I don’t think it’s hyperbolic to state that Starfield has been fighting an endless, Sisyphean uphill battle since it was first announced. Its rough launch and inherently flawed gameplay systems led to lofty expectations being swiftly squashed, and the unfortunately bad DLC further justified the ridicule Bethesda’s ill-fated space epic has received. Starfield has been in dire need of a Cyberpunk 2077-esque revival, and, allegedly, that is what we are getting when it, according to rumor, launches on the PlayStation 5.
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It is important to preface all of the speculation behind Starfield’s supposed transformative revival, as Bethesda has announced nothing in the way of a 2.0-style update. Still, fans cling to the hope that Starfield can be turned around and soon rival Bethesda’s best video games, reaching the same impressive heights as Skyrim, Fallout 3, and Morrowind did all those years ago. However, I’m not convinced that Starfield’s rumored PS5 port, nor its potential 2.0 release, will be enough to save the game, make it a better experience, or, perhaps more importantly, restore Bethesda’s reputation to its post-Skyrim levels of import.
Starfield’s 2.0 Update Won’t Fix Bad Game Design
I feel it is prudent to admit that I have been fairly outspoken about Starfield’s plethora of issues since it first launched. That isn’t out of some biased malice against Bethesda, as I grew up playing Morrowind, Oblivion, Fallout 3, and Skyrim, believing all of them, but especially the latter, to be some of the finest and immersive role-playing experiences ever made. I am also not inherently against the idea of an open-world space sim, nor even one that procedurally generates planets, my bizarre and undying love for No Man’s Sky evidence of that.
Rather, my severe disliking of Starfield stems from the utter boredom I felt navigating its endlessly lifeless planets filled with the same repetitive points of interest, from the loading screens that are perpetually frustrating no matter how used to them I become, from the mind-numbingly boring story made all the worse by the inconsistent pacing brought about thanks to the aforementioned procedural generation. Above all else, Starfield is riddled with the many issues that have plagued Bethesda’s game design for decades.
However, now that we have far more immersive and detailed open-world RPGs like Kingdom Come: Deliverance, we understand these qualms aren’t charming, but rather a persistent and aggravating problem. All of this is to rather bluntly state that I don’t think the rumored Starfield 2.0 update will be enough to save this deeply flawed game. The problems that affect it are so deeply rooted in the foundations of its design that simply adding more varied POIs or even reducing loading times won’t be enough to bring it back from the brink of utter boredom
CD Projekt Red was able to turn Cyberpunk 2077 around with a handful of updates because, at its core, it was an enjoyable game, one merely suffering from technical issues and a smattering of missing content. It was, arguably, the same with No Man’s Sky, a game with the essence of what was promised that could be expanded upon by adding its missing content. Starfield isn’t just missing content; it is broken at a base level, its procedural generation, tiny maps, lifeless cities, boring quest design, unintuitive UI, and limited roleplaying mechanics crushing what little potential any future updates may have had at fixing it.
Starfield’s Poor Reputation Can’t Be Saved By PlayStation
This isn’t just the ramblings of an irate fan, either. Starfield’s initial review scores may have looked high, but it has continued to be slated by players since it launched back in 2023. On Steam, Starfield is sitting on a Mixed review score, with its DLC, Shattered Space, enjoying a Mostly Negative rating. Its player counts, according to SteamDB, are lower than significantly older Bethesda games, and modders even abandoned Starfield after they felt it couldn’t be saved by Bethesda’s typically adoring fanbase. The failings of Starfield have also been well documented through traditional games media and YouTube video essays. Suffice it to say, Starfield has not received the positive word of mouth that Bethesda likely hoped for.
It is for this reason that I’m not particularly convinced Starfield’s alleged PlayStation launch will save the game in any meaningful way. This isn’t the same as Indiana Jones and the Great Circle coming to PlayStation, or even smaller titles like Hi-Fi Rush and Pentiment. Those games enjoyed a warm reception from fans and critics alike while on the Xbox Series X/S’s smaller install base, and so naturally sold well when shifted to the larger audience on PlayStation. However, people on Xbox and PC hate Starfield. While it certainly has its fans, the vocal majority has been overwhelmingly critical of the space RPG, so there’s little incentive for PlayStation owners to rush out and buy it.
Perhaps if, like a similarly (albeit not quite as harshly) critically panned RPG, Avowed, Xbox lowered the cost of Starfield when it inevitably launches on PlayStation, people may feel encouraged to buy it. If this 2.0 update manages to convince enough people to speak positively about the game or even raise the disappointingly low Steam review scores, then it is also possible PlayStation fans may be inclined to give it a tentative go. However, I feel as if the reputation of Starfield has already been dragged through the mud enough times that, unless they’ve got money burning a hole in their pockets, people aren’t going to be interested in buying it.
Bethesda’s own Fallout 76 is proof of this. The developer spent the better part of a decade attempting to fix it after its disastrous launch, and, for the most part, has largely succeeded. Even the most diehard Fallout 76 haters would find it hard to argue against just how much the game has improved since 2018. Still, that game is not widely spoken about when discussing redemption arcs in video games. It slowly chugs away with a modest following and decently high player counts, but fails to re-enter the zeitgeist. I struggle to see a world in which Starfield manages to accomplish what 76 could not. The time has come and gone for Bethesda to make transformative changes that convince us all it is worth playing again. Starfield cannot be saved, nor is it worth saving, regardless of whether it is on PlayStation 5.
Do you think that Starfield can be saved? Leave a comment below and join the conversation now in the ComicBook Forum!
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