Starfield: Shattered Space gets middling reviews, fails to deliver on some key expectations

I’m fairly fond of Starfield‘s goofy, often sterile sandbox universe. I’ve got some strange reasons as to why that’s the case, but generally, I like the game well enough. I was very excited about Shattered Space, too. Starfield‘s first DLC isn’t doing all that well review-wise, however.

In more concrete terms, Shattered Space is currently stuck with a ‘Mixed’ review rating over on Steam, with just over 600 reviews posted in total. Now, we had some inclination that Bethesda might be playing it safe with Shattered Space ahead of the DLC’s release, but that’s really not the issue here. In fact, even though I do think Shattered Space did fail to deliver in some crucial areas (more on that later), I also think its current review rating is somewhat undeserved and may have fallen victim to the “Starfield bad” hype.

Starfield’s new Shattered Space DLC comes with some strange omissions, but that’s not the reason why it’s got ‘Mixed’ reviews

It takes just the tiniest bit of scrolling through Starfield: Shattered Space‘s reviews to see that many, if not most of the negative posts could be considered meme-worthy. A very significant number of these reviews, in fact, appears to be reviewing Starfield once again instead of adequately critiquing the new expansion pack.

So, with that in mind, I recommend taking Shattered Space‘s Steam review rating with a pinch of salt at hand. Things are really not as dire as the reviews might make it seem at a glance.

That being what it is, the flip side of things is that I’m completely befuddled by some of the choices Bethesda appears to have made here. Now, note that I’ve obviously not completed the DLC in its entirety, but Shattered Space does not add any of the following:

• New ship parts
• New ship customization options in general
• Meaningful new dialogue with Andreja
• A sensible ending
• New gameplay features
• New companions

Shattered Space is, instead, a collection of fancy new Va’ruun-themed stories set against the grander backdrop of Starfield‘s universe. This is certainly fair enough, but I am deeply confused as to why Bethesda wouldn’t choose to build upon some of the game’s strongest core features. Like, for an obvious example, the ship-building systems.

This is the bit that really grates on me, in particular. Starfield‘s lead creative producer, Tim Lamb, specifically mentioned in a interview with Gaming Boulevard that Bethesda has “introduced new ship customization options [with Shattered Space], which allow players to really tailor their vessels to their playstyle.” There aren’t any of those to be found here, from the look of things. And I’d be eager to wait longer to see if Bethesda hid some key goodies behind endgame-tier Shattered Space content if the modders hadn’t datamined all the new items within hours of the DLC’s release.

In general, then, I do recommend Shattered Space for those who are keen on Starfield in general. It’s a solid new piece of content that genuinely does riff with the likes of Morrowind and Skyrim in some important ways. The fact that it stubbornly refuses to improve upon those bits that were genuinely exciting and important to the core Starfield gameplay experience annoys me deeply, however.

In a roundabout way, I guess the “Mixed” reviews kind of do fit Starfield: Shattered Space.

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