Starfield: Shattered Space is not the horror sci-fi trip we expected

Game news Starfield: Shattered Space is not the horror sci-fi trip we expected

Politically rock

It is by astroporting into space that Shattered Space opens its doors to us. Among the stars, no one saw the disaster coming. The player is attracted by a strange drifting space station that sends a distress message over and over. Fans of sci-fi films like Alien or Event Horizon know that landing in that kind of place usually means the start of big trouble.. The player will have to try to prevent a cosmic catastrophe by using both the power of guns and the power of words. Indeed, if there are many more or less human adversaries to destroy in order to progress in the story, a large part of the main adventure requires negotiations with three Va’ruun houses. Unlike Game of Thrones, the main protagonists lack relief, which is a real problem since the plot places them at the center of the story.

Red eyes

Nothing has really changed in a year, and Starfield still offers carefully modeled objects that have a worked retro-futuristic charm. If we put aside the artistic direction with these reddish mauve hues pouring over a ravaged nature, graphically, there is good and bad in this DLC. Va’ruun’kai has a little more devastated Akila City feel to it, and the lack of biomes and really different areas makes it not very varied and not always pleasant to the eye. Like the basic experience, loadings, even short ones, are numerous. Entering a base, entering a cave… all this requires going through the loading box. Technically, both Performance mode and Graphics mode suffer on Xbox Series. And the bugs in all this? There are several, especially visual or linked to collisions that are not very well managed. However, most indoor levels are visually successful. Phew!

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Artisanal or industrial?

Unlike the procedurally generated planets of Starfield, the world of Va’ruun’kai is handmade. The argument, aimed at those who believe that the base game is unnecessarily too big, is strong. The result is not really. Walking or piloting the Rev-8 in this environment full of crevasses is not always a pleasure as there are rocks, indestructible trees or unbreakable light beasts which complicate navigation. Of course, this planet is better done than the other worlds in the game, but we would have liked the difference to be more advanced. After all, this is the one and only play area in this expansion! It is especially with its sequences inside buildings that Shattered Space shines. It’s a bit of a shame to say that a Starfield DLC called Shattered Space hits the mark in its more confined passages inside buildings.

Too expensive, my son?

In fact, the main quest is divided into 8 chapters and is completed in as many hours. It turns out to be of rather good quality, mixing persuasion, fights, flight and exploration in a concentrated formula.. The difficult choices are quite numerous, which is a good thing. As for the side quests, they are okay. The new weapons, meanwhile, are effective. We particularly like Starshard, Penumbra, Starlash and Longfang.

Unfortunately, the new opponents in this DLC aren’t exactly fun to face. since they regularly teleport and magically appear/disappear. We’ve had more fun. Although there is a new type of grenade, it is clear that there is ultimately little that is truly new. In other words, Shattered Space will certainly relaunch Starfield for those who fell for the Premium edition, but it will not convince others to pay 30 euros for barely decent content.