Starfield: Terran Armada & Free Lanes review

A mysterious new enemy has emerged from beyond the stars: the Terran Armada! Their goal is to take over the entirety of the Settled Systems from both the Freestar Collective and the United Colonies using a seemingly endless armada of robotic soldiers. Their technology is far more advanced than most civilizations;do the people of the Settled Systems even stand a chance?

Terran Armada is a very different DLC compared to Bethesda's usual fare. Fitting, considering Starfield is the same way. It's less story-focused than Shattered Space, Dawnguard, or Broken Steel, choosing instead to introduce more persistent activities throughout your time with the game, outside of the DLC specific tasks. Terran Armada isn't related to any companions or storylines from the base game, but that doesn't also mean it's contained within its own corner of the world. Beginning the DLC will cause the Armada to begin their assault on the Settled Systems, making incursions spawn randomly across the galaxy - combat zones in space. Encountering a Major Incursion will prevent Grav Jumps, requiring you to use the new Free Lanes, travel between planetary bodies within a system, find the Armada's contingent, and take them out.

Yes, this DLC takes what used to be the most neglected part of Starfield, actually using your space ship, and makes it far more engaging. And I say that as someone who already saw the magic of Starfield without these additions. Flying through the loneliness of space instead of fast traveling between planets just makes everything feel much more cohesive, even if you can't do so between systems. It also adds a ton to discover, both in space and on planets, with tons of new Points of Interest and other random encounters.

The best part? All of that is free as part of the aptly named Free Lanes update, which launched alongside Terran Armada. In many ways, Terran Armada feels like it exists to showcase the Free Lanes update. It's fairly short, requires you to enter Cruise Mode and explore the Free Lanes frequently, and is more focused on adding new stuff to the game as a whole than taking you through a great narrative or unique set-pieces.

That's not to say Terran Armada doesn't have those things. Well, not exactly, anyway. The story is... fine. It's nice to explore a bit more of the fallout from the Colony War we've heard so much about and I like two of the new characters, Delta and Roxane, but largely it's all an excuse to get back into the stars and see what's out there. You know, what was already the best part of Starfield, but even better now.

The DLC also formally introduces you to X-Tech (along with making it much easier to get through fighting the Terrans), a special material you can use to upgrade and enhance your gear. You can use it along with a hefty amount of credits to roll for Legendary Mods or increase the rarity of an item all the way to a new, upgrade-only tier: Exotic. Rolling will give you a random trait in that slot (you have four total slots), but after your fifth roll in a slot you can freely choose what you want. For example, I found a great new space suit while playing through the DLC, but it didn't have any Legendary Traits and I really enjoyed having Chameleon to turn invisible while crouched. So I took the suit to a crafting bench, rolled a few times, and eventually got my beloved Chameleon.

This is targeted towards the endgame, as even the questline comes with a recommended level of 50. The addition of X-Tech meant I wasn't relying on the great gear I had stumbled across in my adventures, I could find or purchase any weapon or piece of armor, then fine tune it to my liking. It's all very... freeing.

That's the key word here for both Free Lanes and Terran Armada: freedom. It all gives you more room to customize your experience and simply exist within the universe. While Terran Armada isn't anything groundbreaking, it's fun enough to justify a playthrough and get back into Starfield, especially if you weren't enamored with it back in 2023. Despite being so different, I have to say I enjoyed it a lot more than Shattered Space. It gets repetitive, requiring you to repel Incursions nine or so times, boarding very similar ships over and over before reaching the finale, but it's all just fun to play. It's only $10 compared to Shattered Space's $20, and while I hate assigning monetary value to art, I'd say it's worth the price.

I also took this time to finally go through the Unity, become a Starborn, and see what New Game Plus had in store along with playing through some premium creations like Watchtower. The character I've been playing these past three or so years valued her universe too much to give it up and explore the infinite, so I made a clone of her to keep my level and items, storing my stuff in the new Quantum Entanglement device. It's pretty neat, though I do wish questlines took more advantage of your character having prior knowledge of events; particularly these DLCs. Watchtower is also very similar to Terran Armada: pitting you against a mysterious enemy who will stalk you throughout the Settled Systems in an endgame level questline. The story here is much better here, but it's also a little too difficult and sometimes overcomplicated for it's own good. I enjoy it, but I probably should have used my free credits from the Premium Edition on the Trackers' Alliance mini-DLC.