Recent reviews by Goatroach

First week was 100% cleansing of a certain demographic; I got a perfect score with a raise and promotion!
10/10

Play it with the Unfinished Business mod.

First, I was gifted this game by a buddy who wanted me to join his modded server, and I have NOT played this game without mods. I have not been paid/compensated for this review.

That said, this is a great game, and I especially enjoy the exploration and base-building.
Unlike similar games (Namely Ark: Survival Evolved, which I love, too), this game has a lot more story elements, friendly/neutral NPCs, voiced dialogue, a LOT of lore to be found, and there's just something I can't quite put my finger on. The biomes drastically change the feel/atmosphere, and their inhabitants are just as interesting.

The combat system isn't bad, and actually requires you to have skill to defeat bosses. Even the mini-bosses, named enemy human/humanoid NPCs, can pose a significant threat early and mid-game in the starter areas (desert region). A way to make life easier in these harsh lands, is to take thralls, a more PC way of saying "slaves." You use the "Wheel of Pain," or as my buddies and I call it, the "Wheel of Friendship," to break the spirits of those you literally bonked over the head, and dragged back to your home. These thralls can fight for you, but others can dance for your amusement, cook, smith, etc. If you are opposed to taking slaves in a video game, this game is not for you. If you are a functional person, capable of separating fantasy from reality, then this won't be a problem for you. No different than capturing Pokemon, just a more barbaric method, lol. This game is pretty much unbeatable without thralls/slaves, so get used to this core mechanic if you intend to buy.

The soundtrack is great, setting the atmosphere of your location and situation. It's one of those things where it's done so right, you might not even notice, unless you mute the music, at which point the game will feel bland. I HIGHLY recommend keeping the music on. Makes such a difference in the gameplay.

You can also do siege event things, basically tower defense with your base, and man, it's a challenge. My buddy is a Dark Souls psycho, a total masochist, so we did those at his base, which was a cold, soulless, towering box of death. I prefer cozy builds, but cozy builds are not good for fending off legions of soldiers and automaton nightmares, or even the avatars of the gods. Just not my thing, but if you like tower defense, there's the option for that in this game, and you initiate it when you're ready to; it's not forced on you.

Playing with mods, I recommend this game.
It's a ton of fun with friends, especially when having god battles (you summon and control the avatar of your chosen god to wreck havoc upon the world).
If you love exploration, this game is for you.
If you love lore, this game is for you.
If you love dungeoneering, this game is for you (butt-pucker factor 10 when you round a corner and there's a skeletal dragon boss you didn't expect).
If you love base building, this game is for you.

Conan Exiles scratches an itch few other games manage to reach.

It's Skyrim.
Have you seriously not played this game?
How can you even call yourself a gamer?
Why are you still reading this? Buy the game.

My hours on Steam do not reflect my true game time. I have spent thousands of hours in this game.
I stood in line on 11/11/11 to get the original on Xbox 360. I have the dang Alduin statue on my book shelf.
When I got this for PC, I modded the heck out of it, as one does.
After a certain point, Bethesda initiated the "Modpocalypse," and I created a protected installation folder where Bethesda can't hurt my carefully curated mods (like over 500 mods, running more stable than the vanilla game). The hundreds of hours I've played in this shadow installation are not tracked on Steam.

Play this game. You will understand.
This isn't so much a game, as it is a rite of passage to call yourself a gamer. Like playing Tetris, or the original Rainbow Road in Mario Kart (the re-releases have walls on Rainbow Road, which is sacrilegious).

Stop reading this. Go play this iconic piece of gaming history.
Murder someone using a fork. Do it... like, in the game, not IRL. You'll get in trouble IRL if you do that.

This is a VERY EARLY ALPHA build of the game.
If you do not understand what that means, and don't understand the development process of a video game, please, do not buy this, then complain of how incomplete it is.

If you do understand the above, and wish to be a part of testing and submitting feedback and bugs in exchange for some fun early access at a reduced price tag, then yes, by all means, buy this and support a great dev team!

I've been enjoying the new features, and I have high hopes for the future of this game!
I don't mind the bugs and lack of features, because to me, part of the fun is getting to directly report issues to the devs in a concise and professional manner, then seeing them actually fix it.

It was also very funny that I crashed the game by crashing Big Red into blue ship in the classic manner, but at over 600 mph this time, lol!

The new unified grid system is amazing, and I'm super excited to see where this game will be 5 years from now!

Absolute garbage.
I was coaxed into trying it. "No, no! It's way better than DA2!" they said.
"It's the best DA game ever!" they said.

Pure. Garbage.
DA2 was also garbage. DA: Origins was a freaking masterpiece among masterpieces.
This game is some sort of skin-walker software wearing a DA-themed skin suit.

Seeing how the most recent one doubled down on wokeness, it's no surprise to me that this is yet another lifeless husk with bioware stamped on the corpse. EA really f'd Bioware hard. Like, EA won't just let the studio die; they keep thrusting themselves upon the desecrated remains, thinking the jostling meat is indication of life.

I didn't play this for 16 hours.
This game sucks; the tutorial lies to you about the gameplay, game's full of micro transactions, nothing tells you how to scan planets or explains the judicial system. I accepted a mission, spent half my money on a suit it needed for some reason, struggled for like an hour to figure out how to fly to the planet which was just named a bunch of gibberish numbers, got there, couldn't get permission to land, so I landed far away and went on foot, only to be scanned by guards, killed, and my crime was "crime." They took the remaining half of my starting money, and I still have a fine to pay that's more than my remaining money.

Also, my ship is running out of fuel, and I have no idea where to go to refuel.
Every time I bring my weapons out, my ship looses all power, and I'm dead in the water.

I have no idea where to go. I tried landing on a random ice planet, but it won't let me go below orbit.

This game is very pretty, beautiful HUD, but game play is some of the worst I've seen.

Oh, and the game is laden with micro-transactions worse than any FTP game I've seen, but this game isn't free, so WTF?

I want my money back.

Well, I have over 600 hours in the game, so here's my take:
Starfield has a lot of potential, but many of the criticisms are justified, yet many are judging too harshly.
Like any Bethesda title, it's better with mods... LOTS of mods.

That said, the vanilla aspects I really enjoy are the story (both main and sides), ship combat, and ship boarding.
However, a must-have mod to capture ships is Sit to Add Ship to Fleet[www.nexusmods.com], which I have no idea why Bethesda didn't make this the norm, rather than the agonizing, tedious musical chairs nonsense that outright ruins the victory of capturing a ship to either keep or sell.

The side stories are actually really, really, REALLY good, especially the Crimson Fleet story line. I think that quest line has the best characters. As for Constellation, the main story, I don't know why anyone likes Sara or Andrea. Sam Coe is my favorite of that group, and even Walter is up there. Very refreshing to see an obscenely rich person portrayed as a good guy for a change, and he's genuinely an interesting character with motives that fit.

For those thinking the game is woke, I'd have to disagree. Sure, they ask for the silly pronoun nonsense in character creation, but that's about where it ends. There are gay married couples in the game, but it never seems forced. It would not surprise me if such relationships were a thing in the future, and like I said, when they crop up here and there, it seems organic. Unnecessary, perhaps, but it doesn't break immersion. So, doesn't personally bother me. Besides, it's not like they're flagged as "essential," lol. It's single player; play however you want. There are also some very based things in the game, too. It feels realistic having a variety of types of people and perspectives in the world space, so just enjoy the game for what it is.

That brings me to the conclusion: this game is a Bethesda game. Y'all should know what that means by now if you've been playing Bethesda games for the past 20 years. You get a rough start, Creation Kit comes out, modders fix a bunch of stuff, DLCs drop, modders make the game incredible, and 10 years later Bethesda will break all your mods with an unnecessary update. If you understand this, then dude, get Starfield. I've been having a ton of fun with it, and really enjoying the mods thus far. I can only imagine how dope this game will be 10 years from now when I have to hide the installation folder from Steam like I did with my precious Skyrim SE that has over 300 carefully curated mods.

TL;DR:
I recommend Starfield. Wait for a sale if you're on the fence, because the longer you wait, the more fantastic mods will await you. If you think vanilla Starfield should be perfect, I don't know what to say other than ask you if you realize it's made by Bethesda. You know what you're getting.

Unlike your many survivors, this game is still alive and well.
The trailer on the Steam page doesn't even begin to do this game justice.
The developers and community are still passionately improving the game more than a decade later.
Even someone like me who typically doesn't really like zombie games can't help loving this game.
This game just scratches all the itches when they itch.
The learning curve is steep, because there's so much you can do.
If you'd do something or not do something IRL, chances are, the game follows the same logic.

Do yourself a favor, if you're on the fence; buy this game.
Just do it. The customization is astounding, and you can play it as hardcore or casual as you want.
The isometric view takes a little getting used to, but man, it's the right choice for this genre.
This game will grow on you, and quickly become a favorite game in your library.

Changed my review, assuming Sony makes good on letting us play without a PSN account; I highly recommend this game. It is top-notch, a living meme, and feels like how games used to be prior to 2014. Just good solid fun, no woke contamination, just pure PvE action!

So up until recently, I would have given this game a 10/10, BUT, now we gotta sign up for a stupid PSN account to play... on Steam... with other Steam users. F--- that. Do not buy this game until they let Steam users play with Steam users, free of PSN bulls---ery.

Disclaimer, my friends bought me this game, HOWEVER, I have spent about $30 on super credits to fast track unlocking the premium war bonds, so yeah, I seriously loved this game until now, and did in fact spend money on it despite "receiving this product for free."