Shattered Space won't turn you into a Starfield believer, but it's a good omen for The Elder Scrolls 6

Starfield: Shattered Space might not be the major rework or upgrade to the base game that longtime Bethesda fans were hoping for, but it certainly feels like a step in the right direction. Mind you, the powers that be at Bethesda Game Studios still believe the game is one of its very best, so expecting it to ever move closer to Fallout or The Elder Scrolls (and their DNA) is silly. But what does this all mean for The Elder Scrolls 6?

Personally, I think it's still far too early to predict how the sixth mainline Elder Scrolls will look and behave. We're looking at a late 2026 release at the earliest, and with Bethesda's latest now doubling down on polish and extra features – all while the modding sickos do their thing – it's gonna be a while before attention is shifted towards our long-awaited single-player return to Tamriel. We can, however, infer a thing or two from Shattered Space's more traditional bits, which were already present throughout the main game but feel much more prominent this time around. 

Return to tradition

First thing's first: I enjoyed Starfield at launch more than the average player. Those review scores made sense to me. While it was (and still is) a flawed experience with near-instant signs of old age thanks to the Creation Engine's limitations, I found Bethesda's vision to be quite captivating and refreshingly hopeful. It was also sort of grounded when compared to The Elder Scrolls and Fallout, which I thought was a smart change of pace for the studio, especially with another fantasy behemoth on the horizon.

Conversely, it didn't fully justify its more No Man's Sky-like side, which takes up a fair amount of space (though you can try to beeline the handcrafted content). That's the one thing we all can agree on. Even if you dig the idea of an expansive open-world, space-set RPG which actually shows outer space like the barren, mostly lifeless void it really is, it all would’ve clicked together better had the studio limited itself to fewer but denser locations while keeping the same themes and narrative intact.

In Shattered Space, the focus is put on the (no longer) enigmatic House Va’ruun and its homeworld, Va'ruun'kai, which has been hit by a reality-bending catastrophe that may or may not be man-made. Its capital city, Dazra, remains hilariously small for a planet’s main hub, but it also feels like an improved version of Starfield’s most interesting locales. By and large, the expansion can never escape the feeling that it’s actually content cut from the 1.0 release because it wasn’t done on time. Maybe I’m wrong, but that’s the vibe. On the other hand, it lands right next to the notable faction quests that were already in.

Since it was announced before Starfield even launched, Shattered Space was never meant to fix what players thought was broken or needed a glow-up. Maybe that’s coming with the rumored next DLC. But its 'missing faction questline’ nature makes the return to the Settled Systems remind us of Bethesda's greatest hits over Fallout 4 and Starfield’s blander open-world chunks. Base-building and procedurally generated planets are fine sandboxes, but (in my opinion) they shouldn’t distract the studio from cooking more of what made Skyrim and past BGS games so enduring.

A new frontier

Design director Emil Pagliarulo pointed out Starfield wasn't everyone's cup of tea while acknowledging there's room for both experimentation and improvement. I'm glad the studio literally shot for the stars with this one, but Shattered Space’s tepid reception highlights how Bethesda's classic formula can either stay relevant through careful introspection or be left behind. In order to live up to expectations, The Elder Scrolls 6 must take notes from past wins and current failures. Bethesda's boldness is refreshing within the larger AAA picture, but such a loyal and creative community should be listened to as well.

The Elder Scrolls 6 is bound to be a success thanks to the power of the IP alone, but replicating Skyrim's triumph is a different story altogether. In Shattered Space, I was happy to find some of the pieces that made past Elder Scrolls and Fallout installments crowd-pleasing winners; talk-heavy, non-procedural quests traditionally labeled as side content are often brought to the forefront over action-packed missions, and uniquely named locations and NPCs feel more important than before. It's just a chunk of the massive game, sure, but it’s the sort of approach to game design that made Skyrim and Fallout 4's bigger paid DLCs must-haves instead of optional extras for diehards. 

The promise of cosmic horror doesn't fully pay off, and many of the big questions around the loopier bits are left unanswered, but I wasn't eager to leave Dazra and the surrounding area by the time the main questline wrapped up. Shattered Space never justifies being as expensive as Oblivion's Shivering Isles expansion at launch if we analyze the bang for its buck factor, but it's charming enough and as off-beat as some classics that fans love to bring up time and again. It’s no Fallout 4: Far Harbor either, but I’d firmly state its faults have more to do with the base game than what it’s trying to do in its own little pocket of the Settled Systems.

It's easy to imagine a brand-new Bethesda game built on these foundations and the studio's core tenets, but featuring all the tech-related improvements and creative tools that have been thrown into the mix. As other large-scale sandboxes continue to focus on progression loops and the larger mish-mash of interchangeable systems and content to mine player engagement, The Elder Scrolls 6 may be the right time for Bethesda to shine by telling more intimate tales and honing in on its traditional dioramas.

"Players can explore like they used to in Fallout and Skyrim": How Shattered Space brings the "bespoke goodness" of past Bethesda RPGs to Starfield