It’s been a very long time coming for Starfield gamers. Bethesda’s sci-fi take on Skyrim originally launched last summer, and whereas there have been some updates and enhancements since then, it’s taken greater than a yr for the sport to get its first main enlargement. This lead-up means there’s so much using on Shattered Space — which is a wonderfully wonderful addition to the sport that additionally feels extremely underwhelming. After a promising setup, it finally ends up principally being extra of the identical.
Issues begin, as they so typically do in expansions, with a misery name. This one leads you to a derelict area station that’s brimming with ghostly apparitions and which finally whisks you away to the house planet of the Home Va’ruun, a spiritual sect that worships a large serpent. There, you study the Va’ruun have been beset by a calamity that has precipitated some members to vanish, others to show into violent wraiths, and a variety of different unusual and disastrous happenings in and round their foremost metropolis. After a ceremony that truly converts you to the church, your job turns into fixing the thriller of the calamity and serving to the Home put issues again so as.
(Word: you possibly can technically entry Shattered House at any level after Starfield’s opening mission, however Bethesda recommends being degree 35 or larger to get via it. I performed on a New Sport Plus save at degree 32 and didn’t actually have any issues.)
It’s an ideal premise that guarantees all types of cosmic horror. The planet you’ll discover is rendered in a garish crimson and purple, stuffed with unusual glowing growths, bubbles the place gravity doesn’t exist, and oddball creatures that might look proper at house in No Man’s Sky. The principle metropolis — which seems like a cross between a frontier city and an historical temple — is stuffed with individuals struggling via the turmoil, whether or not it’s misplaced family members, meals shortages, or a disaster of religion.
Shattered House can be notable for being extremely centered. Whereas a lot of Starfield’s enchantment has been the sheer scale of its universe, right here, you’re restricted to a single planet that’s dense with issues to do and see. It’s harking back to the largely standalone Far Harbor expansion for Fallout 4.
This ends in some nice storylines, notably within the sidequests, which have you ever doing all the things from investigating a haunted orphanage to looking down a livestock thief. At first, the non secular sect appeared standoffish and obscure. However finally, it grew to become clear that regardless of their full isolation and perception in a giant snake, they had been all simply individuals struggling to get by. Even the easy missions offer you some new perception into the human aspect of this group, which, in the principle Starfield marketing campaign, is essentially branded as a sect of violent zealots.
However the way you do that’s typical Starfield (and Bethesda) stuff. Quests have you ever preventing via dungeons, amassing or delivering gadgets, and infrequently speaking your approach out of issues. There’s a brand new backdrop, however nothing a lot has modified by way of the construction or moment-to-moment expertise of Starfield. These alien monstrosities are simply extra enemies to battle; the ghostly wraiths are simply extra troopers taking pictures at you. On the very least, the fetch quests are a very good probability to check out the new dune buggy.
There’s nothing notably dangerous about Shattered House. And in case you’re simply on the lookout for extra Starfield, that’s precisely what that is, solely in one of many extra visually and narratively attention-grabbing places within the recreation. However after a lot time, I can’t assist however need a little bit extra than simply extra. Shattered House had the potential to be bizarre and creepy and completely different, nevertheless it seems like gamers should hold ready for one thing that feels really new.