game. All the mods in the world can't make up for that lack of depth and richness to the world and its lore. Now granted, Elder Scrolls has been around much longer, and has built up this lore, maybe by the time they hit Starfield III or so, there will be more to it than... I found a weird artifact, was told it could take us out into space, but will doom 99% of the population of Earth at the same time, so surely that's an even trade, right? Then again, I really doubt the financials make sense to even get to a second Starfield given how much it let everyone down. Particularly after how much Todd hyped this game, and told us all these cool features that would be so exciting, it is quite the drop back down to reality when you go to play it. It's no wonder so many people were turned off so quickly. If you hype and hype and hype, but then deliver middling..... everyone hated that. Yes I played it a lot, because Fallout 4 became too repetitive after almost 3300 hours on PC, and probably 1000+ on PS4, so this filled the shoot the enemies itch. I tried so many mods to really improve the game, because I like the style so much, but ultimately, it can never deliver without a better story and motivation behind the game.