I'm gonna throw my 2 cents in here so far. I torrented this shit all day so at least I could provide some input.
I'm getting 40 - 50 fps on high settings at native res 1440p, 3070ti, 5900x, the shadows look awful no matter what setting and they have bad acne. Game is just ugly
I agree with you, played about 3 hours and it looks like fucking ass. It's like the 2007 piss filter and bloom had a retarded cousin; everything looks brownish and dreary and blurry it actually kinda makes my eyes tired - that could be the resolution upscaling THOUGH. I've been on the tutorial planets so far so the brownish look may change down the line, but I'm not holding my breath.
As for the performance, I cannot fathom what demands all that computing power - it looks just like Fallout 4 with a shitty 'visual rehaul' mod. The models for characters look the same as FO4 except for the facial animations which stand out in a jarring way? They look uncanny sometimes. I guess there's more junk lying around? More tiny details? I seriously don't get it. This game looks like it should've released 3-4 years after FO4, not 8.
And it's not just like Fallout 4 visually, a LOT of shit feels recycled. The laser guns, for instance, sound and feel just like the Institute laser rifles. The PDA acts the exact same as the Pip-Boy, just with a worse menu that's different only to make it not too much like the Pip-Boy. The legendary weapon system returns essentially verbatim. The cooking station stood out to me as a rehash of the cooking stove in FO4. Level up system is very reminiscent of FO4's level up system, only with the addon of having to do challenges to level up perks (which is a good change). It's an overhaul of the Creation Engine but it still has the whole 'open door animation to a loading screen'; the difference is the shorter load time. It's enough where it makes me to say to myself, 'jesus this is literally FO4' once in a while.
As for gunplay, its - you guessed it - just like Fallout 4's. However, it doesn't have VATS to fall back on so it's very basic. Serviceable, but that's about it.
Is it fair to say this game is less open world in nature and more linear RPG? Is there just a lack of a big place to roam around (that doesn't feel empty) and just instead a bunch of smaller hubs or locations spread around on multiple planets?
Just a bunch of smaller hubs/locations. It isn't any less an open world, per se, just that there isn't any reason to explore at all - Bethesda admitted to all the planets being pre-generated and only adding mission POI after the fact, and boy does it feel like it. Also, with all the fast traveling in the map menus, it feels jarring and robs the feeling of a true open world like Skyrim or RDR2 or whatever.
I usually like Bethesda titles just to fuck around in, but Starfield seems boring so far. Bethesda titles have a good opening story hook to get you a little invested. FO3, Oblivion, Skyrim, FO4 - all memorable intros. Starfield's falls flat on its face; you work in mine, you touch rock, gay prerendered cutscene vision plays, you get on ship and take off. I take it as a sign to come for Starfield as a whole. Too much menu juggling, and the combat is too stale at this point to command attention. This game helped me realize just how much Bethesda leaned on the Fallout lore Interplay established, to do the heavy lifting for them.
