For many, there was a lingering hope that the first major expansion for Starfield, Shattered Space, would rescue the game from the throes of mediocrity. Then, with a focus on House Va’ruun and their home planet of Va’ruun’kai, the story-based DLC launched and immediately plummeted, becoming one of Bethesda’s most poorly reviewed pieces of content to date. Within the span of a week, the expansion sat firmly in the ‘Mostly Negative’ territory on Steam, with thousands of upset fans speaking out against the lackluster DLC, poor writing, and shallow gameplay loop.
There are, of course, many players out there—me included—who thoroughly enjoyed Starfield and Shattered Space. But it appears we’re in the minority. It’s far easier to find a negative review criticizing the game’s quest design, shallow exploration, and bland character arcs. Some say they encountered game-breaking bugs and glitches, though fortunately I didn’t experience any in my time spent on Va’ruun’kai.
One thing you’ll notice when looking through the following user reviews pulled from Steam is that, for the most part, it’s people who genuinely played the game. Sure, there are a few throughout with a handful of hours spent in Starfield, likely never making it past Kreet, but many have hundreds of hours. They gave Bethesda’s latest pseudo-RPG a hefty shot and found it lacking.
But as always, just because a significant part of the gaming population didn’t enjoy a game or an expansion doesn’t mean you can’t have fun with it. If you’re finding Shattered Space thoroughly enjoyable, then by all means, ignore the negative reviews and play the game!
Here’s a look at Shattered Space, as told by Steam reviews—positive, negative, and downright strange.
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