Here I am once again making a review for Starfield, this time the DLC. If you want a TL;DR, here you are: It is a story focused DLC with not much in the way of material content (some new weapons, no new ship parts, some new cosmetics, some outpost stuff), but rich in lore, dialogue, and narrative. If you need material content to make the DLC worth it, this is not the DLC for you. If you were curious about House Va'ruun and wanted to know more alongside a neat narrative, this is for you.

I recommend grabbing it on sale if you are on the fence, but if you enjoyed the base game and what it offered this is just more and improved so it gets a recommendation from me, someone who enjoyed their time with the base game despite having complaints.

With that out of the way, I will structure this review the same way as I did my first. The bad, the common criticisms, and the good. I will try to remain spoiler free but there may be light spoilers in my descriptions of the content.

THE BAD

1. Material content
No new ship parts sucks. I know Va'ruun just used Stroud parts but painted black, but more could be done here. The new outfits are nice but there are not many of them. Most of the new weapons are existing weapons but made into particle weapons, with the exception of some new melee weapons and heavy guns. I was hoping for extensive decorations to use as well to theme some builds off Va'ruun but no dice save for some outpost stuff you get by completing the main quest. None of this was advertised so this was more wishful thinking on my part but it still sucks.

2. Companion Comments
Andreja was unfortunately affected by a bug for a lot of people playing this DLC (though how much dialogue they missed may also be a product of people skipping over content or rushing -- more on this later) where some of her comments would not play where they should so she was very silent. That this wasn't caught in QA is crazy. I was not affected by it so Andreja has been very chatty both just walking around and in comments made during quest lines, but what is really a bummer to me is that there really isn't any direct conversations you can have with her save for after the DLC. It was a huge missed opportunity and very disappointing. Echoing something I said in my review of the base game, coming off of BG3 this just feels depressing with the lack of companion interactivity.

COMMON CRITICISMS

1. Yapping or "Shattered Spacebar"
I genuinely do not understand this, and maybe this is just an issue with my frame of reference for RPGs being different from other people. I've played older Bethesda titles, Daggerfall and Morrowind being shining examples of this, where there are no map markers and people tell you where to go with descriptions and directions. You have to pay attention to what is being said and asking more questions gets you more information and helps you immerse yourself in the world. It is utterly baffling to me that people would pay to experience something and then skip it entirely. Yes, the DLC will be very short if you go checkpoint to checkpoint but you miss a wealth of worldbuilding, dialogue, lore, and context to your decisions and the story of the DLC. If you skip all the dialogue and cut to the shooting then yeah you're probably going to have a bad time because that's not what the game is made for. If you don't want to listen to the story and talk to people and experience the content, just don't buy this. This isn't for you. It's like ordering food at a restaurant, asking for most of the ingredients and seasoning to be removed, and then saying the food is dogwater because it's flavorless. No, you just ordered boiled chicken with no seasoning.

2. No Mechanics or Substantial Changes Outside the DLC
I agree with this one. I think viewing the DLC as a silo, as it as it is an experience that I enjoy. However, if you compare it to some other Bethesda DLC that do something similar (introducing a new worldspace with self-contained content) it is still lacking in what it brings to the rest of the game. Nuka World had raider content outside of the worldspace, Dawnguard had expanded vampire content, and Dragonborn had Black Book perks and new shouts. From my understanding, there are a handful of new Va'ruun Zealot POIs and new grenade crafting but otherwise nothing to bring outside of the DLC to add to the base game. IMO, this is a similar complaint I had about Rimworld's newest DLC Anomaly. While it was never advertised that Shattered Space would introduce more content, I think it should.

THE GOOD

1. Story
If you enjoy narrative experiences, taking your time to talk to NPCs to get lore, and wanted more stuff for House Va'ruun that wasn't present in the base game then here you go. You can sink a good amount of time into it, and I caution against proceeding through the main quest too quickly. You get some roleplay in the dialogue on just how into the religion you want to go. You can participate in their rituals but be like "eh, not for me but I'll play along," you can be totally against it, or become the Great Serpent's bravest soldier and start threatening to kill heretics. Explore the town, talk to folks, get the side content. The side content not only gives you more information about the factions but also informs some of your opinions going into the main quest. There is a point where there are three political powers that want leverage or a favor before helping, and I recommend that as soon as you get that quest you stop and experience the side content so you can understand the political powers better, the cultural differences in House Va'ruun, and the general circumstances surrounding the story (namely the state of things after the event that started the DLC's story). The voice work is solid as well.

2. The Planet/Locations/Exploration
They listened to feedback and the area around the city is hand crafted. More to explore, small unmarked points of interest, custom points of interest that are really neat and interesting. There are even some areas that have a genuinely spooky or creepy vibe to it. The visuals are stunning and gorgeous. Combine that with some of the new music and the whole vibes just hit you different. It feels very foreign and they really nailed that. Do the normal Bethesda game thing here. Find a task, get distracted, roam around, find some stuff, read them lores, and enjoy the sights. This was the exploration experience that was desperately missing from the base game and I hope they keep this up.

ALL IN ALL...
Curse you Todd Howard. I was done with this game but I'm having a good time again. The same way I closed my review of the base game, I think this is a solid 7 or 8 out of 10 experience, but I will still be here for longer than games that I rate higher. If you enjoyed Starfield, this is more of that but better. If you didn't enjoy it, that's okay. Skip out on this, save the money. I got 30 dollars worth of enjoyment out of it, but for someone else with different priorities or for whom money is tight, 30 dollars may not be worth it. Look for a sale!

Here I am once again making a review for Starfield, this time the DLC. If you want a TL;DR, here you are: It is a story focused DLC with not much in the way of material content (some new weapons, no new ship parts, some new cosmetics, some outpost stuff), but rich in lore, dialogue, and narrative. If you need material content to make the DLC worth it, this is not the DLC for you. If you were curious about House Va'ruun and wanted to know more alongside a neat narrative, this is for you. I recommend grabbing it on sale if you are on the fence, but if you enjoyed the base game and what it offered this is just more and improved so it gets a recommendation from me, someone who enjoyed their time with the base game despite having complaints. With that out of the way, I will structure this review the same way as I did my first. The bad, the common criticisms, and the good. I will try to remain spoiler free but there may be light spoilers in my descriptions of the content. [b] THE BAD [/b] 1. Material content No new ship parts sucks. I know Va'ruun just used Stroud parts but painted black, but more could be done here. The new outfits are nice but there are not many of them. Most of the new weapons are existing weapons but made into particle weapons, with the exception of some new melee weapons and heavy guns. I was hoping for extensive decorations to use as well to theme some builds off Va'ruun but no dice save for some outpost stuff you get by completing the main quest. None of this was advertised so this was more wishful thinking on my part but it still sucks. 2. Companion Comments Andreja was unfortunately affected by a bug for a lot of people playing this DLC (though how much dialogue they missed may also be a product of people skipping over content or rushing -- more on this later) where some of her comments would not play where they should so she was very silent. That this wasn't caught in QA is crazy. I was not affected by it so Andreja has been very chatty both just walking around and in comments made during quest lines, but what is really a bummer to me is that there really isn't any direct conversations you can have with her save for after the DLC. It was a huge missed opportunity and very disappointing. Echoing something I said in my review of the base game, coming off of BG3 this just feels depressing with the lack of companion interactivity. [b] COMMON CRITICISMS [/b] 1. Yapping or "Shattered Spacebar" I genuinely do not understand this, and maybe this is just an issue with my frame of reference for RPGs being different from other people. I've played older Bethesda titles, Daggerfall and Morrowind being shining examples of this, where there are no map markers and people tell you where to go with descriptions and directions. You have to pay attention to what is being said and asking more questions gets you more information and helps you immerse yourself in the world. It is utterly baffling to me that people would pay to experience something and then skip it entirely. Yes, the DLC will be very short if you go checkpoint to checkpoint but you miss a wealth of worldbuilding, dialogue, lore, and context to your decisions and the story of the DLC. If you skip all the dialogue and cut to the shooting then yeah you're probably going to have a bad time because that's not what the game is made for. If you don't want to listen to the story and talk to people and experience the content, just don't buy this. This isn't for you. It's like ordering food at a restaurant, asking for most of the ingredients and seasoning to be removed, and then saying the food is dogwater because it's flavorless. No, you just ordered boiled chicken with no seasoning. 2. No Mechanics or Substantial Changes Outside the DLC I agree with this one. I think viewing the DLC as a silo, as it as it is an experience that I enjoy. However, if you compare it to some other Bethesda DLC that do something similar (introducing a new worldspace with self-contained content) it is still lacking in what it brings to the rest of the game. Nuka World had raider content outside of the worldspace, Dawnguard had expanded vampire content, and Dragonborn had Black Book perks and new shouts. From my understanding, there are a handful of new Va'ruun Zealot POIs and new grenade crafting but otherwise nothing to bring outside of the DLC to add to the base game. IMO, this is a similar complaint I had about Rimworld's newest DLC Anomaly. While it was never advertised that Shattered Space would introduce more content, I think it should. [b] THE GOOD [/b] 1. Story If you enjoy narrative experiences, taking your time to talk to NPCs to get lore, and wanted more stuff for House Va'ruun that wasn't present in the base game then here you go. You can sink a good amount of time into it, and I caution against proceeding through the main quest too quickly. You get some roleplay in the dialogue on just how into the religion you want to go. You can participate in their rituals but be like "eh, not for me but I'll play along," you can be totally against it, or become the Great Serpent's bravest soldier and start threatening to kill heretics. Explore the town, talk to folks, get the side content. The side content not only gives you more information about the factions but also informs some of your opinions going into the main quest. There is a point where there are three political powers that want leverage or a favor before helping, and I recommend that as soon as you get that quest you stop and experience the side content so you can understand the political powers better, the cultural differences in House Va'ruun, and the general circumstances surrounding the story (namely the state of things after the event that started the DLC's story). The voice work is solid as well. 2. The Planet/Locations/Exploration They listened to feedback and the area around the city is hand crafted. More to explore, small unmarked points of interest, custom points of interest that are really neat and interesting. There are even some areas that have a genuinely spooky or creepy vibe to it. The visuals are stunning and gorgeous. Combine that with some of the new music and the whole vibes just hit you different. It feels very foreign and they really nailed that. Do the normal Bethesda game thing here. Find a task, get distracted, roam around, find some stuff, read them lores, and enjoy the sights. This was the exploration experience that was desperately missing from the base game and I hope they keep this up. [b] ALL IN ALL... [/b] Curse you Todd Howard. I was done with this game but I'm having a good time again. The same way I closed my review of the base game, I think this is a solid 7 or 8 out of 10 experience, but I will still be here for longer than games that I rate higher. If you enjoyed Starfield, this is more of that but better. If you didn't enjoy it, that's okay. Skip out on this, save the money. I got 30 dollars worth of enjoyment out of it, but for someone else with different priorities or for whom money is tight, 30 dollars may not be worth it. Look for a sale!