I’ll admit it – I’m a Starfield fan. The area RPG has its issues however regardless of them I’ve managed to plow tons of hours into it and loved the overwhelming majority of my time. A part of that could be a willingness to modify off my mind and easily benefit from the sort of quest-based video games Bethesda now produces, and Starfield offers loads of that. The just lately launched Shattered House DLC promised to do one thing totally different, nonetheless, with its design director straight referencing my favourite sport, Morrowind, as inspiration. Sadly what’s been launched appears to have taken the fallacious classes from one of the best sport within the Elder Scrolls collection, and reveals a lack of knowledge about Bethesda’s personal legacy.
The extra RPGs Bethesda releases, the extra Morrowind appears to be like like an unintentional masterpiece. Earlier than it got here large adventures like Enviornment and Daggerfall, and latter video games like Oblivion and Skyrim up the dimensions once more, although to not the identical extent. Starfield is unquestionably the largest sport the developer has ever made, and with that has come a ton of issues – most notably the sensation that all the things is similar, with few causes to discover when there aren’t any surprises.
Shattered House promised to repair that, and to its credit score it does present a distinct expertise to the principle sport. If Starfield is an area model of Daggerfall, then Shattered House is unquestionably extra akin to Morrowind – at the least by way of scope. It’s a small, hand-crafted expertise, all set on the identical planet with distinctive ruins and caves to discover. Morrowind’s joys, nonetheless, aren’t solely associated to the scale of the sport, they revolve extra round issues like tone, model, and theme, all of which appear to have been considerably disregarded in Starfield’s new growth.
The similarities between the 2 titles are obvious, at the least at first look. Morrowind has three nice homes battling for supremacy over Vvardenfell and Va’ruun’kai has the identical. The place Morrowind succeeds, nonetheless, is by making every of its homes distinct – a Telvanni mage dwelling in a mushroom tower is a vastly totally different character to a Redoran warrior who makes the corpse of a large crab their residence. In the meantime in Shattered House, there are just a few thematic variations in outlook between Home Dul’kehf, Home Veth’aal, and Home Ka’dic, however by and huge they’re interchangeable.
This strategy additionally applies to the bigger Home Va’ruun, who we lastly get to spend time with within the DLC. Morrowind stared fantasy faith sq. within the face, weaving collectively a narrative of religion, hypocrisy, unreliable narrators, prophecy, and the inevitability of destiny into one thing that’s in contrast to the rest on the market. You aren’t trusted and it’s a must to earn your approach in a harsh world, together with your each achievement feeling earned in consequence. Shattered House alternatively has you turn out to be the chosen one inside seconds of arriving in Dazra, and people deep mysteries about Home Va’ruun you’ve spent the final 12 months theorizing about collapse as you discover out they’re only a bunch of men worshiping in caves.
There’s loads of good in Shattered House however by straight calling out Morrowind as an inspiration, the expectation was set excessive. Morrowind’s setting, themes, and depth have all been bypassed in favor of emulating its scope, which is welcome but it surely leaves the growth feeling a bit of flavorless in consequence. Va’ruun’kai finally ends up wanting extra like a extra closely populated Soul Cairn from Skyrim’s Dragonborn growth, fairly than a fully-fledged and plausible theocracy in its personal proper.
We all know Bethesda is able to creating fantastical adventures full with lashings of meaty themes you possibly can actually sink your tooth into – it’s carried out it earlier than, in spite of everything. Shattered House doesn’t obtain that, and by making the comparability to Morrowind Bethesda reveals that it doesn’t fairly perceive what makes it the developer’s enduring magnum opus, and may have a tough time repeating its highs till it does.