New Starfield Deep-Dive Reveals How Shattered Space DLC Will Finally Fix The Game's Biggest Combat Flaw

's DLC might fix the biggest issue with the base game's combat. Due for release on September 30, 2024, will be the first DLC for. It's expected to address many of the game's biggest flaws, including the lack of handcrafted environments and the unsolved mysteries of House Va'ruun. However, these could all be minor tweaks in comparison to 's biggest combat change.

According to Bethesda Softworks' recently released Deep Dive, melee combat could be getting a total revamp in the upcoming DLC. The Deep Dive consists of a ten-minute YouTube video in which lead creative producer Tim Lamb and other devs narrate footage of the DLC, explaining some of the new creatures, game mechanics, and story elements to be introduced in . It's easily missed, but during a portion of the video focused on combat, the phrase, ""

This phrase is accompanied by footage of a character lunging forward with a sword in hand — but the video quickly cuts to a segment regarding 's horror elements before anyone can expound. Even so, the implication is clear: will seemingly have a greater focus on melee combat, but exactly what that looks like remains to be seen. Even so, it's an exciting development, as a full melee revamp is one of the things 's base game arguably needed most.

Despite the presence of some more-than-decent melee weapons in , the game's approach to close-quarters combat is in need of a serious shakeup. Melee is overly simplistic in. Bethesda RPGs have never been known for complicated systems of melee combat; even relatively melee-focused games like are limited to simple mechanics like multidirectional slashes and blocking. Melee combat works much the same in as it did back in, making it feel both basic and outdated. As the Deep Dive video admits, there's definitely more of a focus on gunplay in .

Moreover, melee combat is pretty unbalanced in the base game, making it much harder to create a viable build that relies entirely on close-quarters combat. It was only just recently that added