Starfield: Shattered Space Review – A Long-Awaited Expansion That Comes Up a Little Short

As a seasoned gamer with over two decades of spacefaring adventures under my belt, I must say that Starfield: Shattered Space left me feeling somewhat underwhelmed. I remember the excitement when Starfield was first launched, and I eagerly anticipated this expansion like a child waiting for Christmas morning.

In Shattered Space, your journey starts with a warning signal from the Oracle, a space station that seems to be in chaos. Strange, glowing abnormalities line its corridors, casting a chilling blue glow. Soon enough, ominous entities known as ‘Vortex Phantoms’ appear and attack you, but at first, you’re unsure why. As a significant expansion for Starfield, launched approximately a year after the original game in November, Shattered Space appears to be a moderately engaging questline, filled with tasks of retrieval, a story that only slightly captivates, and characters who can be quite frustrating.

Following a rather prolonged period, Shattered Space emerges somewhat underwhelmingly. Although it introduces a fresh planet, new adversaries, and numerous intriguing landmarks, it seems somewhat sparse. The narrative is also fragmented, with you, as an unexpected visitor, arriving on the Va’ruun homeworld of Va’ruun’kai. You are bestowed with the extraordinary ability to converse with Anasko Va’ruun, a Speaker who’s been trapped within a vortex due to his experiments. The reason for this is not entirely clear. Upon arrival in Dazra city, you’re tasked with a simple trial to be recognized as ‘Promised’, earning the title of ‘Vindicator’, and then your adventure truly begins.

From there, your job is to help Ekris in his mission to save Anasko. Along the way, you’ll encounter several errands and deal with some snobbish Va’ruun nobles who aren’t too pleased about your presence on their planet. If you want to make any progress, you need to get Dazra’s three Houses to work together, which means fulfilling their requests. There are some intriguing, impactful missions here, particularly those where you must make a choice that affects someone or a community on Va’ruun’kai, such as an individual’s fate or the welfare of a group of struggling farmers.

Shattered Space manages to include a handful of captivating decisions, and it’s worth playing the DLC just to re-explore Bethesda’s vast Settled Systems. The main storyline lasts approximately ten hours, but we would have appreciated more (in our opinion). However, the eleven additional side missions provide some depth. For $30/$30, the cost may seem high given the limited content, considering the extended wait for its release. Compared to Bethesda’s outstanding expansions like Skyrim’s Dragonborn or Fallout 3’s Broken Steel, Shattered Space falls short.

At the grand Scaled Citadel (the epicenter of this chaos), Shattered Space concludes with a touch of elegance, offering you a cozy home in Dazra as compensation for your efforts. However, will this be enough to convince you, after spending much time traversing the land, completing tasks for ungrateful individuals, battling Fanatics (devoted followers of the ‘Great Serpent’), and solving multiple enigmas? If someone were to ask me if Shattered Space is impressive, I’d say “it’s decent.” It wraps up rather swiftly and doesn’t linger much in one’s mind. Yet, it does serve as a tantalizing hint of how fantastic Starfield could be, nearly a year later.

Starfield: Fragmented Cosmos is available now on Xbox Series X|S and PC, costing $29.99/£29.99. This release also introduces 12 fresh achievements with a total of 200 Gamerscore.

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2024-10-07 16:12