Starfield is a big game. I mean, we’re talking intergalactic scale here. But on a micro level, the game is anything but, and notably lacks meaningful feedback. In particular, some players have started feeling frustrated over their actions not having any impact on the world around them.
A Starfield fan sparked discussion on Jan. 16 by expressing disappointment with the game’s lack of feedback after major story beats occur. They used the city of Neon as an example with the Strikers questline where the player character helps out in a turf war. “I know if I go back in a few in-game weeks, nothing will have changed in Ebbside,” the original poster said. Many players joined in on the conversation, and the gist is the same: Starfield lacks a feeling of impact and doesn’t concern itself much with the player’s actions.
The top reply points out how an NPC in Neon has dialogue referring to an actual object sitting in the room with him, only the dialogue is utterly detached from what’s really there. The NPC in question is Frank Renick, who runs the Neon Tactical gun store and gives the Bare Metal quest line to find the person responsible for spray-painting his robot. After the quest is done, Renick says he cleaned the robot up—only the robot remains precisely the same as it was before, rendering the player’s actions meaningless.
Another player mentioned that everything remains the same in Starfield no matter what you do. “No destruction, no political changes, no change of people in power, no new colonies,” said the player, adding, “It feels dead because the world does not progress and is frozen in time as it seems.” This reply, in particular, encapsulates the whole of this issue with Starfield, and I can’t say I don’t agree.
Starfield, for me, was dead in the water before it even came out after I’d heard that players could join any faction no matter what. It immediately gave me the sense that my actions wouldn’t have enough of an impact or that the world wouldn’t react to what I did. If I join the United Colonies as a soldier and vigilante, I somehow can also be a pirate plundering the same Colonies’ space. It makes no sense, and it shouldn’t, but it’s a feature anyway. And all of that criticism comes before you even take the game’s “exploration” into account.
Gabe Newell recently said it best: “Fun is the degree to which the game recognizes and responds to the player’s choices and actions.” And if that quote is anything to go by, Starfield is not a fun game. But some would call it a joke.
