Starfield’s Shattered Space DLC has a lukewarm take off

Shattered Space, Bethesda’s first major expansion for Starfield, released a few days ago, but has unfortunately been met with middling PC player numbers and lukewarm reviews.

Over on SteamDB, Starfield currently has a 24-hour peak concurrent player count of 17,074, and a current player count of 9,740. In contrast, Bethesda’s much older release The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim Special Edition has a 24-hour player peak of 21,494, with 13,772 of us currently making our way through the fantasy world.

Shattered Space’s Steam reviews, meanwhile, currently sit with a “mostly negative” average. Many of these reviews claim the expansion is not worth its price tag, with several accusing the developer of being “lazy” with the storytelling and overall content.

“They say less is more, and with Shattered Space it’s true. Bethesda’s giving you less while asking for more money,” reads one Steam review.

“Incredibly mediocre,” another adds. “Was willing to give Starfield a lot of grace due to it being a new IP but now I’ve seen what they’re doing to build on it, it’s not worth it.”

One positive review, meanwhile, is a very clearly backhanded compliment: “The story is boring af. Would recommend if you have insomnia and need to work the next day.”

On Metacritic, the expansion sits with a ‘Mixed or Average’ average critic score of 54, with a current total of seven reviews. Of these seven, two are positive, three are mixed and two are negative.

Some players are enjoying Shattered Space, however. “This DLC is more Starfield which, if you liked Starfield to begin with, means you will likely find it worthwhile,” one Steam reviewer reasoned.

“If you normally enjoy the base game, it’s worth it, and, obviously, if you dislike the base game, then just stay away,” another wrote.

Prior to Shattered Space’s release, Bethesda shared more details on Starfield’s new planet of Va’ruun’kai, which it said featured “over 50 locations to discover”.

For more on the expansion, our Lottie took a look at Shattered Space earlier this year.

As for the future, Todd Howard recently confirmed there will be at least one more Starfield expansion after Shattered Space, and a trademark for “Starborn” registered by Bethesda parent company Zenimax then got tongues wagging about what any future DLC may include.