Bethesda’s long-awaited open-world space RPG Starfield took to the stars earlier this month and has just crash-landed on SteamDB. Ranking lower than Fallout 76, it has now gone down in history as the worst-reviewed game by Bethesda to date.
Since Starfield’s highly anticipated release on Xbox and PC, it has been raking in mixed reviews. While some are praising the scope of the ambitious space epic, others have been uttering harsh criticism.
From disappointing graphics and tiresome space travel to a lackluster story and a “galaxy’s worth of bugs,” not everybody was impressed by Bethesda’s first IP in 25 years.
Starfield Earns a SteamDB Rating Worse Than Fallout 76
After much hype and anticipation, expectations for Starfield flew as high as its spaceships. When it was finally released early in September, players and critics were eager to finally take to the stars and experience what Todd Howard had been cooking up over the last couple of decades.
It became Bethesda’s biggest game launch to date but didn’t receive as much praise as the team expected. Critics couldn’t agree on what to think of the game, with reviews by major outlets ranging from 6/10 to perfect 10s. Our reviewer wasn’t impressed by his space explorations either and gave Starfield a 6/10 score.
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Now, the space epic has reached a new low. The PC game’s rating on SteamDB just dropped to 71.38%, with 72.09% of the 88,109 user reviews being positive. While this is by no means a terrible score, it does place the game in the same ranks as Bethesda’s legendary black sheep, Fallout 76.
The 2020 game from the long-running series sits at 71.76% on SteamDB. For the longest time, it has been the worst-reviewed game among the many award-winning titles coming from the Xbox studio. Taking its place, Starfield just went down in the annals of Bethesda’s history, but not for the reasons the studio would have hoped.
Starfield Is Still Maintaining a Comfortable 84 on Metacritic
All the naysayers and criticism aside, Starfield is still incredibly successful and continues to draw people in. On day one of its release, more than 330,000 concurrent players journeyed through the stars on Steam, breaking Skyrim’s concurrent players record set back in 2011. Earlier this month, the studio celebrated another astronomical milestone, as the player count surpassed 10 million.
Related: Starfield Continues to Climb With Massive Player Count
Despite its underwhelming rating on SteamDB, it’s not all doom and gloom for the space RPG. Millions of players are still having fun with the game and enjoying their adventures in space. On other platforms, it is faring much better.
The PC version of the game currently sits at a comfortable 86 on Metacritic, with the Xbox version getting a positive 84 score. It also received a “Mighty” Rating, with an 86 Top Critic Average on OpenCritic. These are great scores, but still not enough for the game to make the top 50 games of 2023.
Launching shortly after Larian’s big hitter Baldur’s Gate 3 certainly didn’t do Starfield any favors. As both are sprawling open-world RPGs, direct comparisons between the two were inevitable – and not to Xbox’s advantage. Lacking the graphics and immersion Baldur’s Gate 3 shines in, Starfield’s shortcomings become all the more noticeable.
However, many are saying the space RPG might age well, with post-launch updates, patches, expansions, and more potentially turning the title into a better game at some point in the future. After all, if Cyberpunk 2077 and No Man’s Sky can do it, maybe Starfield can too.
What do you make of the mixed bag of reviews? Have you picked it up and journeyed through the stars yourself yet? What is your opinion on the game? Tell us in the comments or on our social feeds, we would love to hear your thoughts.
Source: SteamDB
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