Shattered Space, the upcoming first major expansion to Starfield, feels like Bethesda returning to an old, comfy chair. Albeit a horror-driven, combat-intensive chair set in a half-destroyed capital city that’s the victim of a tear in space-time. But rather than another galaxy-wide sprawling set of adventures like the base game, this is a tale told on one planet, a confined and controlled narrative that is far more reminiscent of the old Elder Scrolls approach.
During Bethesda’s behind-closed-doors showing of the game, Va’ruun’kai was shown to be a planet distinct from the rest of the explorable galaxy. Its capital city has been rent asunder by a tear in the fabric of space-time, a place described as somewhere humanity’s search for knowledge—that otherwise drives the overarching narrative of Starfield—has “gone too far.” Whatever its scientists were up to, and it was something to do with “grav-drive technology,” it’s had devastating effects, and you’re now exploring the remains as various factions fight for control in the void of leadership.
The Shattered Space demo footage shown at this week’s Gamescom began with a brutal scene of floating dead bodies in dank, metallic corridors, a vibe that immediately spoke far more of horror than Starfield’s more familiar science fiction cleanliness. This is a planet with a more alien feel, its landscape much more peculiar, featuring gravitational anomalies among the many things going wrong for the locals.
What followed in the demo was a lengthy series of events taking place in the aftermath of the Va’ruun people’s recent disaster, which is so much worse when you learn those rifts in space are now letting in some gruesome monsters from another reality. The immediate vibe was FEAR— it very strikingly reminded me of Monolith’s classic spook-shooters, as the player character crept around abandoned sci-fi corridors, plagued by the grim beasts incessantly leaping at them.
Bethesda’s Brian Chaplin described Va’ruun’kai as a “secluded, hand-crafted location,” featuring an “isolated faction” who had been living on the planet separate from outside communication. Their culture had therefore developed independently of what has previously been explored in Starfield, which of course gives carte blanche for the team to make something that feels other, distinct, and not shackled by the perhaps less than-adored nature of the rest of the game. If anything, it seems to have given them freedom to return to their roots.
So following this recent crisis, with vast amounts of the capital city destroyed, and before any rebuilding has begun, you show up. The remainder of the citadel, where the power structure of the area was based, is now contained within some peculiar energy field, and the leader is missing, meaning there’s a power vacuum. This is pursued by “minor houses,” the area’s factions—the Zealots, Spacers and Crimson Fleet—looking to fill the political void. And that of course means all sorts of factional rivalry.
To match the different location, Bethesda is looking to see the game played differently too. While most people have approached Starfield as a remote shooter, keeping your distance and sniping from afar, in Shattered Space, there’s a push to force people to get far more up close and impersonal, with ambushes, close quarters combat, and a great deal more panic.
“We wanted to lean in on the mystery and horror aspects,” said Bethesda. “Space is scary, and part of getting that across is tapping into the chaos of combat.” It’s all very much part of what is a horror-first expansion.
While you can leave the planet any time you wish, given Starfield’s open nature, the plot here is entirely self-contained, and exploration of the planet and the city will lead to uncovering exactly what happened here, and, we’re told, becoming “entangled in the political feud between the minor houses.” You, of course, will be a part of deciding the fate of the city, and which faction eventually takes control.
This refocusing of how Starfield is played and experienced could be a boon for the ailing project. While Bethesda describes it as “one of our biggest games,” the publisher could well be including the likes of Rogue Warrior and Wet in that list, and Starfield has certainly not retained its audience. At the time of writing, it’s sporting a desultory 6,000 players on Steam, compared to 2015’s Fallout 4 with a casual 17,000. So releasing something that seems so deliberately different, both in terms of its vibe and its nature, could be a well-timed decision.
The idea that there’s a complete, detailed story to play through, all taking place in one confined location, alongside its FEAR-like atmosphere, has me wanting to return to the game for the first time since its launch week. Presumably Bethesda is hoping this will be a desire shared by the hundreds of thousands who were playing back in July.
