Starfield‘s Shattered Space DLC is coming September 30, and Bethesda has revealed new details about the expansion.
As reported by IGN, the biggest piece of information to take away is that the expansion’s story will take place on a single, “handcrafted” planet, Va’ruun’kai. When Starfield first launched, it was widely criticised for feeling empty due to how many parts of its near 1,000 planets were procedurally generated, so this is a new direction for the expansion, focusing on quality over quantity.
“From the minute you arrive on Va’ruun’kai the story never sends you off planet,” said Tim Lamb, the lead creative producer. “You’re free to leave at any time, but the story is fully centered around life on the Va’ruun home world.”
“When we first started thinking about what this experience would be like, we knew we wanted it to feel like a traditional Bethesda Game Studios expansion,” said Joe Mueller, lead producer. “Having the planet laid out so intentionally works perfectly with this isolationist society. Everything they’ve done since establishing themselves will be right here on Va’ruun’kai. The whole planet tells the story of these people who have never left their home and want to remain a secret.”
The combat in this expansion is set to be much more aggressive than that of the base Starfield experience, too. Rather than just shooting at foes from afar, strange enemies will ambush you by jumping out of rifts in spacetime, so you’ll have to be on your gaurd while you explore Va’ruun’kai.
Shattered Space launches on PC and Xbox September 30 for now extra cost for owners of the premium or constellation editions of Starfield.
In other news, EA’s upcoming Battlefield game will be returning to the series’ peak, the modern day.