Starfield Steam Reviews Drop To "Mostly Negative"

Starfield’s recentSteamreviews are “mostly negative”, falling even further from its already mixed reception post-launch. Between this and the online discourse surrounding the game, the latest Bethesda series proves to be divisive, having both dedicated defenders and vocal critics.

Of the almost 7,500 recent reviews, most are very negative, criticising Starfield’s performance and “bland” game design. In general, many say that their experience with the game was boring and repetitive, disappointing after Bethesda’s previous successes.

“I wanted to love this game [and] eventually I got to the point where I just wanted to enjoy it, but the truth is that I felt like my time and money were wasted constantly,” reads one review. “Bethesda really needs to look at what people loved about their past games.”

Another player agrees. “The canvas is there, we just have not been given the proper paints and brushes to craft a masterpiece,” they write. “Like everything else in Starfield, there is incredible potential here, but it falls woefully short.”

On the whole, Starfield still has more positive reviews than negative (84,321 vs 48,169, at the time of writing), but it’s a huge downgrade from what Bethesda has come to expect from its single-player RPG releases. BothSkyrimandFallout 4have Very Positive user reviews, even so long after launch. The only exception to this is the Skyrim Anniversary Edition upgrade, which has Overwhelmingly Negative reviews, although this is likely due to arecent update reintroducing a paid mods system.

Despite the negative user reviews, Starfield sits at an impressive score of 83 on Metacritic.

Not all recent reviews are negative though, with one player writing: “It’s another Bethesda RPG, It doesn’t reinvent the wheel but it doesn’t aim to. It’s like Skyrim or Fallout in space, It’s fine.” Others agree that it certainly has its problems, but have enjoyed their time with Starfield nonetheless.

Yet despite finding some fans, that doesn’t change that the conversation around Starfield’s reception has been quite negative. It’s even veered into a slight controversy, asBethesda was spotted responding to negative reviewsto argue back against some of the points being made. For example, when one player complained that the planets were empty and boring, a representative of Bethesda said that some are, “empty by design - but that’s not boring.” They continued: “When astronauts went to the moon, there was nothing there. They certainly weren’t bored.”

Alas, that strategy doesn’t appear to have paid off on Steam. The disappointment kept coming when Starfield was only nominated in two categories atThe Game Awardsthis year: Players' Voice (voted out in the first round) and Best RPG. Both of which it lost toBaldur’s Gate 3, an RPG that the gaming community often pits it up against,even though one of its devs has come to Bethesda’s defence in the past.