Starfield Shattered Space warps Bethesda's final frontier into full-on horror

Space can be a lot of things: beautiful, awe-inspiring, full of hope for mankind’s future. But it can also be the setting for some truly spine-chilling horror – and that’s what Starfield’s upcoming Shattered Space DLC will focus on. It places the base game’s creepy House Va’ruun faction – a cult who worship a deity called the Great Serpent – centre stage. (Taking a wild guess, this is probably not going to be one for people who don’t like big snakes.)

Shattered Space will see you travelling to the House Va’ruun’s homeworld, which has been designed specially to tell the DLC’s story. This means, if you decide to venture back out into the stars, you’ll be able to return to the DLC whenever you like and pick up the storyline where you left off.

But where does the name Shattered Space come in? Well, as we found out during a Gamescom 2024 showfloor presentation this morning, if Starfield’s main campaign is about the pursuit of knowledge, then Shattered Space is about the knowledge you should really shut away in a box and never touch.

Upon arriving at Dazra, House Va’ruun’s capital city, you’ll discover that much of it has been lost to a vortex. Space has literally shattered, leaving the citizens searching for survivors and the minor houses who make up their society fighting for control. There’s even worries that the Va’ruun Zealots are trying to use the chaos to re-establish their own house…