Movies News Talk
The most recent teaser for Shattered Space presented a glimpse into devastated space stations and bleak hallways, so preparing the ground for what might be a horror-themed expansion. Some players have noted that, for those ready to hunt them down, scares lie waiting in the base game. User BlueLucid posted a video of a startling attack on Reddit showing a massive beast tearing through a thin opening and charging them instantly as they shot through Hunting Maggotmaw with relative ease. Clearly, although appealing, this is a dangerous mission. Many of Starfield's community members have reported that they have been slain in a single strike by the beast, so it is abundantly evident that the meeting with the huge Hunting Maggotmaw is among the most terrifying in the game. Not exactly an oil painting either, among the ugly monsters Starfield has to provide. Still, what it reveals about Bethesda's ambitions about times of pure horror is fascinating.
Bethesda has shown its hand with this Hunter Maggotmaw encounter, whether or not they planned to. Responders to the video have admitted that they just don't know another cosmic adventurer who didn't die right away upon confronting the monster. Every person responding also seemed at least somewhat startled to witness a mass of meat and teeth flying towards them at top speed. After all, the trailer has shown enigmatic distress calls from a spaceship with no records, bodies hung in low gravity, and translucent monsters of amazing speed, so this is exactly the kind of encounter we could find in the Shattered Space Dlc. Clearly, whatever is waiting on the deserted space station kills with simplicity; the same might easily be done to the player. There is also some highly cult-like imagery, such as prayer circles and sculptures, which suggests that any horrors could be a front for the real nasties of Shattered Space.
In Starfield, the attack of the Hunting Maggotmaw is a startling ultimate event; in Shattered Space, it might become far more. Given many players have left Starfield since launch, the DLC could be exactly what the game needs as it offers a radical new tonal direction for the space adventure RPG. For Bethesda's most ambitious release, a shot in the arm could at last show critics what the firm had first intended for the game.
As many spooks as there are goofs strewn around Starfield's universe, players could be somewhat surprised when Shattered Space strikes stores. Bethesda found it challenging to create tonal consistency across a vast Spacefaring frolic; yet, a smaller approach may produce an atmospheric adventure with simplicity. Alternatively, it might just cover Shattered Space with more Hunting Maggotmaws since, obviously, that's all it requires to escape its planet.
Starfield offers lots to discover even if most of its players have gone onto better grounds. Not attaining the critical heights of The Elder Scrolls or Fallout's most adored Games was enough for many gamers to leave on in pursuit of greater RPGs, but those who stayed have found plenty of missions, people and weaponry to justify their commitment. And it seems as though lots more is ahead.
Not only has Shattered Space gripped the players who have stayed with Starfield, but it's also piquing the interest of those who have moved on since its introduction. It is getting closer with every day. The expansion's teaser that appeared at Summer Game Fest has opened the door on a Starfield extension that goes all-in on interplanetary Horror, and there seem to be more frights than we had anticipated coming with the DLC pack.
Many of the over 1000 Plantes of Starfield are home to some unsettling and deadly species, many of which are all too eager to stop a run early. With Alien as the easiest analogy, the first Starfield DLC appears to be heavily inspired by interplanetary Horror, thereby improving the game. After all, even before it was ever published, it is evident that the game's identity has been hinging on others for some time following Todd Howard's "Skyrim in Space" claim. In many respects, Starfield's vastness might give birth to horrors we can hardly conceive, and in many others, that's exactly what an extension to the stretched, wide cosmos of the game needs to lure early players back in.
Though the main game of Starfield currently offers a lot to explore, the forthcoming Shattered Space DLC could widen the narrative and offer even more material.