Shattered Space review: Starfield could’ve been this good from the start

Starfield and I have a complicated relationship. I was over the moon right after the release of Bethesda’s sci-fi epic. But after a bit, long loading times, repetitive quests and empty planets really got on my nerves. I was starting to feel like I spent more time in menus and fast travel than the game itself.

That being said, I’m giving the first paid expansion, Shattered Space, a chance. Not least because Bethesda promises that this DLC will take a different approach to the main game. So I dig out my old spacesuit, climb into my chrome spaceship and fly to a murderous cult’s home planet.

Welcome to Va’ruun’kai

In contrast to the main game, Shattered Space thankfully doesn’t make me jump back and forth between planets and solar systems all the time. Practically all of the game’s story takes place on the planet Va’ruun’kai. That’s where the sect House Va’ruun lives, isolated from the rest of human civilisation in space. Or what’s left of it.

A few weeks before my arrival, there was a devastating accident on the planet that destroyed a large part of the capital Dazra and claimed a lot of lives. The cause of the catastrophe could be linked back to a failed experiment that opened cracks into another dimension. This allowed disgusting insect aliens and glowing Va’ruun warriors in, who then kill everything in their path. Obviously, I have to play the hero and undo the whole mess.

The story is more focussed than that of the main game. It centres on the government’s intrigues and power struggles, with the administration itself being indirectly responsible for the catastrophe. Getting an insight into The House of Va’ruun religion’s quirky customs is fascinating. I’m hooked right from the start and want to know how it all ends.

Improvements in mission design

Shattered Space’s mission design seems more coherent than Starfield. I even find the side quests more exciting than many of the main ones in the original game. I spend less time in menus, fast travel and loading screens, so I can focus on exploring the planet instead.

Rather than sending me on pointless fetch quests from one corner of the galaxy to the next and back again, they give me fascinating story context and guide me to mysterious locations I can explore at my leisure. Some missions also present me with tricky moral decisions where I can be really evil – a feeling that was missing in the main game.

My favourite is where I have to free hostages from the clutches of an enemy faction. One character asks me to kill the hostages instead and blame it on our enemies. This could be a way to convince politicians to crack down hard on opposing faction. Amazing. This conflict alone is more exciting than anything I experienced in Starfield.

If you only concentrate on the main missions, you’ll easily play through Shattered Space in just over five hours. The relatively short game time is already causing heated discussions online. But to my mind, the consolidated story isn’t a negative. With large side quests and an open world full of secrets, there’s plenty to discover away from the main missions. I spent about 16 hours on Va’ruun’kai.

A smaller but more exciting world

If you decide not to complete any missions, you can explore the vast planet on your own, without a specific goal. The Va’ruun’kai landscape looks damn cool. It’s not comparable to the often grey, bleak planets of the main game. Instead, picture a purple-blue world that gives off an alien and literally extraterrestrial mood. Sometimes I just stop and soak up the atmosphere or spend an irrational amount of time in photo mode, searching for the perfect snapshot.

Get ready to discover various smaller and larger secrets, dungeons and pirate outposts as well as other hostile factions. In contrast to the main game, everything on the surface of Va’ruun’kai is designed by hand. The game area isn’t huge, but you won’t find any procedurally generated sections or dungeons, which I appreciate.

If I see something interesting in the distance, I can be sure it’s not just a boring, randomly generated copy of another place. I love it when «let’s just quickly check something out» snowballs into two hours of shooting and exploring in a huge dungeon full of loot. Amazing.

The more stringent mission design and smaller, handcrafted world with unique locations remind me of the good old days of Bethesda. Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t dislike all the missions in the main game. Exploring the gigantic universe also sounded enthralling – at least on paper. In practice, however, Starfield felt too partitioned due to the constant travelling and overly generic because of the artificially generated worlds. I haven’t felt this way about a game since Fallout 3 and Skyrim. Shattered Space is a prime example of less sometimes being more.

Lots of nostalgia, little innovation

If you’re looking for revolutionary, Bethesda-like innovations in Shattered Space, you’ll be waiting a long time. The game scores brownie points for giving a sense of familiarity and nostalgia, not because it offers exciting innovations. For me, there are only two elements worth mentioning that provide a breath of fresh air.

Firstly, there’s the Rev-8 buggy – a vehicle that Bethesda released as a free update in the main game back in August. Racing around in it on Va’ruun’kai is great fun. What’s even cooler is that it even manages mountains. In a similar vein to my jetpack when on foot, the car can be catapulted into the air with jet propulsion. It looks delightfully stupid – I love it.

The only drawback is that the Rev-8 comes up against irritating performance problems on Xbox Series X. I keep getting disrupted by frame rate drops as I jet about. At least I didn’t encounter any disastrous bugs on my adventure. Apart from when the game completely crashed during a cutscene, I got through Shattered Space without any errors, which isn’t always the case for Bethesda games.

The second innovation is related to the fights. Generally speaking, they feel more hectic and chaotic because of all the fast and aggressive enemies on Va’ruun’kai who run after me regardless of casualties. Some of them even appear all of a sudden through interdimensional cracks right in front of me and start fighting. These creatures are merciless.

Given there’s often not much distance between myself and my agile enemies, I rely more on melee weapons, such as knives and shotguns. The new melee strategy motivates me to level up my character and unlock new skills for more intimate combat situations. But at the end of the day, it’s still the same combat system as in the main game – with all the same pros and cons.

Starfield: Shattered Space is available for Xbox Series X/S and PC for about 30 francs or euros, or 27 francs or euros with a Gamepass subscription.

Video games

Bethesda Starfield

PC, DE

7

Video games (download)

Microsoft Starfield - Standard Edition

Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, PC

1