September is a pretty great month for games, and if you’re an Xbox Game Pass subscriber, you’ll be able to try out several day-one releases through that service. The marquee title this month is obviously Starfield, which launched in early access on September 1 for owners of the collector’s and premium editions of that game.
Developed by Bethesda Game Studios and exclusive to Xbox Series X|S and PC, Starfield has been hyped as being critically important to Game Pass. While it is an ambitious game that has an impressive scale, a score of side quests to sink your space-teeth into, and solid gunplay to fall back on when your diplomatic skills fail, more archaic elements and shallow RPG mechanics do hold it back from taking that great leap forward.
“Bethesda’s spacefaring adventure has its moments with impressive scale, satisfying combat, and some worthwhile side quests, but its shallow RPG systems and uninspired vision of the cosmos make for a journey that’s a mile wide, but an inch deep,” Michael Higham wrote in GameSpot’s Starfield review.