The Starfield Planet At The Center Of Its Shattered Space DLC Sounds Like It Has A Lot Going On

One of my hopes for Starfield’s Shattered Space expansion is that it feels a bit more like a traditional Bethesda RPG. And so far, that’s been the vibe of the pre-release hype. The planet at the center of the new story DLC, Va’ruun’kai, sounds like it might offer something closer to the open-world adventuring fans missed from Skyrim and Fallout 4.

Bethesda teased a few more details about Shattered Space in the lead-up to its release on September 30, including that Va’ruun’kai will have over 50 locations to visit. I have no idea how big or involved they will be, but it definitely seems like players might end up spending more time on the cult homeworld than any one planet from the base game. Here’s the rest of the bite-sized info Bethesda shared in a tweet today:

• Over 50 new locations to discover and explore across Va’ruun’kai
• New grenades to craft that stem from organic material you gather (and it’s gross)
• Formidable new enemies - be on your guard for Redeemed and Vortex Horrors...
• You haven’t seen the last of Zealots, Spacers, or the Crimson Fleet... As you explore the planet be on the lookout for those taking advantage of the situation.

In addition to the sprawling Va’ruun’kai map, which includes Dazra, the capital city on the cosmic horror-worshipping House Va’ruun’s home world, it sounds like new horror enemies might help amp up the game’s difficulty, which becomes a bit perfunctory after you’ve spent a dozen or so hours exploring and building a loadout. I’m also curious to hear more about these gross grenades, which are giving me visions of the piss bombs from Death Stranding.

Kotaku recently got to see a behind closed-doors, hands-off preview of Shattered Space. “While you can leave the planet any time you wish, given Starfield’s open nature, the plot here is entirely self-contained, and exploration of the planet and the city will lead to uncovering exactly what happened here, and, we’re told, becoming ‘entangled in the political feud between the minor houses,’” wrote John Walker in response to what was shown. “This refocusing of how Starfield is played and experienced could be a boon for the ailing project.”

I certainly hope the strong sense of mood and much more confined storytelling creates a denser feeling of possibilities to explore and secrets to uncover in Shattered Space. My favorite moments from the base game weren’t firing up my ship’s engines and pondering all the places I could go, but rather navigating strained loyalties and menacing deceptions in individual cities and questlines. We’ll find out if it’s worked when the expansion arrives on Xbox and PC later this month.