Starfield - Shattered Space: The Definitive Review
House Va-Va-Vooooom
If we were to indulge the whims of the community, it would likely end up that Starfield would become a re-skin of Skyrim, and that means mechanically, geographically and in terms of content. A kind of Star Warsian re-dress of the existing and fantastical into the clothes of the space age, with that veneer of Sci-Fi being purely for appearances. That’s not to say that Starfield is some startlingly original, urgent and necessary work of great speculative fiction, but I am thankful it didn’t follow that painfully obvious transposition to the letter. Partly because it means Bethesda avoided the path of least resistance, but also that Starfield did (at least) attempt to carve its own niche between the pillars of The Elder Scrolls and Fallout. Despite missing some key Elder Scrolls tropes that I would have hugely welcomed, and Starborn piss notwithstanding, I loved that Starfield upheld the cosy Bethesda mode while offering a bit of cool spacey shit and enough astronomical grandstanding to weave something I pretty much adored. As per my review, Starfield turned out to be my own tailor-made childhood wish fulfilment engine. It has an oddly grounded quality that seems at odds with the universe it presents, and certainly in defiance of the populist literally-Skyrim-in-space1 path it could have very easily followed. Post release I was, of course, very happy. Post mods I was happier still. Now post Shattered Space, I can confidently say I’m still very happy with my investment in Starfield.
I haven’t remotely come close to finishing Shattered Space, and I don’t intend to bomb through it at breakneck speed either. I think it is best savoured at leisure, as it does go some way to building a bridge between the crowd-pleasing densities of possibility of Skyrim and bolstering its own universe with new lore and, hopefully, new stuff. A healthy injection of obviously bonkers mysticism is welcome given Starfield’s semi-hard-Sci-Fi stance. Certainly the House Va’ruun planet, Va’ruun’kai, has its own fantastical vibe and it was heart-warming to see early players almost cheer with pride that beyond the capital city Dazra, there were actual paths that lead to actual things. For some, this is in direct contrast to Starfield’s clunky proceduralism, with it offsetting diminished world detail by offering far too many places to enjoy said diminished detail. There’s a strong call for revisionism, for the ‘corrective’ qualities of Va’ruun’kai and Dazra to be applied to the other capitals in the game. And I can absolutely see the point and the value in doing such a thing. However one commenter did point out that plenty of players have built outposts in the same map cell as the capitals, so would necessarily be bulldozed if Bethesda was to implement a Skyrimming of the capital surrounds. Tragic perhaps but hey - the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.
That quote is deliberate, by the way, and in an oblique fashion ties into this DLC’s concepts. One thing that really chimed with me in the early hours of Shattered Space was the steady unveiling of the Va’ruun culture beyond the mad zealots of the original game. This extension and deepening is something that the other factions didn’t get to quite the same lavish extent, but would surely benefit from. The Elder Scrolls vibes are strong from the off, with the offer of a trial in a cave that doesn’t seem too far removed from the opener to some Daedric jaunt. But I am glad that with the Va’ruun, Bethesda has seemingly plumbed the Sci-Fi cannon for sweeter references than The Elder Scrolls’ mildly inoffensive takes on generic Fantasy archetypes. I’d said in my previous noodling on Starfield that the Va’ruunians had a distinctly 90s aesthetic, seemingly pulling on the threads of the Centauris of Babylon 5. The embassy on Jemison had an interior that would have been totally at home on a JMS space-station, to the point where sections felt like a Babylon 5 set I’d actually seen. However the homeworld is different, and to me references an even more significant show that almost seems forgotten, or at least sidelined, in the contemporary Sci-Fi melee. I was in some family’s house, fucking around trying to sort out a painfully arch duel prevention quest (with emotionally impacting character writing, actually) when the décor totally caught my eye. A combination of weaves and scales of metal plates in a dark bronze colour, a preponderance of black outlining and strict orthogonality, combined with the quest’s playing around with rigid adherence to honour-bound societal norms added up to one thing; the Romulans of Star Trek. But crucially, not the Next Generation or Picard Romulans, but the 1960s Roddenberry originals. Where Next Generation Romulans are hallmarked by the colour green, the 60s crew of the foundational Romulan ep Balance Of Terror are bathed in fuchsia - much like the skies of Va’ruun’kai itself. In this particular quest, the duel plays out in a communal space that is absolutely precise in its evocation of a TOS set. And I can’t ignore Va’ruun’s idiosyncratic weaponry, which seems to celebrate the chunky brutalist futurism of the 1960s. A deeper cut still is the similarity between Harvey Keitel’s bad person space-suit in 1980’s Saturn 3 and the Va’ruun zealot’s suit.
While these observations only appeal to the style of Shattered Space’s appearance, it’s that willingness to reference elderly media, or rather Gen-X media, that charms me. Shattered Space itself is fine. It’s not going to make many new converts to the Starfield audience, and it certainly doesn’t take the reparative steps needed to elevate the game to RRR status. There’s much more work to be done before we can consider that. Sadly, for some the honeymoon was over rather quickly. Reviews such as the Guardian’s highlight how hostile an unforgiving and unloving audience can be. I’ve certainly read discussions that chop any optimism about Shattered Space’s directional change off at the knees, though thankfully much of this is down to dissatisfaction at the narrative outcomes, which were - let’s face it - always going to be shit. Especially when layering chosen-one magical hero pap on top of pre-existing chosen-one magical hero pap. It’s almost a self-deprecating satire in that respect, a willing surrender to the fundamental farce that is the reality of Bethesda open-worlders in action2. I suppose if you actually try to take any of it seriously, you’ll be in for a disappointing ride. As an unwitting self-parody, it’s kinda priceless. Naturally, this is something I give very few fucks about when I sit down to play. Instead and as is absolutely my wont, I’m focused on exploration, levelling and acquisition. Though now I’m looking out for more signifiers of mid-late 20th Century Sci-Fi references. Coincidentally, I’ve been rewatching my three favourites of 1950s epic Sci-Fi cinema by going through Forbidden Planet3 and George Pal’s War of the Worlds. My favourite by far, This Island Earth is next. From the three, we get plenty of references that bleed into Bethesda’s games. Robbie the Robot being an obvious import into the Fallout canon, but there are twinkles of collective memory from these 50s blockbusters sprinkled across all of videogaming. Curiously, they’re not so strong in Starfield’s original content. This makes the obvious Romulan influence in Shattered Space all the more beguiling. But Starfield’s lack of loadsa alien civilisations ala Star Trek or Star Wars has a 70s root too; Babylon 5 and Farscape inspiration Blake’s 7 only introduced an alien civilisation at the end of series B, and it remained the sole civilisation that didn’t originate from Earth. Yet to allow for cultural exotica, Blake’s 7 leans on divergent evolution of separate colonies to create distinct cultures - a move that Starfield absolutely indulges to the max.
Starborn piss aside, original Starfield treads a distinctly non-magical path which is somewhat invaded by Shattered Space’s playful supernaturalism. I genuinely loved the spooky space station that serves as the DLC’s opener, and was a bit saddened at how short the jaunt was. Perhaps we will go back there at some point? Who knows, but I was equally glad that the opener seemed to avoid the pitfalls of transparently re-treading the hackneyed hookum of Event Horizon. It’s pleasing that despite the harsh critiques and general aggression levelled toward it4, Bethesda still hasn’t taken the lazier path of simple appeal via homage. I do expect there to be a long gap between Shattered Space and whatever’s coming next. Obviously, some Crimson pirate shit must be on the menu at some point, and I doubt Bethesda can stave off a big old alien something or other forever. Though, of course, we can’t rule out an eventuality of nothing happening, should Shattered Space fail to meet whatever internal Microsoft metrics it's been tasked with attaining. At least we have the mods, eh? Though I do worry if the modding scene will now be split between pre-and-post Shattered Space assets. However, it should warm everyone’s hearts that Bethesda has smuggled in another cache of new POI locations for procedural worlds. The prospect of whacking up the minimum enemy level and going exploring for these new locations is almost as captivating as scouring Va’ruun’kai’s countryside for cool stuff. And it’s in these small increments, the gradual additions, that Starfield is really improving - so perhaps the road to true RRR status is still being walked, step by step. Though I’m still waiting on costume crafting, Bethesda. I hate my outfit, but it gives a bonkers stealth bonus so I have to wear it. When I can knock out camo-pattern nightwear with an 80% reduction in my chances of detection, I’ll know all my dreams have finally come true.
[21]
Perhaps a direct link between Starfield and Skyrim could have worked, despite being naff as fuck. And I would have played it to death nonetheless, seeking high and low for copies of The Lusty Argonian Maid (In A Spacesuit) etc, etc.
Case in point, obviously I took Andreja as a companion to visit what's obviously her homeworld. However, her affinity wasn't quite high enough to trigger the conversation where she admits to the obvious, namely that she's Va'ruun. She did this after the duel quest and after remarking several times how much she loved being back in her homeland. Just gotta love that Bethesda jank.
It really is mindblowing the degree to which Forbidden Planet is a direct and obvious template for Roddenberry's Star Trek.
I am reminded of TikTok once again, of a certain high-profile outlet's podcast, where a clip of three people sighing in competition to display who had the most affected disinterest in Shattered Space was the whole video. Three people showing exactly how not bovved they are by the news it might be coming out, chosen as the highlight with which to promote said podcast. Perhaps it says a lot about that particular podcast that this was the clip chosen for the TikTok vortex, but seeing three people who clearly couldn't give a fuck laughing at how few fucks they gave felt particularly mean-spirited. They’re not the only ones - I was listening to a review of UFO 50 where one participant complained that a game meant to be from 1982 played too much like a game from 1982 and should instead play more like a game from 2024. I would go on a spectacular rampage of abuse at that level of missing-the-point entitlement but I really like the person so forgave them immediately. NOT SO THE TIKTOK FUCKOS. They can rot in hell. May all their quests forever glitch into non-completeablity.