Currently, I am about nine hours into my first “Starfield” playthrough, a massive space role-playing game (RPG). Every five steps I take I unearth an interesting quest or come across an interesting non-playable character. While the game has its fair share of issues, I believe Bethesda successfully pulled off its vision to make a full-scale space RPG, although it is not everything I hoped for. 

“Starfield’s” greatest success is in its quest design and writing. Within my initial 10 hours, I had numerous avenues through which I could take my character. I have boarded and stolen ships, became friendly with space pirates, joined a galactic military service, joined a group of Sheriffs, and various other cool quests. This area is where Bethesda games shine, and “Starfield” is no different.

The game graphics also look gorgeous. The lighting captures the beauty of space. One of my favorite parts of the game is flying around in space and looking at all the cool views. Bethesda captures the desolate feeling on certain planets while also having full-scale populated cities on others. While some textures look somewhat dated, the game’s graphics are a significant upgrade compared to Bethesda’s previous games.  

The player begins the game by working in a mine on a desolate planet. Eventually, something goes wrong, and you grab a pistol, start firing, grab a ship, and start your playthrough. I do think the first five or six hours of “Starfield” lack a proper onboarding system. The game quickly throws you into a massive world, and expects you to know certain mechanics that it doesn’t tell you about, which leaves you to search for in-depth game tutorials on YouTube.

There have been many instances during my playthrough in which I discovered a quality-of-life feature that was not explained to me. For example, while flying your ship you can pull up your scanner which allows you to land on planets without pulling up the galaxy map. This feature saves so much time but is not explained anywhere in the game.  

To me, the biggest negative of the game is the gunplay. Especially on a console where you are locked to 30 frames per second, the game’s combat feels awkward and slow. I primarily play in first person and the guns are clunky to use. Also, enemies tend to oddly stand in front of you as you are shooting them rather than shooting back. There have been intense moments, but in 60% of the combat, I have felt underwhelmed. There is also a plethora of loading screens that you must go through in order to traverse throughout the galaxy. While I wasn’t expecting it to be a fully realized space simulation, I was hoping for fewer loading screens.

So far, “Starfield” hasn’t quite hooked me the way I expected it to. While the narrative quests are intriguing, its sluggish combat has prevented me from fully enjoying the game. I will be continuing my “Starfield” playthrough but for now, I would rate the first nine hours a 7/10.