Starfield... really is a Bethesda game (only the lightest narrative spoilers)
I've been happy to give Starfield a fair shake so far - it's a Bethesda game, and people expecting some kind of Red Dead Redemption Man's Sky ultra-game were deluding themselves into disappointment.
I had clear expectations - some chunky combat, interesting systems, make-your-own-fun, and mostly terrible companions. And it delivered on that nicely in the first 20 or so hours.
But since then it's been a bunch of roadblocks. Mostly mechanical stuff and systems nonsense that I've been able to trudge through and find my own fun (nailed the third tenet there, Todd!)
But I just did a mission that actually made me put down the controller, lean back in my seat, and sigh "dude this game suuuuuuucks"
Minimised: Description of a mission that suuuuuuucks (it's... a long one)
So I have to Aqcuire an item from an eccentric's collection, deep within his lair.
Alright, this setup fucking rules, I love this bullshit.
You can fight or talk your way in, love that for me. My mandatory companion can chime in and "ruin" things, but you can just talk your way around that as if it didn't happen. Ok fair enough.
Once inside, you can fight or talk your way further in. Alright, there's layers, we're still cooking.
You can talk to some unscrupulous guards, who offer information about a distraction and a hidden way into the vault. FUCK. YES. We are cooking. What's more, I can bribe them to join me should a fight happen to break out. This rules.
Then you meet the big guy and can fight or talk your way all the way in... or let the mandatory companion talk you in? Ok that kind of sucks though, if the companion can do this in an unmissable way, why not just make that the whole plan? Or like a fun missable option if you don't bring them along when they ask to be brought? I'm just not allowed to miss anything, ok. After Baldur's Gate 3, that feels very jarring but hey, different game, different goals, we roll with these.
He walks us the long way down after we sweet-talk him, and shows us the item and refuses to sell. So we have 2 options - grab it and fight him, or fight him and grab it. That's all the game presents.
Ok so I back out of the conversation and walk away, go find the hidden way into the vault and... he's just standing there by the item in the vault. With nobody to talk to, just... looking at the item.
Ok, clearly I was supposed to do this without walking with him to the vault - his guards seem chill with me, so I reload a save, don't talk to him, wander down 90% of the way to the hidden way into the vault, where a guard suddenly goes hostile. Oh shit, so this area is off limits. It's a vault I suppose? Figures.
But this guard is posted staring at the only door you can use, so I cannot get past without a distraction. OH FUCK THE DISTRACTION!
So I set of the distraction, people are fighting and dying all over the place but they haven't gone hostile to me! BINGO! I save-scum sneak past the guard, through the hidden way into the vault, gently open the case, pick up the item...
And everyone goes hostile, magically recognises that I've stolen it, and all the exits are being watched like the previous one so I'm forced to fight my way out through his dozens of guards.
What was the fucking point of any of that?
So I fight my way out, it's a fucking massacre, I one-shot like 20 guards and decide "in for a penny, in for a pound" so I might as well go kill the captain. 20 more guards later, I shoot him a bunch and when he hits 0HP he surrenders... and I can tell him to make his guards stand down.
And my brain goes into overdrive. Hold the fuck on a second.
I reload my save where I'm standing in front of him, about to speak to him for the first time. I pull out my hand cannon, and I blast him in the fucking face. He immediately surrenders, no other shots are fired. He tells his crew to stand down. And I get to grab the item with only a minor bounty that you get with ANY of the possible options.
That's the cleanest solution to this quest, in terms of body-count and time.
So the top-level summary here (this is how I make you go back and read that screed, because there's just no way this is true, right?):
- They set up and demonstrate the idea of multiple paths through.
- They set up multiple avenues of attack beyond simple brute force.
- None of those options work.
- You have to fight.
- The pacifist solution is to shoot the boss in the face without speaking to him.
dude this game suuuuuuucks