Starfield's Overall Review Score Makes It One of the Year's Highest-Rated New Games (2024)

The reviews are in for Starfield, cementing Bethesda's open world sci-fi RPG as one of the highest-rated new games of 2023. Starfield has been a massive hit for Bethesda and the game isn't even technically out yet.

The official Starfield release date is September 6, but some fans have had the opportunity to play the game ahead of schedule. Those willing to pay extra for the Premium version of the game have been able to play Starfield well ahead of its official release date, exploring the cosmos and living out their sci-fi fantasies to their hearts' content. Starfield has enjoyed a high concurrent player count on Steam, suggesting many fans opted to pay extra to play early. The game has also enjoyed fairly high review scores as well.

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At the time of this writing, Starfield has an 88 overall rating on review aggregate site OpenCritic. Starfield reviews have praised the game's ambition and how it successfully translates Bethesda's open world formula to an outer space setting. There have been some Starfield detractors as well, with some reviewers taking issue with the game's slow start and finding certain aspects of the game dated. While there are still some reviews left to be counted, it's unlikely Starfield's overall review score will move far away from the 88 it's at now in either direction, making it one of 2023's highest-rated new games.

Best New Video Games of 2023

1. The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom - 96
2. Baldur's Gate 3 - 96
3. Videoverse - 92
4. Resident Evil 4 (2023) - 92
5. Tents and Trees - 92
6. Street Fighter 6 - 92
7. 8-Bit Adventures 2 - 91
8. Jack Jeanne - 90
9. Let's! Revolution! - 90
10. Path of the Midnight Sun - 89
11. Sea of Stars - 89
12. Dave the Diver - 89
13. Hi-Fi Rush - 89
14. Dead Space (2023) - 89
15. Diablo 4 - 88
16. Starfield - 88
17. Vernal Edge - 88
18. Pikmin 4 - 88
19. Final Fantasy 16 - 88
20. Gravity Circuit - 86

Discounting remasters and DLCs, Starfield is the 16th highest-rated game of 2023 so far. It shares its 88 overall score with Diablo 4, Vernal Edge, Pikmin 4, and Final Fantasy 16, but has been beat out by other major releases from earlier this year, like Bethesda's own Hi-Fi Rush, Nintendo's The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, and the landmark RPG Baldur's Gate 3. Again, there is still time for Starfield's review score to shift a bit, so fans should keep that in mind.

Looking at the top 20 highest-rated new game releases of 2023 really underscores how big of a year Xbox Game Pass has had. Starfield is a day one Xbox Game Pass game of course, but it's not the only Game Pass release that's cracked the top 20. It's joined by Sea of Stars and Hi-Fi Rush, with the Dead Space remake expected to join the Xbox Game Pass Ultimate lineup through EA Play at some point down the line as well.

Starfield launches on September 6 for PC and Xbox Series X.

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Source: OpenCritic