Players who expectedStarfieldto be “Skyrimin space” were inevitably disappointed, but a year after launch, it might finally live up to expectations. For many players,Starfieldis the baseline for big Bethesda RPGs. It was the last major release by the studio to be exactly what was promised: a groundbreaking, immersive romp through a snow-blanketed fantasy world. It was buggy, sure, and Bethesda has since milked it for everything it’s worth - butSkyrimis still fondly remembered by many as their first life-changing experience with a Bethesda RPG.
In a 2021 interview withThe Washington Post,director Todd Howard coined the phrase “Skyrimin space,“using it as a succint way to describeStarfield. So, when the first footage ofStarfieldcame out, and its lofty goals were revealed - first original-IP Bethesda RPG in 25-plus years, a thousand different planets to explore - many were quick to admit it did indeed look likeSkyrimamid the stars, an ambitious vision in its own right. And, quite frankly, it didn’t quite live up to that perception - at least, not in its first year.
Starfield’s DLC Could Finally Be The “Skyrim In Space” You’ve Been Waiting For
How Shattered Space Is More Like Skyrim
Starfieldmay not have had the sameSkyrimcharm at launch, butShattered Spacefinally could. Howard’s comparison inevitably meant something else to everyone else - after all,the experience of playingSkyrimis, to some extent, different for everybody. For some,Skyrimwas a game of stealth and subterfuge; for others, it was about shouting people off of cliffs. For some, it was a game of political intrigue; for others it was about discovering long-buried arcane secrets.
It’s already known thatShattered Spacewill bring greater variety toStarfieldacross a couple of key categories. First and foremost, there’s gameplay.Shattered Spacewill go a long way towards making melee builds more viable, which means players will have many more options in combat. It won’t quite reachSkyrim’s level of build fine-tuning, with its enormous skill tree and hundreds of spells, but players will still enjoy significantly more combat freedom once the DLC drops. Not only that, but swinging a sword atShattered Space’s new enemies will feel a lot more like playingSkyrimin space.
Shattered Spacealso has the opportunity tomakeStarfield’s factions (or one of them, at least) as interesting asSkyrim’s.For the first time ever, players can interact withmembers of the enigmatic House Va’ruunin a series of story-focused quests, instead of simply coming across violent Zealots in random encounters. It’s unknown exactly how these quests will play out, or how much impact players will be able to have on the continued existence of House Va’ruun,but either way, this will stand in stark contrast toStarfield’s currently lackluster faction quests.
Most of them follow cookie-cutter structures, in which potentially interesting storylines are relegated to a series of repetitive fetch quests. The result is that all the faction quests bleed together, and the player very rarely has opportunities to influence one or the other. Apart from the material rewards, players have very little incentive to complete the majority of them. Their stories don’t provide much to cling to, and their unique unlocks are few and far between.
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Compare that toSkyrim’s factions, which each feel distinct, and almost all feel worthwhile. The College of Winterhold questline is entirely different from the Thieves' Guild questline, and each has a story that serves its needs. Each also comes with a unique set of rewards, too: finishing the College quests grants players some excellent gear for magically-inclined builds, while the Guild does the same for stealth. Other factions have even more unique rewards: joining the Companions lets the player become a werewolf, while choosing to join the Volkihar clan lets them transform into a vampire lord.
Shattered Space Could Capture The Joy Of Exploration In Skyrim
How Va’ruun’kai’s Hand-Crafted Environments Improve The Game
Another way in whichShattered Spaceis less like baseStarfieldand more likeSkyrimis its map. It’s no secret thatexploration is widely considered one of the worst aspects ofStarfield. There are two main reasons for this, both of which are direct results of its procedurally generated planets. Because each planet is generated randomly from a predetermined set of criteria,Starfield’s planets are incredibly repetitive. Players often find the same set of landmarks, the same threats, and the same loot on one world as they do the next, which makes exploring the stars more of a chore than a joy.
Shattered Spacesolves this bybeing set entirely upon a single planet, and featuring handcrafted landmarks. This addresses another common criticism ofStarfield- its lack of real-time space travel. Neither of these were issues inSkyrim, either, which was set entirely on a small continent and featured only handcrafted locations. This way, each landmark is meaningfully different from the last, and exploring them actually feels interesting and worthwhile.
Shattered Space Has The Chance To Improve Starfield’s Best New Feature
Players have already responded well to Starfield’s inclusion of land vehicles, but Shattered Space has the chance to take this even further.
That meansthere will be very little space travel required as part of the DLC. This may seem limiting, but could actually help the exploration inShattered Space. Space travel inStarfieldseems like an afterthought. Players aren’t expected to travel from planet to planet in real time, hoping to find interesting landmarks along the way. Instead, the only viable way of getting around is fast travel, which takes all the joy out of exploring the stars. But in the DLC, players will be forced to get around on foot (or onStarfield’s Rev-8 planetary rover).
This means a lot more opportunity to get lost and accidentally discover something incredible, be it a cave that includes a unique weapon, or a strange new alien species. This evokes one of the best aspects ofSkyrim, in which players also had only two modes of transportation: on foot, or on horseback, and horses didn’t even go fast enough to be worth the trouble. Indeed, randomly discovering a bandit hideout or Dwemer ruin on the way to complete another quest was one of the greatest joys ofSkyrim, andShattered Spacecould scratch that same itch.
This is a lot of pressure to put on a DLC that’s not even out yet, but suffice it to say thatShattered Space, at this early stage, looks pretty good. And even if it is everything players hoped for, after finishingShattered Space, players will have to return to the barren galaxy beyond Va’ruun’kai. Whether it lives up to expectations or not, players will have to wait untilStarfield’s first DLC comes out on September 30 to decide.
