Recent reviews by Captain Comrade

I'll just leave a quick review here. I heard this game was an absolute let-down when it first came out, and avoided buying it based on friends recommendations. Fast forward a few years, beyond and next came out, I bought it during the summer sale and it was probably the best purchase of the summer. Every single time I hop on this game I lose track of time. I'm sure there are certain ways to midmax and farm things (I've figured out a couple tricks and tips here) and while I would change certain ways some things function in game, this has been a surprisingly pleasant overall experience. You can play this game in many ways and have so many different goals you can do whenever you want. I've done part of some of the story-lines, haven't bothered going to the centre of the galaxy yet, and I know I am going to have hours and hours more of exploration and fun. This game sets an amazing tone and atmosphere for that solo-exploration style. I love the multiplayer hubs and what they did to introduce multiplayer to the game, and while I enjoy being solo, I started coming accross galaxies that others had discovered, and was getting a little giddy that I might come across someone else (because you actually can now).

Things I didn't like? A lot of them are minor. At the end of the day they do add up, but for some reason, with this game, I can look past a lot of it. And I think as this game continues to be updated (which it does get updated, with big updates) those things will change as well. For example, there are little things (like how the inventory functions) that affect the "economy and trading" part of the game. When you sell items in bulk vs if you sell them one at a time - if you sell them all when it is valued at "100%" of its value, you get the same selling price for all items - but if you sell things individually, the demand for the product goes down each time. Because of this, players have basically said if you're selling things, sell in bulk when possible. IT's gotten to the point where players can just bulk sell at star systems with thriving economies, buy it back for a lower price (all of it at the same time - the same rule applies in reverse) and then sell at another star system for profit. There are little balance issues, like this, that I think would change with further inventory adjustments and what not. My second example, off the top of my head, is the fact that land, water, and underground creatures can't "exist" simultaneously. If you leave water, you can't scan water creatures, and vice versa. Which is fine, but it limits the experience - animals are constantly spawning and despawning all the time, and it also prevents NMS from adding creatures that can do both (go into water from land, or the opposite, etc.).
This despawning made me a bit bittersweet about the game just the other day. In my 98 hours, I had never really explored the water. I finally found some cool new things underwater and some crazy enemies that can spawn there and chase after you (it was pretty freaky actually), but when I hopped out of the water, everything just despawned. All that being said, the game could also use a bit of balancing for certain aspects (and ship combat is probably the least entertaining thing in the game).

Long story short, if you thought of not purchasing it at launch, get it now. It's a drastically different game with a myriad of different things you can do at your own pace. And I'm fairly confident this game is in for some more changes and it seems like they've been getting it right so far. If there's any company that has vindicated themselves after scandal, it's probably these guys.

This is the kind of game that is an absolute joy to play with friends. It's fun to screw around by yourself, but you will get bored pretty quickly. But with friends, and now that the steam workshop was added? There's a ton of fun to be had here. 110% worth the money, even if you only put a few hours into it. There's not much else to be said, it's just a ridiculous amount of fun and laughs.

I would like to see more official levels, hopefully we'll see more like the Halloween addition in the future.

If I still had a controller I'd still be playing this game. It's a really great take on a platformer.