Starfield: Shattered Space

Starfield's Shattered Space expansion ably fills in the Va'ruun-shaped hole in the main campaign, but doesn't shatter conventions with new abilities that would make a replay more exciting.

While its new environments are a decent aside, Shattered Space seems largely content to tread water, leaving Starfield the same mixed bag it always was.

Bethesda's gigantic space RPG's first major expansion only highlights the game's fundamental limitations

Starfield: Shattered Space is a big disappointment in almost every way. We loved the base game, for all its flaws, and we were willing this to be the big, exciting DLC drop that'd make us love it all over again. However, what we've got here is a very average narrative expansion that fails to add any big choices, upgrades, new enemies, biomes, loot or anything that could potentially excite or draw in new players. It's buggy, janky, badly acted in places, and there are a myriad of bugs and performance issues to be ironed out. What a missed opportunity.

The Starfield Shattered Space expansion leaves a lot to be desired. While it introduces a more focused and engaging story compared to the base game, the average map and quest design, along with the lack of new features, turn the adventure in Va'Ruun'kai into a bit of a slog rather quickly. Although the tighter focus is welcome, the Starfield experience as a whole needs something more substantial to reach its full potential.

Starfield's Shattered Space expansion is weighed down by bugs and is ultimately a disappointment compared to the base game.

The Shattered Space expansion can be seen as a step in the right direction, aiming to address previous shortcomings. However, it still relies heavily on the same formula and structure as Starfield and doesn’t bring anything particularly new or unique. Its storyline is brief and resembles the side missions from the base game, lacking depth and excitement. The short adventure offers little impact on player choices, which have no lasting consequences. On the gameplay side, especially in terms of exploration, the expansion delivers a pleasant experience with its detailed, beautiful world. Fans of the studio’s previous works will likely enjoy the rich environment. Ultimately, despite its highs and lows, the expansion does not justify its $30 price tag, making it advisable to wait for a discount or price drop if you’re considering it.

After a year Bethesda finally comes with an extension for Starfield called Shattered Space. What can you expect from it? Especially a lot of the same and there the problem is largely. The vibe that hung around Starfield has since been put out and therefore it all feels like you already know it. A new planet with new missions is what you get back. For people who did not touch Starfield at the time, this is a great opportunity to finally pick it up. Also for the real fans of Starfield. Did you think Starfield was okay, but nothing more? Then you might be better off waiting for the extensions to be there.

A year after the release of Starfield, Bethesda returns with Shattered Space, a DLC that abandons procedural worlds to offer a more contained narrative experience. Exploring Va'ruun'kai feels good and rewards us with a narratively solid story and missions that make us think 'outside the box'. While the new approach and design is more than welcome, the experience as a whole needs something more substantial to reach its full potential.

The DLC is held back by bugs that will hopefully be patched in the future, and preferably sooner than later. But even with the eventual updates and fixes, this is still a DLC that adds no spice to the base gameplay. Yet despite not making any big additions to the gameplay, Shattered Space is still a fun time. This consistency is a testament to the DLC's quality, and that of Starfield as a whole. It's for these reasons that Shattered Space is a good reason to dust off Starfield from the backlog and give it another shot.