Review: Starfield Shattered Space (Xbox)

Well, this is a bit unexpected. As big fans of Starfield, who had plenty good to say about the base game upon release, we were pretty sure that Shattered Space was going to be a slice of DLC that was right up our intergalactic street.

Sure, there were plenty of reasons to be irked with this hugely-anticipated sci-fi universe when it originally launched, and we totally get why some other outlets chose to score it lower than we did back at the time – Starfield was a big, messy thing, and it’s been a real love it/hate it affair all over. Of course, all of these various issues are well-documented by now, there’s no need to regurgitate everyone’s dissatisfactions, but the one thing we were convinced of due to the mixed reaction, was that Bethesda would use the first major expansion for its beleaguered game as a chance to refresh, rework and reintroduce players to an experience revitalised.

There was an expectation that this would be best-foot-forward time. However, what we’ve actually got with Shattered Space is a roughly 15-hour fix of very average narrative content, set in a new environment that does very little to impress. Yep. It sucks to say, but Shattered Space is a disappointment on nearly every level, and it’s one that begins to annoy as soon as you boot into it – if, indeed, you can even get it started in the first place.

Rather than grabbing returning players and new recruits by the scruff of their spacesuits with some awe-inspiring opening sequence that showcases the very best of Starfield (or even by refreshing them with regards to the game’s rather overwhelming controls), Bethesda has instead decided to run with a zero-gravity shootout that’s sure to have everyone tearing their hair out from the word go.

It’s a terrible way to welcome anyone to Starfield, we hate zero gravity – especially against cheap, warping enemies – and, once the gravity is turned back on, things never really take off, or add anything of worth to the base experience. We’ve still awarded Shattered Space an “average” score, and that’s all based on the fact that we enjoy the core shooting and exploring – remember, plenty of folk don’t even like these parts – but everything else here just feels very badly judged.

The new narrative strand sees you, once again, framed as a very special messiah of sorts who everyone knows and recognises (it’s getting a little old now, Bethesda). You receive a distress beacon from The Oracle space station, which has warped into your view in full-on emergency mode, and then set off on a quest that takes you in and around every nook and cranny of the DLC’s new chunk of space, Va’ruun’kai. This new planet is definitely an upgrade over those you’ll have explored in the base game; it’s busier, better organised into districts, and it’s also got a fairly impressive city in the form of Dazra, which is initially interesting enough to encourage some excitement.

But then it all just flaps around for 15 hours. Where are all the dazzling set-pieces or meaningful changes? Where are the big surprises or new mechanics? Heck, where are all the new ships and guns and new companions? Where are the interesting new enemies? It’s all very auto-pilot in its vibe, this DLC. Jeezo. It feels more like a shrug than a proper attempt to redress the balance, especially given how much flak Bethesda got on initial release.

We don’t want to spoil the plot, we won’t go into detail on the story, but it’s just not up to much. The acting is odd in places – we even had a discussion about how weird it sounded, in fact – the gunplay hasn’t seen any changes, and there’s been no dice on any of the stuff we actually thought we’d see, like genuinely new biomes or even actually unique enemies (these ones are reskins). Surely now is the time, Bethesda, to do something cool. Another bite at the cherry? No?

The best thing about Shattered Space, in the end, is the new map. That’s how bland this DLC is. The new map is a bit better than the old maps. That’s your lot. The opportunity to do anything interesting hasn’t been taken, we’ve got no meaningful upgrades or additions to any aspect of the huge experience that is Starfield, and as a result are more than ready to put this one to bed. It does sort of seem as though that’s what Bethesda has decided to do too, to be fair.

Finally, and with regards to performance, there are consistent framerate issues in the balanced 40fps mode on Xbox Series X. Jetpacking across open terrain results in fairly egregious stuttering, for example, and we also ran into plenty of bugs, with one workbench sending us back to the console’s dash and another getting us stuck in a loop that we had to shut the game down to rectify.

We’ve also got braindead enemies who stand still during scraps, NPCs wandering into conversations, texture glitches and falling through scenery are, of course, all present at points too. So, not a great report in terms of how they’ve fixed the performance, either.

There are other problems, stuff like the fact your companion has no idea of the current mission when you interact with them, instead continuing to talk about whatever previous mission you happened to be on before jumping into the DLC. You can exhaust their conversation options, but it never fixes itself…so yeah, that sort of breaks immersion. And it’s indicative of how much effort it feels has been put in all over with this one in general. What a shame.

Conclusion
Starfield: Shattered Space is a big disappointment in almost every way. We loved the base game, for all its flaws, and we were willing this to be the big, exciting DLC drop that’d make us love it all over again. However, what we’ve got here is a very average narrative expansion that fails to add any big choices, upgrades, new enemies, biomes, loot or anything that could potentially excite or draw in new players. It’s buggy, janky, badly acted in places, and there are a myriad of bugs and performance issues to be ironed out. What a missed opportunity.