I was a launch-day owner of both NMS and Starfield. I had played hundreds of hours of NMS, over the first few years of its existence, then an abrupt restart or two, then abandoned it.

Fast forward to last Sept, and the launch of Starfield. There were 100 reasons for me to be excited, but for me it always comes down to encounters in deep space. I knew NMS had continued to update and add new content, but the grind seemed the same, and the lack of any real unique NPC encounters kept me away.

After severe disappointment with the actual deep space encounters in Starfield, I hopped back on the NMS craft, for one last shot.

Holy CRAP did they improve this game! It seems to me that there is always a new, fascinating event happening! New races, improved combat and Multi-tool upgrades.. I think the greatest thing is that there is CONSTANTLY some fascinating new item appearing in my inventory, that truly makes it fun to browse and install. And the custom settings make it so there’s still material hunting, but it doesn’t define the experience. I love that.

Last night, I JUST encountered the Space Anomaly, (1st time this playthrough) and some player ran up and gave me some tech worth 166 million units. What the F*u€£?!? I went from rags to riches in 5 seconds. Why do players do this? Thanks, regardless, to whomever made me wealthy. I can’t wait to see what awaits me under the waves.

Anyway, I think the best way to describe the distinction between the two games is that, if you like to be thrown into a fascinating story, Starfield is a great game. If you like to create your own story, NMS is the ticket.