Bethesda responds to negative Starfield reviews but players aren’t impressed
Bethesda/ValveDespite a largely positive launch, fan opinions surrounding Starfield appear to have degraded in recent weeks. The game’s rating on Steam is now sitting at ‘Mixed’ and Bethesda have even responded to negative reviews on the platform directly.
Starfield was easily among the most-anticipated game releases of 2023. The Xbox exclusive amassed a ton of hype around it, with fans eager to play the latest offering from Bethesda. On launch, the space RPG provided 1000 explorable planets, tons of quests, an impressive arsenal of weapons, and multiple companions among other things.
Critical reception for BGS’ latest title kicked off on a strong note. The game received positive reviews across the board along with a few 10/10’s from reputed publications. However, the general consensus among players wasn’t as encouraging, as many in the community had their reservations about the game.
Players found the game’s exploration to be lacking because of excessive loading screens. The absence of city maps and land vehicles also led to disappointment, and some even felt that the game’s systems were half-baked.
BethesdaAll this led to Starfield becoming a rather divisive topic, although opinions on Steam have only declined in recent weeks. The game’s overall rating has been sitting at ‘Mixed’ while its player count has plummeted. In response, the devs released updates to address some of the community’s complaints but this appears to have done little to change the general opinion around Starfield.
Bethesda Customer Support on Steam has even tackled some of the criticism head-on by responding to negative reviews directly. This was recently spotted by X user ‘JuiceHead’ who uploaded images of the responses from accounts named Bethesda_FalcoYamaoka and Bethesda_Kraken. It’s important to note that both accounts were tagged as ‘developer’ by Steam.
One response aimed towards a critique of the game’s world design stated that “Some of Starfield’s planets are meant to be empty by design – but that’s not boring. ‘When the astronauts went to the moon, there was nothing there. They certainly weren’t bored.'”
Another response looked to provide an explanation for the excessive loading screens: “While there may be loading screens in between fast traveling, just consider the amount of data for the expansive gameplay that is procedurally generated to load flawlessly in under 3 seconds. “
Besides responding to criticism, Bethesda’s responses looked to point out all the game’s features. They even suggested different things players should do to improve their experience, like “Try creating different characters” or find “hidden outposts to look through.”
These responses were met with further criticism from Steam users with one user saying, “Bethesda’s spam replies they’ve been leaving in reviews are embarrassing.” Another user stated, “Was gonna buy until I saw the dev’s response, dang.”
Bethesda’s responses to the community look to have attracted even more disapproval so it remains to be seen if they’ll continue to post responses on Steam.
For more Starfield, check out everything we know about the Shattered Space DLC and the best ships to buy.