Starfield broke onto the scene in late 2023 after several long years of hype and general anticipation, but it wasn't received with the universal acclaim that many had expected. It wasn't a poorly reviewed or poorly selling game by any means, but with Bethesda touting Starfield as the next Skyrim—in other words, the next big thing in the RPG genre—the ultimate reality of the project wound up being far more disappointing.
In a nutshell, one could charge Starfield with simply not being "enough." It runs fine, especially compared to other, more roughshod Bethesda games; it has a serviceable sci-fi world with plenty to do; and it has arguably the best moment-to-moment combat of any Bethesda RPG. But for many players, it lacks the X-factor that made the likes of Skyrim and Fallout 3 so special, and with the space-faring adventure title approaching its second birthday, its rather inconsequential impact on the games industry is sorely felt. This is doubly true in the wake of the Shattered Space DLC, which suffered a notably worse reception than the base game. But for those feeling especially weary of Starfield, whether as a result of its purported mediocrity or simply because they've milked it for all it's worth, there's a more than suitable replacement waiting in the wings.
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Why Starfield Fans Should Give No Man's Sky a Chance
No Man's Sky Has Ballooned Into the Definitive Open-World Space Game
When it first launched in 2016, No Man's Sky was received even worse than Starfield was. Starfield was hyped-up as the next big RPG, but No Man's Sky was touted as a revolutionary project: a groundbreaking, procedurally generated game that would kickstart the next era of the gaming medium. Of course, it was unreasonable to expect such great things, especially from a team as small as Hello Games at the time, but the final product was still in rough shape. There was little of substance to do in No Man's Sky at launch, and many wrote it off as yet another oversold, underdelivered release.
But Hello Games didn't give up on its dream, and got to work on steadily improving No Man's Sky through myriad free updates. Over the course of nearly a decade, No Man's Sky has been improved with powerful, transformative new features and content drops, the most significant of which include:
- Proper cooperative multiplayer
- NPC settlements
- A creature companion system
- New role-playing and seedy world-building features via the Outlaws update
- Major expansions to base-building, especially in the context of multiplayer
- A third-person perspective
- A combat overhaul
- Countless bug fixes, graphical enhancements, and quality-of-life improvements
Not only have these changes made No Man's Sky a genuinely good game in 2025, but they also set a rock-solid precedent: players can likely expect more substantial updates to come to the game over time. Beyond the realm of free-to-play live service games, which tend to lean heavily on opportunistic monetization systems, such long-term support is virtually unheard of. In other words, No Man's Sky is a constantly evolving space exploration game, offering a greater abundance of varied content than something like Starfield.
In a way, No Man's Sky fills Starfield's gaps. It includes several features and mechanics that Starfield lacks, such as multiplayer and seamless spaceship exploration, which makes it one of the best companion pieces imaginable for Bethesda's space-themed RPG. Thanks to the virtually boundless potential of user-generated-content, No Man's Sky can continue to grow and change even after Hello Games moves on to its next endeavors, while Starfield will likely cease support after its next DLC, if it does wind up getting one—Bethesda may opt to cut its losses after Shattered Space.
Starfield
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OpenCritic Reviews
- Top Critic Avg: 85 /100 Critics Rec: 83%
