Starfield, Bethesda's ailing space simulator, had a lot riding on its first DLC release, Shattered Space. Unfortunately for the company, the DLC is being received pretty poorly on Steam, with the reviews being currently sat at a "Mostly negative" rating.
News in brief
- Shattered Space introduces a new planet and city
- Reviews started as Mixed, but have fallen to Mostly Negative
- It doesn't seem to be the shot in the arm Starfield needed
Shattered Space is the first DLC for Starfield, and some elements of it have been positively received. The new planet, Va'ruun'kai, is going down quite well, as is its capital city, Darza. Simply put, the visuals are gorgeous, and even those who don't like the DLC admit that much. However, outside of that, the same old issues from Starfield's launch arise again and again.
"This dlc is more starfield which, if you liked starfield to begin with means you will likely find it worthwhile" says one review, which is certainly damning with faint praise. Others have pushed back against the idea this is a full expansion at all, calling it a story pack. Some feel let down by the lack of depth here, with complaints about the lack of consequences being right at the forefront of the negative criticism. If you followed previous criticisms of Starfield than a lot of this will start to feel very familiar.
To say Starfield needed a miracle is understating it slightly. While Bethesda's first original IP in 25 years has its fans, it's more than fair to say it's failed to set the gaming world alight in a way that, say, Skyrim or the rebooted Fallout series did. A lot must have been riding on the success of the DLC to perk up the game, and it's unfortunate that Shattered Space doesn't seem to have delivered the boost so desperately needed.
By most accounts, the DLC's story is better crafted than most of the main game, but that's unfortunately not saying much. While some will have been hoping for a comeback story worthy of the ages, based on Shattered Space's reception, it seems as if Starfield may remain resting in the gutters, gazing up at the stars.
