I have only been able to put a few days worth of playtime into Starfield’s new free update (“Free Lanes”) and paid story DLC (“Terran Armada”), but here are my initial thoughts regarding the content. But first, let’s take a step back, and look at some content that dropped on March 17th, which was for the Tracker’s Alliance paid content mod, expanding it from one mission to five. I haven’t spoken about it yet, so I suppose I should do so now.
It’s good. More bounty missions is exactly what the Tracker’s Alliance needed, even if it is tied to the already-released paid mod. That just shows that Bethesda isn’t using the TA faction as a way to squeeze players for paid missions constantly, by taking a short, paid mods and expanding it significantly.
If you’re into playing as a bounty hunter, this is a worthwhile purchase, if you haven’t already bought it.
Now, as for the new content that dropped last week: The free content drop, “Free Lanes”, is a significant upgrade to the game, but… It almost seems like it was something Bethesda dropped because it was necessary to support the paid story DLC, “Terran Armada”. Yes, they could have included all of it into one big paid DLC, and charged significantly more for that in the process, but the upgrades included in “Free Lanes” are so intrinsic to the general gameplay of “Starfield” that they really needed to be a free content update.
Whether or not “Free Lanes” is just the off-ramp to get “Terran Armada” rolling doesn’t matter. It is a really cool overhaul to the game, and I for one am all about it!
Speaking of “Terran Armada”, what is there to say about the DLC? It takes the staid, calm, and generally predictable Settled Systems of “Starfield”, and adds a level of excitement and energy that we haven’t really seen since the paid mega-mod “Watchtower” was released last year. Also, it would seem that Bethesda have learned their lesson from “Shattered Space”, charging a much more reasonable price of $9.99, or it is included free if you own the Premium Edition. “Shattered Space” launched for $40, if I remember correctly, and while I enjoyed the DLC, it was mostly considered to be overpriced and low on content.
I truly doubt anyone can say the same of “Terran Armada”, and be taken seriously.
Now then, I do have one bone to pick with this new content, and it is simply this: While we’re talking about a massive free content update, and a story DLC, how can the overall changes to the game not be seen as anything other than a “Starfield 2.0” overhaul of the game? Todd Howard made sure to temper people’s expectations when discussing “Free Lanes” and “Terran Armada”, saying it most certainly was not anything like the 2.0 overhaul the “Cyberpunk 2077” received a few years ago, that took that game from a failure to a massive hit.
… and yet, here we are with a massive overhaul to “Starfield” that fixes many of the issues some people had with the game, and added in a lot more content for pretty much every play style. Exploration, ship building, outposts, crafting, and questing have all gotten new content, and that’s just amazing! I’m sure there will still be problems found with the game post-FL/TA, but there are always going to be Haters in the comments and Reddit.
They’re like cockroaches. Actually, more to the point, they are heatleeches. Useless, annoying, and they suck the life out of your ship, if you don’t squash them at the earliest opportunity. Also, don’t let them anywhere near Londinium. Just saying.
Anyway, 9/10, a must-play for “Starfield” fans. People who didn’t like the game because they wanted it to be more like [Insert Other Game Here] can fuck off.
