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.