'Starfield: Shattered Space' is outlandish enough, but won't alter your perception of the game (review)

尽管《星域：破碎空间》带来了一些新意，但它并不足以转变玩家对游戏的整体评价。

Starfield's hopeful exploration of mankind's future among the stars (with a healthy dose of zany sci-fi thrown in too) seemed to convince enough critics when the game launched a little over a year ago, but it also faced harsh criticism from longtime Bethesda fans and players expecting much more advanced game design. Does the Shattered Space expansion fix any of those central issues?

这款游戏已经推出了一年多，看起来已经让足够多的批评者信服人类在未来的探索充满希望（这带有些许荒诞科幻色彩），但还是收到了贝塞斯达老玩家和对游戏设计要求高的玩家的激烈批评。《破碎空间》的出现解决了这些核心问题吗？

The short answer is: no, not really. Bethesda Game Studios seems to be quite proud of Starfield overall, and it makes sense that the studio is sticking to its guns with this new IP after being stuck bouncing between Fallout and The Elder Scrolls for more than two decades. "It is what it is," I’d say. For all its faults, the game seemingly was a financial success for Bethesda Softworks and its Microsoft overlords, and most of its rough edges (at least the ones that don't affect its philosophical and engine-related foundations) have been ironed out at this point via patches and free content updates.

一句话答案：贝塞斯达游戏工作室对于《星域》感到自豪是有道理的，毕竟在《辐射》和《上古卷轴》系列之后，他们终于有了一个新的IP。“事情就是这样，”我会这么说。尽管游戏存在一些不足，但它对贝塞斯达和微软来说在经济上是成功的，而且大多数需要改进的地方——尤其是那些不会影响到游戏核心哲学和基础引擎问题——已经通过补丁和免费内容更新得到了改善。

BGS still wants to support Starfield for a long time, and work on a second expansion seems to be underway, but are the Settled Systems worth exploring further? After this first DLC, I'd say yes, but Shattered Space is far from an ideal refresh, at least at this point in time.

贝塞斯达游戏工作室依旧愿意长期支持《星域》，且据传第二个扩展包正在开发中。对于是否值得进一步探索已确定的系统，尤其是在首个DLC发布之后，我的回答是肯定的。然而，首个《破碎空间》DLC 并没有达到玩家心目中理想的更新效果，至少目前看来是这样。

The story takes players to the striking Va'ruun'kai, the hidden homeworld of the huge and mysterious House Va'ruun, the cult-like faction that only reared its head in the base game and, for the most part, was the stuff of legends. In traditional sci-fi horror fashion, it all kicks off with a visit to a derelict space station. Instead of Xenomorphs, however, the player faces a reality-bending catastrophe that's messed with the fabric of space-time and created aggressive 'ghosts' out of the poor souls affected by it.

玩家将被带入瓦鲁恩凯这个令人着迷的地方，它是瓦鲁恩家族隐秘的居所，这个类似邪教的家族在游戏中仅以传说形式出现。按照经典的科幻恐怖情节，故事从探索一个废弃的空间站开始。但玩家遭遇的并非外星异形，而是一场扭曲现实的灾难，这场灾难打乱了时空，还在受影响者中催生了攻击性的“幽灵”。

This cataclysmic event took place on Va'ruun'kai, where we soon learn House Va'ruun is actually nicer than we'd been told... at least after moving on from the 'old' Serpent's Crusade. The religious zealots roaming the stars are rejected by the current leaders, so all is good as long as you don't offend them or bring more strangers to Va'ruun'kai. As for you, your arrival is seen as an auspicious sign from the Great Serpent, so you effectively become the 'main character' of yet another storyline.

这场灾难性的事件在瓦鲁恩凯发生，我们很快发现瓦鲁恩家族的真相远比外界所知的要复杂……尤其是在经历了“老”蛇的十字军东征之后。那些在星际间游荡的宗教狂热者已被当前的领导层所排斥，因此，只要你不触犯他们或将更多外来者引入瓦鲁恩凯，就能相安无事。至于你，你的出现被大蛇视为吉祥之兆，因此你实际上成为了另一条故事线中的关键人物。

Let's get Shattered Space's biggest problem out of the way first: It's too expensive for what it offers. Priced at $30 (perhaps less if you grabbed Starfield's Premium Edition last year), it largely feels like a faction questline that couldn't be finished in time for launch. It's not substantially longer than the sets of missions from the UC Vanguard, the Freestar Rangers, or Ryujin Industries. Va'ruun'kai is a new world with its own culture, 'city' (more of a town), and hand-crafted locations, yet neither fighting its cosmic horrors nor exploring the cataclysm-affected locales feels very different from what's in the base game. Weapons and equipment sets aren't as distinct as in other DLC packs from Bethesda either.

让我们直面《破碎空间》最突出的问题：其高昂的价格。尽管定价为30美元，对于去年购买《星域》豪华版的玩家来说可能更低，但这个DLC很大程度上给人一种未完成的感觉，仿佛是一个未能在发布前完善的派系任务线。它在内容长度上并不比加州大学先锋队、自由星游骑兵队或龙津工业队的任务更丰富。瓦鲁恩凯虽然是一个新的世界，拥有独特的文化、类似城镇的“城市”和手工打造的场景，但无论是对抗宇宙恐怖的战斗还是探索大灾变影响的区域，体验上与基础游戏相比并没有太大差异。此外，武器和装备也没有达到贝塞斯达其他DLC那样的特色和创新。

On the other hand, it packs one of the better-written questlines in the game, and the Va'ruun lore and mythology are genuinely fascinating, especially after learning they're not this naturally hostile group of people. In fact, they're dealing with as much political squabbling and infighting as the rest of the Settled Systems. Most of the six-to-eight-hour campaign (if you beeline the missions, that is) is actually spent convincing House Va'ruun's houses (yes, their society isn't a monolith) to collaborate and fix what's been broken. Of course, that involves looking after their pressing matters first, and it's a solid opportunity to learn more about Va'ruun'kai that Bethesda's writers made good use of.

然而，DLC中包含了游戏中一些最精彩的任务线，瓦鲁恩的传说和神话极具吸引力，尤其是当玩家发现他们并非天生的敌人后。实际上，他们所面临的政治纷争和内部冲突与其他已探索的星系一样复杂。在这场大约六到八小时的冒险中（如果玩家直接进行主线任务），大部分时间都用于说服瓦鲁恩家族的各个分支（是的，他们的社会并非铁板一块）合作，修复被破坏的事物。当然，这还包括解决他们的紧迫问题，这为玩家提供了深入了解瓦鲁恩凯的机会，贝塞斯达的编剧在这方面做得相当出色。

Combat encounters, while essentially identical to anything in the base game, feel quite intense very often, with the devs recommending that your character has at least reached level 35 or so. I can confirm things get hectic, especially during the final quest, and, without getting into spoilers, I highly suggest stocking up on meds and good armor.

战斗遭遇虽然与基础游戏中的战斗模式相似，但往往更为激烈，开发者建议玩家的角色等级至少达到35级。我可以证实，战斗确实会变得相当混乱，特别是在最终任务中。为了避免剧透，我强烈建议玩家准备充足的药品和优质的护甲。

Perhaps the biggest disappointment that isn't related to the 'bang for the buck' is that the reality-bending situation affecting Va'ruun'kai is never properly explored beyond how and why it happened. Even if you go through every log you can find lying around, plenty of lingering questions aren't answered by the end. More egregiously, there aren't any new mechanics to speak of in this expansion. Beyond getting slightly teleported around after colliding with space tears and glowing goo, there's nothing in Shattered Space that affects how Starfield plays nor permanent upgrades that substantially alter the main character.

最令人失望的一点，可能与“性价比”无关，是玩家在瓦鲁恩凯所经历的扭曲现实问题除了其发生的原因和方式外，并未得到充分探索。即使你查阅了所有能找到的日志，许多谜团依然没有得到解答。更令人惊讶的是，这个DLC并没有带来任何新的游戏机制。除了与太空之泪和发光粘液相撞后可能会发生轻微的传送之外，《破碎空间》并没有为《星域》的游戏玩法带来任何新元素，也没有提供任何能够显著改变主角的永久性升级。

While Starfield did 'well enough' and is slowly but steadily building up a modding community (much like every other BGS game), its redemption/improvement arc was demanding an absolute smash hit of an expansion. Instead, Shattered Space feels like more of the same, just of a different flavor and stuffed inside an expensive package. If you've played Starfield for hundreds of hours already, feel free to make the grav drive jump to Va'ruun'kai. Otherwise, get your space exploration fix elsewhere.

虽然《星域》的表现还算“不错”，并且正在逐步建立起一个修改社区，就像贝塞斯达游戏工作室的其他游戏一样，但它需要一个真正令人震撼的扩展包来实现救赎和改进。然而，《破碎空间》给人的感觉更像是换汤不换药，被包装在一个高价的外壳中。如果你已经在《星域》中投入了数百小时，那么不妨让你的引力驱动器带你前往瓦鲁恩凯。否则，你可能需要在其他地方寻找你的太空探索冒险。

Starfield: Shattered Space is currently available on Xbox Series X/S and PC. The base game can be played via Game Pass, but the DLC is sold separately.

《星域：破碎空间》现已登陆Xbox Series X/S和PC平台。虽然基础游戏可以通过Game Pass服务体验，但DLC需要另外购买。