When I started NMS for the first time during the 2022 OUTLAWS update, the first thing that crossed my mind was: "Oh, this is if STELLARIS played out like BREATH OF THE WILD." Instead of handling all of the exploration, research, colonization, and combat in a RTS management system, you're instead tasked with doing it all on foot. Yourself. In any direction you want, with one particular goal keeping you on track if you ever want to give up the side stuff.
And as I planet hopped, explored areas other players had discovered or created, collected rare items to sell to buy stuff, and looted everything I could, it hit me:
This is ANIMAL CROSSING, with space combat.
Now, that's not an insult. In terms of a collection and exploration sim, it's quite addicting. I put close to 30 hours into this bad boy in under two weeks, and had to really wrestle with myself to stop playing. I click on all of this game's vibes. The soundscapes, the colors, the unique alien cultures you can meet and interact with, falling in love with one starship after another as I fill up my fleet with every vessel I can buy or recruit. It's a game I truly got lost in...except when it would bug out.
Two times I had to reload an autosave because my ship clipped through an NPC freighter and I couldn't warp out. Some combat encounters were also ended by a strange occurrence wherein it seemed like my combat reticle was stuck between first person and third person perspectives. I truly couldn't explain it, I just had to GTFO to keep from dying.
Those gripes aside, it was a real treat to get into a game that's seen such a unique launch history. I could probably keep playing it forever, but I really just need to put it down and move on in order to save my personal life. Still, if a future update prompts it, I would absolutely return to the stars the next chance I get.
And as I planet hopped, explored areas other players had discovered or created, collected rare items to sell to buy stuff, and looted everything I could, it hit me:
This is ANIMAL CROSSING, with space combat.
Now, that's not an insult. In terms of a collection and exploration sim, it's quite addicting. I put close to 30 hours into this bad boy in under two weeks, and had to really wrestle with myself to stop playing. I click on all of this game's vibes. The soundscapes, the colors, the unique alien cultures you can meet and interact with, falling in love with one starship after another as I fill up my fleet with every vessel I can buy or recruit. It's a game I truly got lost in...except when it would bug out.
Two times I had to reload an autosave because my ship clipped through an NPC freighter and I couldn't warp out. Some combat encounters were also ended by a strange occurrence wherein it seemed like my combat reticle was stuck between first person and third person perspectives. I truly couldn't explain it, I just had to GTFO to keep from dying.
Those gripes aside, it was a real treat to get into a game that's seen such a unique launch history. I could probably keep playing it forever, but I really just need to put it down and move on in order to save my personal life. Still, if a future update prompts it, I would absolutely return to the stars the next chance I get.