Starfield Has Possibly The Best Single-Player Narrative Of All Time, Says God Of War Director

He must be a very dull boring man that loves dull boring things!!
Starfield for me anyway was a total let down and a buggy mess!

High praise indeed!!

If he’s talking about the actual story missions then he’s crazy. Starfield has one of the dullest stories I’ve ever played.

If he’s talking about the Freeform role playing aspects then yes, I would agree.

Put the glue down, David.

Uhhh… An early April Fools’ joke I’m guessing. I liked Starfield and it’s just a ridiculous statement.

Erm I think he must be high lol

Story and faction quests were a lot of fun. I think the flow of the stories gets broken up by all the loading screens.

I'm sure the story is good... but the constant load screens were just too much for me to really get into it

This is a weird one for me because I never really care about the narrative in Bethesdas other games, I just went out adventuring in the world. It's very much the opposite in Starfield. I found the adventuring to be EXTREMELY boring but I really enjoyed most of the main campaign.

Every time I hear about this guy and his opinions, I realize how lucky we are that he hasn’t touched the God of War series since GoW 2 back in the day.

I agree with him. Starfield is incredible. One of the best games of this era.

I respect Jaffe and he’s not an idiot. He was always super down to earth when I heard him talk in the past. So I’d love to hear him elaborate on this opinion. That’s not me being catty, I’m genuinely curious.

I have no beef with Starfield or its story. Except maybe with the expansion… And pretty much how it’s been handled post launch. However, that was one hell of an inflammatory thing to post.

This game definitely has some redeeming qualities, but narrative is so not one of them. Bethesda never was good with narrative in their games, but, man, this is the new low. It's probably the worst narrative in the last years if you skip Redfall.
Bland, boring, lifeless characters, meaningless story that goes nowhere and ends with nothing. Effortless DLC that says nothing and means the same in the game world as a whole.
The game's beautiful, that's true. I spent almost 90 hours there doing... something, I can't even tell. So it wasn't that bad.
But it's a junk food. You shouldn't indulge in that, it's bad for your health.

Starfield is just a typical Bethesda game. Awful gameplay, boring story, old gen graphics, dodgy scripting, terrible AI like all their games but I still put over 150 hours as with the others. No idea how but they must be doing something right somewhere?!?

I have a feeling I will be returning to this game in the future and actually enjoying it. I think the anticipation (mine included) for this was just way too high and we were sold a lot more than what we got. But I think on its own merit, it'll end up being a good game to those who play it after the outrage finally settles and people revisit it.

It's not flawless, but I really enjoyed the game unlike some overrated games, despite the first hours that I considered boring. The faction stories are fascinating. You need to take your time with this game, it's not one to rush.

@InheritNegative Nah, Jaffe is an idiot. Maybe he didn't used to be, but he definitely is now. This isn't even based on this take, I haven't played the game so I won't judge it, but his constant whining online over the current direction of the GoW series has rightfully gained him his current status. Also, there's the infamous Metroid Dread clip, in case you really need proof.

For me the best single player story was in a little unknown DS game that was about escaping from different rooms.
The game was successful enough to finally have two sequels and then being ported everywhere.
It's the original Zero Escape game, before it was even Zero Escape.

999: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors.

@themightyant So I say this with the caveat that despite the fact that I play games "for the story" I don't really have a "favorite" narrative as IMO there are too many holes and inconsistency in game writing that I don't think game narratives stand on their own as high art.

However. I do enjoy Starfield's plot in part because it is neatly self-contained and the motivations make sense based on human nature. I'm a trekkie (for the diplomacy not the bunk scifi) but acknowledge that unless there is an alien threat to force cohesion, humanity would likely devolve to warring factions much like Starfield. (we don't do well on the same planet together....sharing the galaxy would not end well). But all the motivations are realistic (imo), greed and lust for knowledge with no ethical oversight, damning Earth, others making decisions that will assure that only the wealthy and the fortunate survive, temporary cohesion...and that breaking right up in a short period of time, war, religious and patriotic zealotry. Even the Starborn are hilariously realistic because it makes sense that given what going through the unity does, and the powers it bestows, that it would result in another version of a war and apathy for other humans. It’s also deliberately meta commentary which is fun as well.

The part of me that wants to know everything of course wants answers to the origin of the artifacts (I have theories of course) but I realized that the story feels complete without that still because it really is just "human nature in space": the game. I do love the sense of exploration and the glimmers of kindness as well, which is enough to keep me quite engrossed. So while I won't say it is the best story I have ever seen, it is an enjoyable one.

I am a little biased but still think Starfield has the best sound of any game in my recent memory. Makes you feel that you are in a movie. As for the game itself there is a lot of story you can sink into and explore but definitely not the absolute best…

Atlast Sony's camp admits what all of us have known all along, Xbox games beats by a million miles all other games when it comes to quality, ofcourse story being one of really important parts of games. Its time to take notes Sony, you can start from Starfield!

Lol this must be one of the worst takes of all time, but then again what do you expect from an out of touch a hole who designed games with ridiculous stories and can't even understand a basic Metroid room?
If anything, Starfield is a terrible game on so many fronts, story included. Characters are cardboard cutouts, factions are nearly indistinguishable from one another, the worldbuilding is atrocious unimaginative, and completely at odds with itself (grounded Nasapunk but also space magic? Sure), and the central mystery is never resolved.
If that's a great story to him, I hope he never approaches a writers' room.

Maybe he was on drugs, when he said that?

hahaha, Yes Starfield is intriguing at times. Story wise it like many other futuristic space shooters. Red Faction has a better story.
But when talking about a amazing narrative that holds you, surly the likes of Shenmue , the Yakuza series, The Last of Us, Heavy Rain are more legendary than Starfield

Starfield is a very good game but I can't agree with this level of praise haha. I think the main campaign and story quests are good in terms of narrative but I can think of better.

I poured about five hours into Starfield, eagerly hoping to be swept away by its vast possibilities, but it soon dawned on me that it was a fruitless endeavor. While the game boasts a multitude of systems, the sheer complexity left me lost and bewildered, scrambling to figure out my objectives. At one point, I found myself aboard my spaceship with six strangers milling about, and to my utter confusion, I couldn't even recognize two of them. It was both chaotic and frustrating, a far cry from the adventure I had envisioned.

@themcnoisy The first ten hours are the worst, but it is huge and still worth playing. My complaints about it are along those lines, the tutorials and explanations are either late or poor and even navigating the user interface, setting an outpost up and progressing are not clear. However, after those ten hours, it is a wonderful experience and, in some ways, better than Skyrim.

@Banjo- I really don’t know, my friend. Even though they occupy entirely different realms of gaming, Indiana Jones showcased an elegant tapestry of interconnected systems that harmonized beautifully. In stark contrast, Starfield felt like a jumbled mess, with its myriad components haphazardly cobbled together into a puzzling experience that left me feeling unsatisfied. My enthusiasm waned dramatically when I touched down on a planet that had a lone, pathetic farm—aside from the usual trio of random locations found scattered across every other planet—which struck me as utterly ludicrous. I mean, in a universe like that, you would practically be begging to be ambushed by space pirates! It’s hard to believe how poorly they set the stage for adventure in a galaxy that should be teeming with life and peril!

@themcnoisy Fair enough. I wasn't hyped about it and I played it recently. It's very satisfying after the first ten hours. When I started Ryujin's story, I didn't feel comfortable because of what it entails, but after a while I was hooked on it. There is a lot of wasted potential though, and I'm not sure about scanning all the planets, which is the weakest part in my opinion, but I found myself enjoying the freedom and gameplay variety until the end of all the stories and the unique side quests, which translates to hundreds of hours. Like another player said, the sound is also memorable. Two things I need to say is that the ship builder is awful, like Tears of the Kingdom, and I can't help repeating how great Banjo-Kazooie Nuts & Bolts (2008) truly is in this regard. Another weird thing about Starfield is that almost all the important characters are women.

Oh yes, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is perfect. I have no doubts about this one.

The narrative of the game is pretty good. I think things to do with the end game and the design choice of having randomly generated planets, enemies and bases made a lot of people get bored quick and think they put no effort into the game. A lot of the game, environments and storylines, however, ARE handcrafted and there are some very cool moments throughout my 100+ hours with the game and I didn't even complete all the different narratives yet. You can still learn new things about your crew mates 100 hours into the game too. I get where he is coming from, I think people over hyped the game and didn't really take the time to get to know it. Blowing through the main campaign does get repetitive but I think this is a game if you take your time with, it really is a much better experience. I probably spent 40% of my time building ships though tbf

david jaffe hates everything sony so what he says the opposite is true..

He should play more games. I wouldn’t even put it in the top five.

Unattractive characters. Constellation members who seem to be into cults. Game content that does not mesh well with all elements.

There are many aspects of the game that could be portrayed attractively, but somehow everything is clouded.

@themightyant oh yeah. I think because a game world is under the full control of the author it makes those that play want “the full story”. Imo sometimes it is best when games remain ambiguous (I think Mass Effect got worse the more we learned about the Reapers, same with Dragon Age and Assassin’s Creed-simply the narrative not the bandwagon reasons people have issues with those games. ) as it allows for focus on the present and gives the writers options for future content. Zelda’s approach allows Nintendo to reveal (read:create) more lore as new ideas hit them because they don’t write themselves into a corner. But it isn’t FromSoft ambiguous. Bethesda lends well to this because they do a lot of environmental storytelling.

I don’t know if it because I take a more scientific approach to Startfield due to its setting but I no longer really need to know the origin of the Artifacts. Again, I have theories but I am perfectly fine with the unity cycle as is. For me the game is more about what you do in each cycle anyway. Which is again very human despite this being a game. It, for me at least, makes me feel less chosen one and more human. And considering that Bethesda games are all about being the chosen one, it feels like a good shift. For instance the Kid Stuff perk. I love the parent characters. They aren’t mcguffins like in fallout 3 or a faction in fallout 4, yet they add nice flavor to make the character feel more like a person and less like floating hands.

As gaming enthusiasts we play a lot and are sort of numb to everything but the games that hit us in the feels all the time. But for a non gamer or a gamer looking for something else I can see how the story of Starfield plus the relative freedom can make a game that is objectively not the best, feel like the best. Plus people play games for different reasons and thus can be satisfied differently. I feel that way about Oblivion and Skyrim. Or The Wonderful 101 because it felt like a high octane movie to me.

@themightyant agreed and thanks for the convo. Most don’t indulge my rambles. This was fun. You have yourself a wonderful day!

Also I love the museum and NASA base lore.

I love Starfield and spent like 7 days worth of hours in it, but it's not the best single player narrative of all time. I would say the narrative is one of the weaker points of the game. The fun comes from the other game systems and the exploration. I think Red Dead Redemption 2 is probably right up there.