Starfield is My New Diablo

<p>I was pretty darn excited for&nbsp;<em>Diablo IV</em>&nbsp;over the course of the last several years. Unfortunately, while the final game is a technical achievement as far as artwork, sound effects, and music go &mdash; the core game isn&rsquo;t very fun to play.</p> <p>It&rsquo;s designed more like a slow&nbsp;<a href="https://xander51.medium.com/diablo-ivs-first-season-is-as-fun-as-a-sad-old-fisherman-82778c9fd8d3" rel="noopener">free-to-play slog</a>&nbsp;than the&nbsp;<em>Diablo</em>&nbsp;games of the past, almost like it was meant to benefit from the still-unfinished Microsoft Activision deal that would have seen it show up on Game Pass. On a subscription service, its cruddy pacing and microtransactions wouldn&rsquo;t be nearly as much of an issue as they are inside a full priced seventy-dollar game.</p> <p>Game Pass just got another big RPG in&nbsp;<em>Starfield,</em>&nbsp;and its direct-action gameplay and single purchase monetization design couldn&rsquo;t be more different from&nbsp;<em>Diablo IV,</em>&nbsp;yet I think it hits many of the notes I was expecting from the next generation of the iconic hack-and-slash loot series.&nbsp;<em>Starfield</em>&nbsp;takes Bethesda&rsquo;s traditional open-ended design and mechanics, and pairs them with a wildly huge amount of content.</p> <p><a href="https://xander51.medium.com/starfield-is-my-new-diablo-833b2a8beda9"><strong>Website</strong></a></p>