At time of writing, Starfield’s Steam review score is at an unenviable, beige “Mixed” rating, with only 59% of its total reviews coming in positive. Its first DLC, Shattered Space, is faring even worse: It’s currently sitting at “Mostly Negative,” with just 38% positive user reviews.
But Starfield design director Emil Pagliarulo isn’t letting it dissuade him. In a recent chat with GamesRadar, Pagliarulo said that—though Starfield might not be “everyone’s cup of tea”—he reckons “it’s also, in a lot of ways, the best game we’ve ever made.”
This is, of course, a slightly wild thing for the studio that made Morrowind (its actual best game) and Skyrim (its most popular game by miles) to say, and I’m not convinced Pagliarulo didn’t momentarily forget every game Bethesda made after Wayne Gretzky Hockey in order to come to that conclusion. Still, he does offer some justification for the judgement.
Per Pagliarulo, Starfield is also the “hardest thing Bethesda has ever done” in many ways. “We pushed ourselves to make something totally different. To just jam into an Xbox the biggest, richest space simulation RPG anyone could imagine.” That the studio—by its own assessment, at least—succeeded in doing that makes it one of its most ambitious and best games. “I’m not saying Starfield is better or worse than any other game,” says Pagliarulo, “just different in what we offer. It’s that weird Bethesda blend of immersion, action, and RPG.”
Which, sure, kinda. On some level, I do salute Bethesda for trying its hand at something outside its usual wheelhouse with Starfield, and I wouldn’t want to discourage the studio from trying that again, I just don’t think the experiment was ultimately a success in this case.
Morrowind was a much more narratively ambitious game, Skyrim saw Bethesda distil its rambling open worlds into something that still has people hooked 13 years later. Even Fallout 4, far from the studio’s most-loved game, was more successfully experimental with its building mechanics than Starfield was with its countless blank-slate planets. Calling Starfield the best game in your library seems more like a statement of defiance against the backlash than a true assessment of its qualities, regardless of how ambitious it was.
Anyway, apparently Bethesda hasn’t been too dissuaded by the lukewarm reception its space sim got. Pagliarulo says it’s now joined Fallout and Elder Scrolls on the podium as one of Bethesda’s “big three”.
“Most importantly, Starfield has its own unique personality, and now sits right next to Fallout and Elder Scrolls,” he says. I’m not sure that will be welcome news to fans lusting after a new game in the other two series, but hey, if Emil and Todd are soliciting ideas, I’ve got a few on how to make the next Starfield less of a damp squib than its predecessor.
