Starfield's Shattered Space Expansion Launches This Month, Features "Handcrafted" Locations And New Enemies

GOAT Starfield. The gift that keeps on giving!! :D

For SW purposes...Sorry cows and sheep, this is for the grownups, you'll need to stick with your kiddie games. ;o

Anyway, are you buying or is it GamePass or bust?

For me well, you probably already know!! lol :P

Other thought?

The story.

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Starfield's Shattered Space Expansion Launches This Month, Features "Handcrafted" Locations And New Enemies

The Shattered Space expansion will launch into orbit at the end of the month.

Just over a year after its initial launch, Bethesda has finally given Starfield players a closer look at the game's upcoming DLC, the Shattered Space expansion. A nine-minute deep dive trailer breaking down the expansion was recently uploaded to Bethesda's YouTube channel, giving players their first real taste of what the expansion has to offer. The trailer also revealed the expansion's launch date: September 30.

Focused around the fate of what is easily one of the most interesting factions from the base game--House Va'ruun--Shattered Space is a mostly self-contained adventure, according to Bethesda, taking place entirely on the homeworld of House Va'ruun--known as Va'ruun'kai--and its capitol city, Dazra

Hit the link for video...

https://www.gamespot.com/articles/starfields-shattered-space-expansion-launches-this-month-features-handcrafted-locations-and-new-enemies/1100-6526512/

"We love Starfield's massive open galaxy, but from early on in our planning, we knew we wanted to introduce some more secluded and handcrafted locations similar to what you've seen from our past expansions," said lead producer Joe Mueller. "There's so much mystery to House Va'Ruun! And becaused they've so thoroughly isolated themselves, it made them the perfect faction to explore in a completely self-contained experience."

"From the minute you arrive on Va'ruun'kai, the story never sends you off-planet," lead creative producer Tim Lamb explained. "You're free to leave at any time, but the story is fully centered around life on the Va'ruun homeworld."

"Everything you discover, every location you visit, every side mission you seek out, it all tells the story of what happened here, and how the Va'ruun people have survived cut off from the comforts of the Settled Systems and the rest of humanity," Mueller added.

In Shattered Space, players will arrive on Va'ruun'kai shortly after a major disaster that sees the reclusive civilization descending into chaos.

"One of our main themes throughout the base game is humanity's search for knowledge," lead quest designer Brian Chapin said. "Shattered Space is still about that search, but it's also about what happens when it goes too far. "Before the start of Shattered Space, a secret experiment involving Grave-Drive technology went terribly wrong. It's a very extreme pursuit, and it has backfired horribly for the people of House Va'ruun."

"[The experiment] resulted in a massive tear in the fabric of space-time that swallowed a significant portion of the Va'ruun capitol of Dazra," design director and writer Emil Pagliarulo said of the expansion's storyline. "You arrive just a few weeks after the Vortex Incident. It's still very fresh in everyone's mind. There's a massive crater in their city, nothing has been reconstructed, people are still searching for missing loved ones."

In addition to the massive crater, the people of Va'ruun are also dealing with other challenges. After the Grav-Drive experiment went sideways, The Scaled Citadel--House Va'ruun's seat of governmental power--became trapped within a mysterious energy field. Additionally, Anasko Va'ruun--Speaker for the Great Serpent and leader of House Va'ruun--is missing. His disappearance has created a power vacuum, and the smaller factions that make up House Var'uun are each fighting for control of the now-devastated Va'ruun homeworld, its government, and its future. As they progress through the story and explore Va'ruun'kai, players will have to interact with House Va'ruun's various sub-factions, and the trailer hints that the fate and future of House Va'ruun and its homeworld rest in the player's hands.

"Va'ruun'kai and Dazra City are like no other location in the base game," art director Istvan Pely said of Shattered Space's environments, which are visually striking and--unlike many other locations in the chronically desaturated Settled Systems--filled with color.

"Va'ruun'kai has a completely distinct visual identity," creative lead Alan Nanes added. "We say it's very 'alien.' You'll see this in the extraterrestrial landscape, gravity anomalies, and much more."

By "gravity anomalies," Nanes seems to mean "moments where gravity stops working," as the trailer features multiple shots of floating corpses and clips of low-g combat.

Due to the tear in the space-time continuum, strange creatures "from the other side" are slipping through the tear into Va'ruun'kai, and players will have to adapt accordingly. Bethesda says it wanted to use Shattered Space as an opportunity to "amp up" combat and introduce over 50 new creatures (including an alien species simply referred to as "Horrors").

Some creatures can set up ambushes, and the trailer features an extended clip of the player-character taking on a hive of very Xenomorph-like creatures called Cavern Bonecrests. The Cavern Bonecrest Queen appears to pose a significant threat, especially if players are unprepared. But the planet also has its fair share of standard Spacers, Va'ruun Zealots, and Crimson Fleet pirates for players to take on in their quest to uncover the truth behind House Va'ruun's downfall, restore order to its bickering factions, and decide its future.

Starfield's Shattered Space expansion launches on September 30 and will be available to purchase for $30 USD. However, players who purchased the $100 Premium Edition of Starfield will get the expansion for free on launch day.

For the saps 🐄 who flip flop damage control from games to sales and profit...85 meta and..

https://www.forbes.com/sites/paultassi/2023/10/25/starfield-just-made-microsoft-and-xbox-a-ton-of-money/

I thought it looked good, not $40 good but good enough for me to enjoy after already enjoying Starfield.

I'm afraid to read comments or even reviews for this, as I'm sure the internet will have a field day hating on games they never played.

@saint-george said:

For the saps 🐄 who flip flop damage control from games to sales and profite

https://www.forbes.com/sites/paultassi/2023/10/25/starfield-just-made-microsoft-and-xbox-a-ton-of-money/

lol :P

"Starfield's Shattered Space expansion launches on September 30 and will be available to purchase for $30 USD."

Now good enough? lol :P

Oh right, haha, only if the profits integrally go to the development of Everwild :)

lol :P

Despite the claims that early in the planning they aimed at this back to normal BGS game location design, I'm doubtful, this is the longest it's taken for a major DLC to drop post release for a BGS game and the approach to treating this as a hand crafted self contained location is a complete departure from the base game.

I'll clarify I think that the hand crafted approach is better, but the length of time it has taken for this to release suggests to me they pivoted their approach after the heavy reliance on Proc gen in the base game had such a mixed reaction.

Souds reasonable to me and I do really like the sound of... "hand crafted self-contained location" ;)

omg who cares about flopfield let the game go already.....sheesh

Those trailers looked very cool. I’m definitely looking forward to this dlc.

So I take it this Expansion isn't gonna be part of Game Pass?

@davillain: nope, dlc is never part of game pass. Some subscription services do it but they are usually way more expensive and offer less games in total.

You take some, you lose some. But personally I bought Starfield on Steam just so I could own it and I'd much rather have the DLC on there than on the Xbox app

@davillain: I wish. dLC is not part of game pass.

Not yet but it should be just like Gears 5 Hivebusters DLC was included with GamePass. ;o

C'mon Uncle Phil, make it happen. lol :P

@saint-george said:

For the saps 🐄 who flip flop damage control from games to sales and profit...85 meta and..

https://www.forbes.com/sites/paultassi/2023/10/25/starfield-just-made-microsoft-and-xbox-a-ton-of-money/

Just for the record and hang in there. GOAT Starfield may just come to the gameless BS Jive in a few years. ;o

lol :P

@SecretPolice: The cows will love the game then. LOL

@Archangel3371 said:

@SecretPolice: The cows will love the game then. LOL

Yup and sell more and faster on the BS Jive than even the highly successful Sea of mofo Thieves did...

lol ;)

PSA...

Get yours fast before they're all gone. lol :P

Patial, hit link for full story.

https://www.gamespot.com/articles/starfield-shattered-space-save-30-on-the-dlc-and-get-bonus-in-game-content/1100-6526803/

Starfield: Shattered Space - Save 30% On The DLC And Get Bonus In-Game Content

Starfield's first content add-on, Shattered Space, is out now, and you can get it on sale at Fanatical--or grab the Premium Edition Upgrade for even cheaper.

Bethesda's first new intellectual property in years, Starfield, is seeing its universe expand with Shattered Space. The DLC launched today, September 30, and adds a new planet and story campaign to the game. Instead of paying $30 for Shattered Space directly on Steam, you can save nearly 30% on your Steam key by opting for the Premium Edition Upgrade at Fanatical, which includes the expansion and several pieces of bonus content.

• Starfield Premium Edition Upgrade (Includes Shattered Space) -- $21.69 ($35) | Deal ends October 2 at 4 PM PT
• Starfield Shattered Space DLC -- $25.49 ($30)

@SecretPolice: Started it last night. It’s fantastic. Not sure it will move the needle for Starfield haters, though.

@dabear:

Is it more of a stand-alone DLC? I got that impression and liked the sound of it.

Its very much stand alone. It all takes place on one planet.

In scope, it reminds me of the Outer Worlds "Murder on Eridanos". If you do all the dialog, it's probably clocking in at 10 hours, and there's a lot of side quests.

Excellent, thanks for the confirmation and sounds great. Now, I'm always GamePass or bust but I do want to give this a whirl. Hmm, what to do. lol ;)

The DLC is not on Game Pass, you have to buy it.

Yeah, that's what I meant. I haven't bought any games since subbing to GP. This DLC would be my first. lol :P

Sounds like this turned out pretty good. Am definitely interested in playing it myself.

Just came across this...

https://www.gamespot.com/articles/starfield-shattered-space-what-effigy-should-you-pick-during-the-serpents-path/1100-6526806/

Starfield Shattered Space - What Effigy Should You Pick During The Serpent's Path?

The Serpent's Path walk requires you to select two Effigies to honor the Great Serpent in Starfield Shattered Space, so which two should you pick?

picked up the DLC and looking forward to trying it out.. 👍

Surprised there people still hyping this game up.

I'm not really hyping it.

It's a big game in more ways than one and this is a big DLC just released and said to be about 10 hours long which puts it in line with many full SP games being released.

Me thinks this game will be talked about and played by many for the next 5 years or so at least, just sayin. :P

I am taking a break from Starfield, in fact I just started a rerun on Skyrim, and I am having fun with its survival mode and mods. Maybe I will return to Starfield and buy DLC in a year or so.

The number of Starfield players on Steam is now less than Skyrim

That's because there are 13 years of Mods out there.

IDK why you'd hype DLC. But, the DLC is great. I guess I'd give it an 8? It didn't change that much as far as the game goes, but it is a hand crafted world with a pretty good story. It was worth the $30 for sure (if you like Starfield).

I was hoping for Mechs, TBH, especially since a Modder made it happen. Maybe a future DLC.

This sounds like a real banger. Todd delivers again!

Looks cool. With the 60fps update and now this dlc, it's the perfect time to check it out!

@BenjaminBanklin said:

This sounds like a real banger. Todd delivers again!

“Starfield: Shattered Space is a big disappointment in almost every way. We loved the base game, for all its flaws, and we were willing this to be the big, exciting DLC drop that'd make us love it all over again. However, what we've got here is a very average narrative expansion that fails to add any big choices, upgrades, new enemies, biomes, loot or anything that could potentially excite or draw in new players. It's buggy, janky, badly acted in places, and there are a myriad of bugs and performance issues to be ironed out. What a missed opportunity.”

Sounds like they really nailed the Starfield vibe with this expansion.

Another massive failure for the Xbox brand—overhyped and underdelivered. It's fitting that it now sits on Metacritic with yellow paint on its face, forced to look up at Astro Bot's glorious metascore.

Sounds like every game ever from this guy.

@Chutebox: What happened to your cookie monster avatar from the 00s?

@AgentA-Mi6: I was told I couldn't have it because it depicted drug use.

Must be all that Microsoft money...

I thought we were comrades.

Either way, mandatory: LOL Starfield. LOL Bethesda.

How Long Is Shattered Space's Main Story?

If a player was to just put their head down and rush through the main stories of the expansion, they can anticipate spending roughly 10 hours on the expansion. It all depends on how long they spend on each mission and in which order they complete them.

How Long Is A Complete Playthrough Of Shattered Space?

However, no one really plays Bethesda games like that, and that surely won't be the case with most players jumping into this expansion. If someone is going to explore every nook and cranny of the new planet, spend time doing the side missions as well, and everything else that is offered in Shattered Space, they can expect to spend upwards of 25 to 30 hours on the new content.

It's hard to give a definitive number on how long players will spend on the expansion since everyone plays differently. However, these are accurate estimations based on Bethesda's previous DLC lengths and other games.

That's a solid amount of time given that Shattered Space is Bethesda's biggest expansion to date, at least in terms of file size. The update comes in at a solid 12GB of data, so it makes sense that there would be a lot to do.

Big oof.

Sounds like a half-arsed DLC to Bethesda's worst game.

Shadow of the Erdtree is the bar that devs need to follow in terms of expansion, and this ain't it.

Good luck with that!

This thing costs the same amount as Phantom Liberty, laughable really.

LoL, even big Bethesda fans like MrMattyPlays started criticizing it with 2 consecutive videos :))

GOAT Starfield continues to cause copious amounts of consternation. ;o

Good stuff!! lol :P