Don’t compare Starfield to Cyberpunk 2077, says the designer. Is that an unfair criticism?

Bethesda Game Studios’ new action RPG Starfield has received a lot of positive reviews. However, others have pointed out flaws, such as the visual, ahem, “lack of detail” of the AAA game’s 1,000 discoverable planets.

A video went viral on social media after comparing the game to Cyberpunk 2077, claiming that the game lacks the detail and realism of CD Projekt Red’s 2020 title. But according to Patrick K Mills, lead mission designer for Cyberpunk 2077, the comparison is unfair and hypocritical.

A video shared by The Doctor on Twitter comparing the detail and realism of Starfield to Cyberpunk 2077 has already racked up more than 19 million views and over a thousand reposts.

Mills was among the reposters. But he was critical of the comparison, noting that Cyberpunk 2077 was also ridiculed upon its release.

“How times have changed,” he wrote. “Tbc this fake criticism is actively harmful to the way the audience interacts with the medium and I hate it, but it’s very funny to see after how many hundreds of these were made to ridicule cp2077.”

Some of those who commented on the video agreed that it was unfair. Many noted that Cyberpunk 2077 also received a lot of criticism at launch. Others said Cyberpunk 2077 was so good that it was unfair to use it as a benchmark for other games.

“Cyberpunk is one of my all-time favourite games, but I still think it’s strange to compare a game at launch to a game that took years to polish. I think we all remember how crap Cyberpunk was at launch, because there was a lot of pressure to run on consoles, and it took years to shine,” one person responded. “I remember when people compared cyberpunk to GTA 4,” wrote someone else.

Source: X

How times have changed

(Tbc this fake criticism is actively harmful to the way the audience interacts with the medium and I hate it, but it's very funny to see after how many hundreds of these were made to ridicule cp2077) https://t.co/lvtAGDawfv

— Patrick K. Mills (@PKernaghan) September 5, 2023