Review Roundup For Starfield

After years of waiting, one of the biggest games of 2023 is about to land. Starfield, Bethesda's first new IP in 25 years, officially launches in early access on September 1, and then rolls out globally on September 6. An ambitious exploration of the galaxy and humanity's place in the cosmos, expectations are high for Starfield to establish itself as a must-have game on PC and Xbox Series X|S.

So far, Starfield reviews are generally positive, calling the game a galactic-scale experience that has no shortage of content. Several reviews have praised Bethesda for creating an engrossing new world to explore, while other outlets have noted that the vast reaches of space aren't quite as captivating as the lands of Skyrim or the nuclear wastelands of Fallout. Bethesda has also managed to deliver a more polished game according to critics, and while there are some technical issues that occasionally crop up, they're nowhere near as bad or as frequent as the ones encountered in previous games produced by the studio.

"Starfield is undoubtedly impressive in scale, from the sheer number of star systems and planets you can explore to the multitude of gameplay mechanics that tie the experience together," Michael Higham wrote in GameSpot's Starfield review. "But once you start to see how all these big ideas are interconnected from a narrative perspective and technical standpoint, the illusion of a grand cosmic voyage shatters and the veneer starts to wear thin."

On GameSpot's sister site Metacritic, Starfield currently has a metascore of 87 from 40 critics for the Xbox Series X|S version, and 88 for PC version from 42 critics. That puts it right in the green zone of some of the best games of the year, although for now, it's not yet in the high-90s zone that games like Baldur's Gate 3, Resident Evil 4, and Street Fighter 6 are in. For a closer look at what the critics have to say, you can read several of the reviews below.

Starfield launches on September 1 in early access for Xbox Series X|S and PC, and rolls out worldwide on September 6.

• Game: Starfield
• Platforms: Xbox Series X|S and PC
• Developer: Bethesda Game Studios
• Release Date: September 6 (September 1 early access)
• Price: $70

GameSpot - 7/10

"When you strip Starfield down to its essentials, it relies on a tried-and-true, but well-tread formula while missing some of the depth of the games that came before it. Starfield is a game more concerned with quantity than quality, and leaves the experience at the surface level." -- Michael Higham [Full review]

VGC - 5/5

"Starfield is undoubtedly an experience that players will stick with for years to come. It's content-rich in a way that's rare in modern gaming, and exactly the experience that people who've been hoovering up different versions of Skyrim for years have wanted. It doesn't truly reinvent the wheel with its mechanics, but almost everything it does, it does so well, that it's a truly engrossing experience." -- Jordan Middler [Full review]

Game Informer - 8.5/10

"It took me a long time to fall in love with Starfield, and even after I did, certain aspects didn't work for me. But the things I didn't enjoy are vastly outweighed by my enthusiasm for this new, original science fiction universe, the breadth of its adventures, and the appeal of its many interwoven stories. Go in with the expectation that it will take some time to find your footing in such a vast gameplay space, and there's a universe well worth discovering here." -- Matt Miller [Full review]

IGN - 7/10

"Starfield has a lot of forces working against it, but eventually the allure of its expansive roleplaying quests and respectable combat make its gravitational pull difficult to resist." -- Dan Stapleton [Full review]

PC Gamer - 75/100

"After all the hype and hope and anticipation, I'm disappointed to say I don't love Starfield the way I love other Bethesda RPGs. It's similar in a lot of ways, but Starfield never feels as instantly engrossing and transporting as Oblivion or Skyrim or as wild and weird as the Fallout games." -- Christopher Livingston [Full review]

GamesRadar - 5/5

"Starfield isn't really a game you play to complete, it's more about living whatever sort of life you want in the literal universe Bethesda has created. Whatever you're thinking of doing, you almost certainly can do it, and the scale is almost a release in a way – you'll probably never see or do it all, so just enjoy the moment. There's months, if not years, of discoveries buried away in here, and even after 80 hours I can't wait to see more." -- Leon Hurley [Full review]

PCGamesN - 7/10

"Starfield is a true behemoth of an RPG, and in many ways it's the logical endpoint of Bethesda Game Studios' well-worn formula. However, its massive scope pushes this formula to the absolute limit and the cracks begin to show, from feature creep to the stop-start nature of its exploration. Dedicated Bethesda fans are sure to get their fill, but this interstellar adventure never leaves the atmosphere." -- Nat Smith [Full review]