Bethesda celebrated its interstellar epic for two years. And, oh, the reactions that followed! The Game Awards Twitter account kept it plain, writing, “Two years ago today, Starfield released,” but this prompted an explosion of all kinds of opinions, memes, and chaos in the reply section.
Starfield, a gargantuan space RPG Glorified for what felt like forever, is indeed of two-year maturity now. The gaming community is still fiercely divided and heated about it, and the vibe here would be stronger than half-and-half pizza, one side loaded with vegan toppings, with the other loaded with non-vegan ones.
Being met with a mixed bag of reactions, some of the replies were outright insults and expressions of disappointment, sprinkled with the odd few defenders-lacing the rear: Dean Goodridge opined simply and directly, “And was shit.” That is an example of zero chill. Symon Roane Stubblefield said, “Everyone lost interest a month after release. Such a boring game.” Then Ru_NRD hits back, “And yet, here you are commenting,” which is the ultimate clapback.
Loading screens are once again back in the spotlight. Another top point of complaint came from Amine: “And still, we cannot land on a planet without a loading screen,” which was an issue at launch and the sore point from many players nowadays. Nilynix reminded almost everyone: “Spent like 60 hours and it bored me to death,” but added “If anybody else enjoyed it a lot good for them,” a small set-up of civility in this ocean of fury.
Besides all the downsides, a few players are still trying to pick up the mantle for Starfield. XCENSION said to another player that if anything changed, these haters would stop crying about Starfield and expose themselves as hypocrites, but it wasn’t exactly clear what that was referring to. According to Taimour Kassim, “They hate it because they don’t have it,” implying some of the negativity could be related to platform warfare. Donnie Blitz continued with: “playstation virgins still begging for this mid game.”
Massive numbers of players are drawing comparisons to other games. 032Zero says, “With the recent update, No man’s sky is really doing it for me.” Pretty much the norm, so many players felt it’s another space game better for doing exploration. And HalfLife2Goat’s comment is just dry-memes-worthy: “Half-Life 2 is better,” because it truly is funny.
Metacritic and Steam Review scores were brought up, with Some guy telling another user, “Look at the Metacritic and Steam reviews,” as if that actually irons out the argument. Then InvadermuriloX comes back with: “Nah, great game but very flawed,” probably the most mature stance we’ve seen on this thread.
The criticisms get pretty granular sometimes. Starboy_zz: “I’ve played this game for at least six times. Funny thing is I cant remember any NPCs name expect Sarah.” Which, actually, is quite an indicting observation for an RPG. Then Celan_G gives a rear experience: “I played for 24 hours because I couldn’t believe how bad it was and kept waiting for it to get good. 20 of those hours were spent waiting for loading screens and sloooowly walking across featureless landscapes.” Ouch.
Snagging some good ones in all this fighting, Mark Edward Davis says, “I loved so many things about this game, it’s sad to me that it just didn’t have the same depth or as good gameplay as other RPGs,” which surely resonates as the feeling of spotting the glimmer of unrealized potential. Anperson continues fighting with his “Awesome game by the way.”
Now, the global perspective is thrown into the mix: Ambasador_EPP commented in Polish, meaning, “For such hits, corporations are bought,” most likely a sarcastic jab at Microsoft buying Bethesda.
Two years down the course and Starfield remains one of those games that just will not garner a consensus. You have players alleging they’ve spent hundreds of hours on it and enjoyed every ounce of it. Then you have some who couldn’t make it beyond those first dozen hours of gameplay without some serious boredom. Technical issues, especially those loading screens, seem to be an eternal sore spot, while writing and world-building are at the receiving end of both praise and criticism.
going by how the entire community exploded on that one single tweet, there is no denying Starfield did make an impact, whether good or bad in the eyes of the community. Bethesda‘s games usually tend to inspire such divided opinions, but Starfield could very well be the most divisive game of recent memory.
Considering what happened throughout the two years, 2023, was one of the biggest gaming moments. And because people are still talking about it- are still arguing about it – and those loading screens are still a kick in the guts,” some games fade into obscurity after the launch; Starfield is not one of them, whatsoever.
