Starfield’s Shattered Space DLC Needs to Pull the Trigger…

Summary

Starfield is Bethesda's first game with a completely original IP, offering a story-driven action RPG experience set in 2330 where players control a miner who embarks on an adventure across the universe.
While the overall story of Starfield is intriguing, some parts can drag, and the upcoming Shattered Space story expansion is expected to address this issue and provide a fix.
The city of New Atlantis plays a significant role in Starfield, symbolizing potential destruction and loss in its name, but it remains standing throughout the game, raising questions about the impact the Shattered Space DLC will have on locations and the emotional bonds players have formed.

Warning: This article contains light spoilers for late-game Starfield quests. As Bethesda has made a name for itself with its lengthy and story-driven action RPGs, Starfield is the first of the studio's modern games that has been developed with a completely original IP behind it. Set in 2330, players take control of a miner who has their life completely changed when they dig up an Artifact that begins an adventure across an entire universe of planets. Fans experience being praised by other humans for their efforts as a nobody who became a well-known hero all while finding love with one of Starfield's companions if they desire to seek it out.

However, one of the places where Starfield was expected to stick the landing was with its overall story which, while very intriguing as it blends New Game Plus into the story in a way not many players expected, can drag at specific parts. In the later parts of the game, it almost feels as if Bethesda was playing it safe with what exactly impacts the world at large, and the upcoming Shattered Space story expansion would do well to fix this trend.

Starfield's New Atlantis Has it Almost Too Good

One of the first locations that Starfield players knew about while the game was in development was Constellations' home base, New Atlantis. The city serves as the capital of the United Colonies, effectively making it the closest to Starfield's new Earth that human society has. It seems like a bright and beautiful city of the future when players first arrive, but underneath it lies the same familiar struggles of class separation that humanity hasn't seemed to solve yet.

Even though the Well district has certainly seen better days, and the UC Vanguard questline eventually leads to players fighting a number of Terrormorphs right on New Atlantis' doorstep, the city ends up worse for wear, but not at all torn apart as the name implies. As beautiful as the name "New Atlantis" is, from Bethesda's creative perspective, it almost serves as a signal that history is about to repeat, and New Atlantis would end up destroyed and lost somewhere along the lines. Despite this, the city remains standing throughout players' journeys.

Starfield's Shattered Space DLC Can't Make the Same Mistake Twice

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As much as it makes sense for a long-winded RPG like Starfield to avoid destroying important locations that will likely be used more than once, it would have added impacts that parts of the game notably lacked. The main campaign with the Artifact and the Starborn, for example, could feel like it was dragging on with its fetch quests for rocks. However, the lack of harm to New Atlantis both spells good and bad news for what Shattered Space might do for Starfield's story.

The name "Shattered Space" has a rather dark connotation behind it that implies high stakes and a chance that there may be more to Starfield's universe that fans need to explore. This could range from more emotional and impactful storylines that test the bonds the player has forged throughout the game, repercussions for fans' New Game Plus adventures as Starborn, or perhaps removing the protective story-based armor for locations such as New Atlantis.

When it comes to the Shattered Space DLC, many of its details are still left in the dark, only known due to how owners of the Premium Edition will have access to it once it arrives at no extra cost. While it's likely that the expansion will follow in Skyrim's footsteps and add to what's already there, the Shattered Space DLC making things interesting for those on New Game Plus would be an exciting change of pace. At the very least, as the story expansion has been in development alongside the base game, it's almost guaranteed that it'll pick up where the original story left off.