It truly pains me to have to say this... so to sugar coat it as much as possible using a metaphor.

I always found Bethesda Games to be like fast food, they are not the best made but are an easy quick fill on what i need in a simple package. and just like most fast food will fail miserably when reviewed with a critical eye.
I have always had a soft spot for Bethesda games, like one of those people weirdly obsessed with McDonald's. mostly because of nostalgic memories of playing them when younger. as a result i never had much of a defence of their games other than "But I really enjoy it". I'll also add that Oblivion was the first game i brought with my own money, for context.

It is really difficult to quantify what exactly fell short in this release, but after EXTENSIVE testing, I can put 70% of the blame on fast-travel being the only option. I play Bethesda Games almost exclusively without fast-travel, as I found most of the enjoyment the random things you stumble upon on the way. I only resort to fast-travel when late game and have run out of encounters to find in-between while travelling the map, wrapping up all the straggling quests. However this you have probably heard repeatedly from every review with anything critical to say.

To preempt the "but space is supposed to be empty" I have heard a lot. while true "Games are supposed to be engaging". it's not that nothing happens for however long it takes to travel light years, (seriously no sense of time scale, having consequence free instant teleport doesn't fit right in the world they seem to want to make, why even have beds on ANY ship if i could be at a hotel within minuets) The problem is the same loading screens again and again, with no sence of a cohesive world. The ONLY reason i endured it as mush as i have is thanks to podcasts, which also had to drown out some of the tedious generated side-quests. To use my fast-food analogy it's like i now can only get served my big mac with the bun, burger, Salad and Pickle in 8 separate boxes, that tiny addition of extra needless steps completely takes the Fast out of fast-food, so all we have left is slow sub-par food with an extra taste of cardboard.

Ok, no more stretching metaphors to breaking, promise.

I will admit my bias in favour of Bethesda, I even own their watch. but Even I cant in good conscience recommend this game to anyone who isn't a fan any would most likely already own it. it is a truly painful thumbs down from me.

OK. Now a FIX

I have let on to my love of Bethesda Games hold back a LOT of criticism over the years. as most of what I had to say had been said better than I could word it. This time i have a solution. A 2D maybe 2.5D Game layer for space travel, think original Fallout.
Open the galactic map, pick your destination, then watch the dotted red line progress across space, maybe you're interrupted in a pirate ambush, this bit of space is dangerous after all, used all my repair parts so best reduce power and travel a little slower but with minimal risk of ambush, and use my gravdrive far away from any sensor readings, i'm home but i need to avoid being scanned before i get to my stash, lucky the patrols here are scarce, Ill just stay here powered down a while as their blue dotted lines leave sensor range, now B-line for my stash. home safe.

as a novice modder I could probably make something like this given a year an ACTUAL MODDING TOOLS, but it would remain a unbearable mess until years of bug fixing, or better yet an actual skilled modder joining the project.

So if anyone at Bethesda is actually reading this, please give us some way to interact with the vastness of space, like my suggested map game layer. loading screens take us out of the game right as we get to space, and as Space travel was the main thing this game was sold on, it feels so unbearably anticlimactic. I'll keep listening to updates and keep hope i can flip this thumb back up.

PS the Starfeild watch is actually quite nice, best collectors edition in a LONG time.

a refreshing change to the constant "go here and kill this list of things for me" or the "I need need this list of bits from living things"

This is a relaxing RPG without the needless killing and unexplained "bandits" literally everywhere. it feels like a more realised world than most RPG's as everything you do, say and paint feels relaxing and meaningful.

solid 9/10

Really disappointing, I gave up shortly after unlocking the ability to remove rust from components. I tried to "derust" the component carefully with meaningful precision then ran out of "fuel" for my derusting laser around my 3rd component, then I switched to rapidly jiggling my mouse vaguely in any darker spot which apparently saved time and "fuel". you cant even tell the component is damaged via a visual inspection as the damage is ONLY visible in the repair "minigame".

Surely the whole point of a "simulator" like this is the puzzle of what is wrong and how to fix it, am I wrong. you just briefly match up two "waveforms" then the ENTIRE mech is scanned and ALL damaged bits are immediately highlighted permanently. hover the mouse over the purple glowing component and it highlights what needs to be removed first, then repeat until done. if there is any more interesting bits that i just haven't reached yet it is not worth the grind to unlock the entertaining part of my recreational entertainment.