As a writer for BioWare, Mac Walters created stories of galactic heroes and alien threats, including the beloved Mass Effect series. In a recent interview with MinnMax, Walters answered a question about Starfield that shows a huge issue with the game. When asked if he played Starfield, he called it “interesting” and explained why he hasn’t played all of it yet.
During the interview, Walters said a game like Starfield typically takes 30 to 40 hours to get its stride, and he needs more time to invest. Walters is leading a game studio, so, understandably, he doesn’t have the time to give to a video game. However, this is a good point for parents and those who now play Bethesda games who are no longer kids with a ton of time.
As time passes, gamers age, and those of us who played Skyrim or the older Bethesda games as kids now have our own kids. I invested my time in getting to the fun parts of Starfield, but it was tedious for a while. I only started having fun after finishing all the prologue stuff (which can take seven to 10 hours). Even designing your own ship, getting powers, and many other features take time. I came to build outposts and modify my ship but had to wait a long time to get the opportunity to do that (it takes even longer to do this).
I didn’t even want to join Constellation. I had no interest in any of that, but you’re forced to deal with them from a sizable portion of the beginning. A huge flaw with Skyrim was the long prologue you couldn’t skip, and Starfield doubles down with a much longer one. Many people consider this game boring because it only gets interesting after a while; hours pass while you are forced to do things you don’t want to do.
Walters brings up a great point because Starfield has no real freedom. You have to invest many skill points, which are hard to get, just to be able to do a lot in the game. Spacesuit design, weapon modification, outpost building, ship modification, crew size, and so much more are locked behind skill points. As you progress, these skill points take longer to get, so it’s like having the fun parts locked. A lot of Starfield is just waiting to be able to do the fun thing.
Not letting players have everything at the start was probably Starfield’s biggest mistake. As Walters said, it takes way too long to get a stride in the game, which comes from the game not immediately giving you the ability to do things promised in trailers. It’s a huge flaw in Starfield, and while we can see why a locked path is there, it was a mistake.
Walters is right; Starfield takes a long time just to really get started, and that’s hard to like.
