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Releasing something on Steam puts you through an entirely unique set of emotions. You have the pre-launch jitters followed by that terrifying moment where someone presses the button that marks your product live, and then all you can do is sit and wait as the world gets to see what you’ve created, refreshing the Steam page to see how well it’s faring. For the team behind the Starfield Shattered Space DLC that post-launch period has to be excruciating, as the expansion’s reviews have plummeted down into the dreaded ‘mostly negative’ category on Steam.
At release, Starfield Shattered Space struggled to make an impact on the wider game, with only a comparatively small uptick in players and a ‘mixed’ rating on Steam. Since then things have got far worse for the RPG expansion, with fans feeling underwhelmed by what they’ve found on planet Va’ruun’kai compared to other expansions in Bethesda’s history. As a result, Shattered Space is now one of the developer’s lowest-rated releases on Steam, with only Fallout 4’s Vault-Tec Workshop, Contraptions Workshop, and Wasteland Workshop sitting in the same category.
It appears that there are several main areas of disappointment affecting Starfield players, with the biggest being the feeling that, given the DLC’s price tag, there’s relatively little content on offer. “House Va’ruun was a major faction in the vanilla game that you had some interaction with but never did any faction quests for. This DLC puts them in the game and has roughly the same amount of quests as the rest, which for a $30 expansion is nowhere near enough,” reads one of the top-rated reviews on Steam. “They say less is more, and with Shattered Space it’s true. Bethesda’s giving you less while asking for more money,” states another.
One key expectation for the DLC among fans was that it would also add to the rest of the game, similar to how Skyrim’s Dawnguard added Vampire Lord abilities that had use outside of the questline. Unfortunately, Shattered Space is mostly contained to adventures on a singular planet, with areas like ship building, space combat, and outpost building remaining largely untouched.
“No new features, no fixes to the fact that this game is STILL a boring mess, not even an attempt to fix the game’s core issues and they release this for $40 instead. What a joke,” one Steam reviewer says. “The DLC does nothing to address Starfield’s core issues,” says another.”
Even positive reviews damn the game with faint praise. “It’s more Starfield. Neither good nor bad. Just Meh. Not bad enough to not recommend it.” one review says. “This is not some big upgrade to the game like it seemed it was going to be,” it continues.
At the time of writing there are 1,665 reviews for the Shattered Space with only 34% positive, which puts it at the bottom of the list for expansions from Bethesda. Unless something drastic happens for it, this may go down as the worst-rated DLC the developer has ever released.
The Starfield Shattered Space DLC is out now. If you’d like to make up your own mind about it, you can head over to Steam to learn more. You can also get all the details and data you’ll ever need about the expansion over on the Starfield Db.
Should you prefer to expand the game your own way, our guide to the best Starfield mods will help you find what you’re looking for. Our best space games recommendations will also make sure you can find your place among the stars, for some truly galactic gaming.
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