No Man's Sky Worlds Update Part 1 on Switch

No Man Sky Worlds Part 1 is the latest free content update for No Man's Sky, bringing the game to version 5.0. These updates have shown no sign of slowing down, and Sean Murray and the team at Hellogames have constantly far exceeded expectations, supporting the game for over 8 years now. No Man's Sky Worlds Part 1 update has just dropped on Switch, promising another visual overhaul, and being the keen Traveler I am, I thought I would jump in and test it out. What's it Like? Let's take a look at the good, the bad... and the ugly.

[jeremyharrison]

Great review as always! Even with the compromises I'm quite amazed at this update, I have no idea how they made it look this great on Switch.

Keep up the great work!

[shnydtayne]

Maybe it looks worse when docked, because, to me, to be honest, this game in handheld mode is looking GORGEOUS. Yes, you can tell it's not running at native resolution, as there is a grainy quality to the graphics, but the graphics look amazing on the tiny screen and the vivid colorfulness of No Man's Sky is beautifully boosted by the OLED screen! ❤ Personally, NMS is in my top 5 best games for Switch!! I adore the developers! Those guys are the best!!

[Gambit]

I'm really hoping this game gets upgraded on Switch 2.

Having this game portable is why I still stick with the Switch version.

[Smooth_Shading]

Noice! Been looking forward to your coverage of this update! Keep up the great work, brother!

[kindpanda]

Those additions make the Switch version of today look in noticeable ways better than the PC release I first saw two years ago when I bought the game.

[TheBamaChad-WCHD]

I honestly thought the graphics on the Switch version were never going to be improved. I am very surprised and mote than happy they are so much better looking after this patch.

[nicked_fenyx]

I deeply appreciate this review. I have a few thousand hours in NMS across multiple platforms, around 900 of those on Switch, but I've been taking a break from it the past few months. My thoughts were divided upon first hearing about Worlds. The bigger part of my brain thought: This is it, then. This will be the death of the Switch version. There's no way all of that will run on Switch - at least not without constant crashes / gamebreaking bugs. The smaller part of my brain thought: But... what if they do pull it off? I mean, I never thought NMS would come to Switch to begin with, and the version we had even at launch was a miracle. What if HG pulls off yet another impossible thing?

I have to admit, I'm still divided. Unfortunately, I spent a lot of time watching people play this on PC during the Twitch drops. Going from looking at that footage to the new, post-update Switch footage is like marvelling at a gorgeous landscape painting and then turning to look at mud. Yet I keep seeing posts from other Switch players who rave about how good it looks now. I'm not usually one who cares about graphics, but man... I think seeing all that PC footage ruined me. I mean, look at the video where Sean Murray talks about this update's features, then look at the latest Switch footage... it almost doesn't seem like the same game. Oof.

That said, I've seen a lot of posts from people saying the Switch version seems to be running smoother / faster for them post-update, which if true, would be quite the impressive feat and exactly the opposite of what I expected to occur. Then again, these are the same people raving about how beautiful the game now looks, soooo yeah, lol. Either way, I've always looked at the Switch port of NMS as more about enjoying the mechanics of the game - the actual gameplay experience of exploring, looking for the perfect ship, etc - and not about the graphics. I think I just need to get back into that mindset so I can enjoy the game again.

Thanks for doing such an unbiased review. Glad to hear the game seems to run okay post-update, even if some of the expected downgrades are also present. Hopefully we'll get the extra couple of patches we're still missing soon, and can all enjoy the new expedition.

[Trinket_Master]

NMS switch is never going to look good but having it portable is really cool and the audio is good enough to immerse me really deeply while i play on the go.

That being said I think Hello Games is just biding their time till the Switch 2 drops and then we will see the real jump for this game on portable systems

[TheBamaChad-WCHD]

I just finished playing for the first time in a few months on Switch . The game looks much better overall. Mich of the pixelation is gone now. Its like they jacked up anti aliasing tenfold. They have finally fixed my biggest annoyance on Switch as well. The terrible pain that using the terrain manipulator is gone finally! Ive been playing the expedition so far. Seems like a great update so far.

[patrickhawthorneLS]

I no longer play on switch but i liked it on switch, it ran great and looked clean

I play on steam deck now and nms doesnt run great on it, sure i can turn gfx up and make it look better than switch but it doesnt run well and framerate can be all over the place, not constant

Surprised the switch port is able to have the new update and it looks like your getting a mixture of better more up to date water and clouds as well as a few new details here and there, switch version looks like it also got ground cover gfx update too and to top ot all off theres quite a bit of ingame content updated

Hellogames must really like the switch, so i said to all switch users, be happy and enjoy because there are worse ways to play nms !

[NicoStrat]

Hello, we still haven’t this update in France (maybe Europe). Could you please tell me how much size 5.0 takes on the memory card ?

[StiffAftermath]

The draw distance and foliage density is better!

[GETMEAROPE]

Hey bud nice video I game on the switch so nice to see what's in-store when I get off work

[KB-fcdk]

Cool there is the vid you mentioned, thx again 👍😁

[wvlfkvnt]

This update kinda changed the world i was established on. And im not happy about it. I practically had a ewok village with treehouse's i could use for cover, a lot of really cool trees. And now all that stuff has been removed and the textures dropped. Now im surrounded by foxgloves and better water I was happy without Worlds.

[jakiekuzuguk]

Just got this downloaded on my nintendo switch is awesome cool thanks to hello games woohoo 😎😎😎

[perihelion]

I'm interested in getting this, but just what the hell is the purpose of the game, is it a consistent game with no end like Elite or is there an end point?

[johnnypeps]

It's on sale right now, just picked it up

[Farat]

Game looks a tad bit worse in terms of resolution and overall because they probably cranked up the fsr but it does seem that the framerate is more stable and doesnt drop as much as before.

[leahcimwerdna]

It's nice on switch it's just a shame the switch can't really handle it properly