After years of anticipation and delays, Bethesda’s latest action-adventure RPG has finally arrived! Alongside Starfield’s early access launch last night, critics were able to share their experiences with the game for the first time, including whether it runs well on PC.
Currently, the game is sitting at a mighty 88 on OpenCritic, as well as an average of 88 on Metacritic for PC. Whilst these scores are bound to change when users start giving their verdicts on Starfield, this is a respectable score that puts the highly-anticipated title amongst the best games to have released within the past year. Most reviews seem to put the game anywhere between a 7 or 9 out of 10, with critics enjoying their time with the game despite a number of underlying problems.
According to various sources, the start of the game feels quite sluggish, but really comes alive after getting through the opening quests. On top of this, the space exploration might not be as immersive as gamers would have hoped for, with the abundance of loading screens and baron landscapes being slightly anticlimactic. But on the positive side, the main story and side quests have already received a lot of praise for their detail and , with some reviewers going as far as to say that the game truly gets started after the main quest is finished.
For those looking to play Starfield on PC, one of the biggest concerns leading up to release has been the performance. Lots of PC gamers have struggled to run open-world RPG games without any technical hiccups in recent times, with the likes of Star Wars Jedi: Survivor and The Last of Us Part 1’s PC port coming to mind. Factor in Bethesda’s infamous performance issues and bugs, many believed Starfield was a disaster waiting to happen.
Fortunately, the early stages suggests the performance on this game isn’t as bad as other demanding triple-A releases, but it does come at a hefty price. Despite the astronomically high demands, gameplay remains fairly stable with the typical ‘Bethesda jank’ being few and far between. That being said, this game is not going to give you an ultra-responsive 144FPS experience, as it is simply too demanding. For most PC gamers, they’ll be lucky to hit anything above 60FPS, with even high-end rigs struggling to hit this threshold consistently.
Due to this game being a single-player adventure, we’re happy to see that consistency and stability has taken priority, as a title plagued with technical issues is the last thing we’d want when trying to immerse ourselves into the depths of space. However, it would have been nice to have a little extra firepower on PC, especially when you consider how smooth the combat can feel at times.
Personally, I have only played through the opening couple of hours, so I’m not in a position to comment on the overall quality of the game just yet, but I have enjoyed the small glimpse of what I’ve played so far. On top of this, I’ve been playing on an Xbox Series X and have barely noticed the 30FPS cap while playing through the first stages of the game. Despite going through a shootout or two already, I can’t recall any bugs or dropped frames at all, which bodes well for the rest of my journey.
With so much hype surrounding this title, fans have been eagerly awaiting for Starfield since it was first announced back in 2018. Pitched as ‘Skyrim in Space’ by Bethesda Game Studios Director, Todd Howard, Starfield seems to have just missed out on greatness. Hopefully, Bethesda hear some of the feedback and get to work on patches and updates that can enhance the overall experience.
