I always approached Starfield with an open mind because to be honest- I like the raw gameplay, I think that with the difficulty options switched on it play in a very unique manner (they should have all been available at launch) and like many others I think there's so much potential for Starfield to shine. (Or rather I thought that way.) I was very receptive to the direction the team implied they would go with Shattered Space to try and pimp up the game experience, leaning more towards Morrowind-esque gameplay experiences, and I wanted to see what a grounded Starfield played like given that the biggest problem with the loop is decent shooter experiences stretched between large gaps of boring space travel. And after giving Shattered Space a faith shake- I'm not only unimpressed, I'm a little disillusioned.
Firstly, I will say that I like the world building of Va'ruun pretty much exclusively compared to every other faction in this entire game. No one else interested me with their premise nearly as much as the science cultists do, and figuring out how they maintain their bizarre belief platform is interesting- even if increasingly less convincing the further you dig. Discovering some concept of 'god' sort of begs for a level of universal cause and effect that would be up to the writers to elucidate and make physical in the world building sense- conjure some observation on the nature of life and mix it with the symbology of snakes and you'll have the basis for creating a believable cult. As it is Va'ruun just kind of feels like Scientology- lazy and stupid. The interest more lies in learning how their society works.
That's where the Morrowind comes into my impressions of this DLC. By going around and talking to people, getting sucked into their little problems and losing yourself in a minor quest line, there's a decent and subtle way to build up cultural quirks and worldly traditions that brief life in the micro of this society as well as the macro which the main quest revolves around. Unfortunately it is with that macros that Shattered Space feels a little wanting. Actually a lot wanting. And it might be because this DLC is unforgivably short given the price tag. I don't know what Fallout 4 did to change the brain chemistry of everyone at Bethesda, but sometime half-way through the development cycle of that game's DLC they ramped up the DLC price out of range of reasonability for what they were actually offering and they haven't grown out of that since. It's been close to eight years at this point.
And the length of the DLC is reflecting in the depressingly small scope of what this DLC aims for which makes the whole thing kind of come across as cut content instead of a focused expansion. I know I already pointed out that this content was penned before the release of Starfield and so wouldn't sit as a course correction based on player feedback but it was still largely developed after release- there was time to add onto the DLC elements that would reassure fans that Starfield is aware of it's faults and is working on some of them. But now I'm starting to wonder if all the criticism that the team listened to started and ended with structural space exploration problems- because they absolutely do not start and end there- to be clear!
Starfield has a problem with larger consequence that only really pans out in a single mission of the main game and a post game summary. Seeing as how this DLC would be around saving the forgotten house, my expectation was for a Nuka World style post game where we would build up Va'Ruun's presence around the settled systems and reintroduce them to the galaxy, or something that would carry outside the scope of this DLC to have an impact in the wider game to make this feel like the evolving world that Bethesda have been trying to sell us. Or at the very least give us an indication that the choices we make had a knock on effect on the wider story of the universe in the post game summary! But unless there's a really belated effect (and maybe there is, I wasn't exactly exhaustive) it seems like the buck ends with the DLC. There's no grand ambition. There's no proof that this was always going to be additive DLC, and not just content ripped from the base game and sat on.
Of course that also bleed into itemization which I'm going to be honest- has been getting worse at Bethesda. Fallout 4 kind of kicked the rock down the hill with the introduction of legendary effects that tried their hardest to replace unique weapons in a meaningful way, but I kind of figured they learned their lesson with the various DLC the game got since, and even the more recent updates and CC content which all championed unique guns with unique functionality. Starfield was the absolute worst of it, where even unique items had non-tailored buffs and effects and Shattered Space- fixes nothing. Which is horrendous given how core to the gameplay loop itemization is- how has Bethesda not heard this critique? It boggles the mind!
Which brings me at last to the open world. Shattered Space offered to be a chunk of old school Bethesda open world to keep us satiated and it almost delivers on that promise. From the outside it all looks promising enough, but of course Bethesda drop the ball in how they present it. Repeated locations hurt a bit more in apparently tailor-made content, inconsistent enemy makeup that defies the lore makes me think back to the days of Skyrim where DLC would conjure up an entire new faction if they needed trash mobs for a single location- and the new horror elements that Shattered Space tried to drum up- predictably atrocious. This feels like an outsiders take on the kind of world spaces that Bethesda used to make- or maybe a Modders interpretation. It doesn't feel like the Bethesda main team.
I never saw the moment where Bethesda changed so completely that they are no longer the team that made the great games of the past. There hasn't been any monumental staffing changes, just some natural small scales peel-offs here and there. But After Starfield and this expansion that at least should have course corrected- I sense Bioware levels of drift. This does not feel like the same Bethesda and I'm not sure I can continue following them as rapidly as I have. This is the last Starfield content I buy, probably until the complete edition comes out and I have some sort of 3rd party assurance it's an all-around improvement. Now my attention, and nearly birthed fears, are pointed towards where I hope the missing effort is- The Elder Scrolls VI. Please come back, Bethesda- I miss you...
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