Starfield: Shattered Space is the first in what could be yearly expansions. It takes our Starborn traveller to Va’ruun’kai, home of House Va’ruun. Half of their capital city is gone, along with their Speaker after an accident.
Strange anomalies have taken shape in the form of maddened humans and horrors from beyond our galaxy. This expansion should take mostly players roughly 10 to 15 hours to see most of its sights, and you will have a blast while doing so.
Va’ruun’kai
The best part of Shattered Space is Va’ruun’kai. It is a gorgeous synth-wave mix of fuschia and deep blues, a feast for the eyes on any decent HDR display. Starfield is a magnificent game that has vastly improved since its launch in the looks department.
The game’s lighting system had issues with crushed blacks at launch. If you, like me, have an OLED this is the best game for it when it comes to those deep, saturated, gorgeous colors. To get to Va’ruun’kai you’ll need to make sure every bit of DLC licensing and files are installed.
Once it is the first system you jump to that isn’t part of an active quest or activity will spawn in a derelict space station. Shattered Space is for players level 35 and above, so while you can access it from the moment you’ve completed the opening quest, you will get your butt handed to you if you’re too low level. The space station mission is full of creeps and scares.
Shattered Space takes a more vicious approach than the base game, and our player hero can be a true prick. By the end, I had choices that felt full-on evil in a way they never did in the main campaign back at launch.
Once you’re on Va’ruun’kai you can leave at any time and fast-travel back. You’re not locked into the location, and the new buggy makes driving around the main city and its densely packed surroundings a breeze.
Starfield was a game with a major focus on jumping from planet to planet. Shattered Space not only keeps you on one main planet, but it keeps you in a single (massive) part of it. From the time I landed on the planet straight through completion of the main DLC quest chain, I never took off in my ship a single time.
Shattering Space
The gameplay change hook for this DLC is the vortex power-infused members of House Va’ruun alongside new enemies called Vortex Horrors. The Vortex is the area between galaxies, and it seems like those trapped inside it are eventually driven mad and want to shoot the shit out of you.
In turn, once you take them out they’re back in reality, dead, and ready for you to loot. Some of that loot will be Void Crystals and Void Cysts. These you can use, though I completely forgot to, to make explosives new to the DLC.
As the game takes place in the Va’ruun home world, there are new weapons with more of a focus on melee. I still ended up primarily shooting from mid to long-range while playing the DLC on a beefy PC, but the powerful legendary daggers drop aplenty and can be a fun way to dish out pain.
I did hop into the campaign on Series X as well, and as anyone who’s played Starfield on there lately knows, it runs like a dream. I primarily played in the 40fps mode on my 120hz display and it was the best mix of smooth aiming and excellent lighting that the console could offer.
All Must Serve
One of my favorite parts of the expansion is how much it felt like my choices mattered for the overall narrative. There were some wildly different places I could have gone if I wanted to be any degree of evil. I admit, I’m a total softy in these games, and I tried to get the “best for the galaxy” outcome. You can go full-on serpent-sucking cultist if you want, in a way that the base game never truly allowed.
I had Andreja with me in my main game save which is on the new game +2. She is my wife in this galaxy and felt like the perfect companion to tag along with. The awe in her voice at seeing her home again, something she’d never thought possible, warmed my cold dead heart. The voice acting on the whole is solid, with only a few of the side characters and one main character feeling a bit melodramatic in their recordings.
Music-wise, it’s as good as ever. Hearing that familiar theme kicking up in combat or as I explored the insanely gorgeous terrain lit in a deep magenta hue is my gaming warm blanket. Starfield is always installed on Xbox and PC, and now that Shattered Space is out it means every new game + I can see all the ways how I can serve or disobey the Great Serpent of House Va’ruun.
Bug-wise I ran into one, which was my initial save on a space station loading into the void. I had to snag a save about 30 minutes earlier in my playtime that was set on a planet for things to work. I know people in the community and at large have had issues getting the first quest on the derelict station to work. I do not know how widespread the issues are – but they exist at launch.
Wrapping Things Up
Starfield’s first expansion is an excellent dive into one of the game’s key pieces of lore. There are answers to be had and mysteries to be born anew. It is all wrapped up in one of the best ‘looks’ I’ve seen in a video game to date. For any fan of the base game, this is a solid 10+ hour adventure you do not want to miss.
Starfield: Shattered Space
Played on
Xbox Series X, PC
PROS
- Stunning Location
- Solid Length
- Intriguing Main Campaign
- Densely Packed Location
CONS
- Buggy for many at launch
Seeing a fair number of people having issues, I had the one I mention and that was really it. I streamed all but the final few hours of the game on the channel.
Really looking forward to playing this soon, put so many hours into the base game.
Nice review, Jesse!
I’m only a few hours in but so far so good! I also haven’t played the game since last year so lots of new updates making the game feel even more fresh to me.
Starfield discourse is the most miserable videogame stuff I get yoinked into online, just miserable.
Yeah, I saw some of the comments on the video. People are just freaking weird as fuck.
You don’t even get to see the truly unhinged ones that YT holds in moderation. It’s god awful.
He played it right after release without pause and his review clearly explains why he liked it.
Go watch his stream of it on YouTube, it’s on the live section on the XboxEra channel.
The reviewer started playing as soon as the expansion was available, he streamed most of it live on XboxEra’s Youtube channel.
Jesse is an exceptional reviewer and knows what he’s talking about.
Because I’m not pretending to dislike the game after giving it a positive review like most of the industry is, and you can watch me play and enjoy the expansion on our stream in this VOD that has 7 of my 10 or so hours of gameplay. Welcome to the community!