Shattered Spacethe first major expansion is coming Star FieldIt feels like Bethesda returning to an old, comfortable chair. Albeit a horror-focused, combat-heavy one, set in a half-demolished capital city that’s been the victim of a tear in space-time. But instead of a galaxy-spanning series of adventures like the base game, this is a much more reminiscent, contained, controlled narrative told on a single planet. Elder Scrolls approach.
During Bethesda's behind-the-scenes reveal of the game, Va'ruun'kai was shown to be a planet separate from the rest of the explorable galaxy. Its capital city is a place torn apart by a tear in the fabric of space-time, described as a place of humanity's quest for knowledge – but it's otherwise the one driving the overall narrative. Star Field— “it went too far.” Whatever the scientists are doing, and it's something to do with “gravity drive technology,” it's had devastating effects, and now you're left scouring the ruins with various factions fighting for control in a leadership vacuum.
The Shattered Space Demo footage shown at this week's Gamescom began with a brutal scene of dead bodies floating in dank, metallic corridors, a feeling that immediately spoke of much more than dread. Star Field's more familiar sci-fi cleanup. This is a planet with more foreign Along with the many bad things that happen to the local people, gravity anomalies also become noticeable and the landscape becomes even more bizarre.
In the demo, there was a long series of events that took place after the final cataclysm of the Va'ruun people. It's even worse when you learn that those rifts in space now let in terrifying monsters from another reality. That's an immediate feeling FEAR— It was very strikingly reminiscent of Monolith's classic horror-shooter games, with the player character wandering through abandoned sci-fi corridors, constantly being plagued by terrifying monsters jumping out at them.
Bethesda's Brian Chaplin described the Va'ruun'kai as “an isolated, ungoverned place” and featured an “isolated group” living on the planet isolated from outside communication, so their culture had developed independently of any previously discovered. Star Fieldwhich of course gives the team carte blanche to do something different, something that feels different and isn't constrained by the perhaps unlikable nature of the rest of the game. More than anything, it seems to give them the freedom to return to their roots.
So after this latest crisis, a large part of the capital has been destroyed, and you emerge before any rebuilding has begun. The rest of the fortress that the region's power structure is based on is now in a strange energy field, and the leader is missing, meaning there's a power vacuum. This is being followed by the “lesser houses”, the region's factions – the Zealots, the Spacers, and the Red Squadron – trying to fill the political vacuum. And of course that means all sorts of factional rivalries.
Bethesda also wants the game to play differently to accommodate the different locations. Most people Star Field As a long range shooter, keeping your distance and sniping from a distance, Shattered SpaceThere are ambushes, close quarters combat, and a lot more panic to force people to be closer and more neutral.
“We wanted to lean into the mystery and horror aspects,” Bethesda said. “Space is scary, and part of conveying that is touching on the chaos of combat.” It's all part of a horror-focused expansion.
You can leave the planet whenever you want, but Star FieldThe open nature of 's plot here makes it completely self-contained, and exploration of the planet and the city will lead to uncovering exactly what's happening here, and reportedly getting involved in “political strife between the minor houses.” Of course, you'll be a part of deciding the fate of the city and which side will eventually take control.
This is how to refocus Star Field being played and experienced could be a boon to the ailing project. With Bethesda describing it as “one of our greatest games,” the publisher could include others like it. Mischievous Warrior And Wet on that list and Star Field It certainly hasn't been able to maintain its audience. At the time of writing, it has 6,000 players on Steam, down from 2015. Collapse 4 At a mediocre 17,000. So releasing something that seems so deliberately different in both tone and nature may have been a well-timed decision.
The idea of a full and detailed story that can be played out within a single, limited location, FEAR-like atmosphere is making me want to return to the game for the first time since launch week, presumably because Bethesda is hoping the hundreds of thousands of people who played in July will share that desire.