Starfield review

Starfield has the broadest feature list of the story games here, but its reviews hold it back. Bethesda Game Studios sets the game in 2330, when humanity has settled beyond the solar system, and lets you explore more than 1,000 planets, join the Constellation explorers and take on faction quests across the Settled Systems. You design and modify ships, assign crew for bonuses, fight dogfights in deep space, dock at stations and board enemy ships to add them to your fleet. On the ground you gather resources, craft gear and build outposts linked by cargo routes. The base game costs $49.99 and the Shattered Space expansion $19.99 on Steam. Hardware demands are the highest here: 16 GB of RAM, 125 GB on an SSD and an AMD Radeon RX 5700 or GeForce 1070 Ti. Only 57% of 86,166 English Steam reviews are positive, which is why it ranks near the bottom.

Who it is for

Bethesda RPG fans who want to captain a ship and explore planets

Price

$49.99 one-time purchase on Steam (US store).

creators of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and Fallout 4. $49.99 Buy on Steam
Quoted from the vendor pricing page on November 12, 2026.

Key features

• More than 1,000 planets to explore
• Build and customize ships, assign crew and board enemy ships
• Space dogfights and docking at star stations
• Outposts with crew and cargo links for resource extraction
• Character creation with Backgrounds and Traits

Strengths and weaknesses

• Strength: More than 1,000 planets to explore, per Bethesda's Steam page
• Strength: Ship building, boarding and dogfights in one game
• Strength: Shattered Space story expansion sold on Steam for $19.99
• Weakness: 57% of 86,166 English Steam reviews are positive, the lowest on this list
• Weakness: Minimum spec needs 16 GB of RAM, 125 GB of storage and an SSD
• Weakness: Single-player only and Windows only on Steam

Key facts

• Developer: Bethesda Game Studios
• Publisher: Bethesda Softworks
• Released on Steam: September 5, 2023
• Minimum RAM: 16 GB
• English Steam reviews: 57% positive of 86,166

Where it ranks

Starfield is No. 9 in our Best Space Games verdict and No. 9 in Best Xbox Series X Games.