Why Players Aren't Happy With Starfield's Shattered Space DLC

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's DLC has met with an unexpected outpouring of fan disappointment. Released on September 30, 2024 — just over a year after the base game's initial launch — was supposed to breathe new life into a stagnating. It would explore the underdeveloped House Va'ruun faction from the base game, introducing new locales, weapons, armor, and lots more in a terrifying story that had more flavor on one planet than the base game had in an entire galaxy.

But Steam reviews for are poor, and have trended downward since launch: releasing with Mixed reviews, it's since plummeted to Mostly Negative with over 1,400 reviews, the second-lowest rating a game can get besides Overwhelmingly Negative. Criticisms of 's DLC cover a wide range of gripes, from those that have always existed with the base game, to a whole new world of problems introduced by the DLC. Though many of these complaints are justified, some players may have put unfair expectations on 's first DLC.

In a Reddit thread discussing the reasons for 's Mostly Negative rating, user Carinwe_Lysa expresses a common criticism: 's DLC was just poorly executed. Sure, House Va'ruun is a fascinating faction, based only on what players know of them from the base game. They worship a mysterious entity known only as the Great Serpent, they live on a hidden planet where they grow powerful hallucinogens, and they believe they're the chosen ones, destined to bring the entire galaxy under their thumb.

Then, the player gets there, and half of House Va'ruun's capital city (Dazra) has been blown to smithereens in the massive unexplained explosion that makes up the DLC's inciting incident. And what remains of Dazra is scarcely any more interesting. For an isolationist society, Va'ruun'kai's major landmarks sure do look a lot like those in the base game's major cities, including, for some baffling reason, a Chunks. House Va'ruun uses the same ship parts as everyone else. They have a few unique pieces of clothing and weaponry, but, Carinwe_Lysa