Cosmic Horror

"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..."