Three Theories For Starfield’s Sudden Surge Of Negative Reviews

Starfield was the most Googled game of 2023, and I understand why. I have not seen any game spark more conversation on this website than Starfield, including even other controversial titles like Hogwarts Legacy or hugely praised offerings like Baldur’s Gate 3. It seems we will never be free of it, and now people are talking about a new development.

Starfield now has “Mostly Negative” reviews on Steam for the last 30 days, a drop from the (also not ideal) “Mixed” reviews previously. It has 87,519 all-time reviews right now, making that Mixed status. But the 7,594 recent reviews are Mostly Negative.

Why? Why the sudden drop in review scores from players two months after launch? I think there are three main reasons here, and none of them are “haters are review bombing!!!” I think there are legitimate things to examine here, as I didn’t understand this development at first myself either.

1. The Game Is Long, And People Are Just Now Finishing

While two months seems like a long time, it is actually not that long in Starfield’s timeline. This is a game you can easily put 60, 100, 150 hours into, given its sprawling size. And for people who’s do not play video games for a living like me, you can understand how that might easily take two months to get that far in the game.

I can buy the idea that you can play the game for that long and end up with an overall negative view if you believe that ultimately, it becomes too shallow, or discover its promised New Game Plus loops are not that interesting (this was my biggest problem with the game, even liking most other things). I think there’s a chunk of time between 15-40 hours where you really get into the flow of the game, but longer tail? You may run out of stuff to do and it’s a lot of shooting through clone stamped bases on largely empty planets. So if you end your time petering off and doing that, or starting over in a not-satisfying Starborn loop, I can see why negative reviews would start now.

2. Non-Game Pass Players Are Finally Picking It Up

Another theory that makes sense and can add to the above is that we have gotten past the initial surge of those who were A) super interested in the game from the start and B) jumping into it on the Xbox Game Pass ecosystem. You have to buy the game on Steam, and after holiday sales where it was (and is) cheaper on the platform, that may change things.

If you pick Starfield up for “free” on Game Pass, that’s a different context than someone being on the fence, picking it up, and deciding pretty quickly, “yeah I don’t like this.” Different crowd, different kind of dollar investment, and again, I can see more negative reviews being added that way.

3. Content Creator Videos

This may sound like an insult to the masses, but I sort of understand it. There have been a number of high profile videos released as retrospectives about Starfield, including an eight hour(!) examination by Patrician TV and a widely-shared video by NakeyJakey that has amassed 4.2 million views in two weeks, both hugely critical of Starfield and its “dated” Bethesda game design.

I didn’t quite get this, as what, do people see these videos, hear it’s bad, then go buy the game and review it poorly? But I do think watching these well-made critical videos can cause reflection in those that have already purchased it. Even as someone who liked the game, I found myself watching NakeyJakey’s video and agreeing with much of what he said. No, not enough to go and retroactively change my review score or post a bad Steam review, but I do sort of get why a critic pointing out flaws in an intelligent way could spark some action like that. I don’t think it’s necessarily a “sheep following the big name youtuber” situation, I do believe there’s legitimacy to reflecting on a game and perhaps liking it less over time.

So yeah, that’s what I think is going on here, and why it all adds up to a flurry of recent, negative reviews. I’m sure Bethesda hates to see this, and I really do wonder what they might be planning to try to turn the narrative around.

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Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series and The Earthborn Trilogy.