Why does Starfield Shattered Space have mixed reviews on Steam?

The launch of Starfield Shattered Space has received little fanfare—at least in regards to Steam reviews. Bethesda's first annual story expansion release did not bring back many fans on PC, with the player count barely crossing 20k as per SteamDB numbers. Furthermore, it's only sitting at 42% positive Steam reviews as of writing.

There are numerous explanations for this phenomenon, and review-bombing is not one of them.

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Starfield players find Shattered Space price tag unjustifiable

Starfield hasn't really landed the DLC that well (Image via Bethesda Softworks)

The consensus on Shattered Space itself is middling. In our experience with the DLC so far, we have found some strong points, as the new Voruun'kai worldspace offers some compelling exploration. Sadly, there's not as much of it as one would hope.

A good number of reviews bemoan the restrained scale of this first-paid DLC for Starfield. There's a good amount of new character dialogue and a mini-DLC worth of faction-based story content, comparable to Skyrim's Dawnguard.

The issue is it only adds a handful of new weapons. There are some zero-gravity segments and the Vortex enemies provide some degree of novelty in the first few hours, but there's no new notable mechanic to make use of.

The hand-crafted content here seems like a breath of fresh air compared to the vast lifeless expanses of the main game. This, however, is no Cyberpunk 2.0. There's nothing to allay some of the weaker points of the base game. The recent Starfield update brought just a few minor bug fixes and a new QoL option.

While it shouldn't be to the detriment of the standalone DLC itself, the denial of a 2.0 renaissance certainly does not affect fan sentiment positively.

Speaking of Cyberpunk, another pain point is the comparisons being drawn to Phantom Liberty, another $30 DLC for a game that was originally poorly received. A central point of criticism is the $30 price tag on Shattered Space, for which many feel Bethesda does not offer enough with its debutant annual DLC scheme. By comparison, even older Bethesda DLCs like Oblivion's Shivering Isles or Fallout 4's Far Harbor added far more value.

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