Starfield - Premium Edition Upgrade (DLC)

I went into Starfield already braced for a Bethesda game in space, perk trees and companion arcs and all, and the base game delivered exactly that split verdict: sprawling in scope, thin in narrative payoff, with procedural generation papering over a galaxy of empty worlds. The Premium Edition Upgrade exists to bridge standard owners into the fuller package, bundling up to five days of early access, the Constellation Skin Pack (the Equinox Laser Rifle, a spacesuit, helmet, and boost pack), a digital artbook and soundtrack, and crucially, the Shattered Space story expansion. On paper, that is a reasonable stack. In practice, the value of the whole thing pivots entirely on how you feel about Shattered Space. So let's talk about that DLC, because it is the real reason anyone is weighing this upgrade in 2024. Shattered Space takes you to Va'ruun'Kai, the hidden homeworld of House Va'ruun, a religious faction built around a cosmic serpent cult. The setting is genuinely striking: a red aurora overhead, alien architecture, and an atmosphere that leans into horror territory, especially the zero-gravity opening aboard a disaster-struck ship. Explorers and outpost builders will find more to love here than main-quest beelines, and the handcrafted planet design is a pointed correction to the base game's procedurally generated emptiness. That part of the vision works. The writing, though, does not hold up to scrutiny. Players and critics broadly agree that the main story runs around four to ten hours, the new weapons and armor are mostly reskins of existing gear, and no new companions join your crew roster. For anyone who came in hoping for a Phantom Liberty-style expansion that recontextualizes the whole game, the comparison is brutal. Shattered Space does not rework Starfield's underlying structure; it just adds a room to a house whose foundation was already contested. The faction questlines within Va'ruun'Kai show flickers of the worldbuilding depth Starfield could have had throughout, but the momentum stalls before it builds into anything with real narrative weight. The Constellation Skin Pack and early access perk are both non-factors for anyone buying today: the skins are cosmetic and the early access window closed at launch. What you are really paying for is Shattered Space, and the community signal on that is hard to ignore. The Steam reception landed in mostly negative territory, critics averaged around 52 out of 100, and even self-described Starfield fans describe the expansion as falling short of expectations. The modding community remains active, which is genuinely the best long-term argument for staying invested in this game, but mods are free and do not require this upgrade. If you already love Starfield's faction questlines, ship customization loop, and skill challenge progression and simply want more hours on Va'ruun'Kai, Shattered Space will scratch that itch. If you bounced off the base game's repetitive POIs and thin writing, nothing in this upgrade changes that calculus. The perk tree and companion arc bones are all still there; the flesh just never grew around them the way it needed to.

Monika · Scout Team

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