“Bethesda clearly doesn't give a 💩 about delivering anything half decent."
PC | XBOX SERIES
**DISCLAIMER**
Nothing has changed about my main criticisms of Starfield or what I think of the base game. If you want to see what I thought about Starfield, check out my REVISITED Review HERE: Starfield: Revisited Review
That being said, this will be my 3rd time jumping into the world of Starfield, and let's just say... not much has changed.
(Kinda like how we don't know what killed Kratos's wife in God Of War 2018, nor will we ever! Some things just never change! 😛)
HOW I PLAYED: I pre-ordered the deluxe edition of Starfield to play 3 days early (at launch) and received the Shattered Space DLC for free, all through my Xbox GamePass PC subscription. I played on my R7 7800X3D, RTX 3080 gaming PC with 32GB of DDR5 RAM. I played at 1440p on ultra settings and hovered around 80-90 fps and sometimes went above 100.
STORY — 10/20
INTRO
The Shattered Space DLC kicks off with a stranded space station that will spawn outside of any planet's orbit that you travel to. There is a distress beacon that warns you to stay away but in typical horror movie fashion... You ignore the warning to go see what's up.
This introduction reminded me of Event Horizon (A 1997 horror sci-fi classic), and even though the space station was nothing insanely new, it did have some nice flair and I could tell Bethesda put some hand-crafted man-hours into this introduction, which was appreciated.
CUTSCENES
The cutscenes suck in Starfield, I am sorry... I can't put it any other way. I turned off the awful close-up face zoom during cutscenes which made it a little better but for a huge sci-fi space adventure game, you would think there would be some amazing pre-rendered cutscenes or in-game cutscenes with some cool camera work and fx... but there are NONE!
There was one in-game rendered cutscene at the end when you do an "escape" section. That was it...
Isn't Bethesda a huge AAA studio??? Or are they an Indie studio? I am confused...
WORLD BUILDING
If you count all of the NPC's regurgitating the same storylines as "World Building"... then sure there is some in the Shattered Space DLC. But every NPC has the most unimaginative nothing dialogue that I don't even feel like they added anything to the atmosphere or story of the game.
You might as well have made them all mute...
OVERALL STORY
Insert a sad trombone or a balloon-deflating sound here...
Bethesda, you took a full YEAR since the original game release to make THIS? I apologize for being extra critical here, but I feel like a studio of your size has ZERO excuses here.
You have received feedback all year from players.
- The game is boring
- The quest lines are dull
- The dialogue is cheesy
And you have decided to listen to NONE of this!
Good move... I hope it works out for you.
GRAPHICS — 12/15
CHARACTER MODELS
I was impressed with the cultural designs of the people of Va'ruun. They reminded me of the traditional styles of Indigenous Hawaiians or Māori from New Zealand. The intricate face tattoos and clothing patterns looked amazing, and it was clear there was a lot of thoughtful craftsmanship involved, unlike the usual procedurally generated slop you get in the base game.
Kudos Bethesda!
ENVIRONMENTS
Whoever designed the skybox used for Va'ruun deserves a raise! This was a very cool color palette and made for some very epic landscape shots during my playthrough. I just wish the game did more with this by having its own in-game rendered cutscenes that do something like an epic flyover. Or like a big reveal when you open the main city's large doors.
SPECIAL FX
Nothing has changed from the base game here. There are these new anti-gravity bubbles... but that was it.
AUDIO — 7/15
AMBIENCE
At the bare minimum, I didn't feel like there was any new music, it all just felt like the same stuff from the base game.
BOSS MUSIC
None, just the same generic "high intensity" sounds.
SOUND DESIGN
Still loads of bugs where NPCs will start dialogue when they aren't supposed to and they won't stop. Or they will interrupt other NPCs.
PERFORMANCE — 6/10
FRAME RATE
I was getting pretty consistent frame rates and I know the Xbox consoles have gotten performance patches in the last few months. I know they don't quite hit 60fps but... it is nice to see that Bethesda is at least trying.
STABILITY
This is your BRAND NEW DLC, and you have been working on it for over a year, and almost immediately at the start of the DLC an NPC walks through the cutscene and gets stuck at a door.
What are we doing here Bethesda? Do you even CARE? Are you even trying anymore?
And NO I am not a believer in "That is just Bethesda charm!", that is EMBARRASSING and you should feel shame for releasing a product that is STILL this janky.
NPCs have terrible AI, ridiculous rag-doll physics, and Missions getting stuck because you didn't do the sequence of events in the designed order.
Complete joke.
GAMEPLAY — 19/40
CONTROLS
Same as the base game, the controls feel decent.
MECHANICS
Nothing new from the base game. No new weapon styles, No different land vehicles, no new ships, no new mechanics.
PACING
The DLC has like 6 missions, and most of them are "Go to this group of people and do some meaningless chore for them".
- Save hostages
- Track down a royal in a camp
- Go to a facility and shut it down
UI/UE
awful, same as base game. Navigating the start menu is terrible.
BOSS QUALITY
The final boss is **SPOILER*** an NPC with a double health bar...
Shocker.
The whole DLC everyone is talking about a giant serpent god or "The Great Serpent". I was literally expecting a Rykard-like boss from Elden Ring... but what do you get?
Some Dude with a double health bar... I wish I was joking!
ENEMY VARIETY
Terrible, instead of NPC Crimson Pirates, you get GHOST NPC's. And a couple of the random alien monsters got re-skins...
GAMEPLAY VARIETY
There is still all the random stuff you can do in Starfield... but the DLC is very limited as it is just a few set missions that are on the new planet of Va'ruun.
REPLAYABILITY
I will never play this DLC ever again. Not even if you paid me!
OVERALL — 51/100
Starfield: Shattered Space shows that Bethesda clearly doesn't give a 💩 about delivering anything half-decent. The fact that this took 1 year to put out is a disgrace and I honestly feel like Microsoft should have a Bethesda team meeting and "let go" everyone who worked on Starfield in leadership positions.
Seriously... bring me to the Bethesda offices and I will do it for free!
Bethesda would still be at a net positive if they let go of their entire staff right now. They have seemingly NOTHING in the pipeline, all they have to show is a CGI trailer of a mountain range with the text "Elder Scrolls VI" on it. The Creation 2 engine is a joke, and I don't care if you have dumped 100's of millions of dollars into it you NEED to end of life this engine.
GIANT disappointment, my heart goes out to die-hard Xbox fans who have to huff insane amounts of copium and defend this steaming pile of 💩 to their Sony Pony nemeses.
Starfield: Shattered Space... sucks. That's all I have to say about that.
TLDR: 54/100 (FAIR)
Starfield: Shattered Space is a massive letdown, especially after a full year of development. While some environments and character designs stand out, the DLC suffers from weak storytelling, poor world-building, and barely any new gameplay mechanics. The performance issues and lackluster boss fight only add to the disappointment. With repetitive missions and minimal replay value, this DLC feels like a half-hearted effort from Bethesda, leaving little reason for fans to return.
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