🏆 2025 BAFTA British Academy Games Awards - Evolving Game
🏆 2025 Video Game Awards - Best Ongoing Game
🏆 2023 Golden Joystick Awards - Still Playing Award
🏆 2022 BAFTA British Academy Games Awards - Evolving Game
🏆 2020 The Game Awards - Best Ongoing Game
🏆 2020 SXSW Gaming Awards - XR Game of the Year
🏆 2019 SXSW Gaming Awards - Most Evolved Game
🏆 2017 Game Developers Choice Awards - Innovation Award
🏆 2015 The Game Awards - Most Anticipated Game
🏆 2015 Game Critics Awards - Best Independent Game
🏆 2014 Game Critics Awards - Best Ongoing Game
🏆 2014 Game Critics Awards - Best Independent Game
🏆 2014 Game Critics Awards - Special Commendation for Innovation

rawWwRrr's raTiNg: 🟩 🟩 🟩 🟩 ⬛ = ❤️

❤️ Steam Awards - Labor of Love nomination/vote 2025
❤️ Steam Awards - Labor of Love nomination/vote 2024
❤️ Steam Awards - Labor of Love nomination 2023
❤️ Steam Awards - Labor of Love nomination/vote 2022
❤️ Steam Awards - Labor of Love nomination/vote 2021

Back when the game first launched, I was quite critical of the game's performance and content vs it's price.

Hello Games, whether due to a moral compass or as part of it's business strategy, has never let up on NMS. Once they tackled the bulk of the bugs from launch, they have added more and more to the game. Every few months there is a new content update, and never as DLC to buy or add. All the new content is released free already baked into the base game. They've been doing that for the last six years and there is no sign that they plan on stopping.

So when you look at the Store and see that the game is still regularly priced at $60, on sale at $30, after 6 years, now you know why. It hasn't been like an Origin or EA title with a few updates or tons of paid DLC.

If you want a space exploration game that can offer hours of enjoyment, NMS has a ton of it. Some of it the NMS community gets controversial about. And there is still an occasional glitch to the game.

This is one of the few games where I'd say it's worth it even at full price. Having said that, I'm far overdue in flipping this review from negative to positive. I've nominated this in to Steam's game awards for Labor Of Love for a couple of years now. It's about time that my review reflects that.

-- rawWwRrr

rawWwRrr's raTiNg: 🟩 🟩 🟩 🟩 🟩 = 💯

I'm not sure what I can say that hasn't been said already, but this has been, by far, the best game that I have played in a long time..

I was hooked into the story from the start. It had me enraged at the murder and destruction that the Mongols brought to Tsushima. I was brought to tears when that chaos took away a friend and ally. I was even consumed by loss when I watched one Mongol NPC murder a peasant woman right in front of me during a raid on a farm, becoming upset with myself that I wasn't fast enough to save her. I would find myself talking to them as if they were standing right in front of me instead of just displayed on my monitor. I can't say that I've ever involved myself with a video game's story quite like this one.

Every visual was stunning. From the wind causing grasses to ripple like waves in the water, to the shifting weather, to the moonlight illuminating the ground around me, it blended so well with the open world design. Darkened caves being lit just from the arrow's flame while knocked in the bow. The way footprints would be left behind in wet ground or through the snow. How fallen leaves would part as you past through them. The tall grass would shift oddly when you or an animal would maneuver through them.

Even the sound design was top notch. Imagine walking from one environment to the next, hearing different birds or frogs, or you walk through a bamboo grove and can hear them knocking against one another. You're traveling through the countryside looking for a special spot and the sounds of horses whinny in the distance alerting you of a Mongol patrol nearby. Lightning that causes thunder even takes a few seconds to reach you as it strikes in the distance. Simply amazing.

I grabbed it during the Black Friday sales. It was the only game that I bought because I was hoping it would be that one game that would grab my attention and keep it until I finished it. And it was exactly what I was looking for.

It took me exactly one month to reach the end credits between work and real life. I would try to put in a few hours each night and a few extras on the weekend. I didn't want to even look at another game lest it distract me from finishing this one. And I did what I always do with these kinds of games and took my time roaming the countryside to see what I could find along the way, the little secrets, the side quests, the random events, learning new techniques, grinding out the character to his max.

Now I can continue with NG+... but I've completed the story to high level of satisfaction. It's time to move on and find the next top tier game.

Thanks for reading.

-- rawWwRrr