Starfield: Review Predictions

gamesreviews.com:

Within 24 hours, critics across the world will be sharing their thoughts on Starfield. And it’s clear that they have something pretty special in their hands.

Honestly, I’ve never seen this level of hype from critics before. Everybody seems to be sharing hints and teasers. Some are saying it’s their biggest review ever. I’ve seen at least one review split into two videos.

Notice so far I haven’t said anything about good. None of the above precludes an 8/10, or even a 7/10. Ambition and scale isn’t the same as quality, and that’s where the real interest is going to come from when reviews are launched tomorrow.

Now, as it happens, I think it will get very good scores. Potentially even generation-defining levels of discussion, as we saw before with Fallout 3. But ultimately it’s still a score. It’s still on the same scale as Hannah Montana: The Movie and Ride to Hell: Retribution. A 9 is a 9 and a 3 is a 3, regardless of genre or ambition.

But for something this big, there is a very narrow point that it seems likely to hit. This is split into a couple of questions. Will it hit 90 on Metacritic, and what if it doesn’t? Can it hit 95+?

Deathloop got 89 when it released on Xbox. A score in the high 80s would put it at around the same level as Fallout 4 and the Doom reboot. This is respectable. It would be interesting to see the discussion, but this would not be a bad score at all.

And that is where I’m comfortable putting our starting point. Leaks seem to hint at this being the least buggy, most ambitious Bethesda game yet. That counts for something. Naturally, expectations have moved on since Fallout 4 and Doom, but it seems like, as a baseline, this is one we should be quietly confident in. It will get at least 88.

I don’t