Starfield’s Shattered Space Expansion Has Silly Design Issues

Hope you leveled up enough and you really like snakes!

Alex Rowe
6 min readOct 3, 2024

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A closeup of the player-customized main character in Starfield. She has a leather jacket and bright pink hair. In the background is a trash can with some scattered debris on the floor.
My created character Starpy Pillow looks at the world of Starfield with a baffled expression. PC screenshot taken by the author.

I was genuinely looking forward to diving into Starfield’s shiny new Shattered Space expansion pack when it launched earlier this week. I was one of those foolhardy over-committed fans who paid extra for the bigger edition of the game last year, so I already owned the thing and figured I might as well get in while it’s still new and fresh. It came out on a Monday morning which was super bizarre, but I pre-loaded it and waited with cautious optimism.

Somehow, against all odds or my own personal predictions, I got sucked back into the game recently to check out its new car and then to marvel at its horrifically underused procedural planets. A new story expansion, with a thoughtfully-designed world and a more linear narrative progression seemed like it might be just the thing to sate my ever-present RPG needs before the new Dragon Age finally comes out later this month.

Unfortunately, Bethesda doesn’t seem to really want me to play this thing, nor did they target anyone but their most diehard fans. Shattered Space is made first and foremost for players that have hit character level 35, which requires a significant time investment. You can technically launch into its new quest line for any character at…

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Alex Rowe
Alex Rowe

Written by Alex Rowe

I post commentary about gaming, tech, and sometimes music. I’ve written professionally about games since 2005. Look mom, I’m using my English degree!

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