Meta Quest 3 VR

Way back in October 2019 I shared my first impressions of the HTC VIVE, which at the time felt like something of a gamble given the cost because I had no way of knowing if I’d like VR or not. Turns out, I did like it. And with more than a thousand hours now clocked in Steam VR, I decided the time had finally come to upgrade.

But which of the new generation of VR headsets did I want to go for? And was it worth waiting to see if Valve revealed an Index 2? But waiting for Valve is never a good idea and odds are, if the Index 2 ever comes, it will likely be a quality but very expensive piece of kit.

So I opted for the most popular and price friendly option – the Meta Quest 3 – which was nearly half the price I paid for my VIVE back in the day once you factor in accessories like the VIVE pro strap and lighthouse tracking mounts.

What struck me about the Quest 3 upon arrival was how light it felt compared to the VIVE. I’d say it feels about 3 times lighter in hand which also makes it quite a lot easier to wear. The included strap is basic, like the default VIVE strap. However, because of how light the unit is, I’d say the default strap is just fine – if a little fiddly to adjust.

I’m also pleased to say that the default sound quality on the Quest 3 is surprisingly good. The VIVE, on the other hand, really required that pro strap to accommodate the extra weight and for the included earphones.

The face pad on the Quest 3 feels like another improvement. The fit isn’t quite as snug as the VIVE but light bleed is minimal and the material doesn’t result in you starting to sweat after 30 minutes or so of use.

The controllers are f**king tiny, so they’re going to take some getting used to, but they have all the buttons you’d need and also don’t need thanks to the impressive hand tracking built into the Quest 3. Seriously, I thought the finger tracking on the Index controllers was impressive, but this is a massive step up. Being able to type on virtual keyboards and drag virtual screens around using my fingers in VR is kind of nuts.

Speaking of tracking, whereas the VIVE required the use of two lighthouse units for room scale VR, the Quest 3 has entirely internal tracking. No, it doesn’t offer quite the same degree of accuracy as the full 360 degree lighthouse trackers, but it’s good enough that it’s very nice not having to spend a few minutes plugging in the trackers and spinning them up every time I want to play something.

It’s also really nice not having to plug a very long lead from the headset into my PC – a lead you’re always aware of and at risk of tripping on. Because the Quest 3 is entirely self-contained, no PC required. Of course, that’s not how I intend to use it.

And this is where Steam Link comes into play as it allows you to wirelessly connect the Quest 3 with Steam running on your PC and then stream your games directly to the headset. I did try the alternative (free) option – Meta’s own Airlink – but found it more clunky and slow to use. It’s important to note that you will need to have your PC on a wired connection to your router for this to work, which isn’t going to be suitable for everyone.

And I suppose that’s what I like most about the Quest 3 compared to my old VIVE – the ease of use. Because as much as I do like VR, the VIVE could prove tedious to set up and play at times. You’d get the trackers switched on, clear the play area, connect the headset cable and then carefully run it in such a way that you won’t get tangled or trip. You’d then pull on the headset and adjust the strap so the weight wouldn’t strain your neck. But the Quest 3? You just slip it on and press the power button and you’re good to go.

I tested the Quest 3 by running Phasmophobia, Blade & Sorcery and Half Life: Alyx via wireless Steam Link and they all ran smoothly and without issue and looked, quite frankly, much sharper and clean than they did on my wired VIVE. Obviously, the higher resolution lenses of the Quest 3 help a lot, as do my updated prescription lens inserts.

But I expected there to be some degradation in quality when streaming and honestly, I’m not seeing anything, even on the default Steam Link settings. Everything I’ve tried runs smoothly and looks better than it did on my wired VIVE.

There’s no noticeable ‘screen door’ effect like with the VIVE, not unless you really stare hard to see it and this also helps make colours really pop compared to the VIVE. The field of view is also greatly improved. When I went back to the VIVE to compare, it’s shocking how narrow it felt and how washed out everything looked visually.

Passthrough is a fantastic feature and yes, it can be fuzzy depending upon local lighting, but it’s so fast to switch to and makes moving around the real world so much easier. The mixed reality game I tried was also super fun and impressive with how it scanned my local surroundings and incorporated everything into the game.

The big downside to the Quest 3 is the battery life, which only gives you around 2 hours of play depending upon your activity. There are ways to improve the battery life – such as turning off things when you don’t need them – and there are battery packs you can buy to connect and extend your play sessions. But honestly, a few hours in VR at a time is usually enough for me anyway, so taking a break and recharging the headset isn’t really a problem.

Overall, I’m very pleased with my Quest 3 purchase. It’s an upgrade in pretty much every way over the VIVE from a hardware perspective, but also and perhaps more importantly, for ease of use. All we need now is for Valve to finally release a new VR game because Alyx remains the bar and I don’t see anyone else clearing it unless Valve steps up themselves.

Now Playing: Echoes of Wisdom

The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom is a very clever and fun little adventure that successfully blends a classic Zelda progression structure with the more modern creative sandbox approach of Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom. In a first for the series, you don’t play as Link but as Zelda herself, on a mission to rescue not only Link, but all of Hyrule from mysterious rifts that are opening across the land and swallowing everything in their path.

The game utilises a similar ‘cute’ isometric style to the Link’s Awakening Switch remake which I wasn’t such a fan of in that game because of my nostalgia for the original visuals. But here, in a new game with such a fresh gameplay concept, I’d say it fits quite well.

As Zelda, you have the ability to create ‘echoes’ (copies) of items and enemies you encounter throughout the game. It seems like such a simple concept, and it’s so flawlessly and effortlessly incorporated into the game that it would be easy to overlook just how impressively complex it really is and how incredibly difficult it must have been to design and balance the game around it.

There are 127 echoes to collect in the game and I picked up 122 of them before I reached the end. You have simple item echoes that can serve various needs, to specific use tools as well as every enemy type in the game. Yes, that’s right – every enemy you defeat can then be learnt and recreated as an echo to fight alongside you.

All echoes have a power cost which limits how many you can have active at any one time, but this limit can be increased (and the power cost of various echoes decreased) as you progress and level up your cute little companion Tri. Weaker creatures and more simple echoes have a low cost, but more powerful creatures and more complex echoes have a higher cost. It’s a simple way to limit the player and force them to think about how to utilise their echoes in the most cost efficient way.

The structure of Echoes of Wisdom is pretty much what you’d expect of a classic Zelda – you journey to the different regions of Hyrule to close a big rift (dungeon) in each area. So you’ve got a rift in the Gerudo Desert, a rift in the Zora Kingdom, a rift on Eldin Volcano . . . it’s safe and it’s familiar and predicable but it works.

The map isn’t huge, but it’s large enough to incorporate lots of fun little locations to explore and discover with their own hidden treasures such as heart pieces, might crystals (to upgrade your gear) accessories and smoothie ingredients. There’s also quite a few side quests you can pick up from the locals of each region. They don’t typically take more than a few minutes to complete, but they add some more value.

Echoes of Wisdom is not a super long game, and I didn’t do absolutely everything but I did most of it and if I did go back and wrap up what I’d missed I’d probably have about 20 hours clocked. It’s a perfect length for a game with such a simple – but clever – concept.

As I said, Echoes may adhere to a more traditional Zelda structure in terms of progression, but it takes a more creative approach as seen in the more recent titles such as BotW. That’s thanks to your echoes, all of which can be utilised as you see fit. Echoes is the kind of game that no two people will play the same. Everyone will find their own solutions, using their echoes in their own unique ways.

I was playing Echoes alongside someone else and at one point they got stuck. I offered to help but when I tried to use the echo that I had in the same place, I realised they hadn’t collected it yet. So instead, I had to look at what they did have and find a different way. And it really shouldn’t be underappreciated just how impressive this is – how they designed the game in such a way that you can find so many different ways to progress through the creative use of whatever echoes you have available.

I’m very interested to know what the minimum number and types of echoes are you’d need to finish the game. There are some you have to collect as a requirement to progress, but I suspect the number is actually quite small. In addition to your echoes, Zelda also has the use of a charge limited special form that lets her move and attack with a sword, bow or bombs like Link.

It’s a fun addition, but was it a necessary one? Early on, with such a limited charge you have to use the form sparingly, but once you upgrade your charge meter, it becomes a bit too easy to pop in and out of the form and brute force your way through nearly every encounter.

So far, so impressive, right? But this is where I’m going to get a little more critical of Echoes and explain why I liked but didn’t really love it. First of all, let’s address the performance concerns. There are areas where you get a noticeable drop in frame rate but they’re petty rare. I’d say I found Echoes to be far more stable and smooth than Link’s Awakening.

I’ve also seen people say the UI can be a mess in terms of echo selection. This can be a bit annoying when you’re scrolling through for a specific echo, but the game does let you sort echoes according to specific criteria – such as the ‘most used’ category – and that’s usually all you really need.

No, my main criticism of the game is that it’s just too damn easy. Now, that’s not me trying to brag about how clever or skilled I am. It’s just a fact. Echoes of Wisdom is a very easy game. No, I didn’t play it on the ‘Hero’ mode but that wouldn’t make the game more difficult in the way that I want. It wouldn’t make the puzzles more complex.

The Zelda games have always been this careful balance of action and puzzles, but Echoes of Wisdom is far more weighted towards the puzzle side of things. And if you’re going to be a more puzzle focused Zelda, you really need to deliver some very clever puzzles to engage and challenge the player.

But Echoes never really does this. Don’t get me wrong – the puzzles are clever in how you can utilise your echoes in various way to complete them – but they’re also all incredibly simple and straightforward. There’s always a very obvious and easy solution. I think I can count on one hand the amount of times I actually needed to stop and consider how to solve a problem.

The game is just too f**king easy to the point that I felt like I was progressing on autopilot. I just don’t feel like the puzzle aspect of Echoes reaches anywhere near its potential. With so many echoes, I’d have loved some more complex puzzles and dungeons that really forced me to think outside the box and combine my echoes in new and unexpected ways in order to progress.

But you never really need to do that. In fact, I’d say many echoes you collect are largely useless. That’s going to be a controversial opinion as I’m sure people will argue every echo has a use. But using them for your own enjoyment doesn’t make them actually all that useful compared to others.

There are some echoes – like the water block – that make progression in some areas entirely trivial. Why wouldn’t you use it? Sure, there are other ways to say, cross a gap or reach a high ledge, but the water block is the fastest and most efficient. And that’s kind of a problem when despite having so many echoes available, there’s a small number that do everything you need faster and more efficiently than everything else. I barely used the ‘armed’ monster echoes for example because they’re so slow and cost too much. A smaller, faster and cheaper monster is always the better option.

The puzzles are never testing. Everything is too simple and easy. And for me, I feel like I need some resistance, some challenge to my progression to really make me sit up and engage with the experience. It doesn’t necessarily have to be through gameplay – a strong narrative can offer the engagement I crave, but Echoes doesn’t really have that either.

The story is fine. It’s fine! It’s exactly what you expect it to be and plays out exactly like you think it will. And that kind of sums up how I feel about Echoes of Wisdom – it’s all too easy, predictable and familiar and it doesn’t push the player or its own – admittedly ingenious – gameplay mechanics as hard as it should.

It’s a sedate, fun little adventure but one that won’t really test you in any way. It’s very clever. It’s incredibly well designed. But it really needed to do more to engage the player. To really challenge them to be creative with their echoes – all their echoes – and to find new ways to progress as they go.

You actually use a wider variety of echoes early on when you have less to pick from than you do later in the game when you have more. Because by then you have a core 4-5 that will solve nearly any problem. After that, you just collect echoes for fun but you’ll never really need to use them.

What else? Oh, I also think the ‘smoothie’ system of making drinks for health or certain buffs is totally unnecessary because you never really need them at all. And the ‘automatons’ you can learn through a side quest are also entirely useless. Okay – maybe not useless in the sense that you can’t find a use for them – more that you don’t need to.

Overall, Echoes of Wisdom is a very good, unique and fun entry in the Zelda series but it’s a game I feel is falling very short of its potential. I wouldn’t have cared so much if the main quest was so simple and straightforward if the game also offered some challenging optional content. But sadly, it doesn’t. As I said, I felt like I was playing the game on autopilot much of the time and as a result, it’s probably not a game I’m going to recall much about in a week from now.

7/10

NSO Retro: Donkey Kong Country (SNES)

For my next retro adventure I jumped into Donkey Kong Country (1994) a game I’d never played before and therefore, like Super Mario Brothers, a game I had zero nostalgia for. But whereas I felt I ‘appreciated’ Super Mario rather than truly enjoyed it, I’m pleased to say I really did enjoy Donkey Kong Country a lot.

You play as both Donkey and Diddy Kong on a quest to get back your stolen bananas. Both Donkey and Diddy play a little differently and you can tag them in and out as you please. They also serve as a ‘safety net’ of sorts because although you can only take a single hit as either one, you won’t fail as long as you have the other in reserve. And on each level you’ll find barrels that will respawn the other.

You also get welcome checkpoints on each level so you don’t have to start from scratch if you do lose both Donkey and Diddy, as well as save points on the world map. Hell, they even give you a fast travel system. As you can guess, I appreciated these features a lot because for me, they encouraged me to play the game the way it was originally intended as opposed to SMB where I frequently abused the NSO restore point feature.

Donkey Kong Country, unlike SMB, doesn’t have quite the same time / score attack vibe to it, but you can play it that way if you wish. Levels are more sprawling with multiple paths to traverse, hidden areas to discover and lots of bananas to collect. It’s amazing how much is packed into each level and how much you’ll miss on your first time through.

There are also multiple ways to give yourself more lives (continues) by collecting said bananas, popping hidden balloons or collecting the four KONG pieces scattered throughout each level. There are 40 levels in all split across a variety of environment types and the game does a great job of introducing new mechanics and little gameplay gimmicks as you progress so there’s always something new to see.

Like SMB, it does have a bit of ‘bullshit’ here and there, but certainly not to same degree and thanks to the Donkey / Diddy dynamic and the checkpoint barrels, you don’t feel like the game is deliberately f**king you over just to waste your time.

Visually, it can be a little hard to read at times on a modern screen, but the graphics do have their charm and the little animations for the characters and enemies are all really good. There are boss fights in the game, some of which do repeat with a slightly more difficult version. They’re all fine, but nothing very exciting.

It’s in the individual levels where DKC really shines, with a lot to discover and explore and I had a really good time working my way through them all. Overall, DKC was a really nice surprise. It’s a game that still holds up well today and is well worth checking out.

Now Playing: Bomb Rush Cyberfunk

In my Steam Summer Sale: Damage Report post I described Bomb Rush Cyberfunk as ‘like someone got bored waiting for Sega to make a new Jet Set Radio so they decided to do it themselves’. Because that’s exactly what BRC is – a shameless JSR clone. And that’s kind of a shame, because as I also said in my Sale post – ‘I don’t just want off-brand JSR. I hope this game has some good ideas of its own.’

Unfortunately, BRC is essentially just an ‘off-brand’ JSR and doesn’t really offer much beyond that. I don’t take issue with a developer taking ‘inspiration’ from another game. I don’t mind them paying ‘homage’ to something they like. But BRC isn’t just ‘inspired’ by or paying ‘homage’ to JSR – it’s a blatant rip-off. It’s a really good rip-off, but the real problem BRC has is that it lacks a strong identity of its own.

As much as I enjoyed my time with BRC I only really enjoyed it because it . . . reminded me of JSR. It’s not as good as JSR – let’s just get that fact out of the way now. Playing BRC is like playing a worse version of JSR. It’s still good. It’s still fun. But I couldn’t ever shake the feeling that I could just go and play a better version of BRC called . . . JSR.

Like I said, it’s a shame because BRC could have forged its own style and identity and built its own ‘brand’ that made it stand apart with its own original and unique vibe. Something that would make me excited to see more games in a possible BRC series. But it doesn’t, so I’m not.

That’s why I’m so on the fence with regard to praising the game. How can I praise BRC for its visuals, animation style, structure and progression when it’s all entirely stolen from – sorry, ‘inspired’ by – another game? Yes, I’m aware lots of games borrow ideas, styles and systems, but not to this degree. BRC is JSR one for one. Even the story scenes in the way characters speak, to the way they’re directed and animated are identical.

The character designs look like JSR rejects. Even the level design is eerily familiar. The addition of alternatives to skates in the form of skateboards and bikes is nice, but they all handle identically in terms of how they play. Music, such an important part of JSR, is pretty weak. There’s a small selection of tracks that you can only expand by discovering more tracks hidden throughout the world.

The problem is, until you do find those hidden tracks you’re going to be stuck with a very small selection that repeats so often you’ll soon get sick of it. Some of the tracks drag on for way too long, are too repetitive and at one point I got so tired of it I told the game to ‘shut the f**k up’ and just shut off the music entirely.

I then put the JSR soundtrack on in the background and had a much better time of it. Because to this day, I still listen to the JSR soundtrack. I still remember the levels and the characters and the style all these years later. I can’t say the same will be true of BRC because the game lacks any identity of its own.

The police system in BRC is more annoying than in JSR. It triggers and escalates far too early and quickly for one, and some of the police systems feel designed to just frustrate you – such as the turrets that shoot out chains to grab you and drag you back – even passing through solid scenery. Who the f*k thought that would be fun?

There are some poor attempts at ‘boss’ fights that don’t really work – particularly the last fight which decides to make you grind lots of rails above a void and then sets the camera to a very unhelpful distant side view making it hard to judge the angle or distance of your jumps.

The trick system is fine, but I didn’t like it enough to waste my time going for high scores. Level design is also fine, but some levels are a little too big and open with too much empty space. I like the taxi guy who can fast travel you between locations because he actually felt like a proper homage to Crazy Taxi rather than just another rip-off.

The story is okay but the game lacks strong characters. Like I said, it’s like someone pulled them all from a pile of characters rejected from JSR. If you’ve not played JSR or JSR Future you might be wondering what the f**k I’m even talking about in this review and why it’s not really about BRC as much as it is why BRC isn’t as good as JSR.

But what else can I say? Maybe I’m being too harsh. I don’t believe the developers of BRC ripped off JSR in a cynical way – oh no, BRC is clearly a labour of love with a great deal of respect for JSR. The problem is, it copies JSR so closely, so precisely and so thoroughly that it results in BRC lacking its own identity and that’s a damn shame.

7/10

Gallery: Forbidden West (Part 3)

Now Playing: Shattered Space (DLC)

Shattered Space is the first but hopefully not the last content expansion for Starfield. The DLC begins with an excellent opening mission upon a mysterious space station which then leads to your arrival upon Var’uun’kai – homeworld of House Va’ruun.

House Va’ruun is a faction that you encounter (sort of) throughout the base game but one that isn’t explored to any great degree. It’s a religious cult as much as it is a faction, driven by a belief in a ‘Great Serpent’ – a celestial being that will one day consume the universe.

I say you ‘sort of’ encounter House Va’ruun in the base game because you kind of don’t – you mostly just fight against the Zealots – a rebel group that was cast out of House Va’ruun that wishes to continue a bloody crusade against the non-believers. You do, however, also meet Andreja, one of the Constellation companions, through whom you can learn a little more about the secretive House.

As someone who was interested in learning more about House Va’ruun, a DLC that focuses entirely upon that faction is a very welcome addition. Of course, if you’re someone who wasn’t very interested in House Va’ruun then you might not feel the same way.

You arrive on Var’uun’kai at the city of Dazra where a terrible event has occurred. More than half the city has been destroyed in some kind of failed experiment. That’s one of the interesting things about House Va’ruun – despite their strong religious beliefs, they’re also a very technologically advanced faction and they utilise that technology in an attempt to bring them closer to their God.

Only in this case, things didn’t exactly go to plan and most of the city has been lost, thousands are presumed dead and hostile ‘phantoms’ have begun to appear amidst the ruins. Your unexpected arrival may be seen as either the ‘Will of the Great Serpent’ or a fortunate coincidence but either way, the people of Dazra need your help.

Some, you’ll come to learn, are more devout than others. Some put all their stock in faith, but others are more, shall we say . . . practical. Not everyone likes the idea of an outsider helping Dazra despite the calamity, so in order to do so you need to join the kooky cult yourself by undertaking a ritual. You can take it seriously if you want, or just play along and see it as a means to an end.

I think the DLC does a great job of fleshing out House Va’ruun. They may all worship the Great Serpent but they’re not a monolith – House Va’ruun is made up of three Houses, but even these Houses are made up of various characters with conflicting views. As someone who really likes the universe of Starfield, I loved exploring Dazra and speaking to everyone, learning about them, their culture, history, customs and beliefs.

There’s a lot of optional dialogue that allows you to delve deeply into Va’ruun society – and there’s also some very interesting audio logs you can uncover towards the very end of the main quest that sheds yet more light on the origins of the faction. But it’s not all stale exposition – you’ll learn a lot more from the personal experiences shared by the people you help.

There’s eight main quests that should take about 6-8 hours to complete, depending upon your style of play. It’s comparable in length to the other faction quests within Starfield such as the UC Vanguard or the Crimson Fleet. It’s got some excellent quests and a very intense final quest that might just be the most action packed quest in the entire game – not to mention, the most challenging. I’m glad I upgraded all my weapons and equipment before starting this DLC!

Outside the main quest (through which you may also gain the opportunity to recruit two new crew characters) you also get eleven side quests. All of these are very good with the exception of one – you’re tasked with helping two scientists and although it’s interesting to speak with them and learn how they reconcile their scientific and religious beliefs, their actual quest is just a series of very dull fetch quests.

I get the intention – to get you out exploring around Dazra – but honestly, the game didn’t need it. Thankfully, the other ten side quests are all very good if not great. There’s a few in particular that should be regarded as among the best in the game. These aren’t typically single quests, but small quest chains, many of which have different possible outcomes based on what you do.

There’s one quest in particular in which I think a lot of people will miss out on one of its endings because it requires you to actually listen to dialogue and read notes / logs you find rather than just blindly follow the quest marker from A to B. There’s a whole part of it that doesn’t appear in your quest log, that isn’t marked, and it’s up to you to actually do the work and figure it out yourself.

It’s so easy to just mindlessly follow a marker, skipping all dialogue or not reading logs and this quest is a welcome change of pace. And whilst there is a lot of combat in the DLC, some of the best content has little to none – another welcome change.

The area immediately around Dazra has plenty of new, unique points of interest to explore. Some of these you’ll visit as part of the side or main quests, but others are just there for you to explore for fun – my favourite being a cave full of treasure hunting space bandits that feels like it’s straight out of Skyrim.

Speaking of Skyrim, this DLC is a return to what a lot of people were saying they wanted from Starfield – a more focused experience set within a single location with lots of handcrafted content to explore, all within easy reach. Well, that’s exactly what this DLC delivers, although I have my doubts it will win over the naysayers because it is, ultimately, still more Starfield, and if you didn’t like it before, I doubt you’ll like it now.

I think this return to a more ‘traditional’ Bethesda structure may also put some other fans of Starfield off. Because I think a lot of people like the fact that Starfield is structured differently to other Bethesda titles – that it’s not just ‘Skyrim in space’. And I’m one of them. I like travelling to different planets and new locations all across the Settled Systems. But you never leave Dazra (or the area immediately surrounding Dazra) at any point during this DLC.

That’s a real shame, because I was hoping for at least one space combat mission because I really like the space combat in Starfield. But no. There’s nothing. Once you park your ship, that’s it until you’re done and want to leave. There’s also – and this is an even bigger disappointment for me – no new ship parts. Seriously?

This DLC was an opportunity to give House Va’ruun their own unique ship designs and parts that the player could then get access to. As someone who loves Starfield ship building, I was kind of annoyed about the DLC lacking this. There’s also not a great deal of new weapons or equipment. There’s some, but it really needed a little more.

Starfield is a game that’s great at letting you focus on what aspects are important to you – quests, exploration, outposts or ships – and you can engage with all these elements as much or as little as you please. So when a piece of DLC doesn’t give equal measure to all these aspects, you’re undoubtedly going to see some disappointment.

As I said, if you don’t care about House Va’ruun or Starfield ‘lore’ you won’t get as much out of this DLC as I did. But if you’re also someone who couldn’t give a shit about ship building like I do, then the lack of new ship parts probably won’t even cross your mind. If you do, however, love ship or outpost building – if it’s the main thing you love and spend your time doing in the game – then there’s really nothing here for you.

I do think that’s why I’ve seen such a mixed bag of reviews for Shattered Space. It’s not a DLC that caters to all types of Starfield fans or how they prefer to play, and it’s not a DLC that’s going to change the minds of anyone who didn’t like the base game.

Visually, this DLC is gorgeous to look at, utilising a colour palette not seen anywhere else within the game. The recent updates to lighting in the base game also continue to impress here with – like the base game – some of the most detailed and impressive interiors you’ll see in any game.

The only other point to touch upon with regard to this DLC is the price – £25.99 – which I feel is a little steep. It took me about 18 hours to finish everything within the DLC and that’s a pretty decent amount of content – and good quality content – but I feel like a 19.99 release price might have been a little more on the mark. It’s a DLC I’d recommend any fan of Starfield to pick up – provided you don’t just play it to build ships or outposts, at least – but if you didn’t get it as part of the deluxe edition like I did, you might want to wait for a sale.

Overall, Shattered Space is a very good expansion to Starfield that’s just a little held back by a lack of content with regard to new items, outpost and ship parts and a total lack of space combat. But there are also some of the best quests in the game to be found here and a lot of cool lore for those of us into that sort of thing.

7/10