Starfield is a stellar sci-fi refresh of the Bethesda RPG formula

theverge.com:

Even as someone who loves the Fallout games, I must admit that spending dozens of hours in an irradiated wasteland full of ghouls and raiders can be a little, well, depressing. It’s not the kind of world that evokes a sense of adventure. That’s what made the potential of Starfield so exciting: here was Bethesda applying its formula for open-world RPGs to a giant universe with planets to discover and cosmic mysteries to unearth. It’s basically the Elder Scrolls by way of Hello Games; call it No Man’s Skyrim.

In a lot of ways, Starfield lives up to that potential. It is indeed huge, and its main storyline is all about the thrill of adventure and discovery. I found myself pushing through the farthest reaches of space, going to strange, dangerous new places on a quest to seek out the origins of the universe and humanity’s place within it. It’s also a game that sticks fairly closely to the blueprint Bethesda has laid down for its role-playing experiences. Your quest might be much grander in scale, but what you’re doing on a moment-to-moment basis hasn’t changed all that much. This is also the most polished and solid release yet from Bethesda on a technical level.

Starfield starts out humble enough. You are a miner on a dusty planet who accidentally digs up a strange, potentially alien, artifact. For some reason, it speaks to you on a metaphysical level, and your character goes through an out-of-body experience that feels a lot like the trippier moments in 2001: A Space Odyssey. This discovery ultimately leads you to a group known as Constellation, a ragtag team of explorers — there’s everyone from a quiet theologian to a cowboy from a prominent family to a business magnate who funds the whole endeavor — intent on uncovering