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?
I too wish for a game like this but apparently it’s impossible to do it, either due to lack of vision, budget or expertise (or all of the above). Starfield sounded perfect on paper and it was a good studio to attempt it but in the end it was just a bland, soulless, boring mess of a game.
As for my suggestions, I just got smaller games, not larger ,and in that vein honestly: FTL. It’s a 2d sprite roguelike and yet it’s the best game at giving me the feeling of being a scrappy starship captain on the run, trying to scrounge together resources in order to complete my trip despite overwhelming odds.
The second closest game is Starbound but your mileage will vary, it feels unfinished and there is no real story to speak off, although the ship you continually improve and build in over time as you explore the universe does start to feel cozy and homely. It is also basically a worse Terraria in space so if you don’t like gameplay like that, skip.
If you like Mass Effect you ought to try KOTOR1 and 2, oldies but goldies, but they do have the same weaknesses you already outlined for ME, it’s very much a set story.
Faster Than Light’s my jam! For me, it was dethroned from the throne of roguelite games by Slay the Spire.
Starbound was the first and last game I pre-ordered. I wish they would have stuck to the original vision with the survival mechanics. Thinking about it, Starbound is basically a proto-Starfield. The both promised an experience based on a different game (Terraria in space vs. Skyrim in space) that was undercut by the overuse of procedural generation. (Someone please create an 8 hour video essay about this.)
Go check out the multiverse mod for FTL. It added a ton of variety and content and put FTL straight back into the top spot for me.
Yep, there are definitely many comparisons between Starbound and Starfield, it is why I was excited about SF in the first place - it looked like a big budget SB made by an experienced veteran team! The joke’s on me I guess lol
In a similar vein, if you want to try something new check out starsector. You have to get it from their website currently but it’s a great game, lots of potential, lots of mods.
You can try to revive the sector, build your own mega corp, become a pirate, be a slaver, be an anti-slaver, gun running.
No FPS parts though
I’ve heard of it and tried to get into it a few times but I think I just lack the time/patience of my youth to get into something like that anymore, its a steep learning curve and you have to make most of the fun yourself / RP.