Starfield was supposed to be the big new game from Bethesda in 2023: endless expanses, countless stars, alien planets, and a spaceship of your own to visit them all. MyMMO editor Benedict Grothaus has now started playing the game again in 2026. Why? Good question.
I can’t tell you exactly. Several things came together: I wanted to play a really solid RPG again, especially after I had rather… bad experiences with the third-person mod of Baldur’s Gate 3.
Starfield, however, keeps popping up in my mind. I am more of a fantasy player than a sci-fi player, but somehow Starfield has always had a certain allure. Then came the bad news.
Xbox is laying off a ton of developers, including those at Bethesda’s parent company ZeniMax. The future is uncertain, the Game Pass is struggling, and everything sounds like “Doom and Gloom”.
It was right then that I remembered that I still had the Game Pass – and Starfield is playable there. I downloaded the slim 140 GB overnight and have been playing almost daily since then.
Starfield is exactly what I’ve been looking for at the moment
Briefly about the prehistory: I played Starfield at release in September 2023 for about 60 hours. I lost interest at the latest when Rogue Trader the first cRPG for Warhammer 40,000 was released and totally captivated me. 2023 was, in retrospect, a pretty wild year, Baldur’s Gate 3 was also released…
But I already knew what to expect in Starfield. I knew I couldn’t smoothly fly to planets, but had to jump and had cutscenes. I knew the game had its flaws and problems.
But I wanted to play a sci-fi RPG that I didn’t have to learn completely anew. No Man’s Sky was consequently not an option, Warhammer was a bit too grim for me (yes, that can happen to me too), and I didn’t want to think too much, just play.
Starfield could give me exactly that: an RPG without too much depth, where I don’t have to read texts of novel length, where I can also shoot a bit – and above all, where looting and leveling are possible.
A game with flaws … and bugs
That doesn’t mean I think Starfield is a perfect game or anything. It is not, for sure. Even back then, the literally first NPC I encountered had begun his journey up through the roof and was never seen again.
Starfield has developed significantly, has new DLCs and content, patches that have fixed problems. But the game is still not completely smooth:
- Facial animations are, as typical for Bethesda, horrific. They look like facial muscles are set to 500%.
- Control and menu navigation is a struggle every time, but I’m already familiar with that from Fallout 76.
- My crew is sometimes just floating in the air when I switch ships and looks at me as if I am the donkey for whom this is not completely normal.
- Companions occasionally have problems with the laws of physics and try desperately to tunnel through solid walls. Sarah, even in the future, the probability is infinitely close to zero!
- Building ships is not explained at all. A little adjustment worked, but for most you need a guide or a lot of experience.
On top of that, there are a few questionable decisions like the Creations. These are basically community mods, but for the most part, they are monetized, meaning: weapon skins or nice gimmicks cost real money. I don’t find that very cool.
However, with all the DLCs and content that have been added to the game, new possibilities are also opening up, and one of them is probably responsible for the fact that I am currently having so much fun with Starfield.
You would find a gallery with screenshots here if there was a screenshot button (I’ve hammered print and F12 like crazy) and not just the photo mode. At least I can give you a picture of my ship:
After the tutorial through the wildest chaos …
Shattered Space is the first DLC that Starfield has received and was released in September 2024. The story DLC is about the House Va’ruun, religious fanatics with a snake as a god – exactly my thing!
I don’t want to spoil too much of the story, but after one of my first jumps away from Mars, I was supposed to search for the ship of a governor. I found a space station and thought to myself: “Hmm. Big for a ship, but the quest marker leads me there. So I’ll go.”
The subsequent odyssey gave me a lot of adrenaline. Shattered Space is actually designed for level 20-30 – I was level 3 or 4. The enemies almost one-shot me, and somehow I managed to play the entire intro mission.
Sure, I eventually realized that I was apparently in the wrong mission, but I didn’t want to turn back. Especially after I once quick-saved right in front of a lethal hit. Getting out of that was… tricky.
The end of the unwanted excursion was a whole backpack full of gear 20 levels above my level, way too powerful weapons, and me stranded on the other side of the galaxy. I couldn’t have wished for a better adventure.
… and on the direct path to the OP ship
Since I now knew that the whole story about House Va’ruun – which I have joined and of which I plan to immerse myself completely in RP as a snake fanatic – would be exactly my thing, I first went back to the main quest. I now had a goal.
The whole experience actually inspired me so much that I literally grinded credits and skills to buy the most expensive ship from Deimos, an Aegis, which I named after my favorite heroine: Jeanne d’Arc.
Just like for Shattered Space, my level is actually too low for an Aegis, but due to my excursion and the grind, I had so much money that I could afford it. Is that the OG Starfield experience? Certainly not. Is it fun? Hell yes!
I don’t want a 10/10 game, I just want to play in peace
I am not currently playing Starfield because I am looking for the next blockbuster. There are currently enough of those, and honestly, I am almost a bit overwhelmed by them. Corsair Cove is an absolute banger that has kept me occupied for a long time, I’m playing a lot of LoL Classic with friends, and Mistfall Hunter is also still on my list.
Among all these games, which require a lot of attention or investment or simply have eternally long sessions, Starfield is the refreshing change that I currently need. Not Dostoevsky, for which I still need a dictionary, but a fun short story.
With Starfield, I am also finally reducing my Pile of Shame a bit. Do you also have such games that are actually rather mediocre but that you enjoy anyway? What games do you still need to catch up on? Write me a comment!
Currently, according to the Xbox app, I am at 82 hours, so about 20 hours deep into the game. Whether I will quit again after 60 hours or push through this time, we will see, but so far, Starfield is simply fun for me, and I hope it stays that way for a while. However, I will have to hurry a bit, as the next strong games are already on the way, especially Enshrouded, which I am really looking forward to: One of the best survival games on Steam will cost me over 50 hours when it finally releases in October
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