I managed to play Starfield again upon borrowing an Xbox for a couple of weeks recently and the more I played, the more I actually think this is shockingly bad game from Bethesda. I did try and give it a chance this time in the comfort away from a refund prospect but if anything, it just exposed even more woes I didn't like.
Firstly, I think they got the entire design wrong - they should've had 5 varied planets the size of New Vegas and focused on them with galaxy wars, internal factions and interplanetary travel. This would've provided a much more focused experience especially for a Bethesda RPG. Starfield was ultimately built off the back of No Mans Sky's hype and ambitions and it's clear Bethesda didn't capacity or philosophy to pull this off anywhere close especially with an outdated engine, developer skill and a lack of algorithmic depth.
The story is absolute shite and it is so unbelievably safe and uninspired. NPC's and factions merely exist to provide exposition and narrative continuation but other than that, the NPC's stand still in the same places morning, noon and night. In Obsidian's New Vegas, NPC's had routines and if you had to speak to one, you actually had to locate them - they could be shopping, socialising, working, asleep, in a battle or just wandering the land. In Starfield you see the same characters sitting in the same chairs or standing around doing nothing 24/7.
NPC interactions not having facial animations is utterly pathetic especially if you're coming from Baldur's Gate 3 which has over 170 hours of cutscenes and houses every possible dialogue outcome and character emotion imaginable. Starfield took a year longer to produce and it's just lazy and outdated in such crucial aspects like this. Even the character models look dreadful. The dialogue itself carries as much depth as Fallout 4 and is about as dull as the story. This design style is beyond unacceptable now especially for a game in development for 7 years like RDR2.
Exploration is a joke - each planet having a few points of interest and the process in between is littered with immersion breaking loading screens and cutscenes. Every 'unexplored' planet has clearly been explored and houses evidence of life and even life itself so what is the point in going to all these places if they are all the same and you do the same stuff? Loot, shoot, rinse and repeat. They would've been far better off across the board sticking to 3-5 planets in one galaxy for a more crafted 'world'.
In the end I had to stop playing. The game was beyond boring and turning into a chore. I love Bethesda but they got this spectacularly wrong right off the bat and it clearly impacted their design. I think this is their worst title to date and I fear for any future games until they radically change their approach and update their internal architecture.