While Starfield’s biggest appeal for many players is its enormous scope, it’s hardly the most accessible video game experience. Bethesda’s latest RPG includes so many systems, details, and mechanics across its enormous open-universe sandbox that, at times, it’s actually intimidating. It doesn’t help having a rather vague and ambiguous tutorial, either, which makes the early hours of the game confusing. Of course, many would argue that’s somewhat by design; Starfield is as much about getting lost as it is about making discoveries, they tell me. And in fairness, there’s some truth to that. But Pete Hines’ recent comment that Starfield doesn’t really “get going” until nearly 100 hours feels as though it’s pushing the envelope too far. At some point, the enormity of the game and the slow pace with which its story moves has to be called bad design.
Starfield Takes 100+ Hours To Get Good
Surely, many players don’t have the time to invest hundreds of hours in Starfield, hoping that it’ll eventually become worth it. If I’m spending $70 on a game, it better be entertaining more or less right off the bat. I can see plenty of players putting Starfield down long before the 100-hour mark. In fact, Reddit user Brian_Osackpo found through Achievements that only around 6% of Starfield players had reached level 10. A
lthough this was posted closer to launch, checking now, only 30% of players have reached level 5 and 16% of players have reached level 10. It takes around 10 hours for players to reach level 10 in Starfield, especially when players are taking their time. This means that a majority of players, besides a few outliers, haven’t been playing for anywhere close to 100 hours.
Although these numbers should balance out later in the game’s lifetime, right now, it’s a pretty glaring statistic. However, it’s fair to say that the initial hours of Starfield are a slog to get through. It isn’t just that there are so many systems to learn, but doing so feels more difficult than it should be. I’ve found the experience frequently frustrating in this regard, which has a domino effect in that it interrupts the pacing of the story. Plus, with the tutorials for most mechanics being a bit rushed, a lot of things require hours trial-and-error to learn correctly. For example, the first Digipick/Hacking tutorial’s buttons aren’t amazingly explained, leading to me taking an embarrassingly long time. Eventually, things come good, but you really do have to push yourself past that initial slog before Starfield really has its hooks in you and the whole experience becomes easier to follow.
Starfield Is A Slow Hardcore Experience
I can already hear hardcore players and Starfield fans lamenting what I’m sure sounds like a “casual” take, but the reality is that unless you’re committed to 5-10 hours of head-scratching and frustration, Starfield probably won’t click. Personally, it took around 2 hours to learn the finer details of space combat and even then, some details still allude me. So many tiny details and poorly explained details, like weather and status effects have caused me huge amounts of frustration.
To be clear, I’ve pushed on and am now thoroughly enjoying the game, but I’m not so sure it’s particularly well-designed. I remember being totally sucked into The Witcher 3, Fallout 3, and other open-world RPGs fairly quickly by comparison, partially due to better explanations of mechanics. However, once Starfield clicks and once you really master the mechanics, Starfield truly does pull you in.
Starfield’s Design Can Appeal To Bethesda Fans
Of course, many hardcore players relish mastering difficult systems, as well as having endless content to explore. or a broad audience, 100 hours is way too long for a game to get good. Even if they were enjoying the experience, many players just don’t have the time to devote to Starfield, to stick with it for the long haul. Plus, with tons of new releases, other properties may start stealing fans still waiting for Starfield to get good. In the end, however, for those players that do stick around, Starfield is well worth the wait. Once you’ve master mechanics like space combat or crafting, hopefully you’ll get the same burst of excitement I felt when Starfield finally “got good” for me.
