Playing Starfield Part 2: Installation and Early Access
I pre-installed Starfield, via Steam, on Wednesday 30th August. Early access started in the UK at 1:00 AM today. However, I didn’t get around to playing until about 10:00 AM this morning. It took about an hour or so to unpack the pre-installed game. It currently occupies a little over 116GB of space. As I wasn’t sure how well my PC would handle Starfield, I decided to use my second monitor to play the game at a resolution of 1920x1080 (16:9). I have an Nvidia GTX 1660 Super GPU. Initially, I turned all the graphics to “high” and set the game to render at full resolution. Initially the game seemed to run well. I got through the initial story which takes place in a mine. I also got to the character customisation, which in true Bethesda style takes place after the story has progressed for a while. However, the moment I entered space in my ship, the game started running poorly. The graphics stuttered and the audio desynced.
I made a few tweaks, dropping some settings but as I played through the first mission on the planet Kreet, I found that random lag spikes were making the game unplayable. They often occurred during combat. So I soldiered on until I had completed the main mission and then I elected to leave and move on to the primary quest hub of New Atlantis. I then immediately saved the game and spent some time looking for solutions online. After reading several posts regarding the game’s performance, I adjusted my graphics settings accordingly. It would appear that unless you have a top of the range GPU, then most systems should use the render resolution facility. I set it to 75% and then dropped a few further settings to medium. I also migrated the game installation from the 4TB hard drive I have for games, onto the 1TB SSD I use for the PC operating system. These changes improved performance significantly.
Having addressed the performance issues, I then continued the game and progressed through the story as far as joining the Constellation group. I then stopped for a break and to collate my thoughts. I shall now present my initial thoughts on the gameplay, mechanics and the central story as bullet points, for reasons of brevity. I may well revise some of these thoughts and opinions as I progress and become more familiar with the things.
First and foremost, the game lacks a coherent tutorial. A few basic skills are imparted via the game’s opening but if you are distracted, then you will miss the information.
I therefore had to continuously tab out of the game and search online for instructions and clarification of how to do basic things. This is not acceptable.
Space combat and operating your ship are introduced quite quickly. Again, if you miss any on screen information you have to “improvise” and assume that things work in a similar fashion to space combat in other games. Fortunately, they do.
Being a Bethesda game, there is a wealth of lootable items, littering the game’s initial zone. Most of it is irrelevant and inconsequential. However, some items appear important so there is a risk of hoarding material that later turns out to be of no value.
Combat feels about right but requires sensible use of cover and accurate fire. Check the range of your weapon of choice, to ensure it is appropriate to the situation.
Learn to use your scanner correctly. Some flora and fauna need to be scanned multiple times to register as “collected”. This is how it is supposed to work.
Look for means to make money as soon as possible. Weapons sell well. Ensure you loot fallen foes.
Take time to learn the new locking picking system. It requires a degree of thought.
Overall, I have enjoyed Starfield so far. It is epic in scope but not necessarily as revolutionary in its gameplay. You cannot for example fly your ship from the surface of a planet, through the atmosphere and out into space. Getting from space to the surface of a planet involves cutscenes. Also, once the initial sense of awe has worn off, you will find that Starfield has many of the tropes and foibles associated with Bethesda games. Dialogue trees are quite rich and varied and so far I haven’t encountered a scripted response I don’t like. I don’t feel that I’ve been forced into a “stupid” response. I suspect that the main appeal of Starfield will lie in the characters and story. It will be interesting to see whether my opinions change after another day of playing and exploring. I am still a little annoyed at the lack of information the game provides but sadly that seems to be the industry standard these days.
