Now Playing: Terran Armada (DLC)

Terran Armada is a new DLC for Starfield (review), my personal Game of 2023 with more than 480 hours now clocked exploring the Settled Systems. Compared to the Shattered Space expansion of 2024 (review), Terran Armada offers substantially less content, but this is reflected in the £8.99 RRP. And because I owned the Premium Edition of Starfield – I didn’t have to pay anything at all. Thanks, Todd!

As someone who already enjoyed what Starfield offered, I wasn’t looking for this DLC or the accompanying Free Lanes Update (more on that later) to ‘win me over’ or ‘fix Starfield’ or be ‘Starfield 2.0’ which was always a ridiculous notion given that Cyberpunk 2.0 – whilst an impressive update – was primarily built upon months of previous fixes, improvements and additions. Things that, for those paying attention, Starfield has steadily been receiving since release.

The big addition with Free Lanes is ‘Cruise Mode’ which gives you the option to fly seamlessly (more or less – they just disguised the load more cleverly) within a star system. It’s a nice addition and there are fun new points of interest to discover in the void between worlds. It’s hardly game changing, but if you value immersion it’s good to have.

Aside from Cruise mode, there’s also the aforementioned new points of interest, and it appears they’ve also tweaked the generation algorithm so they don’t repeat quite so frequently. There’s a new resource (X-Tech) for upgrading high level gear, new side quests (some really good ones too!), action figures to collect (yes, I will obsessively try to find them all!), new ship modules, a new companion (although not Huong Le!). Oh, and some welcome changes to how you enhance your Starborn abilities.

It’s all Good Stuff and it makes Starfield an even better game in my eyes and one I’m sure I’ll continue to sink time into. But this review isn’t about the free update, but the paid DLC, so let’s focus on that because the question is – is it worth the price? If, like me, you’re a fan of Starfield then the short answer would be – yes. The long answer? That would be a – yes, but – kind of situation.

In Terran Armada you seek to thwart a mysterious invading force from dominating the Settled Systems. I say ‘mysterious’ but you discover the truth behind the Armada fairly early into the DLC. And once you do, there are only a handful of missions to complete in order to stop them.

The bespoke missions – what few there are – are all pretty good. I can’t say I cared for the two ‘collect three of X’ missions that were used to pad out the meagre content though! Because that’s the real problem with Terran Armada – it’s far too short. Yes, that’s reflected in the price, but I think they could have done a lot more with this concept, to truly make it a compelling late game challenge for Starfield.

The idea is that even after finishing the main missions, you can still have Armada ‘incursions’ trigger that are randomised, high level encounters you can farm for loot and experience. But is that all this DLC is really there to facilitate?

Given that the Armada are meant to be invading, they sure do like to ‘invade’ mostly empty systems in bumf**k nowhere. What if the initial attacks were just a distraction to lure the UC Fleet away from the core worlds?

What if, using this distraction, the Armada fleet suddenly jumped in and seized Mars? Using the Sol system as the staging ground for an attack on New Atlantis? What if, with the bulk of its fleet too far out to arrive in time, the UC needed to persuade a reluctant Freestar Collective to send help?

And maybe the player could play a role in that? What if the DLC was about building an alliance to stop the Armada? What if they sent an assassination team to MAST targeting the UC President and you have to help fight them off? What if, when the Armada arrives above New Atlantis, you and the outnumbered UC fleet are on the back foot until, unexpectedly, Freestar ships arrive to break the siege and force the Armada to retreat?

What if you get captured by the Armada? What if you have to escape from one of their ships? What if you have to negotiate with their leader? What if there was a dynamic aspect to the invasion and settlements could fall into Armada hands and change visually to reflect this – banners, security guards replaced by Terran robots etc.

Maybe I’m expecting too much, but I hate seeing a concept like this wasted so badly. Because Terran Armada is great conceptually but very poorly executed. There’s so many ‘what if?’ aspects to it. So many ways it could have offered a truly substantial and exciting piece of content.

I don’t care that it’s cheap or even – in my case – free! I’d have gladly paid double the price to receive a truly meaningful, fleshed out and exciting late game expansion. But that’s not what Terran Armada is and that’s a damn shame. I’m not going to review what I want Terran Armada to be. I’m going to review what it is. And overall – it’s just fine. It’s okay. It’s decent content for the price if you need to pay for it. But it could have been so, so much more.

6/10