So, Starfield was a disappointment (in my opinion). The story isn’t interesting. The lore and world-building do not make sense. The game mechanics do not mesh together. (And it doesn’t run well on the Steam Deck.)
But the promise of Starfield? The big space game? The big space RPG where you can play as Captain Reynolds type character? That’s something I can get behind. I want to traverse space, visit different planets, get lost, meet interesting characters, solve their problems, and shoot some stuff. Two games come to my mind when I think of this:
- No Man’s Sky
- Mass Effect
I’ve only played a few hours of No Man’s Sky, but I think it does space traversal well. To put it bluntly, flying from planet to planet without interruption is better than fast travel. But the gameplay loop did not
Mass Effect nails the space adventure side of things. You visit multiple interesting places, you meet different people with curious problems, and you solve these problems (mainly by shooting). But it’s a typical Bioware game: The places you visit are small and confined, and there are (comparatively) few of them. The space traversal is done by clicking a few buttons in a menu.
My question is: Are there any “big space games”? Are there any games that deliver on the promise of Starfield? What are your favourite sci-fi RPGs?
if only elite dangerous had a campaign
I mean, they kind of do. It’s just not driven by cut scenes or NPC interaction. Have to read the news and be involved in the off game communities to get into the lore that’s happened in game.
That’s why a lot of people didn’t engage with the lore of Destiny - you had to go to a website totally separate from the game, link your account old-school Bungie style, and could only access the grimoire cards from said site after you went through the hoops. There was nothing in the game giving you more aside from the NPCs and the few cutscenes themselves. Not even a link to take you to the site from the game itself.
Almost every other game has an in-game lore/info screen talking about the world and characters of the game.
Star Citizen will get one
Sometime in 3025.
When Squadron 42 finally comes out, it’ll just be considered commentary on contemporary issues. Basically like Job Simulator… in space
2026 i think they’ve announced somewhat recently, we’ll see if it actually holds though
I’m old enough to remember the Kickstarter campaign. I lost track of how many release dates flew by since then.
Yeah they gave up announcing new release dates for it like half a decade ago if not longer lmao, but now they’ve started again. Hopefully it’s true this time.