Starfield Devs Surprisingly Reply To Negative Steam Reviews

Negative reviews are part of the lifespan of every game because you simply can’t please everyone. Starfield, though, went from Positive to Mixed on Steam with over 80,000 reviews with 69% being positive at the time of writing. Negative reviews can be disheartening, especially for a game of this scale. But unlike most developers, Bethesda is actually replying to negative reviews of Starfield on Steam.

Bethesda Customer Support is Replying to Negative Starfield Reviews on Steam

As noticed by TheGamer, Twitter user @JuiceHead33 discovered that Bethesda is replying to negative reviews and “despite media attention, the replies haven’t stopped.”

Bethesda is responding to negative Starfield reviews on Steam. Absolutely bizarre if you ask me and despite media attention this hasn't stopped, the last response is from today pic.twitter.com/ay589tg8cc

— JuiceHead (@JuiceHead33) November 28, 2023

While replying isn’t the problem, it’s the reply itself that’s catching the attention of players.

In one instance where the player called the story generic, gameplay boring and overall a “repeating, soulless chore”, Bethesda replied with this message:

Source: Steam

[bs-quote quote=”Greetings,

Thank you for taking the time to leave a review for Starfield!

You can fly, you can shoot, you can mine, you can loot!
Starfield is an RPG with hundreds of hours of quests to complete and characters to meet. Most quests will also vary on your character’s skills and decisions, massively changing the outcome of your playthrough. Try creating different characters with backgrounds and characteristics that clash or are oppositive of your previous character. You will feel like you are playing a totally different game. Put points in different skills from a character you’ve previously created, and you are now faced with completely different decisions to make and difficulties to encounter.

There are so many layers to Starfield, that you will find things you’ve never knew were possible after playing for hundreds of hours.

Even after completing the Main Story, your adventure doesn’t end! You can continue onto New Game+ to keep exploring Starfield and all that is out there!

Never stop exploring!
Bethesda Customer Support” style=”default” align=”center” color=”” author_name=”” author_job=”” author_avatar=”” author_link=””][/bs-quote]

For another in-depth review that talks about the content, story, exploration, and more, here’s Bethesda’s reply.

Source: Steam

[bs-quote quote=”Hi there,

Thank you for taking the time to provide your review and we are sorry to hear that you were disappointed with encountering many loading screens while playing.

While there may be loading screens in between fast travelling, just consider the amount of data for the expansive gameplay that is procedurally generated to load flawlessly in under 3 seconds. We believe that shortcoming will not hinder our players from getting lost in the world we created.

Starfield is an RPG with hundreds of hours of quests to complete and characters to meet. Most quests will also vary on your character’s skills and decisions, massively changing the outcome of your playthrough. Try creating different characters with backgrounds and characteristics that clash or are oppositive of your previous character. You will feel like you are playing a totally different game. Put points in different skills from a character you’ve previously created, and you are now faced with completely different decisions to make and difficulties to encounter. There are so many layers to Starfield, that you will find things you’ve never knew were possible after playing for hundreds of hours.
Even after completing the Main Story, your adventure doesn’t end! You can continue onto New Game+ to keep exploring Starfield and all that is out there!

You can send further feedback to development here.

Never stop exploring!

Bethesda Customer Support” style=”default” align=”center” color=”” author_name=”” author_job=”” author_avatar=”” author_link=””][/bs-quote]

Here’s another example:

Source: Steam (click to expand image)

As per Metacritic, Starfield has Generally Favorable Critic Reviews (Score: 83) and Mixed or Average User Ratings (7.0).

According to me, the game is well-done, but misses its mark in a lot of factors and is just a bit too bland. By no means is it a bad game. However, in a competitive year packed with some great titles, Starfield ends up losing out. It lost out on a GOTY nomination in The Game Awards 2023 and was beaten by Alan Wake 2, Baldur’s Gate 3, Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, Resident Evil 4, Super Mario Bros. Wonder, and Tears of the Kingdom.

While I understand where the developers are coming from and why they’d want to reply to reviews, it may have just done more harm than good at this point.