Starfield will never be an Exploration game.

3 things stop Starfield from reaching the same critically acclaimed success that Skyrim and the Fallout series achieved.

Locking core mechanics behind skill points, a non-dynamic exploration experience, and the big kicker being a system of progression that feels lackluster at best.

It's hard to believe the decision was green lit to lock players out of core mechanics for potentially the entirety of the game. Especially after introducing one of the mechanics during the opening tutorial. I can understand hacking and pickpocketing. It's a common practice for games to require players to invest points into such skills. But why stop players from using a jetpack in an open world space exploration game. Or stop players from targeting ship systems during ship combat. Or stop players from building outposts in space and even forcing them to pool levels and points into upgrading them.

Of these 3, the biggest crime committed was locking the jetpack away. It adds a whole new dimension to combat and exploration. It lets you dodge attacks during a firefight, exploring new areas that are otherwise difficult to reach, and traveling is slightly faster. Possibly. It’s hard to really tell. But it for sure makes it more fun. On top of that, without the skill unlocked you’re just carrying a small metal block on your back that serves no functional purpose.

The second basic mechanic locked behind skill points is the ship system targeting. When starting a playthrough of starfield, it’s baffling that system targeting is important enough that it warrants its own section in the tutorial. Out of complete curiosity it would be nice to sit down with whoever made the decision and learn their reasoning why.

Imagine going to McDonalds but before you place your order, someone spends 2 minutes explaining what all the different flavors of icecream are. Only for you to order a burger and fries. Some might have the valid argument of “It’s a confusing system to understand so it’s nice to know how it works.” Which is true. It’s a valid point. But if something is complicated or different enough that it warrants explanation through a tutorial then it’s either too complicated, the tutorial should be delivered when unlocking it, or access to the ability should just be given at the time the tutorial occurs. We could also have an entire discussion on whether the mechanic was implemented in a way that was useful or if more was originally intended for it but ship combat balancing was never great and they had to keep it in because it was the only way to get boarding to work.

And the final mechanic locked away were outposts. Or I thought it was. But it turns out that building on only specific planets/moons because of their weather severity is locked behind skill points. So that’s not as bad. Still not a fan. With things like higher damage, better hacking, stealth (wait. That one had to be unlocked as well) or a higher ranged scanner there are so many other skills to invest in. It would have been nice to acquire base building upgrades a different way.

If locking basic mechanics behind skill points were the biggest crimes, then Starfield's Open World experience would be its biggest failing point. But this is a tough one because it’s not entirely Starfield's fault. They delivered exactly what we should have in a game like this. The wide expansive openness of space.

The magic of previous Bethesda games was traveling to talk to or kill something. And along the way, finding a cave with some creatures, bandits, loot, or sometimes all 3. Or passing by some soldiers escorting a prisoner to who knows where. Or a traveling merchant peddling wares. Everywhere you went there was something new to discover and you had no idea if it was going to be friend or foe. And it all was believable as to why it or they were there because it fit in with the setting. A bunch of medieval towns and cities all together on the same land mass in a little world.

And that’s why I feel like this isn’t entirely Starfield’s fault. If we came across random encounters all the time, it wouldn’t feel as vast and open as space should feel. And while Starfield did try to implement random encounters that fit in with it’s setting, ships that land off in the distance around you as you travel aren’t the same. It would be weird if they landed on or next to you all the time. But for these random encounters you now have to sidetrack a fair amount of distance just to get to them and sometimes they take back off before you can even get there so it just doesn’t feel worth it.

Mass Effect 1 is a great example of the same kind of setting. How they got around this was that driving the Mako over the massive expenses of nothingness was one of the greatest experiences of the game. It was so incredible that I haven't played Mass Effect 1 since before the second came out and I still remember the name of the vehicle.

What Starfield's open world aspect is missing is something engaging to interact with while traveling from point A to point B. If your first thought is “what about scanning?” I would disagree. It’s just the same repeated task on every planet with no variety. At least with SKyrim or Fallout the random encounters could be kind of repetitive but you were still fighting different creatures each time that required at least slightly different tactics to deal with.

And the final element stopping Starfield from reaching critical success like some of Bethesda's previous works is that there is no strong sense of progression. Which also ties into the previous point. Starfield tries to give a sense of progression through leveling up, gear, and the planets you travel to. But nothing ever hits home.

Fallout and Skyrim had different races and creatures that created a sense of progression. One of the first major ones you meet in Skyrim are the Giants. Massive hulking creatures that in one hit turn you into a medieval space program. As you level up they slowly become easier and easier to deal with. You also see this through some of the other creatures you face like bears. During early game 1 is deadly but later after some progression you can go toe to toe with a few of them.

Fallout also has some great examples with Super Mutants being an early one you meet. The Deathclaw being a late game one. But Starfield has nothing like this. You just fight the same humanoid creatures the entirety of the game. There are the Starborn but they all look the same and fight you the same way all the other NPC’s do except for the odd one here and there with some different powers. And vanishing and reappearing in a different location doesn't count when every Starborn can do that.

But the reason why Starborn don’t work is because you get nothing from defeating them. I still had no idea what Quantum Essence was or even did till just looking it up now. At the time I thought it was some rare resource for some super crafting. But it's just a consumable you can pop from inside your inventory to reduce cooldowns on your force powers.

Deathclaws, Giants, Dragons, Bears, and other powerful creatures work well because they are big, memorable, and often guard locations of loot. They also fight differently than your regular enemies. Draugr and Super Mutants work well because they have a chance of dropping loot that you can pick up and use for yourself. Whether it's consumables that aid, better gear, or things you can sell for money that you can spend on things you want to buy. But the Starborn give you nothing useful and guard an item that gives the same vision every time plus a ton of minerals that take forever to collect. And after an entire playthrough of the game I had no idea what the ore was for. Just looked it up and it’s for high tier upgrades.

Can I quickly rant about how terrible the crafting system is in Starfield? Fallout 4’s crafting was fun because you could find weapons/armor, remove upgrades from them, collect a bunch, and then make some funky weapons by exchanging and moving around mods. In starfield you don’t keep mods from weapons. And replacing a mod with another just destroys the previous one. So all you do is use up resources. And collecting the resources is a pain in the but having to mine everything. It’s like they said let’s take the fallout crafting system, but make replacing mods more expensive, and make collecting the resources needed for different mods even more frustrating.

I still like the game and enjoyed playing it. But it will never be as successful as previous Bethesda games. And that’s okay.