this post was submitted on 27 May 2026
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the only interaction i had with NMS was watching dan olson's (folding ideas) almost contrarian review of NMS launch version. no link because no youtube. i liked his take on it but my guess is that the gentle restlessness of the game is now gone because of the content added over the years
It's still there, strangely enough. Most of the stuff they added over the years have been more things the player can own (base building, capital ships, settlements, bigger ships, etc.) so after you get over the initial hurdle of survival and do the main story you can get stuck in a kinda tedious "Jeff Bezos Simulator" loop of accruing more stuff just for the sake of it.
But there aren't that many hostile npcs that'll outright jump you (as the player, you basically have to initiate combat most of the time, and running away is always viable), so deciding to drop everything and beeline to the galactic core to see the sights is always an option.
Funnily enough, the exact problem you're describing is what I would say happened to Sea of Thieves, where at launch it could be played as a chill out nautical simulator, but now you can't move 5 feet without getting jumped by wildlife and npc ships.
One of the biggest improvements in my opinion has just been to the planet and creature generation. A lot less jank than there was before and they have added a ton of atmospheric effects, environment detail and variety, biome variety etc. so yeah there has been a lot of stuff added to satiate the need to grind for ever more bits and bobs the exploration is also exponentially more interesting too. Overall I think it's rather impressive what the game has become.
True, although personally I still think that there are way too few creature/body types so the creatures get kinda samey after a while. That and the ecology of planets making no damn sense, but that is just a personal pet peeve of mine caused by the technical limitations of the game more than anything.
The changes to planet generation were really cool though. Walking over a hill and discovering a giant mountain range/ocean/forest/ruins from an ancient civilization/random npc outpost, seeing something that probably no one else playing the game has seen before... that's a very unique thing this game does that you can't really find anywhere else.
Whaaaaat? You mean you don't miss when you could be looking at an empty patch of land, turn around, then turn back and suddenly there's this tight huddle of a variety of creatures?
I also liked launch NMS. I would say that the addition of NPCs who speak your language was a huge shift in the tone of the game, and that happened pretty early in the update timeline. It's still good, but it doesn't feel the same.
I only played it for a bit right after launch on PC. It was clearly sort of a grind-loop if you wanted to maximize your suit/ship cargo space, but that seemed like a odd way to approach a game that was touted for its procedural galaxy of planets and lifeforms. I quickly just decided to keep exploring instead of trying to grind credits and such. It was quite meditative and unique when taking that approach. I think I stopped after doing an unrelated OS reinstall. Might have to give it another go eventually to see what it's like after all the extras were added in.
Its not a very deep game but its wide as fuck. I have close to 90hs in it and that was about 4 years after release at which point the devs already added a whole bunch of things and new systems. I remember probably spending alone 20hs hunting for the ship of my dreams. I do plan to return for a another big session in the future but the game is truly aging like fine wine, hell they even improved the whole gfx system at one point and added coop multiplayer.
I've been wanting to get back into it if anyone wants to play mp
I have fucked around in multi for a little bit. You gotta have a goal in mind since its very sandboxy. Like building a large base togther on a rare planet type you both like or going on an expedition.
Well I happen to very much like the base building and have most of it unlocked up to a couple years ago.
oh god i'm gonna reinstaaaaaaaal
Dont tempt me with a good time :^)
Looks like Mindfury also may be interested. DM me if ya wanna figure a time to play. I am between jobs rn so ain't got shit else to do aside from go spam resumes all over town and I pretty much canvassed everywhere I can walk to.
I thought that was hbomberguy?
wrong bearded bald man. i don't think none of them were even bald at the time.
Dan Olson did a NMS video? I could have sworn I had seen every video he's ever put out and I don't remember that one
he has put out A LOT of videos over the decade and some change he's been doing this. his earlier videos are short and numerous and he posted them in different places it's extremely hard to have watched all of them. he was working for channel awesome at some point. folding ideas the show itself has a lot of episodes.