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A year after a somewhat complicated takeoff, Starfield is doing much better thanks to a battery of improvements and updates. In addition to continuing to refine its ambitious space RPG, Bethesda was working in parallel on its first major DLC, Shattered Space. It has now been released since September 30 on PC, Xbox Series and Game Pass, with a fairly heavy responsibility on its shoulders: to give a good reason to return to explore the vast field of stars to discover new and exciting mysteries. Mission accomplished? Here is our opinion on the question in this test.
Unlike the basic proposition of Starfield, Shattered Space will not take us across the galaxy, but will focus its story on a single planet: the cradle of the intriguing Va’ruun house. Bethesda thus intended to kill two birds with one stone with this first major DLC: to offer us a large, entirely hand-made playground, to return to what made its reputation on its flagship licenses The Elder Scrolls and Fallout, and us tell more about this faction worshiping the mysterious Great Serpent. A small step for the studio, and a big step for Starfield? We would have liked to answer with a resounding yes, but our opinion is unfortunately much more mixed than that. Welcome to Maison Va’ruun?
Entry into Slytherin house Starfield Shattered Space style
As a preamble to this test, it is appropriate to quickly recall how to access Shattered Space, and under what conditions we began this new adventure. Naturally, it is essential to own Starfield and acquire the DLC. This is sold separately for 30 euros (a price that many could consider excessive, and not necessarily wrongly…), or included in the Premium edition of the base game, priced at 100 euros. Then, Bethesda recommends a level 35 character to be relatively comfortable. For our part, we resumed our initial save before launching New Game+, with a level 38 character. Please note that Starfield now integrates gameplay options to create a difficulty on the map. On this point, we opted for battles in “Hard” mode, in order to have a relatively balanced challenge.
To begin the main quest related to Shattered Space, we had to go to the Kryx system. While there, we picked up a cryptic signal coming from an apparently abandoned station. As a Constellation Explorer, it was our natural duty to investigate. The DLC starts off rather well: the place is literally dead, with bodies floating in zero gravity. In the background, disturbing murmurs caress our hearing. The atmosphere is set in a frankly successful way, and we are legitimately intrigued by what happened here. We then enter another room, covered in a strange blue substance with very curious properties. We’re not going to say any more to leave you with a bit of a surprise, in case you want to experience the solid Shattered Space prologue for yourselves.
Still, our exploration of the station leads us to put it back into service. Automatically, it then teleports us to the Kavnyk system. This notably houses the planet Va’ruun’kai. As the name suggests, it is the birthplace of House Va’ruun, to which the station belongs. As a reminder, this faction centered on the veneration of a deity known as the Great Serpent does not really like profane exogenes of their culture like our character. But that will change when we land in Dazra, their capital, the scene of a terrible cataclysm following an experiment that spectacularly failed. A significant portion of the city and its inhabitants were evaporated by a terrible explosion. Their Speaker, spiritual guide of the house, has disappeared, and their entire society is visibly collapsing. It turns out, however, that our character can see and hear apparitions as if from another reality of this Speaker. Witnesses to this “miracle”, the leaders who welcome us see in us the will of the Great Serpent, and their only chance of survival (who spoke of a repeat of the Dragonborn in Skyrim?). It is therefore with this rather promising prologue that the story of Starfield’s first major DLC begins.

Cobra (Va’ruun) Kai
We thus take our first steps in Dazra and on the planet Va’ruun’kai. From the outset, we can salute Bethesda’s work on the artistic direction of the whole. Everything is also technically solid, with relatively few bugs to deplore, and no slowdown on our very solid PC (RTX 4080 SUPER, Ryzen 7 7800X3D, 32 GB of RAM). A convincing feeling of mysticism emerges from these desolate panoramas, with a disturbing starry sky sporadically streaked with red lightning. The painting is frankly beautiful in all its menacing representation, and the architecture of the Va’ruun buildings takes on a character very nicely highlighting the exoticism of a religious and mystical society about which we know almost nothing. Starfield had only portrayed the faction to us as torture fanatics. Shattered Space takes advantage of this on paper to deepen the lore of this unusual group compared to the rest of the base game. Except that the thing is done in a relatively clumsy manner, with many interlocutors breaking into expository diatribes that are a little too wordy for them to be digestible.

This in particular through an initiatory rite which borders on the occult to join the Va’ruun house, a sine qua none condition in order to continue the story of Shattered Space. We are then escorted to the Council, with much more exposition to present us with an unnecessarily complicated political chessboard based on families with their own functions. Bethesda has honestly gotten us used to being better at creating interesting and complex factions. The heart of the DLC, House Va’ruun, seemed a bit cliché and conventional to us, with potential that was sadly poorly exploited. Unfortunately, this didn’t help us fully grasp the overall story. Still, the Council explains to us that we must return to the Citadel of Scales, the epicenter of the cataclysm which ravaged part of the city. Our objective is roughly to find the Speaker and repair the damage of the previous failed experiment. To do this, we will have to help three families build a machine to pierce the energy shield surrounding the Citadel. Here again, the synopsis seemed a little too conventional to really invest us in its story.

Same observation unfortunately regarding the side quests, although usually one of the strong points of Bethesda games, as was also the case on Starfield. Those of Shattered Space, however, seemed uninspired to us: collect X samples, read Y texts as part of a pseudo-pilgrimage, find Z person, among other examples. This despite some interesting developments and rather well-crafted moral choices. But the feeling of immersion as a new member of House Va’ruun is unfortunately not there, at least for us. The fault in particular is the overall dubbing (English and French) that leaves much to be desired, and the facial animations that are a bit “Uncanny Valley” so much criticized in the base game, and still very present. The whole thing was sorely lacking in naturalness and did not really convey the feeling of distress and the imminent disappearance that the house is supposed to be facing, the staging being visibly as absent as the motivation of the dubbing actors.
It does, however, serve as a rather clever excuse to have us explore the surface of Va’ruun’kai, another big selling point of Shattered Space. Instead of the myriads of procedural planets that so displeased many Starfield players, here we are treated to a real “old-fashioned” Bethesda playground, entirely handmade, with around fifty locations to explore. At first glance, we were rather excited at this prospect, the studio having largely shown in the past its mastery in making us want to explore and make us dream of adventure. This once again came up short for us: many places smelled overheated and lacked inspiration. Especially since a tiny part of them reward us as it should, including an exciting treasure and unique objects that spice up our progress and help our character evolve. After having explored around ten different places with the same rather disappointing results, we were tired of exploring Va’ruun’kai. Fortunately, the land vehicle so requested since the release of Starfield was there to make our travels more pleasant. Otherwise, we probably would have been much more scathing about the open world offered by Shattered Space.

The Great Serpent that bites its own tail?
Traditionally, Bethesda game DLCs are there as much to tell us a new story as to add new gameplay mechanics. On this point, we think in particular of the excellent Dawnguard expansion of Skyrim, allowing us to become a vampire. In Shattered Space, we have everything on this land… the making of new grenades. The disappointment was therefore still great. But who says total deepening of the lore of a faction must necessarily involve new equipment, enemies and perhaps at the end of the main quest powers linked to this deity about whom we are constantly harped on… right?
Alas, cruel disappointment again at this level. Apart from two or three new weapons made by House Va’ruun, the rest is simply a repeat of elements already present in Starfield. Regarding the new dangers and enemies to face in Shattered Space, these can fit… on the fingers of one hand. And even in “Hard” mode, the combat lacking dynamism in the base game has hardly seen any improvement with Shattered Space. We thus still find adversaries equipped with an AI that is always in trouble, often lost in strange corners, or stuck in a setting and visibly unable to get out. The gameplay has therefore not evolved one iota, so to speak, and clearly does not benefit from the DLC to vary the experience on this point.

A very damaging observation, which, put together with the rest of our grievances with Shattered Space, gives us the impression of a “lazy” extension, which does not follow through on its ambitions. Some will argue that it is unfortunately only a reflection of Starfield at its launch: a space RPG on paper ambitious and generous, but with mechanics from another time, developed by Bethesda relying too much on its achievements . And it pains us a little to say that they are not fundamentally wrong. Did the Great Serpent deem Shattered Space unworthy of him? His ways are, for us laymen, impenetrable, but the taste of too little of this DLC is sadly present in our minds, after fifteen hours of play. Note that the main quest can easily end in straight line in five hours or so, with a finale like the rest: which leaves us cruelly unsatisfied, and which clearly did not mark us as much as the finale of Starfield. The bill of 30 euros for such a result therefore appears particularly steep.
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