Though Starfield has obtained many updates that ironed out its metropolis navigation system and launched a land car to boost its disjointed exploration components, it nonetheless seems like a blended bag of stellar moments and astronomical disappointments.
That is why I used to be cautiously enthusiastic about Shattered House after spending hours exploring the bottom recreation’s similar factors of curiosity and enduring its flawed sense of exploration.
I used to be excited as a result of I remembered all the nice DLCs that enriched Bethesda’s earlier titles, and I do know what distinction new DLC could make after beating Cyberpunk 2077’s Phantom Liberty.
I used to be cautious as a result of Starfield was constructed upon an historic engine, and believed that its issues have been too intrinsic to easily go away with a serious growth pack.
After my 13 hours of purple-infused and snake-obsessed journey into the homeland of certainly one of Starfield’s most mysterious factions, I can say that I used to be not cautious sufficient.
As a result of what ought to have been a second wind for a failing area epic— or at the very least a memorable comeback with a couple of critical new mechanics— turned out to be a forgettable and underwhelming expertise.
Kicking Off With A Traditional Sci-fi Trope
Shattered House is a refreshingly accessible DLC that seamlessly integrates into the sport. It means that you can swiftly immerse your self in a basic sci-fi trope— a troubled area station with a misery name.
Whereas it’s undoubtedly dated, Bethesda is aware of work magic with the Creation Engine and construct an immersive scene and ambiance. The scene in query right here is The Oracle, a analysis heart for the mysterious Home Va’ruun, which consists of individuals obsessive about an enormous serpent.
This stable introduction of The Oracle was a much-welcome departure from the repetitive landmarks of Starfield’s desolate planets.
It bought even higher, additional elevating expectations, with the addition of Phantoms, a brand new enemy kind that teleport across the freakish area station. Nevertheless, regardless of initially heightening the thriller, preventing them turned a chore in a short time, very similar to coping with different points of Shattered House.
Buggier Than The Base Sport
Solely after a few minutes of letting Shattered House current its mysterious introduction and preventing towards these unusual enemies, did they begin teleporting into hazardous areas of the area station, eliminating themselves and breaking immersion within the course of.
Alongside their tough fight AI, Shattered House additionally launched bugs that prevented me from progressing inside mere minutes.
For instance, I used to be unable to choose up a keycard required to finish an goal whereas preventing towards the unfair area wizards concurrently. On a number of events later within the recreation, I needed to revisit particular areas a number of instances to set off important occasions to happen.
Certainly, the bottom recreation had its fair proportion of bugs and glitches as properly, nevertheless it was really one of the vital polished Bethesda video games to this point. A low bar, admittedly, however a benchmark was set nonetheless.
Though it miserably failed to cover its engine’s technical limitations, there weren’t many bugs that impeded quest development or fully broke Starfield. Shattered House, alternatively, began with critical bugs and stored throwing them my means till the top.
Because of this, it is exhausting to love whilst a standalone expertise as a result of bugs and underwhelming content material, which solely consists of some new weapons alongside Va’ruun-themed gear.
It Does Get One thing Proper
The long-awaited DLC could be removed from respiration life into Bethesda’s underwhelming area opera. However it does get one thing proper and acknowledges Starfield’s arguably most evident concern, the disappointing spacefaring expertise.
Since area journey in Starfield is fairly non-existent because it’s constructed on fast-traveling and tiresome menu navigation, finishing quests and progressing within the recreation just isn’t as enjoyable because it was in Fallout or Skyrim.
The quests and targets are scattered all through the techniques and planets, that are related to one another by way of…loading screens.
This technical limitation eliminated the sense of exploration, a core component that made Bethesda video games family titles up to now.
Shattered House addresses the bottom recreation’s fragmented exploration components, to some extent, by providing a extra condensed expertise set in a single place.
It is a welcome change to expertise fewer loading screens and truly traverse the panorama to succeed in targets. It is even higher when the setting appears attention-grabbing and crammed with anomalies like gravity bubbles, hazardous areas, and the aggressive use of the colour purple.
Welcome To Va’ruun’kai
Shattered House is about in Va’ruun’kai, the house planet of certainly one of Starfield’s most extremist and mysterious factions, Home Va’ruun. After their keenly felt absence in the principle recreation, it solely made sense for an growth pack to deal with them.
Whereas the faction is a reserved group that’s solely represented by zealots in the principle recreation, Shattered House in some way manages to downplay their introduction after beginning huge with The Oracle.
As quickly as I landed on Dazra, the purple-drenched capital metropolis of Va’ruun’kai, I discovered myself as the brand new savior of the troubled group inside the first half-hour of the story, which continued to weaken the large introduction and slowly began to really feel like one other generic Bethesda story.
Simply when my ideas on that have been all however cemented, I rose to prominence in Va’ruun’kai, and Shattered House tasked me with navigating by the paranoid, double-crossing, and sneak-obsessed treacherous dwellers of the planet.
This was when it began to showcase its strengths by presenting a sequence of dilemmas, partaking quests, and difficult conditions.
Whereas the conclusions of these moments have been generally marred by lazy writing and unusual wrap-ups, it was nonetheless nice to see a glimpse of Starfield’s narrative brilliance uninterrupted by the bottom recreation’s inherent points.
Behind the appalling lack of precise content material and lots of missed alternatives, Shattered House confirmed a few of its developer’s experience in tailoring attention-grabbing quests and storylines, slowly unfolding in a wholly completely different and alluring panorama.
However that was it. Shattered House’s fundamental story consists of transient flashes of storytelling finesse, and the moments that sparked pleasure have been often overshadowed by its important shortcomings just like the quest-breaking bugs, lack of recent gadgets, gameplay techniques, and immersion-breaking particulars.
Closing Feedback
Shattered House is simply extra of what Starfield couldn’t ship. Though its targeted, single-location expertise and interesting quests present a refreshing change, its total lackluster high quality proves that no updates or expansions can actually rework Starfield. Whereas moments of brilliance stay, and Shattered House does add some memorable moments to the pile, it is a DLC that ensures that Starfield does not exit with a bang like a Supernova, however relatively fades into the vacuum of area with out a lot as a whimper.