HIGH An accessible way to be introduced to PC-style RPGs

LOW Pixel-hunting to interact with items.

WTF The “Buttload of Porn” items around.

TRANSCRIPT:

Hi everyone, Eugene Sax here with another review from GameCritics.com.

I didn’t have a lot of experience with the classic PC style of RPGs like Baldur’s Gate or the original Fallout titles, only their more modern and console-friendly counterparts. One immediate difference I noticed was that I was able to go through console RPGs more like a checklists than actually role playing.

I could start with the things that come easy to the character I created, then buy or grind up stats to be able to do the quests I couldn’t initially handle. There were rarely limits, which comes with both good and bad. While I admit that getting used to PC sensibilities can sometimes be annoying, Space Wreck makes limitations meaningful while also making the feeling of overcoming them enjoyable.

In this isometric RPG title, players will control the rookie captain of a spaceship who finds themselves stranded in space after a pirate attack. The crew draws straws to determine who takes the remaining shuttle to a nearby space station to get help. The player (of course) draws the short straw, meaning that they’ll explore different space stations and ships in space to try and find a way to fix their ship and get back home.

After players create a character and set up skills, the world is their oyster. For example, rather than being immediately handed a basic quest, players can interact with NPCs in any way they want — Charm them into helping, sneak around and steal their stuff, or murder them, if so desired. There are many choices, as long as the character can handle the task, often in the form of passing a stat-based skill check.

Having said that, there are some serious limits to Space Wreck as a whole.

From the jump, the game tells players that combat is not required, and with good reason. Even as a bulky character, there were instances where a single blow would kill me. It wasn’t often, but it was enough to make me reconsider my habit of brute forcing my way through things. On the other hand, my character wasn’t the greatest at speaking, which means there were some conversations and choices I missed out on because I failed the skill check and couldn’t initiate a chat.

While these things were a bit on the brutal side to me, I quickly started to appreciate those limits and actually started to roleplay my character. Instead of trying to beat everyone up, I used hacking skills to get robots to fight for me, and put my tinkering tools to use trying to get into every locked area I could.

In one section, I landed on a wrecked ship that housed a colony of people. The colony was dying, and it was only a matter of time before the aging people would no longer be around. When I went to leave, the security chief in charge was going to force me to stay in the colony in an effort to revitalize it. I couldn’t fight them to get my stuff back, and I couldn’t steal it back, so I had to get creative. There was another shuttle that no longer had navigation controls, so I could hack it and leave, or I could hack the life support system to knock out everyone and take my stuff back then, if I could find a space suit.

This one small example shows how roleplaying branches out to every other portion of the story, leading to different outcomes and affecting everything going forward.

Something else I appreciate is how streamlined Space Wreck is. I’ve played enough tabletop RPGs to know a character sheet can get bloated and become filled with stats, abilities, items, and much more to keep track of. This also occurs in the videogame world as well, but not so much in Space Wreck. Characters are limited to five stats and five skills and inventory isn’t a big concern, so it was easy to keep everything in mind and never became overwhelming.

It’s also easy to go back to a specific point in the story and make new choices. On startup, Space Wreck has a map which shows players their progress. On some of the major milestones, players have the option to reload from that point, finding even more ways to interact and solve problems. It’s a small touch, but helpful for players (like me) who would like to explore more options without starting a new playthrough each time.

My only gripes with Space Wreck are that it can be a bit difficult to click on the exact item I want to interact with. The pixel graphics and isometric view mean some items overlap each other, and there wasn’t a good way to choose what I wanted. It also feels like some of the dialogue trees were not triggering properly. I would try to speak with an NPC, roll a successful speech check, and then the dialogue box would close without the talk happening.

Space Wreck feels like a good first step into the bigger world of PC RPGs for a newcomer like me. It certainly has the same level of brutality that I’ve often heard of, but it remains manageable and easy to come to grips with. Even better, a run can be completed in under 10 hours, so it’s not a huge commitment and can be readily replayed. I wasn’t sure if Space Wreck would be one I would enjoy, but I’m already starting a second playthrough to see what other secrets it has to offer.

For me: Space Wreck gets a 8 out of 10.

Disclosures: This game is developed and published by Pahris Entertainment SIA.  It is currently available on Steam. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on Steam. Approximately 9 hours of play was spent playing the game, and the game was completed.

Parents: This game is currently not rated by the ESRB, though for me this game would equate to an M. Players can fight enemies with melee and projectile weapons. There is no blood, but characters can be turned to ash with the right weapons. Characters will curse in dialogue, and clothing items can be removed to make the character appear naked. There are come cases where players can have sex with NPCs, though there are no graphics for this, it’s text descriptions only.

Colorblind Modes: There are no colorblind modes. There are two mods to change how the screen looks from a DOS look (blue background with white or gray text) or an LCD mode (White background with Purple or Black text).

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: There is text in game, but the text is not able to be altered or resized. There are no voices, and the audio mostly serves aesthetic purposes. There are no necessary audio cues. When text comes on screen, it is normally the main focus, so comes in fairly large. The game is fully accessible.

Controls: Controls are not remappable, and there is no control diagram. Players can use mouse left click to control everything, with right click giving some more detailed options (Ex: Right click on a person to Talk, Move To, Kick, Shove, Stab, etc).

This special unstructured, casual episode is broken up into two parts!

PART 1: Carlos & Brad spend share their first impressions after spending five hours with the game on the day code was available, two weeks before embargo.

PART 2: Recorded two weeks after Part 1. Brad’s bored AF with Starfield, but Carlos kept plowing ahead and rolled credits after around 30-ish hours. They share more thoughts and impressions, and the episode ends with Carlos awarding his official score.

You can also hear the show on iTunes and Spotify!

Please send feedback and mailbag questions to SoVideogamesPODCAST (at) gmail (dot) com, or post them in the comments section below. Thanks!

Below is the transcript covering the full Starfield episode and score awarded.

*

Brad: Carlos and I both got Starfield today. I downloaded it this morning. He downloaded it like five minutes after I did. I’ve put about five hours into it. But this is like day one. This is the first day anybody had code. Yeah, so we’re just talking about it now. And the embargo is not for another little bit more than two weeks away.

Carlos: It’s kind of cool, this kind of audio where it’s like behind the scenes and also like as soon as we play something, this.

Brad: Is the freshest. Like it’s almost as if we are recording in real time. That’s how close we are. Yeah. To playing this brand new code that so few people have access to right now.

Carlos: It’s so funny. So we both played about 4 to 5 hours probably.

Brad: I was pretty close to five hours if not a little bit longer than that.

Carlos: Okay. Yeah, I’m going to talk first because I.

Brad: Know you must you must talk first.

Carlos: I have a feeling it’s negative. You already know.

Brad: What I’m going to say. Go ahead. Go ahead.

Carlos: It’s going [00:01:00] to be. I can’t believe I mean, I can believe, but yeah. So in general, I think, okay, what do I think? The first thing I think is, is a Bethesda game. It’s Skyrim in space. You pick up a bunch of shit, you hit people, they die, and then you get experience points and stuff like that. Like, that’s at a core. That’s what it is. Yes. Okay.

Brad: Well, interestingly, you said hit people, though. This is going to be a really scattered casual conversation because we’re not doing an actual podcast section. But just out of curiosity, are you playing a melee character? You must be right. Of course. Of course you are. Of course you are. Okay.

Carlos: So and here’s the funny thing. Well, it gets to that comment in a second. Let me just do my overview. And because I just want to tell you, Brad, because we’re not telling anybody else, this might never go. You might not.

Brad: Maybe it will. But if we do. Yeah, interesting.

Carlos: But what I want to say is that I expected it to be that, right? Like, whatever it is, I kind of expected it to be that the things that were unexpected, good and bad. One is the frame [00:02:00] rate is great. Like for me, maybe you’re going to say like it’s garbage.

Brad: And you’re on Xbox X, I’m on Xbox X, right?

Carlos: I’m on Xbox. And I was giving it so much shit about it. Was it going to be in 60 and yet it’s going to be 60 on a PC? Yes. And I think that’s crazy. But I move around a lot with the style of combat. I do.

Brad: So do I. I am also melee. Okay.

Carlos: Okay, cool.

Brad: Which is wild. Dude, for a sci fi game like this.

Carlos: Yeah. But I always knew I was going to be.

Brad: I did not know that I was going to be.

Carlos: Oh, yeah, you converted.

Brad: I converted it for this game. I did.

Carlos: But what I’m saying is the frame rate didn’t bother me, like. Right. It didn’t bother you, did it?

Brad: No, no, No complaints about that.

Carlos: Which is crazy though, because I really thought that was going to be a sticking point for me, like because I’ve seen 30. But they did some magic wizardry, I think, to make it look really snappy. When Todd Hollywood said that in an interview, I thought that was just bullshit, but he wasn’t saying bullshit. It is snappy when you move.

Brad: I think I figured out his magic, but go ahead.

Carlos: Okay. Oh, well, one of them [00:03:00] is film grain, isn’t it?

Brad: I turned it off.

Carlos: Oh. Because the film grain is on. I feel like they were hiding stuff with that.

Brad: No, my. Mine has been off since the start. I turned it off. I turned off motion smoothing. I just hate that stuff in general. In all games. I just don’t like the way it looks. So that’s been off from the start and there’s been no problem. No problems.

Carlos: Okay. I thought that was what they were doing to hide it, but you can tell me that later. Okay, so then that’s the thing that surprised me for good. And again, I knew I was going to pick up the first melee weapon I could find. You just hit people and they don’t do like it’s not a huge skill tree for Melee, but they do enough things within the kind of beef up your physical stuff that allows you to play as a melee character.

Brad: Oh, I think that’s absolutely viable, dude, for sure.

Carlos: Yeah. Oh yeah. Well, especially with this type of game, you know, and what we’ll talk about it. But. And here come the rumbling cars. It’s like evening time and people just want to show off their engines.

Brad: Verisimilitude. It’s all.

Carlos: Good. Yes, that’s good. So basically, I’m all over the place. But I’m saying the other thing that surprised me in a negative way is [00:04:00] the spaceship stuff.

Brad: Oh, dude. Yes, I.

Carlos: Know. Like a line on this and your phone’s going.

Brad: All sorts of messages right now.

Carlos: Does she know you’re recording? Yeah, but.

Brad: She’s like, It’s Carlos. Whatever.

Carlos: Oh, damn. That’s the real disc.

Brad: Holy shit. She’s like, It’s your silly podcast. No, actually, I don’t know what she’s saying. It’s work. Stuff is going on right now. She’s handling a situation.

Carlos: Okay, I’m not cutting this out. No, no, it’s fine.

Brad: It’s totally fine. Yeah.

Carlos: So the spaceship stuff I don’t like at all. Like, not even a little bit. I hate.

Brad: It. I actively hate it. Yes.

Carlos: And what’s weird, and I’m jumping all over your negatives, but what’s weird is that, like, you have to do it right away because they want to, like, you know, get you used to it or whatever. And I think that what they were thinking is this is going to be really cool. We’re going to show them they can do all these things like No Man’s Sky, but I don’t want no man’s sky. I really don’t. And I know that it’s going to come up later because you have that little drill, which I hate and you got to like, get resources [00:05:00] and stuff. Anyways, my point is, and I’ll turn it over to you, I really don’t like that spaceship stuff. I like being in my spaceship.

Brad: Do we dislike the same thing? I don’t know that we dislike the same. Okay, so what do you dislike?

Carlos: About the spaceship. I don’t like it at all. I don’t want to drive it. I don’t want to do anything with it. I’d rather just say, go to the place which you can do.

Brad: That’s exactly what you do. You don’t fly your fucking ship at all, dude. That’s the part that. That’s what.

Carlos: You don’t like about.

Brad: It? Yes. I fucking hate it. I want to fly the ship. I want to fly around. And it’s like a menus. I feel like they pulled the biggest lie on people by talking all that shit about flying and the universe and spaceships and galaxy and flying around and stuff. You don’t fly shit, dude. Like, what are you talking about?

Carlos: Well, okay, so I think my expectation was totally like, checked for that because there was literally an interview. They were like, You don’t fly around.

Brad: Oh man, I missed that interview because you don’t fly around. I’m like, What is going on here? Oh, see, that’s.

Carlos: Expectation, though. Like, I knew right away that that wasn’t going to be a thing. And so here’s my problem with it then. So that’s your problem. My problem [00:06:00] is that when you’re actually doing it, I don’t think it’s fun. It’s like a version of No Man’s Sky where you’re like, you know, you did the combat because they make you do combat. And I just felt lost and I’m just spinning around and all those menus, like you said, menus. I don’t like I don’t like a lot of the menus, but the menus in the ship, like, put up your shields down, put your shields up and down, put your, you know, go faster. I was confused.

Brad: Were you’re managing the energy thing or whatever. Yeah.

Carlos: You’re managing up and down. Like speed isn’t just speed. It’s like pushing up and down on a little meter. I hated all of the experience of it, like I really didn’t like it. And so then when we got to combat, I just felt like I was flailing and I was lucky I won. But like, they probably, you know, made it easy for you. Sure. And then when they did the fast show for me, I was like, Cool, let’s give me to the planet so I can hit things again.

Brad: Oh, God, yeah, dude. Oh, I just like. Oh, boy, I. I don’t even know where to even start with this one. I mean, I equally dislike it. I think that we dislike it for the different reasons, but I think we both equally dislike it, which is amazing. They are like they are serving everyone’s [00:07:00] needs by making it equally awful for all people. I just like. I guess so. Oh my God. Okay, so like, so five hours in and we’ll talk to you. I don’t want to play this game anymore. I’m ready to bounce like I had a miserable time. I did not think this was fun. Even a little bit. Not even a little bit.

Carlos: Could I could I offer just an asterisk there for both of us? I just got to the city. Right. Did you have you explored the city at all, like the first major city? Yeah.

Brad: Number one, I hate the city. I hate the way you’ve been in it. I’ve been in the city. I’ve done one major quest like storyline quest. I did one, 1 or 2 minor side quests, and I fucked around in the stupid ship. Yeah. So like, I’ve. I’m not saying I’ve seen everything there is to see, but what I’ve seen in the five hours is telling me I, I don’t want to see anymore. I’m good where I’m at right now.

Carlos: Well then we’re flipped because I don’t like a lot of parts of it. And by the way, this is again, a negative Nelly to join your negative. I definitely don’t think this is a system [00:08:00] seller.

Brad: They thought. No, I do not think I agree.

Carlos: Even if we get deep into like, you know, huge campaign stuff that’s fun and really good story or whatever, it feels like outer worlds, right?

Brad: It’s I mean, I would I think outer worlds is a way better game than this. Honestly.

Carlos: Uh, I don’t think so. I don’t think the combat is. I think the combat might be better in this.

Brad: Oh, I mean, the combat, it’s very.

Carlos: It’s outer worlds I love, but it is kind of clunky. It’s like arcadey in a way.

Brad: I feel like this is also super clunky. Dude. I think this is. I think they’re.

Carlos: Similar. That’s what I’m.

Brad: Saying. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I agree. So I.

Carlos: Agree. My point is that it’s not this like this is going to save Xbox just like Hellblade wasn’t. So that’s why and this is you and I can only say this now and a few other people who are playing it. But like we know now that it’s not.

Brad: No. This is going to.

Carlos: Do what they want it.

Brad: To do. This is not a system seller. This is not this is not even for me, not even on my top ten, anywhere near. It’s not even dude, like I played five hours like I and I. To be truthful with you, I kind of forced myself to play five hours [00:09:00] because I’m like, No, no, no, this is going to be a big game. I know there’s going to be a lot of talk. I know I need to see more than like, I was ready to bail after like two hours. Like, this is on the wrong track. This is not going.

Carlos: But what would you like to see differently? I’m okay.

Brad: So here’s two hours. Here’s my here’s my thing. Right? Okay. So like, it starts off pretty cheesy, like the main story. I’m like, oh, okay, this is, this is super cheesy, whatever, But I didn’t expect that, Right? It’s Bethesda, everybody. It’s like. It’s like the joke. It’s like the meme of, like, the worst part of any Bethesda game is the main story. The fun stuff is doing the other stuff, right? I mean, that’s what everybody says about every Bethesda game. Okay, cool. So I’m not really even digging it for that, but like it feels so kludgy and cobbled together with these disparate elements, right? So like, you’re like, I have so many thoughts, but it’s like, okay, so let’s look at the, the walking around part. Like the walking around is fine. You can do first person, third person, whatever, that’s fine. And I’m glad they had third person. I go back and forth between first and third because sometimes the the third person is too cluttered. So I go into first when we’re talking to people and then when I do the combat, I back out to third and I kind of look around and stuff. So whatever [00:10:00] that part is, okay. But like immediately I am finding contradictions in gameplay, right? Because like there’s a lot of combat in this game, like too much combat in this game. I mean, wait, but.

Carlos: I only fought like the space pirates.

Brad: Oh, fuck. I killed so many dudes. I’m like, mass murderer in space, man. When you like, every mission is just, like, kill a bunch of dudes, kill a bunch of dudes, kill a bunch of dudes. And I’m just like, wow, I’m killing, like, a lot of people. And it’s just like, I don’t think this is like, really an action focused game because the shooting doesn’t feel that great and the melee doesn’t feel that great. I very quickly switched into Melee because I was like, Wow, melee is way more powerful than guns in this game.

Carlos: Yeah. And also, I picked a ronin, by the way.

Brad: Oh, I didn’t. Well, I didn’t expect to be melee. I was. I was. I was like, ooh lasers sounds good. This all in space and stuff. I’ll be the laser person. Whatever. No way. I ended up using a fire axe for, like, all five hours, dude. Yeah.

Carlos: By the way, I got an what’s it called? Like furious fire axe or something. Fire. And every damage, [00:11:00] every time you hit something, that damage increases.

Brad: That’s cool. See, that’s a good weapon. That is cool. The fire axe. I didn’t expect the fire axe to be the best weapon in starfield. You know what I’m saying?

Carlos: I’m telling you, though, I did because I just knew it. By the way, it also saw that remember that footage of them shooting in the very beginning, the very first trailer we saw, I thought it looked like garbage. And I was right, because the shooting doesn’t feel fun. No, it doesn’t. And I was like immediately, Yeah, of course I’m going to use my axe the whole time. So for me, I kind of again, expectations play on that.

Brad: Yeah. I mean, I very quickly found out because as I was cycling through weapons, I’m like, Well, this weapon sucks. What about this weapon? Oh, this doesn’t feel good. What’s going on? Like, the shooting doesn’t feel good and the combat feels slightly better, like the melee. But, like, overall, I. I don’t think combat is this game strength. And I’m surprised they’re leaning like, when you haven’t even gotten to yet. When you do like one of the missions there’s this one mission called groundpounder or something where you’re like rescuing people. And I’m like, Oh my God. Like, I’m killing. I kill 150 dudes in that mission or some shit like that. I’m like, This is this [00:12:00] is silly numbers, this is goofy. It feels like I’m playing Dynasty Warriors or something.

Carlos: You know what’s funny is I was just watching an interview or some sort of Reddit post or something, but people asking if they could do a pacifist run. Nope. And now it’s like more even more hilarious to me. I don’t because I don’t think there’s a couple conversational things you could change probably here and there. But in general, you’re going to be like killing a bunch.

Brad: This is this is like killing people in space. The game which I was kind of surprised by, I was expecting more about, you know, you know, you get your usual, you know, oh, do you want to be lockpicking? Do you want to have persuasion? Do you want to have bartering? So I was thinking more of like along those lines just from the opening scenes, not like I went into it with a bunch of preconceived notions or anything, but like, Dude, I’m just killing and killing and killing. I’m like, this What? We’ll see. Okay, So like, even if this was to be a combat game, the problem is like you have to also hoover shit and it’s like people die. And in a fast paced combat game, like I was running around million people jumping, doing my jetpack and stuff and like doing all that stuff. But like, then you have to like, it’s contra contra to picking [00:13:00] up stuff off of dead bodies, like killed 50 guys. You can’t do it then because you’re killing guys. And then after you’ve got a battlefield full of dead bodies, you got to like, what? Scan around and find where the guys are and go back and pick that stuff up. What a total drag, dude. But if you don’t pick that stuff up, you’re losing out on all those resources and money and everything, so you got to do it. But it doesn’t feel good at all to do it.

Carlos: Well, it doesn’t feel good to loot stuff. Yeah.

Brad: Band like when you’re killing so many dudes and then like.

Carlos: Oh, it’s so second nature for.

Brad: Me, dude, dude. Like, yeah. Gross Like, it is just it is not a good design like that stuff. If they’re going to have you doing this much combat this fast and you you’ll get to it when you get to it and try that groundpounder mission and you’ll see what I’m talking about. You’re like, wow, this is this is too many people to loot from. And also, I just don’t want to loot like that anymore. I just don’t think it’s fun and I just think it’s just like a waste of time. I just don’t enjoy it.

Carlos: Here’s what will definitely differ then. And it’s funny because we like like and don’t like a lot about it, but.

Brad: Different things.

Carlos: But different things. So literally when I go into a Bethesda [00:14:00] game or any game that’s first person, that’s that allows me to do Melee Yeah I like, don’t even start thinking anymore. Like my, my brain just shuts off and I go kill, kill, kill, kill, loot, loot, loot. So it’s just literally like breathing for me.

Brad: They should just I mean, they should just have those things warp in your inventory, man. Like, it’s like it’s.

Carlos: So what I’m saying is some of us like it, though, so I’m speaking for all the people who like it. There’s some sort of like, what’s it called, dopamine rush Just like in Diablo. Like, I don’t think you like Diablo four as much as I do.

Brad: No, I don’t. Yeah.

Carlos: And the reason I do is because that dopamine I get from, you know, I mean, maybe, maybe.

Brad: So, maybe so. And that’s maybe that’s a personal difference. I mean, that’s fine. But for me, in terms of design, that’s not a design that works for me. That doesn’t make a lot of sense to my brain, but then also encumbrance, Dude, I’m like, What? Oh my God, I hate encumbrance. And if we’re going to do encumbrance, you got to make it a lot easier to recycle your gear or like to get some. I’m. I’m dropping stuff left and right and my my person I was going to.

Carlos: Say your robot will carry a ton.

Brad: Oh [00:15:00] my robots never the fuck around. Where where is your robot. He’s back on the ship.

Carlos: Oh, you didn’t. But basically, that’s the only reason I made it so far with all of my shit. Because I took everything in a Bethesda game. I pick up everything. And I want to have, like, a whole, like, dresser of those little cubes and stuff. I picked up all the Rubik’s cubes. Yeah, we played this game totally different. Believe me. I just. I took everything I could find.

Brad: Are you saying the robot came with you the whole time?

Carlos: Yeah. Yeah, he came with me the whole time, and he carried everything. Just like, remember what’s her name in Skyrim? Oh, I will carry your burden or whatever. The robot says something like that. You didn’t hear him. He goes, I will take whatever you need or something like that. So he’s like joking about it.

Brad: My robot stays back in the ship all the time, and maybe it’s because I have a human partner. Do you have a human partner yet? I don’t have any partner.

Carlos: No, I just have the robot.

Brad: It seems like you can only have one active supporting character with you at the time. And my character can carry shit too, you know? She’s like, Oh, you can I. Your name is like, Sarah. Have you met Sarah yet? No. Okay. So you will you. You can’t avoid meeting Sarah. You have to meet Sarah. You’ll meet.

Carlos: Her or. No, you [00:16:00] haven’t seen me play video games.

Brad: I mean. No, it’s part of the. I mean, if you. If you avoid the main story quest, maybe you won’t meet her, but she’s on the main story. Quest And she’s like a required part of the main story is talking to Sarah like you can’t get around it, so you might delay it or something. But if you want to finish the game, you’re going to eventually talk to her. But, you know, she’s like, Oh, can I come with you? I’m like, Sure. And then at that point, like, the robot doesn’t offer to come with you or anything, like she comes with you. Oh, interesting. But she can carry your shit. But at the same time, it’s like I like within five seconds I was overencumbered. And like, you get the little warning. Warning you’re running out of oxygen. Overencumbered overencumbered. And I’m like, dude, like, what the. Well.

Carlos: Let’s talk about.

Brad: That for a minute. So boring, dude.

Carlos: So for one thing, the ship can hold shit and there’s a cargo thing. Yeah, but when you’re out.

Brad: In the field, man.

Carlos: Right, But I mean, I just because from my last, my first and only mission, all that stuff I got, I just put in the ship, right? So then I. The rest of the guns and stuff I sold at that little machine. Right? And so I just sold everything. Dude, I.

Brad: Couldn’t find that machine. The guy’s like, It’s right there.

Carlos: Right there.

Brad: That’s what he says. He says it’s right there. And I’m like, You guys.

Carlos: It’s like a [00:17:00] laser green kiosk thing.

Brad: Yeah, They need to, like, see, this is that thing of where it’s like they’re not playtesting for like, enough diversity of people because I hate the city. I hate the way it’s laid out. And I was like, where’s the what? Where are you talking about? Like, I couldn’t find it. And I’m like, Fuck it, whatever. I’m moving on. Like they I would have designed this totally differently to be way more obvious. And the steps in the tutorial are not exactly the same steps that I would have liked to see in the tutorial. So I mean, for example, like when you talk to that guy, when you get off the ship and he’s like, Yeah, I’m the I’m the ship guy and I can fix your ship and there’s your you can sell stuff right there. It’s kind of in back of me. And I’m like, Where, dude, like, you should have that little icon right there. Like, force me to go to the kiosk so I know where it is, right? That would have been two seconds and I couldn’t find it. I got frustrated and I’m sure that people playing the game a month from now when they’re listening back to the podcast are like, You’re stupid. You couldn’t find it like, Yeah, man. I was like, I’m looking around. I don’t see it. Like my brain is not on the same wavelength as what the developers are intending, and it seems like yours is probably a lot closer, which is totally fine with theirs.

Carlos: Yeah.

Brad: Yeah. But.

Carlos: But for other people, you’re right. Like, especially [00:18:00] as the very first time you get to and.

Brad: It’s just light it up. It’s such a weirdly laid out town. And honestly, that’s a big part of what I don’t like about this game. Also, these levels are so needlessly large that I don’t think it adds anything. Like when you get to some of these combat areas, you’re like in a three story lab with like locked doors and stairs that are kind of like not central in the building. And you’re like, I’m like, Where the fuck am I going? And they clearly thought it was a problem because when you turn on your scanner, it gives you the error on the floor to tell you which way to go because they know you’re lost, right? Like, yeah, I would rather just not be lost. It makes me think of like mass effect, right? Where I’m not saying mass effect is a perfect game by any means, although I did love it, but it’s like when you go to raid some of those side missions, like you go to find the the slavers or the weird genetic scientists or something, they’re huts. Not only is there a specific type of hut where like if you know where the hut is, then you know where the doors are because they’re all kind of cookie cutter. There’s like only like 3 or 4 types, right? And once you know them all, you know where they go. But they’re small, like they’re not huge. So even if you’re lost, you’re only like basically in like 2 or 3 rooms and [00:19:00] you get your shit done and you leave going into like, a giant facility with like, this, like a maze inside. It doesn’t offer any value to me at all. I just spend my time getting lost and trying to find enemies and running around and trying to dude the feeling of like, wanting to just like, roll over and die when I’m in the middle of a facility and I got to get back to my ship. Oh, I’m like, Oh my God, will you wait?

Carlos: They do have fast travel to the ship, though, at least on that first planet.

Brad: That you most of the time sometimes have it. But sometimes it’ll say fast travel not available from this location. And that’s when I go.

Carlos: No. So it’s funny because all the things you just described, well, part of it, at least of going through the building, three story building and, you know, all the doors again, is something I like doing because I’m like, I just want all that shit. Like, I just want to collect shit. I don’t know. Okay, so let me say something I don’t like. So to match your negative energy when you spoke, spoke of the locks and stuff and like, there’s safes everywhere and all that kind of stuff. Yeah, I do not like that system.

Brad: The lock picking game. Yeah, it’s weird.

Carlos: It’s. It’s weird. [00:20:00] It’s just a weird kind of like. I feel like I’m spending too much time thinking about where these align. These little circles. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I’m not going to explain it to our listeners because, I don’t know, it’s.

Brad: A new kind of lock picking game, and yet it’s also the same kind of lock picking game.

Carlos: Yeah, but it just bothers me, especially because you can pick between a few different things when you’re turning them. And I don’t know, I was like, This is too complicated for its own good. Just let me, you know, Jimmy a lock or something, you know, or I don’t know. I know it’s high tech and it can’t be, but I just. I don’t like it. I don’t like it. I thought it was okay.

Brad: I mean, I’m not in love with it, but I didn’t hate it either. It was. It was like whatever. It was neither here nor there for me.

Carlos: So and I would say that again, to kind of close off the thought of encumbrance, like I immediately got again strength upgrade with my first skill point to like carry more and I have my robot. So I just have a different scenario where like he’s got tons of stuff and I can carry.

Brad: More, but I’m just like, what is the what is the point, dude? I mean, and if I mean, I just wanted like, you know, like a lot of games will have like a, I don’t know, salvage button or something where it’s like, [00:21:00] you know, pick these things that are junk, hit the X button. They’re just like instantly sold and they become gold or resources or whatever. Like I would just kind of use that.

Carlos: Yeah, they, they did have a store all resources button. That’s the only one I saw which is like those minerals and stuff.

Brad: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Carlos: But it wasn’t like just sell all thing, you know, like it should have.

Brad: For the, for the sheer amount of shit that I picked up like, yes, I had, like, I was fucking so encumbered dude. Like I could, you know, like my guy was running out of oxygen if I took two steps and it was like I had like 14 spacesuits and 12 helmets and 92 guns, and I’m like, I ended up just dropping all this shit and I’m like And my my person was even like, Why are you dropping such valuable stuff? And I’m like, I got no nothing to do with it. I want to sell this stuff. But like, I don’t know where the store is. I’m a million miles away from that planet. My ship doesn’t have like a store store, like, you know, And I’m like, I just want to sell this and get the resources. Isn’t that the point of this? Like what?

Carlos: It’s such a it’s such a Brad moment. I can just see, like, your character sweating.

Brad: I’m just, yeah, dude, I’m like, This is so stupid. This is so stupid.

Carlos: Real quick, the robot also said because [00:22:00] I was picking up everything under the sun and the robot was like, Do you really need all that? Yes, yes. Straight up. That was kind of fun.

Brad: My lady. My lady said something like, Don’t stock up on junk. I’m like, Don’t even know what junk is in this game yet. How like, help me out here.

Carlos: Oh, I know what junk is because I picked up all of it. But like, I definitely am keeping everything that’s food related because my plan is to have somewhere you can have homes in this, by the way. I don’t know. I say that. So I would have like a kitchen and I’ll just stock it with all the stuff I got. But the thing I don’t also like again, this is a mixed review for me is the oxygen fuck off. I just don’t want it.

Brad: Fuck off. Yeah.

Carlos: It’s just because as a melee character you need it. And I was running out when I was fighting pirates and it did the. The CO2 backup bullshit.

Brad: Okay. Okay.

Carlos: Oh, did you not hit the CO2 level?

Brad: Well, I mean, I hit it all the time from simply walking because I was encumbered, but not during combat.

Carlos: So I’m literally jumping, which I love the gravity. Again, love, hate.

Brad: I do not like the gravity.

Carlos: Oh, I liked in a melee because wait till you see some of these clips. I’m none of them are obviously online, right? [00:23:00] Like I did like one of those, you know, huge moon gravity jumps and then landed on somebody with the X.

Brad: It feels janky to me. It feels really shit. I do not like.

Carlos: The gravity again. I know. It’s just it’s Skyrim.

Brad: It’s Bethesda. Yeah, but it feels.

Carlos: Like that during that huge thing. I mean, taking on, like four guys. I ran out and then not just running out, but I got the CO2 backup, and so it started hurting me.

Brad: Yeah. Doing damage to you? Yeah.

Carlos: And so then I’m like, I can’t even move now. And. And they have guns. Yeah. So I was like, okay, that doesn’t feel good. So I don’t want the oxygen mechanic at all. And all I’m going to do is like upgrade the oxygen because that’s a stat point you can do. Yeah. And the other thing that’s kind of weird is that what they’re trying to do, like with Skyrim is that, you know, you pick a skill, it’s not a straightforward skill tree at all.

Brad: So what a.

Carlos: Drag. And I don’t like it either.

Brad: Fucking drag and.

Carlos: You pick it and then you’ve got to use it a lot. Which again I guess, you know, to their defense, that’s what Skyrim did. When you use stealth and jump, it just got better. But I don’t know, I just feel like it should be different in this kind of I.

Brad: Do not like I [00:24:00] do not like that system where it’s like, like the, like, you know, melee. It was like do 10% extra damage or whatever the fuck the first skill was, but then kill. I mean, that was, you know, okay, kill ten people. But also just like, just give me the skill boost. Like, yeah.

Carlos: You can’t get it directly.

Brad: Yeah. Like you got to buy the thing, but then you got to do the thing like, you know, and some of them are really easy, right? Like, like, you know, do ten jumps during combat. I’m just like, in the middle of fight. I’m like, jump, jump, jump, jump, jump. Right. Okay, fine. Easy, Skyrim. Yeah, but, like, I’m just like, this is I am not a fan of that skill. I don’t. I don’t think that. He works for me and that’s not what I was looking for.

Carlos: On top of that real quick is that there is no sword skill or something. And I was like and I know for a fact because I saw a video that there’s swords in this game. I’m sure there are, Yeah. So I’m 100% going to be the sword guy. And by the way, my fucking background is Ronin. Okay, Exactly. So, and yet the skill tree has no sword, the skill tree has no melee skill, basically missed opportunity. So it really seems dumb.

Brad: Let’s talk about how this game is basically menu the game [00:25:00] like I was.

Carlos: Really menus can.

Brad: I mean so that’s how they get around the frame rate right that’s the secret is like this world is broken up into a thousand tiny ass chunks because there’s like so many loading screens and so many menus for stuff like when you’re like, so you’re on the planet, right? And then it’s like, okay, you can fast travel to your ship, you fast travel to your ship, you get in there and then it’s like, take off. And that’s another like loading screen. And then you’re like in there and then you got to go to your map screen and then you, you know, you’re in the wrong screen back up a little bit. Oh, there’s the right planet and you hit the destination and that’s like a load and like you’re just constantly going through all these like, Oh, I hate being in the menu so much. Like, it takes me out of the experience 100%. And I feel like all I’m doing is just clicking to get to a location and it’s not even good map menus because I don’t know if this happens to you, but like they’ll be like, go to the research station on Gamma 3411. I’m like, okay, so you go to your map. It’s like click, click, click, click, click. You get through the map to three maps or whatever. You find it, you click on it, but then it’s like, it never takes me to just the right one that I want to go to.

Brad: And I’m like, What is going on? It goes to like the landing zone, but I [00:26:00] don’t mean to go to the and at first I’m like, Am I just pushing the wrong thing? Like what’s happening here? But then I was like, really paying attention to it. I’m like, It doesn’t it? For some reason it’s not selecting the right thing and I want to just go straight to the place. But then you go to the place. It’s not the right place. You go back to the loading screen and pick the next destination, even though you meant to go to that place first. And I’m just like, you’re spending just like like, why do they even have a ship? Like it’s I don’t even understand why they did this because I feel like this is just like a version of, like you’re saying Skyrim or Fallout. And then they threw in like a ton of menus to give you like a quote unquote, a spaceship. You could just be teleporting through the universe or whatever. And like the ship, combat is such a it’s to me, it’s such like a not positive, like a not fun thing to do. Like, I agree. I like, why did you even bother doing this? I don’t None of this stuff feels good to me, like in any way.

Carlos: And in that in that in that same subject like outer worlds knew that it wasn’t that right. So that it just said fast travel. Right You just pick the planet and that’s fucking it. Right. And then went to another menu. It did go to one more menu, but [00:27:00] then it was like highlighted the thing you’re supposed to.

Brad: Do, outer worlds, like on paper, same system, outer world systems, 10,000 times better. Dude is way better.

Carlos: I think it is. I really do. Because, I mean, it was so intuitive. It helped me beat that game quick, by the way, because it was again, I was like, bing, bing, bing, Go here, go here. Right. And this one, I yeah, I’m glad you brought it up. It’s a real drag. It’s like a bummer and drag at the same time. It really, like, stops the fun. It stops the. It makes me confused. And I don’t be confused. And I definitely have had like, for like you said, I’ve had four menus just to get one place. Yeah.

Brad: It’s like it’s way too many menus, dude. Like, and then like a lot of loading like often there’s nothing seamless about it, right? Like you get to a facility like load to get to the planet, you load to get off the ship, you load to get into the facility, like you load to get through some of the doors in the facility. You load to get back out. And it’s just like, dude, like none of this is I mean, again, I think that’s what they’re doing to save the frame rate or whatever. So [00:28:00] okay. But like, I just feel like it totally takes me out of it and it’s just like load, load, load, load, load and menu menu, menu. So many fucking menus. Dude. I hate like it’s and usually I don’t complain about menus. Usually I’m not that guy. Like, I’m not that guy who’s like, totally immersive, seamless. I never want like, I don’t care. Like, give me some menus is fine. I deal with menus all the time, but like, this is like overkill. It feels like they just didn’t really think this through and they got about halfway through the game and they’re like, Can’t stop now because the game is halfway finished. Too late to change change streams now, but like it just feels like what is even going on here? I feel like I’m being punked when I’m going through all these menus.

Carlos: You know what it is, I think and I’m pretty sure this is right because I have been around developers and development cycles. I feel like it’s the thing where you corner yourself. Yes. You know? Yes. And like they built one menu and they’re like, oh, well, we need to, you know, do this other thing to get there or something. Yes. And they just kind of like develop themselves into it. That’s exactly what it feels.

Brad: It feels like. I think you’re 100% right.

Carlos: Dude, because and then they’re too late to go, like, revamp the whole thing.

Brad: Yes. Because, like, [00:29:00] within five minutes, I’m like, are you kidding me? This is this is the navigation. This is the for a game called Starfield. This is how you want me to handle space. This is how we’re getting around to the planets. Really? Because that seems like a very strange choice to me and one that I do not appreciate at all.

Carlos: Negative. I don’t know. Number something the character creator. I thought I was going to be in forever. Yes. I mean, because it’s a Bethesda game and I don’t know, like just face stuff and it’s space. I don’t know. No choices.

Brad: Yeah.

Carlos: Very little. I mean, I am surprised. Yeah. And I think that’s going to be one of the first things people bring up when they review the game, because this is a game you’re going to spend supposedly, allegedly 150, 200 hours. I mean, I’m not never ending, you know, and literally I couldn’t get you know, I tried to get close to like what I look like. Yeah. Couldn’t do that. And the thin and and fat head option was like, weird looking.

Brad: It was a weird.

Carlos: It didn’t make any sense. It was like no one would pick [00:30:00] that. Yes. So I just think that whoever was working on that part of the game failed. You know, no offense, but it just felt really not like, yeah, there was a lot of good different like what’s it called? Um, uh, variety of people and stuff like that. Representation.

Brad: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Carlos: But at the same time. So I was cool to see like a bunch of different faces that I’ve never seen, you know, and styles Yeah. But then they were like, Templatized Yeah. Because if you mess with them in any way, they get weird. It just didn’t really work. Yeah, I kind of got weird. It’s like an NBA game or something, you know, like NBA jam or something.

Brad: I did have a number of people with really big heads. It was very strange.

Carlos: Yeah.

Brad: Maybe something about space makes your head get big. I don’t know. But. All right. Okay. So I’m a little further than you are. Um, like I said, I got to the main city. I talked to the main group. I did like one of the main missions. I did a couple of side missions. And I got to say, I do not care at all about any of these people or the story. And nothing I’ve done has been really interesting. And and [00:31:00] here’s the here’s the thing that I hate the most about this game here is I you know, if it was interesting writing or if the quests were interesting so far or anything that might be okay. But here’s here’s what the mission is, right? It’s like, okay, go to the city, you go to the city.

Carlos: And in between minor spoiler for me who hasn’t played it yet.

Brad: I’m not going to spoil anything, but I’ll just I’ll just talk about the structure of the game. I’m not going to spoil details. Here’s the here’s the structure of most of the missions I’ve done so far. Hey, you got to talk to this person. Go find him and they’re on a fucking different planet. Menu. Menu. Menu. Menu. Menu. Every time I say a different location.

Carlos: Oh, I wanted some of the.

Brad: That’s terrible. No, no, no, you are. Hold on, hold on. Okay, so you go to different planet, talk to the guy. You find the guy. Talk, talk, talk. Oh, snap. I got to go to this other planet. Menu. Menu. Menu, menu, menu. You go to. You go to the planet. You find the other person you got to talk to. Oh, what’s up? Talk, talk, Talk. Menu. Menu. Menu. Menu. Menu. You go back to. Okay, then you fight. And then it’s like fucking 50 dudes or something. You fight and they’re like, Oh, snap. You got to go to this other place, find this dude. And like you, if you’re lucky, you walk and sometimes you get lost, but at least you’re not loading anymore. But sometimes [00:32:00] it’s like, Oh, got a menu. Menu, menu. You go to this other like, they’re just like sending you back and forth, go through like 19 menu screens to talk to one person for five seconds only to have them send you to another place to go. It’s like I’ve been like a lot of, like, back and forth, back and forth with, like, needless travel. And every place I go is just like, talk for five seconds, do more menus, and then, like, fight 50 dudes in between it or like you do like a spaceship battle or something, and then go back and talk to the guy, You got a menu back to where they are and you’re just constantly looking at the motherfucking star map, just clicking through the 19 menus and stuff, and I’m like, This is absolutely not fun in any way.

Brad: Like, I feel like I’m in the world’s worst chain fetch quest and nothing cool is happening. Nothing fun is happening. These people are just like, Thanks for rescuing me. Go help my friend. Like, it’s a super boring. I love that voice. Yeah, like nothing cool, nothing cool has happened. And I’m like, I’m desperate for, like, something alien or some cool, interesting weapon or something fun to happen where it’s like, it just feels like seriously, [00:33:00] like the most boring version of Fallout. And they put it in space by putting it through 18 different menus. And after doing those missions, I’m like, I don’t want to play this game anymore. Like, I feel like it is actively wasting my time.

Carlos: Yeah, I can see why you’d be frustrated, especially with those menus and you telling me that does not make me excited about missions and the fact that I have to go to other.

Brad: Oh my God, they just constantly send you to some other place and they think.

Carlos: That that’s a win, probably, you know what I mean? Like, they’re like, Oh, look, you could go to this other exotic location. Well, here’s what I think. Okay, here’s my expectations and what I think I’m going to do. I’m definitely am going to play it still, there’s parts of me that just again, it could literally be cardboard box simulator and Bethesda made it and it was like all cardboard boxes and you go in and fight other cardboard box monsters and you loot the cardboard cardboard box items and you get more cardboard boxes. I would probably play it because I want to like hit things, watch my numbers go up and get things. You’re in the.

Brad: Market for this kind of thing more than I am.

Carlos: Right? And hopefully we not just be more cardboard boxes I’d get from [00:34:00] cardboard boxes, I maybe I’d get a couple different objects, but so that’s why I’ll probably still play it. Secondly, you telling me that and me already just witnessing how I hate the spaceship and the travel. Yeah. I’m going to try to find an area which I’m guessing is this first city probably and not do fuck all with that main quest. Okay. You’ve given me my my plans and I’m going to destroy that whole city. Like, I’m just going to play the game wrong like I do, which, by the way. Close to the ground. That’s what I’m doing now. And, you know, make videos when I can show them. Not now, but like just have fun the way that I want to have fun with. Yeah. And that’s it for me. Like, that’s my star filled experience. Like 4 or 5 hours in. I know what it’s going to be. It’s just going to be that. Yeah. And I collect all the cheese and the weird half eaten sandwiches and I’m going to kill everybody, you know what I mean? I’m going to be evil and stuff and. And I’m just going to have fun with it that way. So I feel like. But it [00:35:00] is unfortunate that loading it up so many of these little like what’s it death from a thousand cuts. Exactly.

Brad: Exactly.

Carlos: Yeah. That’s what I feel like right now talking to you five hours in, it’s like it’s not the exciting thing. I wanted it to be with Skyrim, you know, It’s just like the base level of sci fi Skyrim. And that’s enough for Carlos. But it isn’t enough for probably a ton of people. And I am so nervous for those reviews.

Brad: Yeah, I mean, I, I, I’m playing this and I’m like, I am having a very bad time with it and I’m just like, I know that I’m not. I mean, there’s some people that are going to love this game regardless, right? You can pick any game and there’s like, there’s a couple people who it’s like their favorite game in the world and that’s fine. And some people just love Bethesda and that’s cool and some people love the Skyrim vibe or, you know, the Fallout vibe or, you know, like you said, some people like picking things up and I mean, that’s cool. Like if you get fun out of this, great. But I feel like not only was this not what I expected, when you look at when you look at like [00:36:00] the name Starfield, they talked about a thousand different worlds and the space and discovery. And I’m just feeling this on my hands and I’m like, Oh, dude, this feels awful. And like, I don’t want to go prospecting and I don’t want to just scan things and I don’t want to set up a homestead anywhere because it’s funny too, because when I played No Man’s Sky, which I feel like this is probably in, in some realm, supposed to be the closest parallel to whatever, maybe like no man’s sky plus RPG or something.

Carlos: Well, by the way, I don’t want that in my in my Skyrim. That’s what I want to say, but I don’t want that in my star field. And I don’t know when they got that idea that that’s what people wanted. But because you’re right, it’s no man’s sky like, that’s it. I mean, it’s definitely that.

Brad: So to be clear, I don’t want original no man’s sky. I want no man’s sky. Six years after it dropped and it had 38,000 updates like that, No man’s sky was a pretty good no man’s sky.

Carlos: Yeah, but I played no man’s sky. And you and I played, like, 400 hours of that game.

Brad: And I finished it. Dude, I finished it, right?

Carlos: And I wait. I finished it, too. [00:37:00] I think you probably did. I think you did a different ending. I did a different ending than you. Yeah. Yeah, I no, I did. No, I did that really weird ending, remember? Did we ever talk about in the show?

Brad: I don’t. We probably did. I don’t.

Carlos: Know the really like, kind of semi evil ending where, like the weird red dot in the spaceship.

Brad: Thing. Yeah, yeah yeah. We talked about. Yeah, we talked about it.

Carlos: Okay. Yeah. Anyways, my point is, I don’t want to do that anymore right now, you know what I mean? So it’s just, it has too much. Like you say, chocolate and peanut butter. It’s got too much peanut butter, my chocolate or something. Like I don’t want. It’s got too much no man’s sky for me.

Brad: Well, it’s interesting because it’s not enough for me. I wanted more because I want I want to feel like. Like I want a little bit more seamless, right? I want to feel like. Like I’m like when I couldn’t fly the ship, I was really disappointed. I was like, oh, I really want to, like, feel like that’s a part of the thing, right? I don’t want to just be clicking through menus and like, it’s so clunky and it’s so bogged down and it just, it feels like I honestly thought and maybe I’m just an idiot for thinking this. I honestly thought that they were going to try to, like, take a step forward and do something a little bit different. And I feel like this is just like [00:38:00] the same shit they’ve been doing with like a different veneer of space on top of it. But like, they didn’t really, like lean into it. They didn’t really embrace it. And I feel like it’s just a lot of pieces that don’t go together very well in this game. The combat doesn’t go together very well and I feel like the the city design doesn’t go very well with what the combat is. And I feel like the space thing doesn’t really serve anything. And it’s just like I don’t see myself exploring this game in any way because it feels bad. I mean, like, you know, just the encumbrance and stuff and how hard it is to get back to the city and sell stuff and I just oh, man, just like none of this, none of this is working for me at all. And I’m sure there’s going to be other people who feel the same way, especially since Microsoft and Bethesda are hyping this up so much to be this big, important game. You know, I don’t know if they need a system seller, but they definitely need a big hit for sure. And after playing this for five hours, I’m like this. This does not feel like a big hit to me in any way. You know, maybe.

Carlos: I think I agree with you. Yeah. I think the short takeaway for me is similar to yours is that it’s not the big hit, which [00:39:00] is really bad, you know, for their.

Brad: I think so. I think so, yeah.

Carlos: And then but it is a game that a ton of people are just going to enjoy fucking around with.

Brad: For sure for sure, which.

Carlos: I will. But that’s not enough. Yeah. Like if we’re just being a brutally honest review, like it doesn’t hit the mark in like a bunch of things. And again, this is so early, I might find this major quest that I’m like, Wow, I have the feels or something. And I met a romance partner Like that might happen, but you can get the vibe I think both of us have. Gains enough long enough to know the vibe is it’s it’s Skyrim in space with some bad menus and the other planets are just other locations you go to. Yeah. You know, and I and I think and I’m afraid of there’s going to be a lot more mining missions and resource collecting and there’s already like, you know, crafting stuff that I don’t.

Brad: Want to do. Man, I saw those crafting menus and I was I wanted to scream and run the other way.

Carlos: Yeah, that was very confusing, by the way. Like, I didn’t know if I had enough stuff to do anything like I [00:40:00] think I did. For one, I got bandages or something, but then there was a million like foods and stuff and weapons. And I just again, another menu that I was very confused by. And maybe they’ll do a patch right before this actually comes out.

Brad: Maybe they.

Carlos: I don’t know, cleans up some of those menus. But the menus I think everywhere are bad. Yeah.

Brad: And it might be. I mean, I mean, I’m sure they’re going to work on this. They’ve sunk billions of dollars into this. It’s supposed to be this Keystone thing for Microsoft. I mean, I’m sure that in a year’s time it’ll be a better game than it is now. You know, whatever. But it’s funny because.

Carlos: You know, I hate saying that, by the way, so many times these.

Brad: Days. I mean, that’s fucking reality of game Dev right now.

Carlos: Well, again, Baldur’s Gate three is three years.

Brad: Three years. They were in early access. Right.

Carlos: But they weren’t doing this kind of thing.

Brad: Agree, agree, Agree.

Carlos: Right. Starfield wasn’t in early access. We can’t fuck around. And me, you and I couldn’t give the developers this feedback right now. Exactly. Yeah. So it’s different.

Brad: But it’s funny though, because I am I am absolutely not a Skyrim fan, right? Like I’ve gone on record many times as saying I think it’s really fucking boring and [00:41:00] I don’t like it very much. Real talk though. I finished Skyrim and I had a lot more fun with Skyrim than I had in the five hours of starfield so far. Yeah, I just. I just feel like it doesn’t come together and I’m not. I don’t even know that they even know what they were doing with this. It just feels very confused in so many ways. And the vibe I’m getting from it is not a cohesive vision. It’s not, it’s not something that inspires me to go like when you’re playing, like when you’re playing mass effect, like you get the story, you’re like, Oh man, I want to find out the precursors. What were they up to? And the the Reapers. What’s going on? Like you, you know, you feel it. And even if the combat wasn’t great in the first mass effect, but you still wanted to explore, like exploring the Mecca or something like that was kind of exciting. And as the game went on, like there was reasons to, to, to feel hooked into it. But this one, like I’m talking to the people and like, every person is like one of those. I wish you could see me on camera now because I’m turning slowly to face the camera like a Skyrim NPC.

Brad: Hello. Thank you for rescuing me. Here’s a loaf of bread for your reward. Like they all feel super boring and I don’t care about talking to anybody. And even in the middle of like a combat situation, [00:42:00] it’s really boring. And I’m just like, okay, this this is not enough for me. And I just like, I am just I’m not finding a way in. And because it’s so segmented and menus and everything is a loading screen and everything, I don’t even feel like I’m even in the world. Like I feel like. But with Skyrim where you felt like you were kind of in the world where you’re like walking around the town, Oh, I’m going up this hill and you could at least do the fun of like, Oh, I’m gonna see if I can climb that mountain and fuck around over there. You could do that. Have you? So I guess, answer me this question, Carlos. When you’re looking at the map icons on the planet, there’s like the landing zone and then there’s also like the locations, like the lab and the research outpost or whatever. If you go to the landing zone, is that like your is that the fuck around zone Like you just walk around and shoot shit. Is that what you do there?

Carlos: I don’t know. I haven’t played it long enough to know that I’ve went to try that.

Brad: Like when you play, see if the landing zone is the fuck around zone because.

Carlos: Oh, I’m going to. Yeah. Because I really wanted to boundary break this as soon as I could, but I didn’t have the opportunity to, to, you know, I would.

Brad: Say try that and see if that’s where you can just randomly [00:43:00] walk around.

Carlos: If you could. That would make this a lot unless it’s like totally empty out there. Well, we’ll find out.

Brad: We’ll see. So here’s the thing, right? Here’s the thing. And I get that this game doesn’t have to be no man’s sky, right? But one thing that I liked about No Man’s Sky was the game was absolutely huge. But also it was very small in the in the chunks that you had to manage. Right? So like when you’re going to a no man’s sky planet, like you get to a planet like you can fly around the planet. And I get that that’s not realistic because in real, in real life, humans are small, planets are enormous. It takes you three days like, I get it right. But they gamified it the right way where it’s like you feel like you’re coming through the atmosphere landing. You can choose where you want to land. Like you’re kind of like in the environment, like you’re you’re looking at the mountain. Oh, I can’t land on the mountain. I got to find a flat spot. Okay, here I go. There’s the research facility. Okay? If I land over here, I got to walk up this way like you’re kind of like in your head, thinking, like you’re in the space, right? But in this, it’s just like, pick a dot. Menu, menu, menu. You land. You’re right at the thing. Dudes are shooting at you. 50 dudes. You kill the 50 dudes, 50 corpses laying around, talk [00:44:00] to some guy, collect a loaf of bread or whatever wheel of cheese you get back on your ship. It doesn’t feel like you’re you’re there. Like you’re doing it like you’re not in the space. You know what I mean? Does that make any sense at all?

Carlos: It does. And let me see. Let’s let’s play a little longer to see if. And I know I will. I mean, you probably will. I probably.

Speaker3: But I don’t know that I will. But we’ll see.

Carlos: You should a little bit, just for our conversations at least, so you and I can talk about it. But like, if if they let you just, you know, if it’s an invisible wall around areas, I’m going to be pissed. It’ll be curious feeling it’s going to be. I feel like.

Brad: It will be. I feel like it will.

Carlos: Which will mean again, it’s similar to outer worlds, but outer worlds never, you know, said it was this huge, massive game. It said it was like little story beats, right? Yes, yes, yes. And that’s what I expected out of it. So it’s almost like that’s what this is. Again, that’s a perfect comparison. That should be the name of our podcast. Someday is Starfield is Outer Worlds two or something or three because they made it two. Um, and so, but you’re right because like the difference with Skyrim and you do all the Bethesda things you want to do, jankiness [00:45:00] and weird combat, whatever, but it is this world that you are walking into and it’s one place. Yes, yes. And you’re fucking around and you’re finding a weird town and all these little stories emerge because you’re just on this place. Yes. And you know, and I can tell you a ton of fun stories from that game for me because, yeah, I just didn’t know what the fuck was happening. But this is like you can even, like, get unlocked. It’s like it gives you a house right away. Yeah. So, yeah. And so it’s like it’s like piecemeal. It’s these little piecemeal things that I don’t again, I don’t know who they tested or like, you know, asked who wants this style of game? But it’s like they’re, yeah, compartmentalizing. I feel.

Brad: Like Skyrim. I feel like the people who would want the house and the fuck around are not going to be satisfied with that aspect of it because I feel like it’s probably going to be really boundary boxed and really weird and limited by the menus and stuff and everything. I feel like the parts here are not going to each person who likes the thing. Like one thing about this is going to be unsatisfied by [00:46:00] the other parts of the game. You know what I mean?

Carlos: Like, I think that’s right. And I think that’s the piecemeal thing we keep bringing back up is that this game is a bunch of pieces. Yes. And I don’t know if they work yet because obviously I haven’t gotten enough campaign and I will. But I at the surface level, I don’t think they do. I think this is a I don’t want to say janky because that’s of course, Bethesda. But I think it’s just a what’s the word I want. It’s spread apart too much.

Brad: Yeah, it almost feels like kind of a Frankenstein’s monster where they’re just like Frankenstein piece of this and a piece of this and a piece of this and a piece of this. But it doesn’t all work together like so here’s a good counterpoint, right? Have you played Black Skylands and playing that right now on PlayStation Black Skylands?

Carlos: No, I’ve seen on the menu. I haven’t seen.

Brad: It. So Black Skylands is great. I love it. And on paper it has actually a lot in common with starfield, but it’s like a 2D absolutely top down game. You’re looking down at the top of your player’s head, right? It’s all pixel based, but like when you get into it, like you’re in the main ship and like you can very quickly navigate [00:47:00] the entire ship, you know, where everything is within five minutes because it’s like it’s all right there. They don’t make it big and confusing for the sake of being confusing. They make it big. To give you a sense of that, it’s big, but not so big that you’re lost, right? You get to your ship, you go from this place to the ship, no loading screen. You’re on the ship. You’re flying in this giant open world. You can go anywhere you want to, but like, there’s a map that’s very clear. It shows you where to go. You’re getting on the ship, You’re flying the ship, you’re navigating the ship. You land the ship, you get off the ship. It’s all one seamless, continuous experience, right? So you feel like you’re in the zone, like you feel like I’m flying the ship, I’m going to the place. I’m going to that island. I want to check that island out. You fly it over and you stop and you get out. And it all just makes sense to your brain. And even the the combat areas, like they’re not huge, like they’re big enough to feel like, oh, I’m walking around and there’s multiple paths, but I’m never lost. Like, I don’t feel overwhelmed by just the scope of it, which doesn’t really help anything. And it gives you a really quick taste of like cohesive world cohesive vision. It’s airships. You’re flying around between islands, you’re fighting dudes. And just really quickly, like it all comes together and you feel like the vision [00:48:00] is there and you can just take it all in and you’re like in it, right? As opposed to this where it’s like I. The opposite of that feeling. Right? Exactly.

Carlos: It’s funny because literally these are also games we’ll be talking about soon. But on the podcast. But Hammerwatch, I believe, is what it’s called. I’ve heard.

Brad: Of it. I have not tried it. I don’t think so.

Carlos: So Hammerwatch two just came out and I thought it was on console. It’s only on steam, but I got it because I heard it was 16 bit Elden ring mixed with like an action RPG. That’s much easier. It’s not like a Souls game. It’s like it’s not difficult, right? It’s like hack and slash what, twin stick shooter style. So you’re like, you aim your melee weapon and stuff. Gotcha. Oh, wait, you can be a wizard too. So it’s like a lot of different classes and it’s meant to be played co-op. Of course, I’m playing it solo. The point is, it’s this world that doesn’t tell you too much, but it’s 16 bit, you know, top down style. You’re running around, you don’t know where you’re going fully, but it’s not again, so massive that you can’t get somewhere. It’s like, you know, there’s a beginning point to this area and an end point, [00:49:00] but it does also feel like a big world. And then you go into houses and stuff and it just feels like this, like you’re there. It feels like you’re there in that you’re in. Yeah. But at the same time, it doesn’t always hold your hand. So it’s doing what you’re kind of saying where it’s successfully, right? Like I’m like, Oh, I get lost in the woods somewhere, but I’m not really lost because I can get back. And all of it makes sense, right? So even that like a 16 bit style game feels better, I think, than the experience so far that I’m having where I’m like, Yeah, lost in a menu lost and what I’m supposed to do. Very lost on crafting. Oh, dude. Yeah. Like, I don’t even want to get into that. Oh, by the way, because we’re playing it so early, there’s definitely regular bugs that I’ve already encountered which are not like the world and jankiness, but like, menus that won’t go away.

Brad: Yeah, I’ve.

Carlos: Had. It’s happening.

Brad: Some button prompts are not recognized. I have to push like five times on a button or something like that. But nothing, nothing.

Carlos: And also yeah, boxes are coming up though. And I had to restart like the game three times. Yeah. But we’re so early [00:50:00] though. Yeah, it’s probably.

Brad: So all right. Oh, gosh, man, I’m glad that we talked about this because and I’m. I’m really glad that I got your thoughts because I was playing this and I was like, Oh my God, I am miserable right now. Is Carlos gonna be miserable or is Carlos gonna love this? I’m like, I don’t know. I felt like you were not going to like it, but I wouldn’t have put money on it. But now that we’re talking, it’s funny that we both kind of don’t like it for, like you said, but for absolutely different reasons. But we both equally don’t like it, which is fucking amazing.

Carlos: So I think, like I said, I have a real good again, expectation and purpose for this game, which is funny clips which I’ll get, which is ridiculous stuff which Bethesda, you know to their credit put in their right like half eaten sandwiches and stuff. Yeah. And they’re going to let me have fun. There’s physics which is good. And so that’s what I’m going to do with this game and I’m going to have fun with it. Right? Right. It’s not the game that I was expecting in story so far, and it’s definitely not the game that I was expecting with space or the menus like the space part or the menu part bothers me to no end. And I’m going to like as soon as we’re done with this talk, I’m going [00:51:00] to go see if I can get outside those, you know, hopefully not invisible walls.

Brad: I’ll try the landing zone, see what happens.

Carlos: Yeah, Yeah. And if that’s the case, then that’s going to make me even more frustrated with it. But yeah, again. Tldr it’s not what people are going to be expecting.

Brad: Yeah, I think that’s very accurate. I think this is going to be regardless of what anybody’s expecting, I think it is, it is not what they’re going to expect. Yeah.

Carlos: And you know what’s funny? Okay, we can say this because it’s early and we’re not broadcasting anymore, but I’m watching some YouTubers who I think have access. Right? Yeah. And they’re tempering expectations even though they’re not supposed to, are they really? Right. Yeah, but they’re not like saying it’s a rerun or anything, but like, I saw this one guy who like renamed nameless or whatever, but like, I heard him just backpedaling on some stuff and he’s like, Oh, you know, this thing here. But I think it’s going to be fine because of this. And it just I get to hear him in his voice going like, Oh, he knows that there’s trouble.

Brad: Yeah. This is I mean, regardless of what we think, regardless of what’s going to happen, I, I would absolutely guarantee this [00:52:00] is not going to be the instant home run that I think people were kind of expecting it or maybe even Microsoft is expecting or I don’t know if Bethesda is expecting that. I would really like to know behind the scenes if I could be a fly on their wall to be like, What are you guys really think of this? Like, honestly, I’d be very curious to see what you guys honestly think of this game that you made because it’s I don’t know, man. Like, I just I’m just not feeling it, you know? And I think a lot of people are going to be like, whoa, what’s going on here?

Carlos: So my last thought is this is because this is literally how I’m going to play the game The whole time I play it is I’m going to play Melee, right? And I think the biggest disappointment for me is there is no skill tree for the melee. Yeah, it seems like, which is crazy.

Brad: It needs one because it’s honestly the best way to play, right?

Carlos: And it is the best way to play. And I’m ready. And there’s a duelist one which feels really wrong to call it dueling, you know? And that’s the one I picked, of course. But I just hate that. Supposedly I’m going to stay in this game for a long time [00:53:00] and there’s no real way to make me better with the melee. Nothing really to.

Brad: Look forward to.

Carlos: Skills wise. Nothing to look. Word to. And I was like, that is a that’s the biggest disappointment for me is the Malay guy with because there’s going to be swords in the game and I’m a ronin. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Well, that’s, that’s fucking that’s inexcusable in my book.

Brad: So we just talked about this game for like an hour. An hour, Literally an hour. Let’s save this. I’m going to upload this to you, put it together, keep it in our back pocket because I feel like we may. We may end up using this. Yeah, we’ll just.

Carlos: Use it for the for episode one. We’ll cut to it.

Brad: Yeah, we’ll cut to it and then maybe things will change by the time it drops or I don’t know.

Carlos: Well I’m going to play it again. And what I’d like to do is I have another one of these conversations before, you know, the embargo. If you can just play it for like one more time at least or something.

Brad: I will not force my. Yeah, I got I need like, time off from this game. I’m going to play something fun. I’ll come back to it. But man, I ooh, gross. I don’t want to come back to it, so. All right. If you’re listening to this podcast, it’s [00:54:00] probably no time at all has passed for you. But this is actually part two of the Starfield discussion, which Carlos and I began. I don’t know what two weeks ago does that seem about right?

Carlos: Yeah. As soon as it dropped, basically as soon as we got the the codes for it.

Brad: Yeah. It feels kind of weird. We’re in the time loop right now, but the last time, the last segment you just heard part one, we recorded that like on the day we got code and that was about two weeks ago. And then we went away for two weeks. We saved the recording and now we’re back. So to you, you’re like, I just listened to that. Why are you telling me? But for me, I am mentally reminding myself of how long it’s been and where we’re at because we need to get back in the zone to do part two of this discussion. At this point, it’s been two weeks since we got code, the release of the game and the embargo drops in two days. It’s now August 29th and the embargo ends August 31st. So we are about two days out and now we are going to circle back and share any further [00:55:00] thoughts. Carlos, full disclosure, you’re going to have to do the heavy lifting because I know you played a lot more of this game than I did, but I am here to support you in spirit. Absolutely. But before we get to that, I do want to say now that we’re 48 hours out, I’ll be very curious to see what people think once the game is out. But there’s already been multiple leaks. You yourself, Carlos, have seen multiple people on TikTok sharing things that shouldn’t be shared. There’s been lots of whispers going around, YouTube commentary, lots of thoughts getting around that shouldn’t be getting around. So the leaks are starting. It’s really hard to keep a big ship like this completely free from spillage, and I don’t think they succeeded. There’s already there’s already whispers of the stuff that we’re about to talk about here and that we just did talk about a second ago.

Carlos: Well, let me just one say say one thing, because like, I think that it’s been very, very good of their like, luck to not have as many leaks as there could have been.

Brad: That’s true. They have been very few leaks.

Carlos: This is one of the [00:56:00] biggest and most anticipated game of the year, if not a couple of years, correct? Yes. And so for it to be two days out, essentially when we’re recording this and the things that I’ve saw were not huge leaks, you know what I mean?

Brad: No, not huge either.

Carlos: So like there’s some gameplay and some people are going like, Oh yeah, that looks like Fallout four and they’re not wrong. And but it’s not tons of gameplay and it’s also not a ton about the story and stuff like that. So I don’t know. I think there’s, it could have been a lot that’s fair.

Brad: I think that’s that’s a good point. I mean to to have leaks this small 48 hours before you drop guess that’s not bad. I mean it could have been a lot worse. There could be there could have been a lot of things spilling, you know, a week, two weeks, a month out. And, you know, so. Okay, that’s fair. That’s fair.

Carlos: Point. And on top of that, I watch every like YouTube video ever about gaming. And if I go to my subscriptions or I go to new like videos that just posted like almost everybody who’s covering starfield has been very good about it. You know what I mean? Like, they’re not even doing like sly looks or, you know, hints or anything like that. They’re just being like, Yeah, and it’s supposed to be the biggest [00:57:00] game of the year and these people are playing the game. So right again, everybody’s got their.

Brad: Game face on.

Carlos: Everyone’s doing very good job, including us.

Brad: So I guess, Carlos, you know, people are listening. This is part two. They just heard our thoughts a second ago. It’s two weeks for us. Where do you want to pick the conversation back up? What do you think we should how should we start this?

Carlos: Well, I knew that I had finished the game, so I beat the game. And again, this is kind of like even though this is coming out on the 31st, is that right? 30?

Brad: Yes. People will hear this podcast the day that the game is.

Carlos: Out and they’ll be able to start playing it. So I don’t want to spoil too much. So I won’t say too much, obviously about the ending, even on this podcast. Right, right. But at the same time, I bring it back up because after doing that, you know, the first time we talked about it was like 4 or 5 hours in. Now I structured a bunch of my thoughts because I did roll credits. And I do have like a general consensus of how I think about the game now. And then I broke apart like my [00:58:00] kind of cons list, okay? Because last time we were just like, blabbing and I kind of organized it.

Brad: For this time. Okay, let’s start with this then, since you’re going to be doing most of the talking. Let me do the the interrogation here. Oh, okay. So just for clarity, it’s been two weeks since we talked about it last. How many hours roughly did it take you to roll credits, I guess. Yeah.

Carlos: Good. You be the journalist person. Yes, I will. And I ask the questions. Yeah. It took me and this is a very small number because although you don’t know how much Pete Hines is telling the truth and Todd Howard, etcetera, but they were talking about it taking taking 50 hours or so to do the main quest. It took me 26. Okay.

Brad: So you bring that up. I just saw that commercial from Bethesda, and it was that guy, I think it was Pete Hines that said that He said 50 hours for the main quest after doing 80 hours of side stuff. So I believe him. I mean, I’m sure that’s true. But I think that’s one of those times when you’re really wringing the most out of a game perhaps, or you’re really [00:59:00] doing a lot of screw around time or something.

Carlos: Well, can I speak to that? Because that’s actually a good point and it’s not in my notes. Is that I know for a fact and this is something people would want to listen to if they maybe are still deciding to buy it or not. Is that that 80 hours? I have a love hate relationship with Bethesda, Bethesda and Todd Howard and Pete Hines because they do a lot of like sleight of hand and they’ve done it forever fallout 76 and you know even fallout four and I still liked it but they just do that like they kind of exaggerate or they just say how they played it or something. I know from playing this game very thoroughly that 80 hours of side missions would get boring to a to a bunch of people. Yeah, because if you’ve done one mission in this game or in one mission in Fallout four, you’ve done them all. And now that’s maybe a blanket statement because there’s definitely different types of things like, you know, saving people and going to a planet and getting pretty reductive.

Brad: But I get I get the point.

Carlos: But the general consensus of how you feel when you play these kind of side missions is like, [01:00:00] if it isn’t killing a bunch of people, then it’s it doesn’t for me. And I think a bunch of people who like like the same stuff I do, it doesn’t like to get me excited, you know, to keep going. Now, to their credit, the last chapter or whatever, the last kind of final act, I don’t know what that would be considered. Maybe the last five, six hours or something felt really good. Like really, really, really good. Okay. But it’s just the 80 hours that he’s talking about is, I think, fluff in a way, or like just like filler. Sure. Sure. To me, I don’t I don’t see him doing that. Or if he did, it’s because he’s obviously working on the game. But. Right. I think the core thing, just like Skyrim though, to finish is that just like Skyrim, if you mainline Skyrim, it’s about 25 hours. Yeah, you know what I mean?

Brad: So yeah, exactly. No, no, I agree with you. I mean, you played a lot more than I did, but I’m trying to, in my head, figure out how he came up with not even 80 hours, but like 130 hours, like, you know, 50 hours for the main quest, [01:01:00] which you’ve already you know, you already got through in like half the time or whatever. And then 80 hours of muck around. Yeah, I don’t know. I’m with you, dude. I think that feels like a little. Okay. And also, to be clear, it’s not like I want this game to be infinite. I don’t want this game to be 500 hours, so it’s not like I’m digging it. Yeah. To be like, Oh, you should have been 500 hours. I’m just. I’m just saying that feels kind of like an inflated statement.

Carlos: I think so too. Again, from having just played it like 26, 28 hours, whatever is like really good. And I had a, you know, an okay time with it, which we’ll get into my score later, but I don’t I didn’t need a ton more. And then there’s more you can do like every other Bethesda game after you beat it, you know, you can keep playing. And so but I don’t know if I’m going to, you know what I mean? So, yeah.

Brad: Okay. So let’s pause right here before we before we go on. And again, you’re going to be giving us the bulk of the information here. So just to be clear, I did have a couple people ask us about this particular episode, sent me a DM. I’d be like, Oh, when’s that? When’s the special one dropping? What’s is it going to be spoiler free? And I do want to tell everybody, I’ll put [01:02:00] this in the notes as well, but this will be a spoiler free podcast despite the fact that by the time you’re hearing this, the game is out. We are still beholden to the embargo stipulations which mention that we cannot talk about like it’s like 5 or 6 different topics that we are forbidden to talk about and we are going to honor that embargo, no problem, because we are honorable people like that. So this is going to be a spoiler free discussion in the sense that we’re not going to spoil the ending. Carlos is not going to give away any major story beats. We’re not going to give you away any of the surprises, but we are going to talk about mechanics. We’re going to talk about the gameplay. We’re going to talk about design. We’re going to talk about just our general impressions, the feelings, you know, quests and stuff like that. So we you know, you’re not going to you’re not going to have your game experience ruined by listening to this podcast. But we are going to talk in a very frank sense about what it’s like to play this game. But the end the end stuff will be safely unspoiled regardless.

Carlos: Correct? And also how I have it structured in my notes is an overall kind of feeling about the game, which I thought I could do, and then you could add your $0.02 because you go back to it a little bit. I did a little bit, yes. Then I [01:03:00] have two elephants in the room that I want to talk about.

Brad: Okay, that sounds good.

Carlos: Because those are the things that are just on the. Internet right now? A lot. Yes. And then I have miscellaneous.

Brad: Okay, let’s just get to it, Carlos. So I’ll chip in after you get done here. But since you put a lot more time in and you didn’t, I did not roll credits. I will never roll credits on this game. But you did. So tell us, according to your agenda here, now that you’ve rolled credits you’ve taken in the experience, you’ve spent some time with it. Overall feelings. Where are you landing on this?

Carlos: Well, I’ll say my score to the end, Yes. But it’s a pretty good fallout four type game with procedural generation that has no place in this game. Like it doesn’t need to be there. And I didn’t get any benefit out of it and I don’t like it. And so if this was just more like a Skyrim game where it was one planet or even 3 or 4 planets that were all handcrafted, I would have fucking loved it. Like I would have been like, this is almost, I don’t know, but Game of the year, who knows? But like the [01:04:00] world of Skyrim, the world of Fallout four, these worlds were crafted. They knew their cities. They knew their little, you know, sections that you go into and undergrounds. And this one has those for sure. And I feel like of a whole solar system that we’re in our universe. Like there’s a handful of them, right? Yeah. So if you have a handful of these, like, really good crafted areas that you’re spending a lot of time in for, you know, missions and stuff, then why do you have all those other planets with procedural generation resource grinding? You know, I don’t it didn’t add anything to it.

Brad: So that must be where the 80 hours comes from.

Carlos: Nice. Well, the oh, by the way, you can scan all the planets, too, which again, is a no man’s sky thing, but for this game doesn’t seem to gel in the same way.

Brad: I had no idea why you’d want to do that.

Carlos: Because you get information. You get you experience points. There’s another there’s like a meta game there. But again, it doesn’t seem fun to me because the well, I’ll save that for the procedural generation talk. But the overall takeaway is it’s a pretty good fun like I said [01:05:00] fallout type game sci fi. And because I played it melee I can always have fun with melee and I just basically went through the whole game and I think I told you this, but I never picked up a gun once in the 26 hours.

Brad: Of the time. Would you act? Most of.

Carlos: The time I used one knife and then I upgraded to the better knife, which is like a you know, there’s legendary gear and stuff.

Brad: In this game.

Carlos: Yeah. So it was it was a knife that did a bunch of things like did more damage as it did damage. Sure. Which is badass. And so that knife was my knife for the 26 hours. Once I got it early on, that was it. And I don’t know if you want to feel like that game that makes the game like cornier or not as cool that I could beat the whole game with a knife on normal, by the way. Just normal. I didn’t put it on like easy or something and that’s what I did. So it was fun to me to kind of do that. Like we’ve talked about on this show before, like, I like doing that type of game. First person kill things with Melee. [01:06:00] Yeah. And get XP and that’s what I did.

Brad: I think that’s to its credit that it let you play the way you wanted to play and you got fun out of it. You were able to do melee like I know that you like. And so I think that’s that’s ultimately a good thing.

Carlos: It is. But as you see some of the clips coming out when we’ll start putting some up on TikTok like it’s still janky, right? Like so yes, it got I got what I wanted out of it, but it looks kind of crazy, you know, at times. And it looks very Bethesda. So it’s kind of every single thing I say tonight is a double edged sword. Right, Right, right. Or a double edged knife. In this case.

Brad: A double edged knife. Yeah.

Carlos: Wait, that’s the name of this.

Brad: Double edged knife.

Carlos: Could be if we have a name.

Brad: Yeah, if we have a name. Yeah. Okay. So that’s your overall takeaway? It’s a pretty good.

Carlos: I know. Did I say anything just now? I don’t know.

Brad: I mean, yeah, I mean, my. My sense of it was you had an okay time considering it to be kind of a fallout four ish game, and you got to use a knife and you always liked that. So then that’s that was your takeaway. That’s that to me doesn’t sound like a giant home run for Microsoft or [01:07:00] Bethesda, you know what I’m saying?

Carlos: It’s just, you know, like the NPC stuff was, you know, very they’re using the creation engine. So it’s very like robotic, right? And it didn’t immerse me. It didn’t like, you know, the last of us or another game doesn’t have to be PlayStation. It could be Xbox or whatever, just another game that like immerses you fully because the story or the way that it looks this, that’s not what this does. It’s like it’s a video game. You can almost tell like it’s like a it’s a video game about space and you kill things. You do side missions and that’s fine enough.

Brad: I guess. Yeah. So let me give you my my give me yours. Yeah. Basically it’s tough because I apologize in advance, folks, if I repeat myself because like I said, the last time we talked about this was two weeks ago. So I’m kind of trying to remember what I said two weeks ago. But basically I went back to it tonight. I didn’t want to I put like, I think five hours in the first time. Then we recorded last time the first chunk of this episode, and I was good. I was done that that was more than I wanted to see. I was not getting any [01:08:00] of the right vibes. I was not getting the sense that if I kept. Playing something cool would happen. I was not interested in the story. I was not interested in the mechanics. It was just like everything about this game was kind of turning me off and I was like ready to bounce. So came back to it today, put another hour in and I’m like, It was draining my will to live. The more I played this game, I just like my eyes were getting dark. I was slumped over my chair. My kid came over. He asked me if I was okay, if I needed some orange juice to get my blood sugar up or something. I’m like, No, no, I’m fine. It’s just starfield, It’s okay. And so it’s just. It’s just starfield, dude, I just. This game is exactly like you said. It’s so videogamey. It doesn’t have any of the elements that I need in order for me to play a big game like this.

Brad: I did not feel attached to my character. I did not feel attached to the other people that I met. I did not feel immersed in the world and I felt just really held back by all of the jankiness of this game. I mean, like we said earlier, this is like click on menu, the game where you’re just like menu, menu, menu, the nav. I mean, [01:09:00] I still have no idea why they bothered to even put spaceships into it. You can just fast travel anywhere and even if you try to fly it, it’s not a seamless experience. It’s not like no man’s Sky where it’s like you start at your base, you literally walk to your ship, you climb in the cockpit, you close the cockpit, you turn on the boosters, you boost up. You’re in the lower atmosphere right above the ground, and you can skim on the ground if you want to. And then you higher and higher, you go up, you go out of the atmosphere and then you’re in space and you warp. Like it’s this continuous experience. And when you come back to someplace like you are in that world because you were like landing on that ship, you’re like landing on that that landing pad, you’re going into the space station like you’re it all makes sense. Like it’s this giant contiguous world. And here it’s just like menu, menu, menu. Here’s a menu. Go over here. Here’s another menu. Go over here. Like you’re just clicking fast.

Brad: Travel over here. Do this thing over here. None of it holds together like it doesn’t really. In my head, it doesn’t feel like a place. It doesn’t feel like I’m going on an adventure. It feels like I’m just clicking a bunch of buttons for nothing. And it feels like a lot of busywork and chaff and stuff that I shouldn’t even be doing in the first place. A lot of like [01:10:00] go here for not really any real significant reason and then go back over here and go back over here again. A lot of travel and menu clicking for no real benefit. Like ultimately when you do like a lot of travel in No Man’s Sky, it like really helps to give you the feeling of like the vastness of where you are or, or even when you’re on a planet like you can feel like where you’re at. Oh, this place is pretty far from my home base. I better get back. Or like, Oh, here’s this unexplored place that I’ve never been to and it’s really far from this other place, okay? Like, I kind of know where I’m at, and you got to get a sense of your being on the adventure. But here it’s just like I’m in a dirt patch and I’m gonna click this button. Now I’m in the city and then click this button. Now I’m back on my ship and I’m just kind of doing this stuff and it just I don’t know why they even bothered with the spaceship. Dude, I really don’t.

Carlos: To that point, Like when you’re talking about the menus, a lot of this game, especially early on, they make you do a lot of, like you said, like for no reason go to a place. Yeah. But then like you said, you’re in space and then you’re on a planet, right? And you wouldn’t think that would be too bad on paper. But even in space, I don’t [01:11:00] feel like the speed does anything because there’s like, the way you do speed in here, by the way, is also cumbersome. This wasn’t in my miscellaneous, but like you hit like the speed up and down on like how much resource power you want to give it, like.

Brad: On the little energy board.

Carlos: On your ship energy board, and then you can push forward and go faster and slower. But all of it doesn’t feel like any velocity. Like I never felt like I was going fast. Maybe if I’m in a debris or like a asteroid belt or something, you know, maybe some. But then like to get to the planet, you know, because you don’t get to do that, right? You just like see it in the distance. So to your point, it doesn’t feel like any of it’s there.

Brad: I mean, I would have loved I would have loved if they had just taken a completely different approach with how they handled space. Right. It’s like they wanted you to have the space dogfights, which to me don’t really add a lot to the experience.

Carlos: Oh, I hate them.

Brad: Yeah. So I would love if you were like, you start at your base, you climb inside your ship, you know, it shows you like strapping into the cockpit and then you pull the the gear forward or like your little, you know, your control pad or whatever. And [01:12:00] then if you you have this little panel where you have to allocate energy points, shield missiles, lasers, was interstellar interstellar boost or whatever, you have to like assign the points, right? Like and that was like, okay, I would love if you like, assign the points and like if you kind of like had to fly your ship a little bit, like give yourself boost points and take away missile points, you’re not going to be doing fighting right now. You got to fly. So you’re doing that. And then if you like, flew like if you got somewhere and like adjust your, your, your dials and stuff as you go, like kind of managing the ship, it would give like more of a feeling of like, oh man, I’m flying in space and I’m, I’m going somewhere. And this is kind of like a thing that I’m doing. And then when pirates show up or whatever, you’re like, you’re rushing for the cockpit like, Oh, man, I got to get get rid of those hyperspace points. I got to put them in the missile pod and get the missile activated. And, you know, like it would give you like a sense of being there and doing something, but it just doesn’t feel like that at all. And what you do get is just like a lot of menu clicking and a lot of like time wasted is what it feels like to me. And I really question what they thought. The takeaway of that whole section was the space and the ship and the [01:13:00] warp and the travel. I don’t know what they think the. Players getting from that. Yeah.

Carlos: And I don’t want to bring up no man’s sky like, over and over. It’s like.

Brad: Impossible.

Carlos: Not impossible. Not impossible. Right, Right. But because you did, and this is my last time I’ll ever mention it and starfield together. Because I just remembered. Because you and I played 500 hours of no man’s sky or something. A lot of no man’s sky. Yeah. And to our credit or whatever, we both played it. I think I played it before you, but we both did play it like Uber early when it was like, not anything like it was now, right? Oh, yeah. And I remember playing it. I think it was day one or like pre-order because it’s Carlos and it wasn’t finished. And you know, there was parts that were broken. It was.

Brad: Not good. It was not.

Carlos: Good. And it was it was hard. I remember the very beginning. It was like I was just dying. I caught on fire in the beginning in my cockpit or something. But the point is, even in that broken state, it was miles and miles better than starfield when it comes [01:14:00] to what you just said, the immersiveness, because and again, I know they’re not going for that, but you just brought it up and I was like, there’s no other video game that’s given me that sense of wonderment. Yeah. And there was a reason I stopped because I had played, you know, so many hours of it. But in those initial times of like going to another planet, like you said, and it being so vastly different too, right? Like dark rocks and the rocks were floating and I was like, What the fuck? You know? And it wasn’t a cookie cutter experience. And and it went on forever. And you could walk the whole planet. It just felt like I was there. I really did feel like I was there and I was like, What the fuck is this game? And so, like, just remembering you talk about it. It’s like, man, if that could have been in a Bethesda RPG, that would have been cool.

Brad: Yeah. I mean, and that’s really the thing that gets me about about starfield is like, I just don’t understand what they were going for because, you know, as we said earlier, the team came out and I think it was what’s his name, the who’s the leader of the studio? [01:15:00] Todd Howard. Todd Howard. And he was like, Oh, man, all the team got together. This is the game we were dreaming of. This is the game we wanted to make. And like real talk, dude, it feels like a Fallout four mod is what it feels like. It just feels like you’re making fallout again. Except you slapped some, like, really wonky spaceship stuff onto it. A bunch of fucking menus, and you don’t have any sense of place or immersion. How is this the game that you wanted to make or what do you think you’re doing better here that you didn’t already do? I just I, you know, as I’m sitting playing it, I’m just like the combat is kind of fast. And but that kind of clashes with like the hoovering of like a fallout and like, you’re not wandering around like you’re not managing your survival. You’re just going from place to place and you’re kind of like doing quickie story beats that don’t really mean a lot because you don’t have a lot of investment in it. It’s just and like the encumbrance and stuff, like all these little bits. Like we said last time, the experience feels so Frankensteined together from pieces that don’t really fit, and I ultimately don’t understand what the vision was for this game. It comes off like Fallout with some space junk bolted on to it.

Carlos: Yeah, and I think that’s important about the like, Frankenstein thing we mentioned last time, which is which just an hour ago or something. Is that. That’s what it is. It’s like this. Desperate, desperate, desperate. Desperate. Yeah. Yeah. Like. Like ideas, like all put together and they don’t work, really. And also things like, you know, you said encumbrance the stuff I’m going to get to in the miscellaneous section. There’s just so many little deaths from a thousand cuts that while you’re trying to have a good time and do a mission or whatever, these things are annoying. Like the simple fact of when you back out of any menu, generally, any menu, you have to either hold the button down, which is insane. Yes. And if you hit it once, it goes to another menu. So you can’t ever just jump back to your character, which is bonkers to me.

Brad: Which is bonkers. Well, let me let me just a quick anecdote. We’re going to be all over the map on this one, folks, but.

Carlos: I don’t think we are. We’re [01:17:00] good. We’re good.

Brad: In the very last time, right before I deleted the game off my console, which is what I did with a smile, I got rid of it and I’m like, Thank God that’s gone. I was doing one of the missions where you’re with, uh, Sam Co. I think you meet that guy and he’s played by the guy, Elias Toufexis, who is the voice of the deus ex guy, whatever that guy’s name is.

Carlos: Is it the cowboy guy?

Brad: Yeah, the cowboy.

Carlos: Yeah.

Brad: So, you know, you get to this town and, like, the thing. Like, it’s like, minor.

Carlos: Spoiler for the first mission, because I know what you’re going to talk about, and I can say some things about it.

Brad: I don’t I don’t think you know what I’m.

Carlos: Going to talk about. Oh, the bank thing.

Brad: No, I’m not talking about. Okay, That was that was dumb. But anyway, um, you you’re you’re supposed to you do this thing, you do this thing, you do this thing, and then you got to go to a place. And I didn’t realize that I must have, like, inadvertently, like, clicked a button or maybe my finger slipped or something and I was like, in the wrong menu. And so I thought it was highlighting where I was supposed to go because the mission was saying, Go talk to this person, which was [01:18:00] the next step in that storyline. But the menu was not saying that the. Then you was like, I don’t know what the menu was doing. So I got lost. And I’m like, Where is this thing I’m supposed to go to? Where am I? I don’t even know where I’m going. And I kept going to the menu and clicking, highlight the mission, show me the path, like chart your course there. And it kept sending me to space and then back to the planet and then space and back to the planet. And I’m like, Oh my God, I’m going to lose my mind. It’s like, I’ve never played a video game before. It’s like, I don’t know how to use menus like what is happening here.

Brad: It is just so discombobulated and scattered. And I finally figured out that the marker was on the wrong thing. And I’m like, okay, fuck this UI, fuck this game, fuck everything about this. I went to the place where I got to go and I mean by that time, dude, I was so frustrated and I was just like this, This shouldn’t be this hard. I’ve played a kajillion games, I’ve played 40 fucking years of video games just like you. We are the old fucking timer dinosaurs of video games. We know how to navigate menus, we know how to navigate RPGs. We know how to navigate quest logs. This game is not doing it right. And I was so frustrated by [01:19:00] getting lost over something I should never have been getting lost by that. When we got to the person that I was supposed to talk to, I was. I was done, dude. I was toasted. I busted out my axe and I started chopping him up because I was like, I don’t want to play this fucking game anymore. I want to kill this NPC. And I started like, hacking him up. Uh, Sam Ko, my partner, vanished. Disappeared. And then the guy, like, crumpled. And you. You couldn’t kill him because you couldn’t kill him.

Carlos: Main character.

Brad: Yeah. And I’m just hacking and hacking. I’m like, Dude, this year, this is what you think of your game and just, Oh, you want to make you bleed. And I just, like, I just couldn’t. I lost it. I lost.

Carlos: It. That’s your ending, okay?

Brad: Yeah. My son needed to take me. Take the control out of my hand. Yeah.

Carlos: Then he got you that orange juice.

Brad: He’s like, Come on, Dad. Here’s the orange juice. He put a little, like, crocheted shawl around my shoulders. He’s like, have a have a sit down, have a sit down. He put a blanket. I’ll put on a cartoon for you. It’s okay. Oh, my goodness. I just. I lost my mind. Dude, I can’t play this game anymore. I just. It is. It is hitting all the wrong.

Carlos: Notes for me. Well, let me just finish and say that I agree with you on that mission thing, because, again, both of us have played every game and [01:20:00] not exaggeration.

Brad: Not an exaggeration.

Carlos: And the way that you have to select the the mission within the mission folder is bullshit. Okay? That’s already bullshit. And I did what you did where I didn’t have the right one selected. And so the menu showed me to go somewhere else. And so I went somewhere else for a very long time. It does that. Yeah, it does that. Why does it do that? So I did that too. That’s bad, man. That’s real bad. And that will definitely come out in the reviews. Um, so okay, let me just address one of the elephants in the room. Yes. Because it sounds like we got a good understanding of how we.

Brad: Wait, wait. What did you think I was going to say about that mission, though, by the way?

Carlos: Oh, so the what mine is, which is a minor spoiler. Minor spoiler. Just on like.

Brad: Two minutes or something.

Carlos: Yeah, there’s a bank and it’s one of the first missions where you have to, like, go, you know, either persuade the person, this is a good, this is a good, um, what is it metaphor for the whole game or something or whatever. Okay, okay. You get to this game and I’m, you know, open minded. I’m like, This is going to be fun. It seems like fallout already, but let’s just keep going. And it’s got, you know, persuasion with like, [01:21:00] what’s it called when you’re trying to do like persuasion checks on.

Brad: You do like your speech check to see if you can talk somebody into doing.

Carlos: Somebody in to do something. Yeah. So it’s like, okay, there’s these robbers in there. They got some people, they’re holding them from ransom. You know, How you going to handle this any way you want? Yes, exactly. Which is absolute bullshit because and I remember hearing people online say, hey, Todd Howard, can we can we, like, you know, be stealth and be a pacifist player? And he was like kind of and again, he was saying kind of he should have just said no, because this game is about killing people. A lot of people like it’s mainly that. And so, you know, as soon as I think I had my knife by then and they were like, we could talk to the person, blah, blah, blah. So I did try to talk for a minute and like, it failed, you know, I was like, and by the way, that persuasion thing I do not like.

Brad: It’s confusing the persuasion engine. It’s pretty confusing.

Carlos: It’s confusing. You’re like, do I pick the green one? Do I go right to the orange one? I don’t know.

Brad: It doesn’t it’s not as clear as they think it is.

Carlos: Yeah. No, no, no. So I failed that and didn’t like it and I was like, okay, I know what you want me to do. [01:22:00] You want me to go and just kill these guys. So I decided to like, kind of do it tricky and go, I’ll pick the door and go through the back. And then, you know, I don’t know if they’re going to, like, have to get in there quickly because they might kill one of the hostage passages, you know, and they literally keep saying that. So the minute I get in, there, it goes video game, video game time because there’s no hostages or they’re like hidden away.

Brad: There’s no hostages.

Carlos: No, they’re in there. But like, it’s not a problem. You know what I mean? They’re not in danger. They’re not in danger at all. It’s like I go in and they go, Bad guy come at you now, you know, And then I just got to kill 15 people. Do they.

Brad: Just, like, rush you.

Carlos: Straight on? Yeah, they just come in, they go, Hey, here he is. And so I kill them all. And then the hostages are sitting there, like, laying down and like, Oh, I’m glad you got us. And then, by the way, after I rescued them in quotes, rescued them. They just stayed there, like most of them just stayed there because they.

Brad: Were pretty comfortable by that point. You know, they made a little home for themselves in the bank while they were hostages.

Carlos: My point is NPC, [01:23:00] you know, behaviors and stuff, it just felt so. Video gaming, and that was like one of the first missions. So it’s like when I did that, I go, Oh, this, that’s what this game is. I got.

Brad: It. Well, you know, I did the same mission and I passed. I beat it by the persuasion, actually.

Carlos: Oh, good job.

Brad: And it was dumb because I’m stranger coming into this town. I don’t know anything about anybody. And the sheriff is like, Go talk to him. Stranger. Because reasons, right? Like there in reality, there’s no way they would ever send any like Rando to go up and talk to people. And I failed the first check and I just kept kind of pushing things. And I eventually got him to to go along. But it was just like really unsatisfying. There wasn’t like a lot of art to it, and I just walked away feeling like that was super videogamey like, you know, that felt like a very throwaway fallout mission that you would just, like, really quickly do and move on and forget about instantly, which is basically what happened. So yeah.

Carlos: I definitely, definitely even thought that one was going to change and turn it to a different thing than it did, you know, so quickly. Two elephants that are in the room. Yes, the elephants, which are the online kind of conversations. I just want to give my [01:24:00] quick take on each one of them. First one was because of all the, you know, semi leaked stuff, but not very much. A lot of people were talking about the boundaries and how that kind of leaked a little bit early where someone had shown footage of people walking on a planet getting to the end of it in quotes, the end of it, and it’s a, hey, you can’t go any further.

Brad: Like like an invisible wall that you can’t.

Carlos: Walk past literal, invisible wall. You can’t walk past it. Yeah. Got you. I’ve tested this on everywhere. And so in the beginning, people were like, Oh, it’s maybe just a tutorial, you know? And then I’m sitting here playing it going like, No, it’s every planet because, you know, it’s procedurally generated. So I just want to bring it up because everyone was like, you know, losing their mind about the fact that it was even there. Right. And that you can’t just walk around the whole planet. Then other people that were like, you know, defending Xbox was like, why would I want to walk 40 minutes anyhow? You know? Right, right, right. The answer is you’re both wrong. And pony. Sony ponies and Xbox, whatever. Shut up because your little war is stupid and I [01:25:00] hate it. It’s about the game. It’s not about your little, you know, whatever.

Brad: Console beef.

Carlos: Yes. Yeah. That thing is not existent. So you guys are silly. What it’s about is it’s. It’s the procedural generation stuff is dumb because it doesn’t matter that there’s a boundary because it’s not fun in between. Like they’re just plopping down stuff. I went to tons of planets, by the way. They’re just plopping down stuff like a random spaceship, a random outpost, a random thing. And then there might be an encounter, there might be NPCs, there might be dialogue, which is kind of cool, I guess. But all of it feels like a video game, you know? It’s just like, Oh, that’s just that new thing I have to do. And correct me if I’m wrong, you know, 80 hours in, 100 hours in, there’s maybe some really cool missions in there. Fine. But I’m just bringing up the elephant in the room because that whole discussion everybody had online was not the discussion to have. Like the boundary didn’t matter because it’s about the content on the planet that matters.

Brad: I mean, I totally agree, dude. And this kind of reminds me of I think it was Skyrim that had like the Radiant Quest [01:26:00] Generation. Is that does that sound right to you?

Carlos: That sounds right, yeah.

Brad: Where they were like, Oh, you can do infinite quests because the AI will just generate these things. And like when you actually did them, it was like, you know, there was a couple different dungeons and you just kind of went into them and you’d get like a random doodad at the end. And it was like, it was like a thing that you could do if you have excess lifespan and you needed to like fill it with something. Yeah, but like it wasn’t like quality content. I mean, after you did a couple of them, you’re like, okay, I’m just doing the same thing over and over. This is not really great. I don’t really see the need for random generation in a game like this. I would have I mean, again, not to, you know, I guess I’m being the the couch developer or backseat developer or whatever, but it’s like I would have, like you said, I would have rather had two or 3 or 4 handcrafted planets completely full of like really good stuff, like really, you know, like I’m thinking like, like Fallout New Vegas stuff where there was random shit that happened. Like, you would get, like, emergent, like, like a deathclaw would come and it would meet one of those yaoguai [01:27:00] bears or whatever accidentally, and you’d be like over the hill going, Oh shit, they’re going to fight. And then they do like, that’s cool. Like, I like that.

Brad: But like, it’s not a randomly generated world. Like they handcrafted the world, so there’s like interesting places to go and like, you’d find a town and then there’s like, Oh, man, Elvis impersonators. That’s weird. Yeah. Or like, you know, you go over here, you’d be like, Oh, I got to, like, reunite these Romeo and Juliet people. That’s really fun. And, oh, there’s a big dinosaur like. Like wherever you go. Like, there would be like, a couple moments that they knew you would find that are cool moments. And it felt like anything that you did in the middle of going between those moments was kind of like the random discovery, and that was no big deal. But you were going from point to point to point, and those were all crafted like, I don’t see the value in Here’s an engine which will generate infinite quests that are all like really low calorie, low, low quality quests because gamers want to just like spend their whole life playing this one game like that. That to me is like kind of a failed idea. And I think that now that we’ve seen this a couple times, at least two times from Bethesda and more from other developers, I just never see it really [01:28:00] working out. I can’t think of one example. Where spontaneous generation is really the shit and it’s so great and it’s so fun. I can’t think of a single example. Well, let.

Carlos: Me say this one thing. So I’m specifically talking about the actual planet itself, right? And just getting it out there that the conversation about the invisible boundaries and stuff isn’t matter. It’s really about the the huge landmass that’s kind of not filled in. Right. But to your point, like there are a couple things that have happened in my playthrough that I won’t spoil that are like the thing that you just said, right?

Brad: Some immersion stuff.

Carlos: Happening. Yeah. And then that was cool. But the problem is I walked a long way to find it, you know what I mean? Yeah.

Brad: Pretty infrequent.

Carlos: Happening. So what you said is much more of a better experience because then I’m in this place that is handcrafted and those emergent things are happening again. It goes back to I would have liked this game to be three planets, like maybe four planets at the most. Still could do the last act, which I won’t spoil. You could do that anywhere. You know, you could do a kind of final story beat anywhere, right? And so [01:29:00] 3 or 4 planets fully handcrafted. That’s my opinion. But whatever. That’s that elephant.

Brad: That’s the one elephant in room number one.

Carlos: Elephant number two. Oh, is this really an elephant or did I just make up this elephant?

Brad: I don’t know. You tell me.

Carlos: Space battles. Um. Oh, I think it was because I just heard so many people pre the game coming out excited about them and kind of like toting like, Oh, this is why it’s going to be even a special, more special game because it’s not only the Skyrim stuff, but it’s like you can go to space and, you know, build up your ship and all that stuff. The building of the ships is confusing as fuck. I want to make sure hit that fuck real good. Yes, you.

Brad: Can hit it pretty good. That was a good one. Good.

Carlos: Thank you. It’s fucked up. It’s like fucked up, especially on controller. Maybe it’s better on PC and I know. I know you didn’t do any of it, I’m guessing. No, I.

Brad: Did the combat, but I didn’t bother with, like, resources or building up anything. There was no. There was no point.

Carlos: To it for me. It’s hard, okay? It’s really difficult. [01:30:00] There’s a there’s a story mission where you have to have a certain kind of like drive. I, like got just that drive and like one new ship, you know, just to do the check off the check box. But I never wanted to do the other stuff. And so like that and the battle, the space combat to me is like bad. Like I was definitely getting lost a lot. I couldn’t find the other people. And to shoot them, there’s a way that you can actually bug it out where you go far enough away from the guys who are shooting at you and they won’t find you forever.

Brad: Oh, really? They’re not. They’re not. They don’t. They’re not able to keep up with you.

Carlos: No, no, no. If you go fast enough and you go close enough to the planet but not on it. Brad And just kind of a cover near the planet, which is what I did because I was like losing health. They just stay out there. They’re like, I wonder where he is. I don’t know. Let’s go fly around.

Brad: It’s really dark in space. Maybe they couldn’t see you.

Carlos: They couldn’t see me or hear me scream.

Brad: That’s. That’s right. No one can hear you scream in space.

Carlos: So, yeah, that was. I don’t think that’s terrible. I guess it isn’t really [01:31:00] an elephant in the room, but it’s just like a lot of people are bringing it up. And I think once they start playing it, they’ll be like, I don’t. I don’t know about this.

Brad: It just didn’t. Yeah, it held no weight for me because I wasn’t tied to my ship. I didn’t feel immersed in the ship. It didn’t feel like it had any real value other than to say that you fought somebody in space. Like it just it was just like more menus to click through and I got through them as quickly as possible because I just didn’t really enjoy that aspect of it. Yeah.

Carlos: Oh, I will say this is a pick me up elephant, an Asterix elephant is that a lot of people were talking about how you could play the game as how you want, you know, that kind of bullshit. And by the way, each I’ve realized each one of these we’ve done, I get quieter as we go. I did notice.

Brad: Your voice was getting softer.

Carlos: It’s because I’m tired. This game. This game makes me tired.

Brad: It wears you out. This game does wear you out.

Carlos: Although the first hour I think I talked quieter because I was like. Like, didn’t know if we could say anything. I was, like, scared, you know.

Brad: Being quiet in case Bethesda is listening.

Carlos: Yeah, they were listening. No, it’s because, [01:32:00] you know, they say you can play it like you want. I played it with Melee. That’s one difference. But I did try the guns like now a little bit later just after and I don’t like them. But the point is the character creation is not good like and it’s an RPG that you’re going to spend 100, 200 hours or whatever you’re supposed to spend in it. I don’t even feel any attachment to my character because I didn’t feel like I made the character I wanted to make same.

Brad: I was not attached to my character either. I struggled to make anybody that I was happy with and I’m like, Whatever, right? Just pick anybody and move on.

Carlos: It doesn’t matter, I guess. Yeah, that’s just a mini elephant because it’s like they really do hammer that home that like, you could be whoever you want and it’s going to be your side, your backstory and all that stuff anyway.

Brad: All right, So let’s let’s put the elephants back in the pen for a minute, okay? Okay. So I feel like at this point in our star field careers, we’re like, I don’t know, an hour and a half. If you take into account the the episode that people just listened to that we did two weeks ago, plus what we’re talking about now, where we’re like an hour and a half of basically just like blowing the game up. So in the spirit of fairness. [01:33:00] Take a couple of things that you thought were good or that you liked about this.

Carlos: Tell me something that’s a good pitch.

Brad: Tell me something positive. Let’s change it up a little bit.

Carlos: Let’s change it up. It was a lot of Negative Fest.

Brad: Yeah. So let’s something.

Carlos: Happy. It comes out, by the way, of like because I do love Bethesda, I really do. And I played almost. Yeah, I played every single game that they ever made, including the older ones. And so, you know, you just want a lot. And if it doesn’t hit your expectations, hopes.

Brad: And expectations.

Carlos: It just hurts, that’s all. Yeah. I’m more sad than mad.

Brad: Yes. I’m not mad. I’m just disappointed.

Carlos: Yeah, that’s right. Well, like I said earlier, I could probably play a Bethesda melee game, kill things, get XP, pick up every piece of loot ever. Forever. Like that is one of my favorite things to do in the world. That’s why I probably, unlike you, will still play this game that we’re talking about. If that’s not a kudos I don’t know what is.

Brad: That’s a that’s a pretty big kudos is the fact that you’re going to keep playing this game. That’s a that’s a win With all.

Carlos: The cons it [01:34:00] can still get a Bethesda Ness out of it. Okay.

Brad: For a second, I thought you were going to say Bethesda Boner. That would have been pretty funny. Jeez.

Carlos: That’s not the that’s not the name of the show.

Brad: I swear. I thought that’s what you were going to go for. Oh, nice.

Carlos: That’s. I think that been smarter than what I came up with. Um, the other positive is the. The ending of the game, the final acts, which.

Brad: We’re not going to spoil.

Carlos: No, I’m just saying. And this is actually good, positive and PR would love to hear this. Yes. Like I will tell friends when, you know, I talk to them finally about it is that that is almost worth the price of admission to me. I think the.

Brad: Ending, the ending.

Carlos: Sequence well, the ending, not just sequence, the end of, you know, the chunk. You know what they call the end chunk.

Brad: Yes. Yes. The final act.

Carlos: It’s got some real cool stuff. I mean, real cool. That’s all I got. That’s what I’ve heard. That’s what I’ve heard. So that’s a pretty big kudos. Okay, excellent. The other one is, um. Oh, I was going to say. No, Nobody [01:35:00] I care about in the world was going to say NPCs are companions, but I don’t care for any of them. Yeah. Oh, I think I remember I told you when and I’m going to a con. But when we started the game the first few hours, I got to the Explorers Club or whatever it is. Constellation Club? Yes.

Brad: The. The rich English people exploring the world. Yeah. And colonizers. Yeah, the.

Carlos: Colonizers. I got to and I go, Brad, I’m going to kill all of these people.

Brad: Yes, I remember that.

Carlos: And then I realized you can’t because they’re all main companions. Although I tried.

Brad: Just. I did too. I did too. Nice.

Carlos: They just go down for a minute and get upset.

Brad: Like the message just comes up and they’re like, They don’t like that. I’m like, Yeah, they.

Carlos: Don’t like being killed.

Brad: Stabbed you like 50 times. I bet you don’t like that. But you still didn’t die. And that’s what I don’t like is you didn’t die.

Carlos: Yeah. And the game does like, do the lottos in between states where it’s like. Like you said, if you do some weird shit and your companions with you, they might just leave.

Brad: Yeah, they bounce. Yeah, they do.

Carlos: I don’t know. There’s some positives. I think there.

Brad: Yeah, that’s good. Excellent.

Carlos: Okay, [01:36:00] here’s my miscellaneous which a positive might pop out of and then we can end. Okay. Is Well this is a con ran out of storage a lot I think you mentioned that.

Brad: Yeah this is bananas, dude. Just as a side note, quick side note, I’m playing Black Sky lands on Xbox, which is an indie top down 2D game where you’re like a sky pirate and you have a ship and you know what? You do have limited space on your ship. It depends on which ship you have. Sometimes you’ve got like 18 slots, sometimes it’s 32. You can expand it, whatever, but it’s very easy to get back to base. It takes you like a second to get back to your base, and your base has motherfucking infinite goddamn storage. You can store as much as you want and it doesn’t matter. And there’s no encumbrance. And you know what? I think it’s a better game for it.

Carlos: It is. I mean, especially these types of games. It’s just it’s so counterintuitive. They want you to pick up stuff, you know what I mean?

Brad: And then they punish you for picking up stuff, literally because you start losing life, because you get CO2 buildup, because you’re carrying too much shit. Well, that’s the other asterix.

Carlos: That thing has [01:37:00] got to go. That’s got a meter patch. Yeah. Yeah. Literally. You’re building a game that you want people to live in for hundreds of hours. You want them to explore. And here’s the. This is bonkers, Brad. How is this real? How is this real? How are we in this reality where you make a procedurally generated planet that you have to run around a lot, but it hurts you to run? Yeah, that should be the first thing that anybody talks about with this game. That’s the most broken thing.

Brad: No, that is. I agree that you can’t get in.

Carlos: Your health gets hurt now you just ran out of breath. You hurt yourself.

Brad: Yeah. You don’t even just, like, stop and like, have to catch your breath for a minute, but like, you literally are killing yourself, killing with CO2. So just side note again, sorry to go negative, but I have to say this. This game has the worst jetpack I think I’ve seen in years. It is the shittiest, most pathetic, like worthless jetpack. I it’s an insult to me.

Carlos: And you can only use it sometimes too.

Brad: It made me so angry how weak it was. It’s just like basically just giving [01:38:00] you like a very, very, very, very weak, like little double jump or if you get really what the purpose of it is. If you get hung up on environment, you can just boost your way off the environment. Like if you get hung up on a shelf or a cart or something like that and you’re stuck, you boost out of it. That’s what it’s for. It’s not really like a jetpack where you can fly and get on top of stuff. And I couldn’t get on top of a single fucking building. I’m like, I want to get on the roof of this thing. Nope, your jetpack does not do that. That is not what this jetpack is.

Carlos: Wait a minute. So this might be the weirdest conversation I thought I would have ever. I don’t think I’ve ever used a jetpack.

Brad: In a game.

Carlos: No, in this game.

Brad: You didn’t use the jetpack.

Carlos: I didn’t know how to use the jetpack, did you?

Brad: You finished the game. You roll credits. That shows you how important the jetpack is in this game. Well, because.

Carlos: The jetpack kicks in when you’re an anti-gravity, like the gravity is gone. And then you can use the little fire firing rockets and go up and down. You know that thing? Yeah, that’s what we’re talking about.

Brad: No, no. Like when you’re just doing regular grav stuff, [01:39:00] if you you have to equip, like, not every backpack has it, but some of the backpacks have jetpacks on them. You get one pretty quickly after you meet the colonizers at the English Gentleman’s Club or whatever, and you get one of those. I’m like, Oh sweet. There’s even skills on the skill tree for it for Jetpacking Oh my goodness. And like you just jump like your pathetic ass little like one foot in the air jump and then it just goes. Move and you just kind of like go up like six more inches or something. It’s it’s really bad. It’s really bad.

Carlos: It has to be obviously super bad that I don’t even like notice I wasn’t. You didn’t even.

Brad: Notice. You didn’t even know you had it.

Carlos: Yeah, well, here’s the other reason, though, because I was doing melee and just physical damage like reduction, that all I did was look for the backpacks. I guess that’s what they are. I just thought they were backpacks, not jet packs. And they had physical damage reduction like armor.

Brad: Oh, yeah. So maybe you were putting on ones that didn’t have a jet pack on it.

Carlos: Wow. I never had a jet pack the whole game.

Brad: That’s great. Well, you better start over.

Carlos: No.

Brad: Well, yeah, new game. New game. Plus with the jet pack, whole new [01:40:00] experience.

Carlos: We’ll see.

Brad: No.

Carlos: So the encumbrance is dumb. The storage running out storage is dumb, especially a game like this. And the CO2 thing is dumb. Those are all negative. A positive? Nope. One more negative. The thumbnails. When you when you load a game. Yes. Have to have a picture. It’s 2023.

Brad: Oh, you mean like in the same file? Yeah. You got to.

Carlos: Know where you where you’re going. Yeah. Like I go to Baldur’s Gate three right after this game, you know, And all of them have images, of course, like to.

Brad: Remind you of what? Where you were, which one it was and stuff.

Carlos: And this game, you could be anywhere. You could be anywhere in the universe. And you don’t get a picture. That’s got to be an upgrade.

Brad: That’s a that’s a weird oversight.

Carlos: Yeah, that’s a patch. That’s got to be for sure. And then the last thing in the miscellaneous when you. Becca, the menus, we already did that one. Um, just the UI, I think we already talked about that, which is.

Brad: Yeah, we went on for quite a while about that in the first hour.

Carlos: Yeah. But to finish that UI thing and the last time I’ll ever say it is the map is garbage. There’s [01:41:00] no local map which is also terrible. Insane. And this a 2023 again these things are just normal mini map. Nope. Like. Like ground map where your are on the planet? Nope, not really. Yeah, it’s just like it’s an illusionary map where, like we said, with Fort Solace, Solace or whatever. Yeah, it’s like kind of you’re here, you know, it’s unexcusable, inexcusable.

Brad: Yeah. And there’s just like little bits like that that feel like overall that this game is just like, rushed and the pieces don’t fit and they don’t have a good, coherent experience. You know, like, I feel like the lack of the map and the lack of immersion and the menus and how the combat is so janky and you’re picking up stuff, but you’re encumbered and then you’ve got like CO2 poisoning, but you’re supposed to walk everywhere. And just like a lot of these things just don’t really make a lot of sense when you put them side by side. And I just it almost feels like they started out one way. They switched horses midstream and they’re kind of just like retconning [01:42:00] a bunch of stuff to make it work. And I just this is not the superstar home run Triple A experience. And I get that. It’s Bethesda. So, you know, Bethesda mysteriously somehow gets a pass by always being more janky than anyone. And yet people still kind of let it go. But even if you take that into account, it just I don’t feel the vision here. I don’t see really what they’re going for. And I’m just very puzzled by the entire Starfield experience. I had a miserable time with it. I couldn’t quit it fast enough and I will never come back to it. But I have to wonder what is this game going to be like in six months or a year? I could imagine they would, you know, take the hacksaw to it and a bunch of Band-Aids and some duct tape and it might be a very different feeling experience in six months. But in the current state right now, I mean, I don’t know how you feel, Carlos. We haven’t gotten to your official score yet. But for me, this game is a hard core miss on basically [01:43:00] every level.

Carlos: Yeah, I was thinking of that in the scope of this kind of good, what place to end it and the scope of just all things Bethesda. Yeah. Um, you know, every other game I’ve like, endured the jankiness because I like the worlds they’re building. I like some of the storytelling. I like some of the there’s positives.

Brad: There’s something to hold on to. Well.

Carlos: We’ve already talked about all the time, but the crafted areas, you know, like there wasn’t the randomness. There was even in four, there was the kind of, you know, was it making stuff kind of part of it, which is I can’t say words. It’s too late. Um, you know, creating houses and all that shit, right? Like, so that was kind of a little bit new element, but it still kept the main missions, the main missions. And I don’t know, this is the very first Bethesda game where I feel like it’s broken in a, in a way that I don’t like. I don’t want to play it. Yeah. Like it’s the other ones were broken and that was fine. But this one is like broken in the weirdest places and it makes playing [01:44:00] it to, to reiterate again just difficult. Like if I’m having a difficult time doing the thing, then it’s not going to be fun. And also, by the way, I know that they’ve done this in Skyrim. Like if you use a skill over and over again, we don’t even talk about skills. It gets better. It seems much more of a passive experience in Skyrim and I just do things and I get better. But this one. Has he this little fucking the mini.

Brad: Challenges.

Carlos: Challenges. Fuck you and your challenge. Especially because they don’t even restart until like you hit the level. I think so. Like when you upgrade, then it like the new challenge starts. So for example is, you know, get hit for 100 damage and then you can upgrade yourself or whatever. Then when you do upgrade yourself, it says, okay, now get hit for like 500 damage.

Brad: But you’ve already been hit for like a thousand in the time. In the time between. Yeah, exactly.

Carlos: So that’s broken again. See, that’s not, that’s not a regular function that works. So that’s my thing is every [01:45:00] other game I’ve seen past all that because it’s just a fun game and I’m not the game’s not fighting me and this game is fighting me at times.

Brad: I mean here’s here’s my take away, right? Is like, I’m not the guy who goes around creating havoc. I mean, I think that’s definitely more your jam, right? But like, I’m the guy who likes I like to meet the NPCs, I like to do the quests. I don’t kill anybody that it doesn’t need to be killed. I never play the evil character and in this game, the only fun I was having was when I was like so frustrated that I was like murdering civilians at random and just running around like an idiot with my knife out and like, that’s not ever how I play a game. Never. I never play games like that to it. Yeah, it’s it’s it’s yes, I think you’re absolutely right.

Carlos: Falling down. You were doing falling down.

Brad: Yes I was Michael Douglas and falling down dude where I’m like, I just want to just get back to I want to get back to work. I want to get out of this traffic. I want to just just do my thing. And I just it was so frustrating on so many levels that, like, I just had to, like, go nuts in the town. And that’s not who I am. Dude, that is 100% never been who I am. [01:46:00] And and that’s who I was this time. That was. That was dark times for me.

Carlos: Yeah. Well, in closing, one other funny thing that happened. It’s kind of a funny thing. So it’s not I guess it’s negative, but is that again, I’m playing it before any patch, right? So it’s just like you said, cyberpunk before the patch. Yeah. This game feels like cyberpunk. I said that last section. It definitely feels like cyberpunk. Um, it might be changed sooner or later, but it, you know, I would see things like the whole city of was it frontier or whatever. Yeah. That little city town or whatever. Right. Like I just walk in, like I got off my spaceship and I just walk into town and everybody freaked out. I don’t know if it was I smelled because I was on the spaceship for a long time, but the entire city ran like at once.

Brad: Ran away from.

Carlos: You? Yeah, well, they just ran it in every direction. But, yeah, they all, like, got the aggro scared flag or something. That happened many times. Not just once. [01:47:00] That happened many times when I came home, I’d be like, Guys, come on, it’s just me. But everybody running havoc, people shooting each other, which is always funny. So that kind of stuff, you know, again, where it could be janky and fun the most of the times I felt it in this game, it was janky and broken. Yeah, because now I’m like, I can’t even talk to certain people because everybody just left, right? Um, there’s there’s more times than I can count on, you know, all of my hands that that kind of stuff happened early on. But okay, let’s just do a score.

Brad: Long story short, I think my experience with this game pretty negative. You were able to find more fun than I was and.

Carlos: Be and enjoy the ending.

Brad: Yeah, and you did so. But I think regardless of all that, I think the bottom line here is that at least at launch, who knows, in six months or a year, but at least at launch, I don’t think either one of us feels like this is the game that we were expecting. And I don’t feel like this is going to be the system seller or the home run that Microsoft or [01:48:00] Bethesda wanted. And it stings even doubly so after Redfall, which was the most recent, you know, huge embarrassment for Microsoft. So I think they really needed a win in the clutch. And I do not feel this is it.

Carlos: Yeah. And to reiterate again, anybody who’s like listening to us or having discussions online about this game, just my PSA is that like, don’t fight each other over Xbox versus PlayStation. It literally is not about that. It’s about game developers and making games. And that’s all it’s about. And either you make a good game or you don’t. And sometimes it’s beyond your control. You know, pandemic messed up a lot of people. There was also developer stuff where people leave and come back. I understand I’ve been in development houses and seen the mayhem, you know, in there, just like trying to make a movie. It’s really hard. I’m not saying why, but I’m just saying like, don’t make it Xbox versus PlayStation. This is. Sure, sure. This is definitely [01:49:00] Microsoft management. You know, that could be called into question. But when it comes to like this specific game, it’s just Bethesda didn’t hit their goal. You know? Exactly. And Microsoft did say that also about Redfall. They were like, hey, it wasn’t us. But at the same time, they you know, they should have responsibility.

Brad: For their manager. They had some responsibility for sure. Okay. So all that aside. Yes. All that aside, Carlos, you played the game. You rolled. Credits. You spent a heck of a lot of time with it here at the launch, the inaugural event of starfield hitting the public. What do you give in terms of a score? What do you rate? Starfield, my friend.

Carlos: Do you want to guess or do you want me to just tell you?

Brad: Just tell. You better just tell me.

Carlos: Yeah. I feel like you would guess low.

Brad: I was going to guess really low, but go ahead.

Carlos: I think my TL;DR take is that Starfield is a pretty good time. It’s basically Fallout 4 in space with some sci-fi and some procedural generation.

Brad: And.

Carlos: And it gets a seven out of ten.

Brad: What? Oh, my God. That’s way too high, dude. Really? Yeah. What? I mean, you. You can get whatever score you want. Well, you’ve got to go before way lower than that, dude.

Carlos: Because I think, I think okay here’s the thing. I think I could maybe go down to 6 or 6.5, but like, and you have talked me down before, but the reason I say seven is because that final act is really fucking special. I’m really serious about that. Like, I got a little chills. Okay, sure. Sure. That does. I mean, that’s a lot to be said. I could watch an independent film. Sure. And if it was only an hour long and it gave me those chills, I could rate it eight. You know what I mean? Sure.

Brad: But you put in like 25 or 30 hours and you only had a good time at the very, very end of it.

Carlos: And no, that’s not true. I told you I had a good time killing people, getting experience points and picking up all the loot. So. So that.

Brad: Too. Okay, so. So [01:51:00] that’s an average activity in an average game. Picking up, loot a jillion games.

Carlos: That’s why this feels like a seven out of ten is an average game. It feels like 6 or 7 out of ten. Yeah.

Brad: Oh, that’s totally fine. I respect your I respect.

Carlos: Your calling it an average game.

Brad: That is totally fine. I think the disconnect for me is having been at Gamecritics.com for so long, for us, an average is five. Five is exactly the middle of the road. And so a seven to me is like is better than average.

Carlos: Like, okay, you know what? You’re right. I’m just again, it’s me just trying to figure out.

Brad: I mean, I’m not trying to sway you. I’m just saying where I’m coming.

Carlos: From is like, I’m telling you what I want to do. But I haven’t scored numbers in a long time, so I’m saying it is average to me. Like, which is actually hurtful. Really? Yeah. So but it’s a little bit above average because the ending is so cool and I probably will still play it, which means it has to be something to me.

Brad: And that to me seems like like a six.

Carlos: That’s like six. Okay, let’s do this. We’re gonna split the difference. It’s a six split. The difference.

Brad: 6.5, 6.5. There you go. Official SVG game score. I [01:52:00] twisted his arm, talked him down.

Carlos: 6.5, though. That’s. I feel confident with that.

Brad: That’s a small twist. It wasn’t much of a twist. I’m weak. All right. There it is. It was a small twist of the arm. 6.5. So video games, official score and the end of our starfield journey. I know, Carlos, you’re still going to play it again. I’ve already deleted it from my hard drive. I’m never coming back to this game unless they do like a huge overhaul. This game is just not for me. But I am very curious to see what people make of this game. The embargo drops in about 48 hours. I am very curious to hear perceptions and and thoughts. And it’s very curious too, because a lot of people did not get code. So I am very fortunate that we got code. I’m glad that we were on the list of people to play this game. Unfortunately, it wasn’t better, but in 48 hours we will see what the world thinks of starfield. Well.

Carlos: I’m going to say two things before we close. One, remember, this is dropping and it is out.

Brad: Yeah, it will be out by the. Oh, that’s true. Yeah. For the people who in the loop in the time loop.

Carlos: And then two, [01:53:00] I am actually super grateful to have gotten to play the game early because it felt very special. Yes. Like I think I remember texting you going like we are the one of the only people on the planet playing this. Yes, that is super exciting to me and I will keep wanting to do that. So anybody who ever wants to send me slash US codes, it just feels really special to be able to do it. So even if I hate or love your game, I still love trying things, you know, early. So that’s fun to me.

Brad: Yeah. All right. There we go, folks. That’s it. Thanks for joining us on this special two parter. Although it’s really just kind of a single part launch day episode. And we will be back this weekend for our normal episode with other games. I’m not going to talk about Starfield. I don’t think you probably will either, but we. Are you coming back? No, you’re not here this weekend. I’m just.

Carlos: I’m soloing. No, no. I think I’m coming back because I might talk about Starfield again.

Brad: Oh, my God. Okay, well, whatever it is, we’re having another episode, regular episode this weekend. Not a chit chatty episode like this one. And we will see you then.

Carlos: See [01:54:00] you then. That seems weird.

Brad: It is weird.

So Videogames Official Score: 6.5/10

Developer: Bethesda

Publisher: Bethesda

Code Source: Publisher

Platform Reviewed: Xbox X

ESRB Rating: M – Blood, Strong Language, Suggestive Themes, Use of Drugs, Violence

Colorblind Modes: There are no colorblind modes.

Subtitles: All dialogue is subtitled. Menus can have font sizes adjusted.

HIGH Great sidequests and random events

LOW The story is underwhelming.

WTF Why won’t it end already?

Space combat simulators aren’t as a popular a breed today as they were in the late ’90s. Yet, every now and then a good one hits digital shelves and reminds us that this genre still has life left in it. Everspace 2 is the latest example.

Everspace 2 is the sequel to roguelike space shooter Everspace, with some core changes. The roguelike elements from the first are replaced with a focus on looter-shooter mechanisms that require the player to frequently collect items and weapons from defeated enemies in order to upgrade their ship. Players can engage in action-packed space combat in first-person, third-person and cabin view, explore the galaxy, help different factions and groups with their quests and uncover the mysteries of an ancient alien civilization.

The adventure tells the story of the protagonist, Adam, as he’s trying to lay low and live a normal life in the De-Militarized Zone (DMZ) as a miner, but things take a wrong turn and his cover is blown. With authorities after him and a friend in dire medical straits, he tries to set things right. Or perhaps I should say that Everspace 2 attempts to tell this story, but fails dramatically.

While the initial build-up goes well, it turns into a long sequence of MacGuffins (such as powering up the base where Adam’s hiding out in order to access the map) which is then used to find medicine to cure the friend, and then Adam starts doing chores for multiple NPCs in order to enlist their help in the search for a hidden treasure. This stuff is too shallow to be stretched out for the thirty-three hours I put in!

Not only did the story fail to carry me for the length of the campaign, even after that extended playtime, I had not leveled up enough to complete the final mission by the time I got there. The amount of grind required is truly exhausting, and I even had to lower the difficulty for the final battle in order to roll credits..

So, about that grind. As mentioned, Everspace 2 is a looter-shooter, only set in space. Ship weapons and items such as shield generators can be looted (or purchased) and upgraded the same way armor and accessories would be in most loot-focused RPGs like Diablo. Unfortunately, Everspace 2 allows leveling up each item and weapon only once, which is why players must constantly look for new gear in order to keep up with the increasing difficulty of enemies — it’s impossible to settle on the perfect loadout and simply upgrade it until the end of the campaign.

While looting, players will notice that the world of Everspace 2 is huge and well-populated. There are seven solar systems, each containing multiple planets and points of interest. Players can travel between the systems using jump gates and travel between planets in hyper-speed mode. After entering the vicinity of a planet or a point of interest, they can use full ship functions such as weapons and close-range maneuvers.

I’m happy to report that despite the apparent emptiness of space, there are tons of random events such as rescuing ships from minefields or defeating space pirates that pop up during hyper-speed travel sessions.

These side missions are actually quite memorable! Not just repetitive combat scenarios, some are puzzles that need to be solved, some are fetchquests, and others are rescue missions or even drone-controlling minigames. The amount of hard work put towards sidequest design is perfectly evident and it pays off — and that goes double for sidequests with compelling stories, like helping a group of miners find their own colony and free themselves from corporate exploitation.

While Everspace 2’s main story is a flop, the side missions are awesome and make traveling from point to point much less tedious, and especially when one considers that the instant fast-travel system is introduced far too late (plus, it requires grinding for resources to activate!)

While the travel can sometimes be annoying despite the encounters that help keep it fresh, another issue while zipping around the galaxy is the frequency of loading screens. Every time the player enters and exits hyper-speed, the game goes to a loading screen for a few seconds. Considering that Everspace 2 is running on current-gen hardware, this should be a more seamless experience — or at least, loads should be hidden more elegantly.

Everspace 2 is the definition of a mixed bag — it’s great in some areas, but awful in others. For every exciting sidequest or random event, there’s a long, boring main mission to suffer through. For every thrilling combat scenario, there are dozens of loading screens that rip me out of the experience. I wish it held together a bit more consistently because Everspace 2 starts off as a promising adventure, but by the time I reached the end of Adam’s saga, seeing credits felt, ultimately, more like a burden lifted from my shoulders than the epic end to a space odyssey it could have been.  

Score: 7 out of 10

Disclosures: This game is developed and published by ROCKFISH Games. It is currently available on PC, XBO, XBSX/S, PS5 and PS4. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and was reviewed on PC. Approximately 33 hours of play were devoted to the single-player mode, and the game was completed. There are no multiplayer modes.

Parents: This game is rated T by the ESRB, and contains Language, Mild Blood, Mild Suggestive Themes, and Violence.

Colorblind Modes: Colorblind modes are present.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: The game has subtitles and they cannot be resized or altered. There are important audio cues during combat and exploration that are not subtitled, so therefore the game is not fully accessible.

Remappable Controls: Yes, this game’s controls are remappable.

HIGH The first sight of the colony’s oxygen engine.

LOW Trying to figure out how to back eject from an ice climb on a sharp time limit.

WTF The ships still have fuel enough to launch?

The modern media landscape being what it is, I’m never surprised to see a sequel. Often, though, I ask myself whether a particular one is necessary.

Deliver Us the Moon, a perfectly good game about a lonely effort to revive a lunar power station, didn’t seem to be crying out for one, even though the villains’ departure on an obviously-doomed planetary colonization mission was a clear hook. As it happens, the developers took the bait, and the story continues now in Deliver Us Mars.

Much has changed this time around. I felt that Moon suffered from the silence and general disembodiment of its main character, as well as the absence of other individuals to interact with. In  Mars the protagonist is vocal and numerous characters are frequently on screen, albeit somewhat stiff-faced. If anything, the pendulum has swung too far in the other direction, as Mars has a bit too much chatter and far too many flashbacks.

Unfortunately, the expanded dialogue mainly reveals that many of Deliver Us Mars’ characters are completely insufferable, including those clearly intended to be sympathetic. The protagonist, Kat, is perhaps not the worst, but she’s introduced to us as a child willfully destroying a toy just given to her by her father, and this foolhardy self-centeredness ends up driving much of the plot.

Of course in a game in which the Earth is suffering a climate catastrophe, there’s plenty of willful destruction to go around. Deliver Us Mars is a depressing experience, devoid of optimism for either the potential for colonizing space, or our chances of rescuing the Earth.

As the title suggests, the fleeing scientists of the first game decided to make their new home on Mars, a location not clearly superior to the Moon as a potential home. Their efforts have gone both better and worse than expected. The terms of the story and of Kat’s connection to one of the colonists require that the scientists have, without support from Earth, developed functional industry on an alien planet at a pace that beggars belief, which is just one of the plot’s many striking implausibilities.

A game of this kind tends to fill those holes by dotting its levels with bits of lore, and Kat can find holograms and snippets of text. Yet, it feels like there’s frustratingly little to glean even from surroundings that should be data-rich. This leaves gaps in the story, like how anyone came to think that sending four people to bring back three giant, possibly unfueled spaceships was going to work.

As it happens, the task involves a lot of walking. Much time is spent in plodding traversal, occasionally spiced up by floaty drives in a rover that handles like the second coming of Mass Effect’s Mako. Outdoors, Kat has a time limit on her oxygen, although thankfully the devs eschew Moon’s habit of strewing areas with canisters containing ridiculously tiny quantities of oxygen to extend the timer. The limit rarely matters except when Deliver us Mars asks her to do a bit of rock (or ice) climbing.

The climbing approach is fairly standard. Kat has a pick in each hand controlled by a mouse button or trigger. Holding down that control slams the pick in, releasing it allows her to reposition it. It’s all right as far as it goes, but rock-climbing feels like a mechanic in search of a purpose. The developers gamely keep trying to supply one, but however many platforming challenges Kat encounters, each scenario seems modified to suit the climbing, rather than the climbing being a natural solution to any problems the story poses.

There are also puzzles to solve in the form of routing power beams (generally for opening doors) and positional tasks that are used to unlock holograms. I did not find these to be interesting but at least they, unlike the climbing, felt like they belong.

The sense of story being divorced from events is further accentuated in sequences where Kat is asked to perform tasks related to spacecraft launch. As a highly trained astronaut, Kat should know exactly what to do, but as a player I was forced to scan around until I found an active control panel, figure out how to use it, then carry out a request. None of this was particularly difficult (and at least it fit the context) but it accentuated the divide between the character and me, not least when I was asked to slide forward a throttle and did this while Kat’s immobile hand was visible elsewhere onscreen.

Deliver Us Mars demands a sequel, in the sense that it artlessly uses a couple of post-credits scenes to set one up, but there’s nothing here that left me wanting more. Its puzzles are rather dull and the most notable gameplay activity, rock-climbing, feels like it belongs in an entirely different game. I don’t care for most of the characters that survived Deliver Us Mars’ sloppy, facile plot, and its scenario is hopeless and depressing. A third installment may be inevitable, but I’m not eager for that package to arrive.

Rating: 5 out of 10

Disclosures: This game is developed by KeokeN Interactive and published by Frontier Foundry.It is currently available on Windows PC, PS4/5, and XBO/X/S. This copy of the game was obtained via the publisher and reviewed on a home-built Windows X PC equipped with a AMD Ryzen 2700X processor, an ASRock X470 motherboard, 32 GB RAM , and a single GeForce RTX 3080 graphics card using driver 531.29. Approximately 10 hours of play were devoted to the single-player mode, and the game was completed. There are no multiplayer modes.

Parents: According to the ESRB, this game is rated T and contains Mild Blood and Violence. Per the ESRB: “This is an action-adventure game in which players assume the roles of astronauts investigating a lost colony on Mars. From first- and third-person perspectives, players explore spacecrafts and colonies, solve puzzles, and avoid hazards (e.g., electrical bursts). As players progress, they can unlock journal entries depicting holographic images of violence/peril: colonists suffocating to death; characters sucked into space as a result of a terrorist attack. One sequence depicts an exploding space craft, with a woman left on board. Some scenes depict human corpses scattered across facilities, including a man with blood on his face.”

Colorblind Modes: There are no colorblind modes available.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: This game offers subtitles. However, they cannot be altered or resized. During the course of play, there are several noises that are important, for instance a chirp indicating that another quarter of the oxygen tank has been used or an alert from the that a collectible has been identified. Although there are visual counterparts for these noises I noticed that the sounds were more accurate about status and directed me to search areas I had otherwise ignored. I believe the game will be more difficult without the assistance of sound.

Remappable Controls: On PC, this game offers fully remappable controls, but I have seen complaints that this is not true on other platforms. Players on console might want to investgate before a purchase.

HIGH Unique atmosphere and concept.

LOW Controls feel clunky and unresponsive.

WTF The level editor.

TRANSCRIPT:

Hi Everyone! Eugene Sax here with another review from Gamecritics.com.

In a futuristic galaxy conquered by humans, we have stripped uninhabitable worlds of their resources and left them barren and pockmarked with with tunnels, slopes, and valleys. What to do with these otherwise useless planets, one may ask? Create a dangerous, adrenaline filled, rocket-powered sport, of course!

Enter Speedonauts from World Away Games.

In this arcade racer, players will compete to be the fastest in the world while racing from point to point across the abandoned mining planets humans have created. Every speedonaut gets gravity boots to increase momentum down hills and from high jumps, and a jetpack to help climb up hills. Each world will demand perfection from its players, and each level will have players fail, fail, and fail again before making it to the end, and that’s even before competing for the fastest time. Outside of the base game, there’s also a level editor to let players create their own abandoned planets to share with the online community.

From the start Speedonauts showed a lot of promise, but there are a few things that keep it from reaching the heights it’s setting out to achieve.

While the controls are simple, it feels like they’re not quite sharp enough to get the job done. There were times when the game seemed to eat an input at a critical moment, causing an otherwise good run to fail. With the emphasis on speed, precision, and perfecting controls, the controls also felt floaty and loose, oftentimes making precision impossible.

The other thing that gets to me are the levels themselves. If you think of skiing as a comparison, there aren’t a lot of verbs for the player to use unless the developers want to get into something that feels a little more intricate. For example, something combo- or trick-based like a Tony Hawk. The developers don’t want to go that route, but in sticking to a simpler formula, it feels like the level variety loses steam in Speedonauts fairly quickly. Everything is about big jumps, jumping them at just the right time, and trying to land perfectly to get the most speed. As such, many of the levels felt similar to each other, and it doesn’t help that every area has blue-grey earth, white snow and neon green mining lights — there’s nothing distinct in the visuals.

The level editor is a nice addition to the content and using it gave me an appreciation for level design. Interestingly, part of working with the level editor is controlling the camera and how it moves to follow the player manually. While it took a bit of time to get used to how it all worked, it was satisfying to dig into these systems and make my own levels. However, I wish there was some way to ensure that levels are able to be completed before allowing them to be uploaded. While most of the community levels I tried were fine, I did find some that were impossible to complete.

Speedonauts is an entertaining romp though used-up and abandoned planets, but repetitive level design and imprecise controls quickly got me wanting to settle for any medal, just so I could move on and see what the next level had to offer — but ultimately, there wasn’t enough here to keep me in and going for gold.

Speedonauts gets 6.5 desolate planets out of 10.

Disclosures: This game is developed and published by World Away Games.  It is currently available on Steam. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on the PC. Approximately 3 hours of play were devoted to the single-player mode, and the game was completed. There are no multiplayer options.

Parents: This game is not rated by the ESRB. There is no gore, no language, no violence: just racing and fast times. Approved for all ages.

Colorblind Modes: There are no colorblind modes.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: Text is sparse in the game, and text is not resizable. Music is for atmosphere only and not necessary for the game. This game is fully accessible. 

Remappable controls: Controls are not remappable.

HIGH Eventually (I assume?) this will be a fine release.

LOW It sure as s*** ain’t right now.

WTF Putting the level cap to 99 in this game is the definition of arbitrary and capricious.

I don’t think I’ve ever played a game that made me ponder what the hell a written videogame review is even supposed to be in 2023 quite like The Outer Worlds: Spacer’s Choice Edition has.

Before we get into everything awful here, please read Josh Tolentino’s exceptional review for the original Outer Worlds. He does a great job running through what the game is and what makes it fabulous, and I find myself agreeing with so much of what he said. The Outer Worlds is a whip-smart Action-RPG with some truly outstanding writing that lambastes corporate culture while providing an exceptionally well-realized galaxy to explore. The game is directed by Leonard Boyarsky and Tim Cain, the original developers of the Fallout series as well as Fallout: New Vegas, and this definitely feels like something they would make.

My favorite thing about the dialogue and choices is that they’ve created a world that doesn’t define itself with the traditional ideals of “good” or “evil”. Essentially, everyone in The Outer Worlds is kind of a garbage human, so I found it liberating to go from virtuous hero in one scenario to being a sadistic, greedy bastard 30 minutes later because it felt like the right move at the time. I never found myself worrying about a morality arrow pointing in a specific direction due to a choice I made, and that’s a sign of a game where decisions truly matter.

In terms of combat, while it gets relatively monotonous, the shorter-than-average RPG runtime does a lot to make sure it doesn’t overstay its welcome, making The Outer Worlds an exceptional choice for anyone looking to play what is essentially a slightly improved, tighter Bethesda game. This is how I felt about it when it first released in 2019, and that is still the case today.

The Outer Worlds is a great videogame, full stop — but that’s not why people are reading this review.

No, they’re reading this because the recently released Spacer’s Choice Edition (a name so ironic given what that term means that I find it hard to believe Private Division didn’t know what they were implying) is the latest game industry dumpster fire, evidenced by the numerous reports citing its deficiencies, lots of anger, promises of patches, and the obligatory “we’re sorry” tweets from publisher 2K. It’s so bad that original developer Obsidian Entertainment even sent out an apology despite apparently having nothing to do with the new version.

That last bit is important.

While Obsidian actually did a fair bit of enhancing and patching to the original release, this new version of is essentially a whole new product, developed primarily by port-house-of-questionable-quality Virtuos, who are probably best known as the people behind the much-maligned Batman: Return To Arkham remasters.

When purchased (or “upgraded”) it shows up as a separate title, apart from the original release for those who owned it already. That’s because Private Division, the “boutique” publishing subsidiary of 2K, is about to lose the publishing rights to Microsoft, who now own Obsidian.

In other words, this is a cash-grab, and the last chance for 2K to capitalize on an IP before it’s no longer in their control. Also, is it a coincidence that something so clearly undercooked was released in mid-March (right before the end of the fiscal year) instead of being kept in the oven a bit longer? I’m not the first one on the internet to point out how hilarious/dystopian it is that The Outer Worlds has become such a cynical product of corporate apathy, but the projection going on here is something fierce.

So what the heck is the Spacer’s Choice Edition? Well it’s supposed to be an enhanced remaster of the original 2019 release with updated character models, new lighting, a new level cap, and they also threw in the DLC from the first game for good measure. It represents a pseudo “Definitive Edition” for a game that deserves such treatment, but it fails spectacularly at every turn.

I was given a code by the publisher for the Playstation 5 version. Like a lot of late-generation titles from the PS4/Xbox One era, The Outer Worlds did not perform well on then-modern hardware. It fared a little better on the PS4 Pro/Xbox One X, but for the most part they represented a significant step back from the PC version with bad framerates and a substantial nerfing of graphical fidelity.

While the graphics in the console version of Spacer’s Choice are a significant step up in terms of effects, the framerate is absolutely dreadful on PS5. There are two graphical options — quality mode targets 4K and 30FPS, and performance mode (I almost put that one in quotes) targets 1800p-ish resolution and 60FPS. Neither are particularly successful, but the performance mode has quite possibly the worst framerate I have encountered recently. It’s a stuttering mess that only reaches 60FPS while talking to characters in dialogue, and while the quality mode isn’t as ghastly as the performance mode, it certainly isn’t what anyone would classify as consistent.

That’s not the only problem. While the lighting engine has improved, the contrast of the images have been turned up considerably, making things look either incredibly washed-out or oddly neon in certain scenarios. The Outer Worlds was always colorful, but now it simply looks unnatural, and the lighting indoors is incredibly inconsistent. Combine that with the contrast issues, and some environments are borderline impossible to maneuver around because it’s so dark. I will give them credit for touching up and improving character models, but combined with the framerate, not only does it run like crap, I’m tempted to say it may be legitimately nauseating to look at.

Graphics aren’t the only place where Spacer’s Choice Edition is rushed. They’ve included the two DLC packs from the original release, but have done nothing to better integrate them into what should be a definitive edition. Both Peril on Gorgon and Murder on Eridanos are late-game expansions with a suggested minimum level warning, and both are introduced to the player early in the adventure when they won’t be able to properly tackle them. Also, the main menu advertises each DLC pack as if they’re something that can be bought instead of something I already own due to having this version. This is a small issue, but I think it speaks volumes about just how slapped-together this package feels.

The most significant gameplay enhancement comes in the form of a new level cap of 99. With the DLC installed, the original Outer Worlds had a level cap of 36, which doesn’t sound like much, but was perfectly adequate for an RPG that isn’t very long by RPG standards. One can blast through the main quest in about fifteen hours, and doing all the sidequests and DLC may take up to 50-ish hours. I find this a selling point by the way, as The Outer Worlds doesn’t have a lot of fat, nor does it have many quests that come off as filler. In my playthrough, I completed the main quest, did a fair amount of side content including both DLCs, all companion quests, some of the faction quests, and my final level was 46.

While Spacer’s Choice does benefit from being able to level past 36, I don’t see a world in which it has enough meat to justify going to level 99, and any significant benefit to a level cap increase probably peters out around level 50-ish. In The Outer Worlds, the vast majority of XP earned comes completing quests, and there aren’t an overwhelming amount of those to begin with. I suppose someone could spend 40 hours grinding through enemies to get to level 99, but I have no idea why anyone would want to. Spacer’s Choice does nothing to actually change the way leveling up works, nor does it rebalance the late game to accommodate this new cap. This is a poorly-implemented “enhancement” that serves only to be a bullet point on the back of the box.

The Outer Worlds: Spacer’s Choice Edition retails for $59.99, and while the price is a bit eyebrow-raising, the original version has maintained its value on digital storefronts surprisingly well. As such, if Spacer’s Choice actually was a definitive version, I wouldn’t find the price so tasteless. What I do find tasteless is the “upgrade” path, where players who own the original and the DLC can fork over another $10 to play a version that is worse than what they have.

So, at the moment this release is an abject mess. It performs poorly, it’s not a good deal from a cost perspective, it’s actively worse than previously-released versions, the gameplay enhancements are superfluous at best, the first of presumably many patches released didn’t seem to do much, and it comes off as nothing more than a cash grab for a quality game that deserves better. The nicest thing I can say about it is that the load times are slightly improved, but that tiny boost doesn’t make up for what went wrong here.

With the modern ability to patch games, there’s a good chance this review might be rendered completely irrelevant within a few months — that’s one of the perils of writing something in an age where so many experiences are dramatically different months after release. My hope is that someday the Spacer’s Choice Edition will be a great version of The Outer Worlds, but that day ain’t today.

Rating: 4.5 out of 10

Disclosures: This version of the game was originally developed by Obsidian, ported by Virtuos, and published by Private Division (A subsidiary of 2K games). It is currently available on PC, PS5, and XBS/X. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on PS5. Approximately 42 hours of play were devoted to the single-player modes. There are no multiplayer modes. This version of the game was completed.

Parents: According to the ESRB, this game is rated M with descriptors for Strong Language, Intense Violence, and Blood and Gore. The official ESRB description is as follows: “This is an action role-playing game in which players assume the role of a colonist in a space colony. From a first-person perspective, players explore an open-world environment, interact with characters, complete mission objectives, and battle alien creatures. Players use blasters, machine guns, and shotguns to kill creatures and human enemies in frenetic combat; action is highlighted by slow-motion and blood-splatter effects. Players can also shoot and kill civilians, though this may negatively affect players’ progress. Some attacks result in decapitation and dismemberment of creatures; one area depicts a dismembered corpse amid a large bloodstained environment. Cutscenes depict additional acts of violence: a man shooting himself in the head; a character executed off-screen. The words “f**k,” “sh*t,” and “a*shole” are heard throughout the game.“

Colorblind Modes: According to Obsidian, the game was explicitly designed to be playable independent of color information. However, it has no colorblind modes selectable.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: All dialogue, cinematics, and combat barks are reflected in text and visual interface elements. The standard text is rather small, but a slider in the menu allows for larger text for those that require it, however the color of the font is not modifiable. This game is fully accessible.

Remappable Controls: No, this game’s controls are not remappable, though there are several presets to choose from. A controller layout is available in the options menu.

HIGH Great mission variety, good pace.

LOW Only one mission piloting a ship?

WTF How does the swimming work?

In general, I’d say that I have a low tolerance for frustration in videogames. Sitting down with a console is something I do as a pastime, for relaxation, or to get away from the real world for a bit — and hey, there’s a lot to get away from these days. With this in mind, something I wouldn’t have expected is that I’ve fallen in with physics-based games where the entire object of play is to do something awkward and difficult. Great examples would be Octodad: Dadliest Catch (2014) and Struggling (2020) but there have been others, and the most recent to catch my eye is Heavenly Bodies, coming from 2pt. Interactive.

This small, 2D indie asks the player to take on the role of a cosmonaut who must perform a series of missions in the zero gravity of space. There are seven levels altogether, but each one is quite different from the others and this relatively brief running time serves the game well, as it has ample room to demonstrate its ideas and then concludes without overstaying its welcome.

Each level is broken down into a series of small tasks. For example, the first mission has the player docking with a space station that’s somehow ended up in pieces. They must reassemble the superstructure and then extend a series of solar panels before reconnecting electrical components and restoring a basic level of functionality. Of course, while that might sound simple enough in this description, the fact that it’s a physics-based game means that it’s far, far easier said than done.

Each stick on the controller is in charge of a separate arm, and this is further complicated by being in space. Since there is no ‘up’, players will frequently have to reorient the camera view to accommodate the cosmonaut being spun around by their own motion, and of course, doing something simple like connecting two ends of a power cord becomes a minorly epic task as the player must manage their body position while accounting for each arm and the reactions of even the smallest motions.

The developers give a series of control options including one which is apparently a very serious take on what things would actually be like in this situation. I opted for the ‘assisted’ mode, which gave the ability to paddle my hands as though I was swimming in water to get some forward motion in situations where I would otherwise be stuck adrift. Wholly unrealistic to be sure, but it helped to preserve my sanity as I was trying to be a diligent cosmonaut, so it’s a good add.

Overall, I was quite impressed with Heavenly Bodies. Dealing with difficult physical manipulations is an idea we’ve seen iterated on several times, but the mission variety ranging from simple repairs to mining asteroids always brought something new to the table, and every section felt exactly the right length – every idea gets thoroughly explored, and nothing ever becomes punishing or repetitive. It absolutely has the measure of itself, and that’s not something every game can boast.

I greatly enjoyed my time with Heavenly Bodies and would recommend it to anyone who enjoys these types of physics-oriented titles – It’s a wisely-tuned spaceborne experience that does exactly what it wants to do and does it well. Mission accomplished.

Disclosures: This game is developed and published by 2pt. Interactive. It is currently available on PS4/5 and PC. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on the PS5. Approximately six hours of play were devoted to the single-player mode, and the game was completed. No time was spent in the co-op mode.

Parents: According to the ESRB, this game is rated E and contains no descriptors. This gams is as safe as houses — no salty language, no violence, no sex. It’s just comsonauts doing their thing in space!  

Colorblind Modes: There are no colorblind modes available in the options.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: There is no spoken audio or any audio cues needed for gameplay, all information comes via text, and the text cannot be resized, but there is an option to implement case-sensitive text. This game is fully accessible.

Remappable Controls: No, this game’s controls are not remappable.

HIGH Too many to list here!

LOW I wish I knew more about Nara’s past.

WTF Why are there so many mission-breaking bugs?

 Chorus is an open-world space combat sim that takes the players on an odyssey across the galaxy in the search of redemption.

Nara is our protagonist. She was an elite member of cult called the Circle, a group bent on domination of the stars. As the story beings, Nara has already left the Circle and has been trying to start anew, but her past catches up to her and she now has to face it, once and for all.

After she gets a few basic tutorial missions under her belt, Nara will re-unite with her former craft — a self-aware AI-driven fighter called Forsa.  

I won’t go into the plot’s twists and turns, but in addition to combat among the stars, Chorus is frequently focused on emotions and empathy. I genuinely felt Nara’s growth and transformation — how she faced the darkness behind her and learned to accept it. Forsa is a large part of this, as he’s not just a sidekick. In fact, they frequently come into conflict and he often questions her judgment, but throughout the campaign the two become so deeply connected that they finish each other’s sentences during intense combat.

Nara also has an internal voice that speaks for her past self as she was with the Circle — her dark side, essentially. This trio of characters — Nara, Forsa, and the voice — are the driving forces of the narrative and successfully connect the player with this journey.

In terms of gameplay, Forsa is armed with three different weapons — a laser that works best against shields, missiles that deal great damage to armored targets, and gatling guns that are best for destroying ship hulls.

Since each weapon works best against specific materials, the players will have to rotate through their arsenal during sorties, and this constant change-up prevents dogfighting from becoming too easy or repetitive, whether Nara is up against small drones or hulking battlecruisers. In fact, the combat in Chorus is some of the most well-balanced I’ve seen lately, and remained a positively challenging experience all the way through to endgame, even with the best weapons.

Further enhancing combat are Nara’s special powers called “Rites”, and they give her the edge she needs to cut through enemies like butter. For example, she can teleport behind an enemy, move like a comet through ships, or zap foes with a stunning ray. The Rites add light metroidvania elements as well, as some of them allow her to access previously-unreachable areas for great rewards.

Speaking of which, the combat and story aren’t the only strong aspects of Chorus — the world is built for explorers. 

There are six different cosmic systems that Nara can explore, and they’re so well-implemented that it never felt like I was killing time crossing large distances in an endless void. There are ship upgrades and credits scattered all over, and the player is sometimes faced with choices during missions.

A great number of sidequests in Chorus are given to the player either by Nara’s allies or people who will eventually become allies. Almost all of them are are unique characters with their own backstory and motivations, and this richness motivated me to fully explore each system in search of every one.

I remember one specific instance – I came across two space pirates while I was en route to a rescue mission. I was given the choice to either kill them, or let them join the convoy. I chose the latter, and they not only helped during the rescue, they also showed up later in an important story mission and joined my squadron. Many choices like this make a tangible difference during the campaign, and are strong motivation to go through every single sidequest Chorus offers.

Chorus is an outstanding experience from every angle, although it’s not perfect. There are small hiccups in the design, such as if a player decides to refuse a sidequest and wants to start it later, they have to leave the vicinity and return to the quest giver again. I also encountered a few mission-breaking bugs that forced me to restart from the latest checkpoint and even on one occasion, restart the whole mission. However, I expect things like this to be ironed out within the span of a few patches.

By the time I rolled credits, there was no doubt that Chorus was the best space combat game I’ve played in years. The thrill of dynamic space combat coupled with a compelling narrative and overall superb design make this one an absolute a must-play.

Disclosures: This game is developed by Deep Silver FISHLABS and published by Deep Silver. It is currently available on PS4/5, XBX/S, XBO, and PC. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and was reviewed on PC. Approximately 20 hours of play were devoted to the single-player mode, and the game was completed. There are no multiplayer modes.

Parents: This game is rated T by the ESRB and contains Fantasy Violence and Mild Language. The official description reads as follows: This is a space-combat shooter in which players assume the role of character on a mission of redemption against her former cult. From a third-person perspective, players pilot a sentient ship to complete mission objectives and battle enemy pirates and cultists in frenetic space battles. Players use machine guns, lasers, and missiles to destroy enemy vessels. Battles are accompanied by realistic gunfire, large explosions, and radio chatter. During some sequences players can choose to kill or spare enemy vessels; one dialogue sequence references suicide (e.g., “Cause of death…Suicide, the gun is still in her hand.”). The word “bastard” is heard in the game.

Colorblind Modes: There are no colorblind modes available. I am not colorblind myself, but there are some visual cues such as blue beams of light which I suspect may cause some difficulty for players with colorblindness.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: The game has subtitles. They can be resized and altered. However, some audio cues are necessary for finding objects in the game, so Chorus is not fully accessible.

Remappable Controls: Yes, this game’s controls are remappable.

HIGH A solid gathering and crafting experience.

LOW It’s hard to decipher the graphics at times.

WTF Won’t that robot ever shut up?!?

Residual is a 2D pixel-based survival crafting title.

After crash-landing on a strange planet, the player is tasked with exploring, looking for resources to craft and construct new things (the usual axe, fishing rod, etc.) and finding food to survive. The overall experience is nonviolent, as there is no fighting or any guns involved.

On our adventure we’ll be accompanied by PDB, a snarky ‘bot that feels the need to comment on the player’s every action while also incessantly repeating the same lines over and over again (“Your stamina is looooowwwww“) which can definitely become grating. Luckily, he can also be helpful by pointing out things to pick up and by giving info on how resources can be used.

Orangepixel’s title randomly generates a planet for each new run, even though I wouldn’t definie it as a roguelike since little changes in the player’s approach each time. While there may be as many as a thousand variations on the same theme, I didn’t see huge differences between them. Also, the overall objective and mechanics of each run are always the same, with the player tasked with finding metal, coal and other resources to repair their ship before being able to escape, which is indeed our main goal.

Sleeping and eating are requisites, as they are in our daily lives, and these vital tasks can be easy or difficult depending on the biome generated. My first had few berries to pluck and had me struggling at the very start, but in such case, a quick restart with a more favorably-created planet solves the problem.

The UI is simple, with a few screens indicating each type of resource and what they do. However, I kept getting confused even after two hours of play because of how each screen is not only small in size, but also because they’re all very similar to one another. It’s quite easy to inadvertently press a button on the wrong screen, making errors and wasting time in the process.

As far as the controls go, they’re… weird. Moving the character around and jumping is mostly fine, but climbing a ledge requires keeping the jump button pressed and then repeatedly pressing up which goes against the intuitive methods ingrained in me by other titles. Things also feel floaty and the character seems to be lightly influenced by inertia, which is a strange choice since this is clearly not a platformer.

Graphically, Residual has little to offer. On display are colorful (but basic) 2D pixel graphics that can be quite hard to decipher on a big screen. In terms of audio, I appreciated the option to choose between an ambient soundtrack or a planet’s ‘natural’ soundscape.

Orangepixel’s title might best be appreciated by casual fans of the genre looking for a solid (but mostly vanilla) crafting and resource-gathering experience that doesn’t include combat. Personally, I didn’t find much value in scouring for materials the same way a hundred other crafting games do, and the odd controls, murky UI and rough graphics don’t do it any favors, either. There are better choices in the genre.

Disclosures: This game is developed by Orangepixel and published by Apogee Entertainment. It is currently available on PC and Switch. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on Switch. Approximately 4 hours of play were devoted to the single-player mode and the game was not completed. There are no multiplayer modes.

Parents: The game is rated E by the ESRB. Considering the overall non-violent content and lack of sensitive content or salty language, the game can be played by a general audience. However, considering its overall difficulty I would recommend it to a teen audience, at least.

Colorblind Modes: There are no colorblind modes available.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: All dialogue in the game is subtitled, but text cannot be altered or resized. No audio cues are needed for gameplay. In my view, the game is fully accessible.

Remappable Controls: The controls are remappable, and there is no control diagram. Jump is weirdly mapped to X (which is definitely counterintuitive!) A for action and B for cancel. The directional pad is used to move the character around.

HIGH Surviving long enough to witness a galactic empire rise to glory… or infamy.

LOW Having my empire absorbed repeatedly by mid-game. 

WTF The xenophobic AI humans hated me while I was playing as human.

Ever since our ancestors stood on two feet, we stared up at the stars, mesmerized by the beauty and scope that laid beyond the planet we call home. Come the 20th century, technology had advanced enough for us to begin sending objects into space, culminating in the first people to step on the surface of the moon in 1969 (unless of course one thinks that was faked, in which case 1969 was significantly less eventful.)

In the years since, exploration of the universe has been largely left to scientists using unmanned probes and spacecraft. Stellaris asks, “What if a bunch of intelligent lifeforms on different planets in a galaxy all discovered interstellar travel and started colonizing other worlds at the same time?” Apparently the answer is a lot of pop-ups and menus, but that’s to be expected from a grand strategy title, and particularly a title from Paradox Studios — they’re best known for series like Crusader Kings and Europa Universalis.

In Stellaris, the studio breaks into new territory with players starting out not by picking a historical country, but instead a species. Each lifeform has positive and negative aspects that tend towards different playstyles, and there’s also an option to make up a species from scratch. After choosing some galaxy-building details, gamers will load into a randomly-generated map and begin a session.

There are a multitude of ways to play, but the general goal is to build up a civilization (usually via expansion and political maneuvering) in order to become a galactic superpower over the course of a few hundred in-game years. The campaign begins with plenty of free real estate in the form of unoccupied and unexplored star systems, but eventually civilizations will begin bumping up against each other. This can lead to tension and even war, depending on the parties involved.

An important consideration throughout each campaign is the potential for crisis. Generally there are one or more mid-game events that cause some nuisance for the existing civilizations, and one large crisis (late game) that usually involves something trying to wipe out every living creature in the galaxy. Fighting against this threat is necessary, and if the empires of the galaxy refuse to form a united front then that lack of cooperation may spell demise for all.

The latest DLC, Nemesis, most heavily effects this endgame by giving two major options — become the savior of the galaxy, or its end. If a player gains enough power and influence, they may become the “galactic custodian”, giving them special emergency powers to help push back against the impending doom of a late-game crisis threat. These powers can also be used for political force, setting oneself up as the unequivocal ruler of the known worlds.

The other major option is for players to become the crisis themselves. Early on in a campaign, players can choose to go down this path. In order to build up to the endgame, they must perform certain actions (taking over others’ planets, defying interstellar laws and edicts, etc.) in order to increase their crisis level. Each level gives special perks that assist in becoming more of a menace as things progress, and once level five is reached, gamers can work toward building a special superstructure and finishing off other species in the galaxy in a sort of “evil” victory.

While these changes are interesting (particularly the option to become an existential threat to all of existence) these changes have little real effect on the game, with some campaigns playing out almost exactly the same as before the Nemesis DLC.

While Nemesis DLC adds some interesting twists for for endgame, it ultimately doesn’t seem to justify the add-on’s asking price. Stellaris overall already offers hours of interesting and engrossing grand strategy gameplay, but this addition doesn’t add much to what was already there.

Disclosures: This game is developed and published by Paradox.  It is currently available on PC, XB and PS. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on the PC. Approximately 24 hours of play were devoted to the single-player mode, and the game was completed. 4 hours of play were spent in multiplayer modes.

Parents: According to the ESRB, this game is rated E 10+ and contains Violent References and Mild Language. It’s mostly looking at maps and menus and watching spaceships blow up. There are many references to violence, but little is shown beyond space combat and vague pictures.

Colorblind Modes: There are no colorblind modes available.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: This game offers subtitles. The subtitles cannot be altered and/or resized. (See examples above.) Sound cues are not required for play. This title is fully accessible.

Remappable Controls: No, this game’s controls are not remappable. There is no control diagram. The game is largely controlled via mouse, with some keyboard shortcuts to open menus or execute tasks.