The first major DLC expansion for Starfield has arrived and it introduces a whole new planet, together with a range of new and old problems.
After the 2023 Xbox showcase, and the debut of Starfield, it seemed as if Xbox was finally poised to take its place amongst the stars. And yet only a few months after launch it was realised that the game had had no impact on console sales and in fact they were much worse than expected over Christmas. Xbox’s current multiformat policy isn’t because of Starfield – the game remains an exclusive – but it has certainly played a role in dictating Microsoft’s current direction.
The irony is that Starfield isn’t a bad game, as we made plain in our original review. However, it’s not a particularly good one either, with its biggest faults being that it feels disjointed, old-fashioned, and repetitive.
This DLC manages to remove one of those problems while magnifying the others, including the weak storytelling and the fact that the characters and background lore for the universe are so thoroughly uninteresting. In fact, through the 12 hours or more of Shattered Space we’ve barely felt less gripped all year.
The premise of Shattered Space, and the reason it manages to overcome the problem of feeling disjointed, is that you spend the whole adventure on the home planet of nobody’s favourite death cult, House Va’ruun. We found it very difficult to take anyone associated with the Great Serpent seriously in the original game and the thought of having to indulge a bunch of murderous space zealots is not a great hook, even before the DLC begins.
Actually, that makes them sound a lot more interesting and menacing than they are, because the main problem with the plot is not who it’s about but the fact that Bethesda’s storytelling remains so lifeless and unengaging. In practice, this means lots of stilted conversations, featuring awkward headshots of whoever is talking (it’s never more than one at a time), as you wander around the planet doing favours for practically everyone you meet.
For no adequately explored reason you have to guide the planet’s population through a recent calamity, negotiating and playing politics with the three ruling families. We suspect Bethesda was influenced by that Star Trek episode where Picard is appointed as an arbitrator between rival Klingon factions, except in that you were actually interested in the characters.
Rather than the unengaging nature of the story, the first thing that strikes you about Shattered Space is how uncompromisingly purple it is. Prince would have absolutely loved it but we’re not sure there are too many other people that will see the game’s near monochrome colour palette as anything other than an eyesore.
It’s not a trivial issue either, as the bigger problem with Shattered Space is that because it’s all set on the same planet the whole star-trekking element of the original is completely absent. Instead, you’re just left to explore a single world, with its new city (which to be fair is pretty big) and other scattered points of interest.
Thanks to recent free updates there are now wheeled vehicles you can use to traverse the new map but there remains absolutely no reason to do so other than to get from point A to B, as the only distractions along your way are what look like procedurally-generated caves and outposts. If they are handcrafted then something has gone very wrong, because not only do they all look the same but there’s never any decent reward for exploring them.
There’s very little in the way of notable new weapons or gadgets in Shattered Space and no new enemies, beyond palette-swapped versions of ones you’ve fought too many times already. As before, the gunplay remains mediocre and while it’s certainly better than the Fallout games it’s never actively entertaining, which sums up the Shattered Space experience as a whole.
The quest design is a relative highlight but like everything else it feels like it’s operating under the shadow of Skyrim, trying to emulate an 11-year-old game instead of surpassing it.
As an extra bonus, the DLC is full of bugs and glitches, with a choppy frame rate even in Balanced mode, broken textures, and permanently confused enemies and other characters. In particular, your companions rarely seem to realise where they are or what they’re doing, as if they’ve just woken up bleary-eyed from all-night bender and still think they’re somewhere else.
It’s difficult to guess what, if anything, in Shattered Space was meant as a response to the criticism of the parent game but given how long even DLC takes to make nowadays, most of it was probably already decided upon before Starfield even launched.
That must mean Bethesda expected people to be so fascinated by House Va’ruun they’d put up with the same old sub-par gameplay and storytelling, while having the whole space exploration element mothballed for the duration. Rather than improving on the flaws of the original, Shattered Space exacerbates them and makes the whole game feel like even more of a lost cause.
Starfield: Shattered Space review summary
In Short: The exact opposite of what Starfield needed, with a DLC expansion that magnifies the parent game’s failings and sidelines its more positive elements.
Pros: The new city is nice and big and the there’s plenty of content. If purple is your favourite colour you’ll never want to leave.
Cons: Boring story and characters, uninteresting new map and exploration, and the same old mediocre combat. No new weapons or enemies of note. Distressing amount of bugs. Very expensive.
Score: 4/10
Formats: Xbox Series X/S (reviewed) and PC
Price: £29.99*
Publisher: Bethesda
Developer: Bethesda Game Studios
Release Date: 30th October 2024
Age Rating: 18
*Game Pass from day one
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