While it may not have had the impact of Fallout or The Elder Scrolls, Starfield was still a lot of fun. In fact, Bethesda’s open-world sci-fi RPG was easily one of my favorite games of 2023. I devoured it, completing every faction quest and spending hours on space adventures with my crew in a customized ship. For me, Starfield captured the magic of science fiction in a way that few other games can. So I was always excited to dive back into that world with the Shattered Space expansion. Unfortunately, Shattered Space isn’t exactly the best Starfield.
I played Starfield to death, and while it certainly had its fair share of technical issues, it was still arguably Bethesda’s most polished game at launch. I didn’t encounter any major bugs while playing the base game of Starfield, but the same can’t be said for Shattered Space. I encountered multiple bugs that prevented important events from occurring, forcing me to leave the area and come back to continue the quest. One such bug prevented important NPCs from speaking to me. When I tried to start a conversation to start the quest, the camera zoomed in on her face, she started speaking her first line, and that was it.
Quest also suffers from other issues. In another quest, I was tasked with investigating a campsite for clues. The problem was that some of the items needed to investigate the site were not visible. Luckily, even though the items were no longer visible, I was still able to “investigate” them and complete the quest. However, for that I had to search YouTube videos to see where these things were. While some bugs and glitches can be ignored, progress blockers like this are a big problem, and it’s a shame that they seem to be much more prevalent in Shattered Space than in the base game. .
There are other oddities about Shattered Space. Every time I entered a new area, my companions kept running full speed ahead until they were stopped by an object, but one of the peddlers in Dazzla, the main city players explore in Shattered Space , interestingly, I had never stood at the counter of my store. Instead, they stood behind plastic sheets a few feet away. It’s possible that’s the spec, but it doesn’t make much sense and led to a lot of stupid conversations while talking to them through the plastic.
Dazzra City and its surrounding open world, Varunkai, suffers from stuttering and spikes in frame rate, especially when Starfield’s 60fps mode is turned on. The game runs very smoothly indoors, but the lackluster performance makes exploring open areas a bit of a pain. I finished the base game and was surprised and impressed by its polish, but Shattered Space mostly disappointed me in that regard.
The opening of Shattered Space has some serious alien vibes.
That’s a shame, too, because Shattered Space starts out very promising. Players receive a distress signal and head to a seemingly abandoned space station called Oracle. Players must explore the Oracle in zero gravity, and their investigation ultimately leads them to the mysterious home planet of the Varoon family, Varunkai. The space station segment is a real highlight of Shattered Space, and one of the few areas of the DLC that capitalizes on the cosmic horror vibe that was exaggerated in the trailer. Exploring the Oracle feels like something out of an Alien movie, and it’s done very well.
The main quests after that are all mostly solid, but there are some memorable plot twists and difficult decisions the player has to make. Bugs aside, Shattered Space’s main story quest is great for as long as it lasts. The problem is, it doesn’t last very long. Although there are only eight quests available, I was able to complete Shattered Space’s main quest in about four hours. Granted, Shattered Space also has some quality side quests for players to pursue, but it’s still a shame that the main story is so short.
On the bright side, Shattered Space’s main quest takes players to interesting areas and gives them the chance to collect useful new items and weapons. Shattered Space adds some cool new guns to Starfield’s vast arsenal, and also allows players to craft grenades. Combat otherwise plays out similarly to the base game, with players encouraged to utilize special powers to gain an advantage in certain firefights. Shattered Space has some tough battles that stand up to the base game’s more challenging battles, so players should definitely be prepared before traveling to Va’ruun’kai.
Shattered Space Phantom is not a worthy addition to your enemy roster.
Shattered Space introduces new enemy types for players to fight, most notably the Phantom. These mysterious, glowing beings teleport all over the place, so they’re honestly not particularly fun to fight. They may restore shields and health after teleporting, but they teleport so quickly that it can sometimes feel like your health bar isn’t making any progress at all. Now, this complaint mostly applies to the “boss” Phantom and less so to the grunts, but regardless, Shattered Space has multiple combats that feel like a chore.
Shattered Space’s combat is mixed, but at least everything looks great during combat. Shattered Space is gorgeous, with some really impressive lighting that gives certain areas a photo-realistic look. Varunkai is bathed in a pink glow, giving it a unique appearance compared to other planets in the Starfield, and is full of amazing sights.
I started the Shattered Space expansion with Andreja of House Va’ruun as my wife. Starfield players might want to consider bringing her along in the DLC, as some unique conversation options popped up due to having Andreya with her.
Starfield: Shattered Space’s beautifully rendered new areas sometimes amazed me, but other times the immersion was ruined by annoying bugs that hindered quest progress or strange graphical oddities. The DLC is uneven to say the least, and Starfield fans should take that into consideration when deciding whether to spend $30 on an expansion.
$30 for a 4-hour main quest seems a bit steep, but with the addition of new weapons and side quests, it might be worth the investment for hardcore Starfield fans who want more, once the bugs are ironed out anyway. I don’t know. Future updates could make Shattered Space much easier to recommend, but for now fans may want to hold off until more egregious bugs and glitches are ironed out.
Final score: 5/10
5/10
Starfield: Shattered Space Pros Va-run Kai looks great Fun new weapons Engaging story with difficult choices players are forced to make Cons Frustrating bugs that can completely derail the quest Short can be completed in about 4 hours Main story campaign Graphical weirdness that breaks immersion Stunning open world performance Some phantom battles are more annoying than fun
Starfield: Shattered Space is now available on PC and Xbox Series X. Game Rant was provided an Xbox Series X code for this review.
