Starfield’s Reviews Are Getting Even Worse, But Bethesda Finally Addresses Backlash

Summary

• Starfield
  ‘s paid Creations mission “The Vulture” has sparked significant backlash.
• Bethesda is considering reevaluating content delivery and pricing following negative feedback.
• Paid mods are still a significant part of Bethesda’s approach to game content.

Starfield is courting more controversy now than ever, and the situation has gotten severe enough to be directly addressed by developer Bethesda Game Studios. The spacefaring RPG has always been divisive, with complaints about repetition and a lack of interesting content compared to Bethesda’s previous games sometimes overriding the game’s strong points. The recent introduction of paid mods added fuel to the fire, and an official Bethesda mission being released through the Starfield Creations platform at a price resulted in a significant surge in negative reviews.

As reported by IGN, Starfield director and Bethesda executive producer Todd Howard responded to the backlash in an interview with YouTube creator MrMattyPlays. Howard made it clear that Bethesda is aware of the feedback and stated that the studio is “going to take a look at that and how [it] deliver[s] content like that,” indicating that future additions are unlikely to follow the same structure.

“But now we definitely see the feedback right? And that’s not what we want at all in terms of, oh no, this looks like a faction that we’re chopping up and then selling for 700 credits at a time. And so I do think we are going to take a look at that and how we deliver content like that, and whether we’re changing pricing or breaking it up or what we should do there. So, great feedback from the community.” – Todd Howard

Bethesda still seems committed to the Creations approach in general, something that’s recurred throughout multiple major titles by the studio.

Starfield’s Paid Mission Has Proven Very Unpopular

“The Vulture” Doesn’t Earn Its Price Tag

The Creations release that’s making the community so unhappy is a DLC mission called “The Vulture,” part of a Trackers Alliance concept that essentially works as a bounty hunters club. With a cost of 700 credits, “The Vulture” is worth the equivalent of seven dollars, a price that seems steep for a single mission. It’s easy to see how Trackers Alliance content could quickly add up in price, and it compares unfavorably to more substantial expansions available for Fallout 4 and other Bethesda games with relatively similar price tags.

It would definitely have been difficult for Bethesda to remain unaware of the Starfield community’s opinion on “The Vulture,” which has contributed to a “Mostly Negative” consensus for recent reviews on Starfield‘s Steam page. The overall review score is sitting at “Mixed,” a far cry from the “Very Positive” and “Overwhelmingly Positive” accolades for Elder Scrolls and Fallout games on the platform.

Todd Howard’s comments don’t seem to imply that Bethesda will abandon future plans for Trackers Alliance missions, but future pricing models might be reworked for the better. Paid mods, which can be a thorny subject of their own, are definitely here to stay, with Howard describing the importance of financial compensation for “professionals” making Creations. Whether Starfield can fully recover from its current missteps remains to be seen, but it’s at least possible to appreciate that complaints haven’t been met with complete radio silence.

Source: IGN, MrMattyPlays/YouTube, Steam