Starfield: Shattered Space deep dive promises cosmic horror, politics, up-close fights with giant alien spiders, and other things we could all do without

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With two weeks to go before the release of Shattered Space, the long-awaited first story expansion for its sci-fi RPG epic Starfield, Bethesda has shared the first up-close look at what players can look forward to when they make their way to the home planet of House Va'Ruun.

The big hook in Shattered Space is that it's "completely handcrafted" and self-contained: You can leave the planet of Va'ruun'kai whenever the urge hits, but the story takes place entirely on that world. That story revolves around big trouble on the homeworld: A secret experiment went terribly wrong (shocking, I know) causing a big-ass tear in the space-time continuum that swallowed up a huge chunk of the Va'ruun capital Dazra, and in the immediate aftermath of all that death, destruction, and trauma, various political factions are jockeying for power and control.

Such is the way of human nature, I suppose, but it's not just power-hungry politicos you'll be dealing with: That grav-drive accident has also opened the door to horrors from another dimension, who can pop in from out of nowhere to ruin your day.

Shattered Space looks like kind of an unusual mashup. The whole Great Serpent, "All must serve" thing smacks of Dead Space-style cosmic horror, but the underlying "pick a faction" storyline comes off as far more conventional Bethesda fare. Combat also promises to be more up-close-and-personal: The base game focuses primarily on ranged gun combat, but art director Istvan Pely says Bethesda is "closing that distance" in the Shattered Space expansion.

"Space is scary," Pely says in the video. "Part of getting that across is amping up the aggression and chaos of combat." Having hostile giant space spiders warping directly into your face will no doubt help with that, too.

The Shattered Space expansion is included with the Digital Premium Edition of Starfield. If you only sprung for the base copy of the game, you can either get Shattered Space by itself for $30/£26/€30, or get it as part of the Digital Premium Edition Upgrade, which also includes the Constellation skin pack, digital artbook and soundtrack, and 1,000 Creation Credits, for $5 more.

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.