Starfield - Bethesda Softworks - Release Date - Sep 6th 2023

[Turin]

In addition to offering a new story, it was marketed as including new worlds, locations, ship parts, weapons, suits, powers, enemies, bounties and QoL improvements. From what I can tell from reviews, it offers only one new world, all of the locations are on that one world and there are no new ship parts. The rest might be there, but it doesn't sound like it moves the needle much.

Regardless of what it was marketed as, though, it doesn't seem to be what many people wanted or thought that the game needed. That includes critics, who gave it an average score of 57/100, according to Metacritic and Opencritic, compared to 75/100 for the base game. One critic, Dalton Cooper of GameRant, even gave the base game a 10/10 score and the DLC only a 5/10. So, it's not just regular players or even the haters who are a little underwhelmed by this DLC... and the possibility, as you pointed out, that this is the last major update and chance for an overhaul has to be disappointing for players who are either unhappy with the game or happy enough with it but hoping for it to get even better and reach its potential.

That last part is kind of me. Although as time has gone on and I haven't had any desire to go back and play in the last year, I get more sour on some of the stuff I didn't like. What I did like were some of the faction stuff with the Vanguard, some of the atmosphere and I surprisingly liked the NG+ feature a ton, despite me hating the idea of a multiverse.

However there's just.. zero edge to anything, no culture anywhere.. I can't get over how stupidly shallow what's left of human culture is. And now with House Varuun having nothing particularly compelling about them after being revealed I just don't think there's any salvaging this fictional space because I don't think there's a lore mastermind in BGS who has an overarching idea for this world. Like I could think of a more compelling vision of alternate timeline humanity within 3 days than what we get in Starfield. Kurt Kuhlmann and Will Shen both being fired/leaving the studio immediately after the games release were huge red flags for me. Kuhlmann was a big lore guy for Elder Scrolls and Shen was the guy responsible for Far Harbor and a lot of the quest choice stuff.

I think it's clear now that this was a passion project from Howard that he wanted to do because of the success of his previous games, and the quality/cohesiveness of the project mattered less than just doing it to say that he could - but now that the team spent a decade on this and F76, and so much of the talent behind their success is gone, BGS just seems like a cautionary tale now.

 

[Mikeaveli]

In addition to offering a new story, it was marketed as including new worlds, locations, ship parts, weapons, suits, powers, enemies, bounties and QoL improvements. From what I can tell from reviews, it offers only one new world, all of the locations are on that one world and there are no new ship parts. The rest might be there, but it doesn't sound like it moves the needle much.

Regardless of what it was marketed as, though, it doesn't seem to be what many people wanted or thought that the game needed. That includes critics, who gave it an average score of 57/100, according to Metacritic and Opencritic, compared to 75/100 for the base game. One critic, Dalton Cooper of GameRant, even gave the base game a 10/10 score and the DLC only a 5/10. So, it's not just regular players or even the haters who are a little underwhelmed by this DLC... and the possibility, as you pointed out, that this is the last major update and chance for an overhaul has to be disappointing for players who are either unhappy with the game or happy enough with it but hoping for it to get even better and reach its potential.

I'm not sure where you saw BGS saying there would be multiple new planets. On the Steam page for the DLC and in the community updates and interviews they put out prior to launch they were explicit about there only being one planet.

If the review scores are low because the content in the DLC sucks (like most of Fallout 3 and 4's DLC), then that's fair enough. I just don't think it makes sense to criticize a DLC for not overhauling the entire game when that was never the point of it in the first place.

 

[Osprey]

I'm not sure where you saw BGS saying there would be multiple new planets.

It was in a couple of media previews that I read just before I replied to you. Obviously, they were wrong, but that's my point, that miscommunication and over-hyping raised expectations. I'm not saying that that's necessarily Bethesda's fault, just that it's not necessarily players' fault for being disappointed.

 

[Jussi]

I still haven't gotten around to finishing the "Unity" quest. Should I finish that before playing the Shattered Space DLC or can I play the latter straight away?

 

[Osprey]

I still haven't gotten around to finishing the "Unity" quest. Should I finish that before playing the Shattered Space DLC or can I play the latter straight away?

It sounds like you can start the DLC at any time after completing the first Constellation quest, though Bethesda recommends that you be at least level 35. It doesn't sound like there are story reasons for postponing it.

 

[Indrid Cold]

It sounds like you can start the DLC at any time after completing the first Constellation quest, though Bethesda recommends that you be at least level 35. It doesn't sound like there are story reasons for postponing it.

You really should, as level 100 enemies can spawn in the DLC. But at the same time, starting over on weapons/items sets you back.

 

[Osprey]

I finally played Shattered Space and finished it last night. What a lackluster DLC. I'm convinced now that this was content cut from the base game in order to upsell people on the premium edition at launch. It's also a disappointment after how mysterious House Va'ruun was in the base game. I wasn't expecting the faction to be this boring or suddenly accepting of outsiders. In the base game, they were always attacking you and the location of their homeworld was a secret, but you show up there in the DLC and they welcome you with open arms, since only an outsider can help them with their problem. It's no different than the other faction quest lines, except that you're stuck on one planet the entire time.

What an ugly planet it is, too. It's so garish looking, IMO, a lot worse than how it appears in screenshots. There's fuchsia and harsh lighting everywhere, and nothing is beautiful or worth checking out. Even the NPCs are ugly, with their mullet haircuts and facial tattoos. I always beelined to the quest marker because I didn't want to talk to anybody or do any exploring. This was marketed as a 100% handcrafted world, but it didn't feel like one. It was just very boring looking, inside and outside of the city. Quite a few times, you're required to travel several miles to get to an outpost and I just jetpacked the whole way because nothing was interesting enough to stop for.

The dialog and characters are also boring, and the voice acting ranges from bad to mediocre. Some of the dialog choices are just illusions, like when asked near the beginning whether you'll join their cult. You have to choose yes, otherwise you can't even start the DLC. Other times, they seem to lead to the same outcome, such as a point later in the DLC in which I had to choose a side and ended up battling both sides, anyways.

There isn't even anything new to play with: no new mechanics or systems, still no vehicles (I could've sworn that they advertised those), no new ship parts (since you don't use your ship at all), no new powers, no new partner and no new gear that's better than what you already have. It would've been nice if they'd added some worthwhile new guns and spacesuits or at least offered some really legendary versions of the existing ones, but I ended up finishing the DLC equipped with the same guns and suit that I started with. I also leveled up only 2 or 3 times, so my character's skills didn't improve much, either. I guess that they do give you a few new enemies, but I wasn't a fan of them because they're sort of cloaked and teleport around. I found it more irritating than fun to be shooting at one, watch it disappear, check my radar to see roughly where it re-appeared, spin around to face it and do it all over again.

Anyways, this DLC was very underwhelming... and I'm not one of the most critical people when it comes to the base game. I didn't love it, but I enjoyed it enough to put 100 hours into it. With Shattered Space, however, I didn't want to spend any more time with it than necessary. Maybe I'm just burnt out on Starfield, but this DLC has a 30% rating on Steam, so I guess that I'm not alone in being extra critical of it.

 

[Jovavic]

I'm one of the sucker's that bought the premium edition before launch to get the game early and the DLC, what a giant mistake that was. I haven't even bothered downloading the DLC, it doesn't sound even decent at all.

 

[JaegerDice]

I'm one of the sucker's that bought the premium edition before launch to get the game early and the DLC, what a giant mistake that was. I haven't even bothered downloading the DLC, it doesn't sound even decent at all.

I just bought the upgrade pack for like $30 bucks or something, since the base game was on Gamepass. If/when I ever buy the game for posterity, it will be like $10 bucks.

 

[Dogewow]

I'm one of the sucker's that bought the premium edition before launch to get the game early and the DLC, what a giant mistake that was. I haven't even bothered downloading the DLC, it doesn't sound even decent at all.

I did the same thing and feel the same way. This and BF 2042 basically killed pre ordering for me, unless its a can't miss like BG3 or KCD2.