I’m one of those people who likes Starfield. No, I definitely don’t consider it a masterpiece or a gigantic technical or artistic achievement. But usually, especially on the Internet, there is a gap between fulfilled expectations and analytical and measured criticism, and the fact that Starfield cannot give a particular player the same sensations as The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim or Fallout 3 does not mean that a bad game succeeds.
At the same time, it’s impossible to deny that even Todd Howard’s most loyal fans have a pressing need. Everyone wants Bethesda to overhaul their core systems, update them, innovate, and find a different way to serve their formula. It’s hard to say if that will happen with the upcoming The Elder Scrolls VI, but one thing we can say with spatial certainty: Shattered Space is “just” more Starfield.
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That means if the base game didn’t do anything for you, this expansion will do absolutely nothing to win you over either. Bethesda recommends tackling the content starting at level 35, so it’s ideal for players who are almost or completely past the hundreds of hours of Established Systems content, and everything about Shattered Space reeks of Bethesda taking a more direct approach wants, and already really loves, a specific way to structure a single-player RPG experience, for better or for worse.
The journey itself, from the discovery of a seemingly abandoned space station by a House Va’ruun research team, where a mysterious event has put an end to a series of mysterious experiments, to the landing on the homeworld of the House Va’ruun ”Ruun’kai faction , not bad at all. With power struggles, unexplained events and many important decisions, House Va’ruun is undoubtedly one of the most interesting factions in this universe. Broken Space fires up the cylinders that got the game going in the first place, and if you agree that this is a familiar reunion of mechanics, progression and dialogue, then it’s fun.
Va’ruun’kai is also much more contiguous than other locations in the Starfield universe, as this single planet makes up the entire Shattered Space. This does not mean that the surface of the planet is saturated with deep content like in Skyrim, where every centimeter seems to be handcrafted. Va’ruun’kai has no auto-generated elements and was of course designed by Bethesda Game Studios, but Starfield has always favored breadth and depth and that still shows here, especially in certain side missions where you still act as a postman . , or a simple Executioner, or a mix of both, that makes it seem like you’re playing an MMORPG from 15 years ago, or even World of Warcraft today.
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But it’s all passable, from the fairly solid standalone main quests that bring consistency to House Va’runn, to dealing with a mysterious explosion that has left parts of Va’ruun’kai’s surface uninhabitable, to what the Great Serpent really is is, right down to the gameplay You hate to love or else You love to hate.
In my opinion, the biggest problem with Shattered Space is how limited everything is. There are no structures, mechanics or systems that can take you from Shattered Space to this infinite universe where countless more adventures await. It could have been habitable and customizable space stations, it could have been new companions with their own detailed quest lines, it could have been redesigned dungeons on planets other than Va’ruun’kai… the possibilities would be almost endless because Starfield is huge . Instead, I ended up wanting more than what I got, precisely because Starfield isn’t lacking in content per se, but rather in additional systems that make the exploration of that content more immersive, fluid, and dynamic. Shattered Space basically just gives you this self-contained story in a small corner of the universe. For some it may be a breath of fresh air, but for Starfield it seems too limited and not in the spirit of the game. Many feel that space combat is an area where the game really needs an overhaul; Bethesda responds by adding nothing at all to the spaceships or the combat on them. They sit on the bench throughout the expansion. And that says it all.
Starfield has received significant updates since its release last year, although the 60fps setting on the Xbox Series X runs at that frames-per-second rate about 25% of the time. And it’s reassuring to know that Bethesda has big plans to keep the game around long-term. But this feels more like a footnote than a transformative addition and very quickly gets stuck in your head as you play. That’s not to say the expansion is disappointing, and if you just want more Starfield adventures, this is for you.
