Starfield’s Shattered Space expansion is set for a release window of Fall 2024. The massive scale of the title in terms of its exploration perfectly compliments post-launch expansions such as this, with there being an immense amount of narrative leeway to expand the game’s lore.
The Shattered Space expansion forStarfieldrecently got some attention at the Xbox Games Showcase, with its time at the presentation confirming the major involved factions and locations of the DLC. While Shattered Space smartly places more emphasis on one of the most underused pre-existing factions inStarfield, the title could easily take a page out ofFallout’s book for its future expansions. In particular, new major groups and factions inFallouthave consistently been added to the franchise over the years, andStarfieldcould use its scope to do the same thing through future DLCs.
Starfield Should Use Future Expansions to Introduce New Intergalactic Groups
Despite a lot of the pre-release marketing forStarfieldfocusing on its massive scale, there are onlyfive major factions that populate its vast game world. Of course, implementing even more major factions into the base game may have risked bloating the side content ofStarfield, but there is still clear room for more stories to be told within the franchise.
While most of these five pre-existing factions get a fair amount of development and story content inStarfield, many fans felt that themysterious and hyper-religious House Va’ruundid not get nearly enough attention in the game. The upcoming Shattered Space expansion forStarfieldhas clearly taken these criticisms on board, with House Va’ruun being at the center of the upcoming story.
Despite not getting much love in the base game ofStarfield, House Va’ruun is arguably the game’s most interesting faction, with its membersworshiping a deity known as the Great Serpent. The isolation and deep devotion of House Va’ruun is a perfect way to instill mystery inStarfield’s setting, with the game clearly having all the tools necessary to craft even more fascinating factions in the future.
Starfield’s Many Locations Can Easily Give Way to New Factions
It has already been confirmed thatStarfieldwill receive at least one more major expansionfollowing the release of Shattered Space, with Bethesda clearly believing that there is still a lot of unexplored narrative potential for the title. While it only seems fair that Shattered Space should finally elaborate on House Va’ruun, subsequent expansions could easily introduce brand-new factions, much like howFallouthas over the years.
Fallout’s nuclear wastelands are much smaller than the huge portion of outer space thatStarfieldexplores, yet the former has always found ways to evolve its major groups in logical ways.
While the likes of the Brotherhood of Steel have appeared in the IP for quite some time, fan-favorite titles likeFallout New Vegasowed a lot of their success to the new groups they explored, withFNVfamously introducing factions like Caesar’s Legion. These factions are often deeply tied to the different areas thatFalloutexplores, withFallout 4’s Boston setting giving way to the Minutemen faction, which is inspired by Minutemen of New England in the Revolutionary era.
WithStarfieldhaving so many star systems and planets to explore, the title is in no shortage of locations that can potentially be expanded to inspire factions in future DLCs for the game. Locational factions have been a huge part ofFallout’s continued success and expanded lore over the years, and Bethesda should definitely consider transferring this ethos to its most recent release to give more justification forStarfield’s massive size through any future DLCs.
