Starfield and the crazy madness of review numbers

Yesterday finally arrived Starfield Ratings By the international press. An apparently real “event” that was awaited as much as the actual launch of the game, between those who couldn’t wait to learn more about Bethesda’s latest efforts and clarify any doubts or confirm certain expectations, and those who weren’t and instead looked up all this and got angry or angry. I was happy because Average math grades It’s 0.x points below the magical 90 that serves as a watershed between bad games that should be avoided like the plague and absolute masterpieces that deserve a GOTY award, respect and unconditional love to be passed on to future generations.

Just take a tour of the social networks, fan forums, or even simply the comments section below our Starfield review to get an idea of ​​how many people there are, rather than reading the opinions of those who spent tens or hundreds of hours last time. With Bethesda’s effort, they just pulled away Metacritic and Opencritic To discover the “metascore”, it seems to be the only real element to take into account. And if you’re not happy with the outcome, that sense of exasperation and chase is triggered for the classic, senseless confrontation that “Okay, yeah, the critics screwed up again big time.”

Starfield has 0.x less gameplay points Y? shelf! Does it have the same average as Final Fantasy 16? Unacceptable journalism clearly supported by Sony! Does she have one point less than the Sea of ​​Stars? Blame it on the usual nepotism of independent productions! We could go on if we wanted to, now that all the ‘enthusiasts’ have given us a torrent of other examples.

But in short, is Starfield a great game, just a good game or a historical masterpiece?

This whole situation is frankly not so surprising as it is sad It is repeated periodically Whenever a game appears, the community is especially awaited. Especially when it comes to exclusivity: in this case for the Keyboard Ultras, negative/positive/different expectations voting is the perfect tool to mock the rival faction and feel complacent. We say: Make them happy, and make everyone happy.

After all, the number on Open Critic and Metacritic is indisputable and absolute. Woe to take into account the fact that Critics scale They change over time as does the gaming market, which is expanding, evolving and constantly setting new standards, often making comparisons to previous titles completely useless. Or comparing two different games, even of the same genre, doesn’t always make sense. Or, again, that a review can never be entirely subjective and that a vote can also be conditional on a scale based on values ​​quite different from those of the rest of the critics, see for example the English magazine EDGE for which he always causes quite a stir with his inconsiderate ratings Traditional.

However, we may not snatch the calculator from your hands, but allow us to conclude like this: we can safely say that Starfield is an enormous, multifaceted and generally excellent, if not perfect, game. However, there are many elements to consider that you may or may not value based on your tastes and that can have a different weight to you in your general judgment than that of the journalist on duty. So it’s not worth spending those 10 minutes to read one or more reviews Understand the real reasons Behind this few numbers at the bottom of the article before you pick up torches and pitchforks or buy sight and then regret it later?