Pretty much the title. Guess I will have to wait until next year to actually see this game go somewhere.

We got spaceships but no true variation, or even modding/crafting. Not even species/faction related ships.

We got freighters but they are a flying inventory box combined with an annoying-to-access timer management minigame.

We have factions and races, but there is zero interaction between the two.

We have crafting, but literally zero use for hightech components.

We got derelict freigthers, but once you see two you have pretty much seen them all.

We got expeditions, yet I completed the last one in a relaxed weekend session so that’s essentially nothing for now.

We got combat, but effectively 4 mobile enemy types and maybe the same number of hazardous fauna which is the same on every planet. Why even have shooting when there’s nothing to shoot at?

We got bases, but nothing to do in them aside from stacking biodomes and placing a large refiner. Settlements are even worse in that regard: you expand it so you… can expand it more? Purely cosmetic changes that aside from eating some resources change nothing in how I interact with the game.

And after 5 years there still is no worthwhile lategame activity. There is no hunting for ship parts/gear. There is nothing rewarding you for the grind for the species/factions. There are no possible mammoth projects one could try to tackle, like expanding your settlement to the point where you can (extreme example) have them start building your own custom freigther. There is not even rare “fashion” to chase down to flex on others in the anomaly with your surpreme sense of aesthetics (or shameless lack thereof, Warframe’s fashion game sure was one crazy mess sometimes).

Every part of this game is just another weird isolated extra-piece that barely fits with each other, and somewhere someone has tried to cram in random story beats with a crowbar or something. The potential is definetly there, this car could definetly go super-turbo-speed with a right do-over of the engine and the gears. But instead watch them install a bluetooth-capable cupholder. It’s so infuriating to see all this potential and HG doing effectively jack shit with it.

On the positive flip-side – I love this game already and I can see myself dumping at least 100-1000+ hours into it. On another positive note I will probably enjoy Starfield equally. On the negative side of the coin, I will probably be incredible frustrated at not having the best of both worlds.

Do you think interior ship design will happen with NMS? Or building your own ships? It feels kinda weird that you can’t chill inside your ships. A void Starfield will fill.

What I wanted some discussion, thoughts and opinions on, if you guys feel like sharing, is the following; Why do you think it’s so hard to make a game which has the best of both w/o too much compromise? A game like that would probably satiate everyone into an everlasting gaming frenzy.

Is that a technical challenge? Economical one? Development time? All of those or others?

I’m playing NMS like a relapsed crack addict who just found a mountain of cocaine atm. And I’m friggin loving the game. And I’ll probably love SF when it comes out. However it does leave this frustrating thought eating at me like… these two games seems to both lean towards everything I want in a game so closely but not perfectly.

Anyway, /endrant! Glad I discovered this game despite being late to the show. Finally a game to fill the massive void.