Starfield

I had so much hope for this game, and it failed me so miserably. I couldn’t continue forcing myself to play that.

You find a planet that you like the view of, maybe the planetrise as viewed from the moon is gorgeous that you want to make post and set up shop there. Maybe you find a rugged planet with no breathable air, no water, hostile weathers, and decided that you want to use your skills to stake a claim on it, camp on it, live on it, and dominate it.

Invest in the necessary skills and equipment to smuggle contraband, and if you don't have those to go, let yourself get caught anyway and steal away the cargo using your skills in Stealth. Manipulate guards to open locks for you. Toss a land mine in one side to guard your flank while you deal with the other, or just "Force Push" it towards the enemy, making an impromptu projectile. Instigate hostile combatants to turn on their allies. Use your skills in jetpacking to hover in place, using a machine gun and act as a man-turret. Or use that jetpacking to weave in and out of stealth and invisibility across the terrain, picking off the enemy with blades and suppressed weapons. Slow down time, hose down the enemy and pick up their weapons as they die and yours run out of ammo.

Joust your spaceship against another, making passes to make sure their tail is on your front. Invest in a skill that disables enemy's targeting against your ship as you boost the thrusters. Some ships are fast enough that you could boost away from weapon range, make quick repairs, and go back in a hit-and-run. Build a behemoth of a ship and blast away asteroids to mine ore, or depriving enemies of cover. Disable ship engines and board it. Or simply be a good enough intimidator, extorting cargo from traveling ships. Engage in piracy and gain bounty on your name, maybe even forcing you to set up remote outposts as abode. Maybe in the end, you want to atone and pay off that bounty, making service in volunteer militia. Or just double down and join organised piracy, or become a corporate fixer.

Use any or all said spoils to fund your dream home, ships, or arsenal, and again make your own way. All because you can and want to.

In many ways, it's a game about self expression. Lots of options. It's an open-ended sandbox where you can be a freewilling space ace, living out an adventure and mould your character's life as you see fit simply by your own actions. You get what you put in, all you need is creative impetus to begin.

Existing fans of past games from the studio would be pleased that it brought back plenty of older sensibilities, and overall a good step in that direction. The life-sim options are quite complete and modular. The world and how it is laid out remains as grounded and authentic as past games.

As an extension of that last point, this game is earnestly human. The world and its characters, especially those who could venture out with you, have wants: flaws, biases, pasts, hopes, and they're not afraid to indulge you in them.