It felt like Shattered Space might finally bring space RPG Starfield closer to the original promise of its sprawling NASA-punk space adventure. Instead, the new expansion is getting slammed even harder than the base game by early players, and seems set to potentially end up being one of the worst-reviewed Bethesda DLCs ever.
Shattered Space is a $30 addition to Starfield that adds a new planetary location and a roughly 10-hour story campaign that revolves around a science experiment gone terribly wrong and a colony of cultists that worship a cosmic snake god. It arrives alongside another patch for the base game, as well as other recent improvements and additions including a free dune buggy. But the general takeaway so far seems to be that it’s way too little, too late, at least compared to some of the pre-release hype.
Shattered Space launched on Steam earlier this week with a user rating of “mixed.” That rating has since plunged into “mostly negative” as more user reviews have flooded in. The early Metacritic score is also pretty dismal. Some of the negativity seems to be general dogpiling by players still upset over the base game, but there are a fair number of more reasonable people explaining why the DLC may be coming up short. Many hinge on the fact that aside from the story quest, Shattered Space is very light on other additional content, including more ship parts, weapons, armor, and other new features.
It’s clear Shattered Space is also burdened by the bar set by other massive single-player RPGs. Some players keep pointing to Phantom Liberty, CD Projekt Red’s similarly priced expansion for Cyberpunk 2077 last year that almost felt like a mini-standalone spin-off. Long-time Bethesda fans are also comparing Shattered Space to Fallout 4‘s Far Harbor DLC , another expansion that offered sprawling new areas to explore and some peak storytelling moments.
I’ve been playing Shattered Space all week and have a lot of thoughts but will hold them until my review is published. TL;DR: it’s complicated. And you can go on the Starfield subreddit and find plenty of fans who enjoyed the base game and are having a terrific time with the DLC. Some reviewers are as well. While there are certainly both good and bad things about Shattered Space worth highlighting, it’s clear the polarized reactions are in part a response to poor expectation-setting and hopes around the expansion not just adding to the game but also feeling fundamentally different from the familiar Bethesda RPG formula that creaked and strained under the weight of Starfield’s ambition.
This is far from the end of the road for the Xbox console exclusive though. In addition to still maybe possibly coming to PlayStation 5 at some point, Bethesda has promised more ongoing updates and annual expansions. So anyone currently disappointed by the seeming lack of a No Man’s Sky 2.0-style turnaround beginning a year after release, there’s still time.