The game is good. However, I think that playing through the story and faction missions become fairly stale after a while. That led me to try some of the other gameplay loops, such as ship building and outpost building.
Ship building is good in concept, but there really needs to be more explanation on what parts fit together and why. I found myself being restricted way too often in the early game. Now that I've put some points into piloting and such I can purchase better parts, essentially upgrading the class of my ship. I do like the freedom though. A ship of any shape can be viable long as you meet certain criteria.
While Outpost building does a better job, connecting outposts is unintuitive to the point that I think it might actually be bugged. This could also use better explanation. This is typical for Bethesda games, but it's even more vague in Starfield.
Overall, for Bethesda, this game is a huge improvement over previous games. Lighting, interior design and main character human character models are much improved over anything we've seen in the past. That being said, animations for those same models are still terrible and breaks immersion.
One of my main complaints about Bethesda games is the lack of impact from weapons. I'm glad to see they've largely addressed this issue and people and animals for the most part look like they've been hit with a shotgun from 2 feet away. Human enemies specifically recoil appropriately, though sometimes the ragdoll physics can go a bit out of control.
Dogfighting in the game seems cumbersome. Allocating power between 5 or 6 different weapons and systems means less time for flying and avoiding fire. That being said, avoiding fire is damn near impossible in the beginning. There no defensive or evasive maneuvering. The whole goal is to get on the enemy ships blindside, hide behind an asteroid or facetank the shots in a game of chicken. The last strategy is particularly infuriating when you are playing chicken with multiple ships trained on you. Get past one and turning to get behind it, means your still in range of two other ships. The battle at The Key is a prime example of when the dogfighting completely falls apart.
Once you get bigger and better ships, ship battles then end up having an opposite problem. Instantly you are OP. Which is equally boring. It's to the point where I don't see a reason to spec into the various ship upgrade skills. Because the game doesn't require them to win battles anymore.
The dialogue in the game is well done, however. I find it particularly delightful to be embroiled in morally gray decision making, persuading individuals. I like the affirmative negative and in-between choices, as well as the option to inquire for information before making your decision, even delegating the decision to your companion or another character in your stead. It is pretty much on par with Baldur's Gate 3 though you do have to spend skill points to unlock other forms of persuasion, like diplomacy or intimidation.
Anything else I go into would probably be spoilers so I'll refrain from that.
Overall I give the game an 8.0/10. It's a great game, but has some flaws. Bought it on steam for the cool hundo. Don't regret the purchase.
