… And crashes a lot, and overheats the console. I knew the Switch was never gonna be the best place to get NMS, but I was very excited to finally own a copy, and I have no alternatives (no other consoles, not enough performance on my PC).

I was aware of the lack of multiplayer mode, and I accepted the idea to explore the game alone and never meet another player… But the deal breaker for me, the thing I discovered recently – and not many reviews care to mention, that’s why I didn’t know – is the lack of settlements. For me it’s a big deal, because I love science fiction and city building games, I was thrilled at the opportunity to manage a futuristic village on a planet of my choice… I also watched a lot of tutorials on how to glitch your base buildings into the settlements in preparation for when I’d find one.

But that will never happen, now I know. Now, I’m no game designer and as far my knowledge of programming goes, you could tell me “it’s magic” and I would believe it. But I see the Switch running stunning, fast paced and complex games with complex mechanics (from Bayonetta to Tears of the Kingdom and The Witcher 3) without ever crashing and very rarely glitching… why is there the need to cut a seemingly “easy” feature like settlements, of all things? I would expect more “taxing” features to be downgraded, such as the number of sentinels attacking all at once, the scenery spectacle during dogfights and the number of ships attacking you, etc., but those are all there – and that’s what usually crashes the game and/or overheats the console. I don’t get it. What else is missing from this version? Also, is there any chance we will get settlements on Switch? They said they wouldn’t give us capes, and eventually they did. Maybe there’s hope… Sorry for the long rant, I had to vent my frustration with the game, which I admittedly love nonetheless.

Take some time to tour your current batch of star system’s freighters. Fly around, dock with them, and check out their “bases” – there are some really unique ideas in play for the procedurally-generated layouts. I found one last night that totally inspired me. I was actually kind of shocked. Way at the back of one of these bases I found a solitary ladder. It went up several floors, and ended in a single room with doors on all four sides. Outside? A massive exterior area, with walkways that let you look down through the windows into the freighter’s main bridge. It was really amazing.

I’ve also found NipNip grow rooms, and complete kitchen areas, with multiple cooking stations you can, um, “raid” for rare cooking ingredients.

This has now become one of my favorite things to do, usually right before I leave a star system for good, for the most part. Some really cool stuff lurking in NMS now in the distant, hidden places we kind of take for granted (system freighters).