What you need to know
- Starfield: Shattered Space is the first DLC story expansion for Bethesda’s space exploration RPG, and takes players to House Va’ruun’s home world of Va’ruun’kai to investigate a disaster caused by an experiment gone horribly wrong.
- The expansion released on Xbox Series X|S and Windows PC on September 30, though so far, it’s opened with “Mixed” reviews on Steam and an average score of 3.6/5 stars on Xbox and the Microsoft Store.
- Most reviewers appreciate that Shattered Space is centered on one location and allows for some deeper roleplaying compared to the ocean-sized base game, though many lament a paltry amount of overall content.
- Many reviews for the Xbox and Microsoft Store version of the DLC specifically mention not being able to start the expansion, so keep that in mind if you were thinking of picking it up on one of those platforms.
Standing as the biggest addition to the space exploration RPG yet and significantly hyped up by Bethesda itself, Starfield’s Shattered Space DLC seemed poised to give the game a huge boost when it launched on Xbox Series X|S and Windows PC on September 30 earlier this week. In the immediate wake of its release, though, it’s become apparent that it hasn’t delivered the experience many players were hoping for.
At the time of writing, Shattered Space has a “Mixed” reception on Valve’s PC gaming platform Steam, with only 42% of its 730 user reviews giving it a “Positive” thumbs up. Scores on the Xbox/Microsoft Store storefront are kinder — right now, it’s got an average of 3.6/5 stars from 203 total reviews — though they still fall short of being generally positive.
Set on the enigmatic House Va’ruun home world of Va’ruun’kai and centered around a mysterious and deadly “vortex incident” that fractured the interstellar organization and devastated its seat of power, Shattered Space was marketed as a meatier and deeper roleplaying adventure compared to the base game, with a “new, handcrafted world” — after all, Starfield is often criticized for having too wide of a setting and not enough depth in it. However, while most reviews note that the expansion is an improvement in this regard, many also assert that it still fails to live up to expectations.
“Bethesda tried to hype this up so much just for it to fall short. Was it the worst thing ever? No, but worth $30? Also no, this should have been included in the base game,” reads one review from user chaoticotaku. “It’s basically another faction quest line with one new world to roam around in … for a total of 4 hours of gameplay.”
“The base game had more interesting writing and better story beats than anything in this DLC. The ‘new’ content that IS here is mostly reskins of weapons and armor along with some variants of already existing POIs,” writes player Khronico in another. ” … As someone who liked Starfield despite its flaws, Shattered Space fixed nothing I had problems with and even made me less hopeful for the game going forward.”
Overall, the consensus amongst negative reviewers is that Shattered Space is frustratingly short and lacking in overall content to enjoy, with many positive evaluations even mentioning this as a caveat. Players report that its main story can be completed in just 4-5 hours, and engaging with side activities to get all the DLC’s new achievements will only take a few more to do. Compared to something like the Far Harbor expansion from Bethesda’s own Fallout 4 that had a 7-8 hour narrative and a little over 20 hours’ worth of stuff for completionists to dig into, that sounds pretty disappointing, though I should note that I haven’t played Shattered Space myself yet and can’t offer my own opinion.
Something else worth highlighting is that many negative Xbox and Microsoft Store reviews indicate fans were not able to begin the expansion despite following the process to start the Starfield: Shattered Space DLC correctly, suggesting that there could be a widespread bug with that version. There hasn’t been official word from Bethesda about this yet, though.
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Ultimately, I think Starfield’s developers are moving in the right direction with more Fallout and The Elder Scrolls-style content that prioritizes depth over width, but these initial waves of reviews largely contend that there’s still a lackluster amount of the former. The DLC did just come out, though, and it will be interesting to see if wider community opinion shifts or settles in the coming days.
For $29.99 — $10 shy of half the base game’s MSRP — you can pick up Shattered Space and form your own opinion, though the best thing to do is probably to wait for a good sale, especially since the expansion isn’t included with Xbox Game Pass subscriptions. It’s actually discounted to $26.79 at CDKeys right now despite the DLC coming out yesterday, but there’s a good chance we’ll see steeper markdowns in the next few weeks or months. Don’t forget you’ll also have access to Shattered Space if you buy Starfield’s Premium Edition or tack the Premium Edition upgrade onto your standard copy.
