It’s been a tough few weeks for Starfield as we headed into the holidays. Just before Christmas, the game’s Steam scores decreased, reaching into the 'Mostly Negative' territory after hanging out for weeks in 'Mixed.'
Before that, it’s also been a steady decline, with the Steam player count decreasing until its predecessor, the Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, overtook it. Despite all the hype that preceded its launch, Starfield failed to grab even a Game of the Year nomination at the Games Awards, losing to Baldur’s Gate 3.
Things looked up after the year changed, however. First, Starfield won the Most Innovative Gameplay award in the 2023 Steam Awards. It also sits at No. 7 in Eurogamer’s Top 50 Games for 2023 - a survey requiring player votes to rank games.
This was revealed through a screenshot posted by user techno on Reddit. The screenshot showed two positive user comments for Starfield from users Gnasher1001 and Slowdog1976.
Gnasher1001 admitted that Bethesda’s newest open-world RPG did not truly live up to most people’s standards, but he just wanted a narrative full of stories. Starfield, he said, gave that to him.
On the other hand, Slowdog1976 implied that Starfield’s weaknesses were due to Bethesda's inability to break free from traditional tropes of its own making. However, he still managed to sink his teeth into it for 300 hours “without batting an eyelid.”
There are many exciting things in store for Starfield players willing to hold this line this year.
Bethesda has promised various updates that will change the user experience for the fans of the open-world space exploration program. The first one is due to drop in early February, just four weeks away.