No Man's Sky - Nintendo Switch 2 Edition Review - Screenshot 1 of 6
Captured on Nintendo Switch 2 (Handheld/Undocked)

When was the first time you played No Man's Sky? For me, it was right back at its initial launch in 2016, a launch that, for reasons that have been recounted ad nauseam by now, left me fairly miffed overall. Here was a game that was very obviously a huge task for its small (and, as it turned out, phenomenally determined) dev team, a game that promised much — very excitedly — pre-launch, but ultimately failed to deliver in its earliest form.

Fast-forward through what's been quite the nine years since, and here we are with No Man's Sky - Nintendo Switch 2 Edition; a beefed-up, beautified, and breathtakingly bold space adventure that's got everything Hello Games promised in the first place - plus way, way more besides. It's also a free update for existing owners of the Switch version.

Yes, we may have gotten off to a rough start with this infinitely playable survival classic, and I think we can call it a classic by now, but boy-oh-boy has it grown into something phenomenal at this point. Pre-this review, my last outing with No Man's Sky was a few updates back, so it's been a little bit - and a whole lot extra has been added.

No Man's Sky - Nintendo Switch 2 Edition Review - Screenshot 2 of 6
Captured on Nintendo Switch 2 (Handheld/Undocked)

One of this Switch 2 port's most exciting aspects is that it arrives alongside the latest 'Beacon' update. This adds a bunch of settlement management aspects, a new Autophage enemy type, base infestations, building upgrades, new base structures, and more besides. Basically, it's given us the tools to get busy actually affecting, managing, and influencing settlements and their various alien inhabitants, right down to fending off attacks.

It's just another great big wrinkle in what's been a procession of notable new wrinkles over the years, with flying and tameable pet pals, vehicles, improved combat, space dogfights, freighters, corrupted planets...the big additions go on and on. And during all of this, of course, the underlying game, mechanically, visually, and in terms of accessibility (Hello Games goes big on accessibility here), has gone from strength to strength.

Is it perfect? No, it absolutely tries to do too much all at once, and as a result you don't get the very best of everything.

No Man's Sky - Nintendo Switch 2 Edition Review - Screenshot 3 of 6
Captured on Nintendo Switch 2 (Handheld/Undocked)

Combat, as an example, is fine — it does the job — but it's not a match for a proper action adventure, and those who spend their time in 'serious' space sims may find the systems of commerce, space pirating, and all that good stuff a bit too simplistic. Them's the breaks when you try to fit an entire universe inside a game, I guess.

What the game does nail though — and all of its systems, no matter if they're a little flaky, help in this regard — is the atmosphere and vibe of being in space, a great big infinite, colourful, wild and bizarre space, where you really can get lost, explore, and exist in your own little loops of interest forever.

From the first moments, where you'll be walked through its tutorials (God knows how many times I've done this now), to getting your ship, taking your first flight, finding your first space station...it grows around you until you're consumed, locked in for the long haul.

No Man's Sky - Nintendo Switch 2 Edition Review - Screenshot 4 of 6
Captured on Nintendo Switch 2 (Handheld/Undocked)

The strange narrative that pushes you forward, should you choose to follow it, is beguiling, otherworldly and odd enough that it keeps me hooked, even when I'm occasionally totally overwhelmed by new things. And being overwhelmed can be an issue in the earlier parts of the game, where you unlock a whole lot of tech and have a bunch of mechanics explained to you in fairly short order.

It's worth sticking with, though, because once you're au fait with scanning and collecting, refining, crafting and creating, the feeling of adventure here is pretty much unmatched. Certainly on consoles, at least, and even moreso on consoles that let you play portably.

I've been willing the performance and visuals to be a match for the content on Switch 2, then, because as much as I enjoy No Man's Sky on Switch 1, it is held back a little by a lack of image clarity and sluggishness in combat. This is an experience that deserves to be played without such barriers, and with this Switch 2 version, we're officially in business, as it's pretty much a match for its other console counterparts. Yep, it looks that good - and runs that smoothly - in both docked and handheld, with only the very smallest of stutters (loading into new areas seems to do it) and a handful of minor visual glitches and graphical downgrades here and there.

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Captured on Nintendo Switch 2 (Docked)

You should note that, at the moment, it seems some players are having issues using their cross-save files from other consoles due to the fact that this version number isn't a match just yet. Of course, this will be addressed with an update in due course, so it's an annoying but somewhat understandable issue given we're in the first days of this new console.

We also had some bother getting into multiplayer over the first few days with the game, as it turns out this was a bug of some sort, nobody was able to access online, but it's now been remedied, meaning that, for the first time, Switch gamers are getting all of the multiplayer goodness involved in the various modes on offer. The old Switch just couldn't deal with this aspect of the package, but it's all in this time around, and from what I've played over the past day or so, it works as it does on other versions.

As I mentioned a little earlier, there are a ton of accessibility options here, too - you could get lost in these accessibility menus. You've got motion controls, individual Joy-Con sensitivity settings, a choice of button layouts, HUD scalings, colour filters, and adjustments for tap/hold on actions, and a whole lot more besides. Heck, you can even unlock the frame rate.

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Captured on Nintendo Switch 2 (Handheld/Undocked)

Indeed, I'm almost certain this is my very first Switch 2 game where I've been blessed with the option of a quality or performance setting. The game is (reportedly, I'm no Digital Foundry) 1080p/40fps and 1440p/30fps at these settings, and that seems about right in my experience. On TV, it can look a little less slick than, for example, my Series X version — which is 100% reasonable — but it's avoiding the Switch 1 issue of having its graphical excisions and cutbacks exposed when on a large screen. It's easily nice enough-looking to be acceptable on a 47-inch TV. (The same, I'm afraid, cannot be said for myself.) With regards to DLSS, I'm not sure I've noticed it thus far. It all looks very sharp, though, so I guess that means any implementation there is going on here is doing a bang-up job.

This really is No Man's Sky without any constraints or excisions, cuts or concessions to tech that can't keep up. And it's a majestic thing, as you'll likely know full well by now. The Beacon update adds more depth for those who want it in the base-building and management aspects, but at this stage, it really is all gravy.

No Man's Sky has long since become a must-play for fans of space survival adventures, and Switch 2 just got itself a bona fide banger of a port. That's all you really need to know. Now, where have I put my hydrospanner?

Conclusion

No Man's Sky - Nintendo Switch 2 Edition brings this excellent, constantly evolving space survival adventure to your new Nintendo console in fine style. This is an almost-perfect match for other versions of the game, barring some very minor hiccups here and there.

Combat is still a bit naff, especially in space, and hardcore pirates might not get all they need from the systems in place here, but other than that, this is an almost perfect port of an almighty behemoth of a game. The sky, it seems, really has no limits.

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