Andrew Webster’s review for The Verge finds that Starfield: Shattered Space makes for a more focused, atmospheric adventure on House Va’ruun’s homeworld—but stops short of making its cosmic-horror premise feel genuinely strange. For returning players, it is a denser Starfield chapter, not a reinvention of the game.
What is Starfield: Shattered Space?
Shattered Space is Starfield’s first major story expansion. It takes players to Va’ruun’kai, the hidden homeworld of House Va’ruun, where a massive vortex has devastated much of the city of Dazra and thrown the faction into chaos. The player investigates the phenomenon and what happened to the survivors. Bethesda’s launch guide describes the premise; the official expansion page also highlights a cosmic threat, a new planet, and unique weapons, spacesuits, and gear.
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Starfield Visual Compendium | $36.40 | Buy on Amazon |
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Starfield Shattered Space: Guide complet pour explorer, combattre et survivre dans les confins de... | $19.55 | Buy on Amazon |
The expansion originally launched September 30, 2024, for Xbox Series X|S and PC. Bethesda announced Starfield’s PlayStation 5 release on April 7, 2026, and lists Shattered Space among the game’s released story DLC. That later availability is distinct from the expansion’s original launch platforms.
What works: a more coherent, atmospheric setting
Webster’s strongest praise is for the expansion’s sense of place. Starfield’s broad galaxy-hopping structure gives way here to a more concentrated visit to Va’ruun’kai and Dazra. The damaged city, strange anomalies, and religious setting give the chapter a clearer thematic center and a darker mood than the wider game’s usual travel between worlds.
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The focus also helps the story’s pacing. Quests connect to nearby locations, making the adventure feel more deliberately arranged than a sequence of distant stops. And House Va’ruun becomes more than the mysterious faction known from the base game: its internal drama feels more human and varied in the review’s assessment.
Where it falls short: horror without enough surprise
The title’s “isn’t weird enough” criticism is about the gap between premise and play. Shattered Space gestures toward cosmic horror, faith, and reality-warping mystery, but Webster finds that the story often returns to familiar tools: dialogue, terminals, objective markers, dungeons, and firefights. The atmosphere works better than the scares, and the new enemies and gear do not substantially alter the moment-to-moment experience.
In other words, the expansion’s setting is more distinctive than its play. Its polished, readable construction gives the story a stronger frame, but the review finds it restrained relative to the possibilities of its premise. That is Webster’s judgment, not a claim about how every player will respond.
Is Shattered Space scary or genuinely weird?
It is moodier and more unsettling in presentation than a routine Starfield chapter, but the review does not find it consistently frightening or mechanically strange. If you want a focused story with eerie imagery and a religious, reality-bending backdrop, the expansion offers that atmosphere. If you expect the horror to transform the way quests, exploration, or combat work, Webster’s review suggests tempering that expectation.
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It is most appealing to players who already enjoy Starfield’s role-playing and combat loops and want a denser, darker chapter with more Va’ruun lore. It is less likely to change the mind of someone whose main frustration with the base game is its combat, quest structure, or restrained approach to discovery. The expansion concentrates the experience; it does not replace its underlying formula.
Bethesda’s expansion page says the DLC requires the base game, sold separately. A physical Xbox Standard Edition listed by Bethesda contains the base game; that does not mean it includes Shattered Space.
How to start the expansion, and what level to be
Bethesda’s September 27, 2024 launch guide says you must complete the main quest’s introductory mission, “One Small Step,” first. After that, the expansion begins when you make a grav-jump to an orbit not already tied to a mission or encounter: you receive a distress call and discover the station The Oracle.
Bethesda recommends level 35 for the best experience. Webster disclosed playing on a New Game Plus save at level 32 without major difficulty, but that is one reviewer’s experience—not a guarantee that every character or play style will have the same difficulty.
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