IGN gave Starfield a 7/10, then spent 1,200 words politely orbiting the problem.
The Original Review
“Starfield has a lot of forces working against it, but eventually the allure of its expansive roleplaying quests and respectable combat make its gravitational pull difficult to resist.”
The math aint mathing, and Dan Stapleton knows it. This is a 7/10 review written like a man trying to land a spaceship made entirely of qualifiers. Every paragraph fires one booster of criticism, then immediately deploys a Bethesda-branded parachute: clunky travel, but huge universe; dull opening, but eventually compelling; menus everywhere, but hey, some quests are good. It is less a verdict than a hostage negotiation with expectations.
The funniest part is that IGN's 7 became controversial not because it was too harsh, but because the text itself keeps behaving like an 8 trapped inside a 6. The review identifies major structural problems: exploration broken into loading screens, weak discovery, a slow first dozen hours, inventory friction, and a galaxy that somehow feels smaller the more you fast-travel through it. Then the score lands at 7, the official numerical equivalent of 'please don't revoke our review code next time.'
Let's run the numbers. A game marketed for years as Bethesda's grand space epic gets dinged for making space feel like a menu. That is not a minor issue. That is like reviewing a restaurant and saying the food is imaginary but the chairs have promise. If the central fantasy of your space game is repeatedly interrupted by UI logistics, the review should not need a calculator, a diplomatic passport, and three paragraphs of emotional cushioning to say so.
To Dan's credit, he saw the problem earlier than many launch-day tourists. But the review still suffers from classic AAA launch inflammation: the prose swells around the truth until the diagnosis becomes unreadable. Instead of simply saying 'Bethesda built a massive RPG that keeps tripping over its own loading screens,' IGN gives us orbital mechanics. A 7/10 is fine. The journey to that 7 is the problem. Sponsored by arithmetic.
