#Shattered House will get middling critiques

I’m pretty keen on Starfield‘s goofy, typically sterile sandbox universe. I’ve acquired some unusual causes as to why that’s the case, however typically, I like the sport properly sufficient. I used to be very enthusiastic about Shattered House, too. Starfield‘s first DLC isn’t doing all that properly review-wise, nonetheless.

In additional concrete phrases, Shattered House is at the moment caught with a ‘Combined’ overview ranking over on Steam, with simply over 600 critiques posted in whole. Now, we had some inclination that Bethesda is likely to be enjoying it secure with Shattered House forward of the DLC’s launch, however that’s actually not the difficulty right here. The truth is, regardless that I do assume Shattered House did fail to ship in some essential areas (extra on that later), I additionally assume its present overview ranking is considerably undeserved and should have fallen sufferer to the “Starfield dangerous” hype.

Starfield’s new Shattered House DLC comes with some unusual omissions, however that’s not the explanation why it’s acquired ‘Combined’ critiques

It takes simply the tiniest little bit of scrolling by Starfield: Shattered House‘s critiques to see that many, if not a lot of the damaging posts may very well be thought of meme-worthy. A really important variety of these critiques, in actual fact, seems to be reviewing Starfield as soon as once more as a substitute of adequately critiquing the brand new enlargement pack.

So, with that in thoughts, I like to recommend taking Shattered House‘s Steam overview ranking with a pinch of salt at hand. Issues are actually not as dire because the critiques may make it appear at a look.

That being what it’s, the flip aspect of issues is that I’m utterly befuddled by a few of the selections Bethesda seems to have made right here. Now, be aware that I’ve clearly not accomplished the DLC in its entirety, however Shattered House doesn’t add any of the next:

• New ship components
• New ship customization choices typically
• Significant new dialogue with Andreja
• A wise ending
• New gameplay options
• New companions

Shattered House is, as a substitute, a group of fancy new Va’ruun-themed tales set towards the grander backdrop of Starfield‘s universe. That is actually honest sufficient, however I’m deeply confused as to why Bethesda wouldn’t select to construct upon a few of the sport’s strongest core options. Like, for an apparent instance, the ship-building programs.

That is the bit that basically grates on me, particularly. Starfield‘s lead artistic producer, Tim Lamb, particularly talked about in a interview with Gaming Boulevard that Bethesda has “launched new ship customization choices [with Shattered Space], which permit gamers to actually tailor their vessels to their playstyle.” There aren’t any of these to be discovered right here, from the look of issues. And I’d be keen to attend longer to see if Bethesda hid some key goodies behind endgame-tier Shattered House content material if the modders hadn’t datamined all the brand new objects inside hours of the DLC’s launch.

Normally, then, I do advocate Shattered House for many who are eager on Starfield typically. It’s a stable new piece of content material that genuinely does riff with the likes of Morrowind and Skyrim in some necessary methods. The truth that it stubbornly refuses to enhance upon these bits that have been genuinely thrilling and necessary to the core Starfield gameplay expertise annoys me deeply, nonetheless.

In a roundabout means, I assume the “Combined” critiques type of do match Starfield: Shattered House.