DST on the Switch is such a weird experience. It has the longest loading times of any modern game I've played, it has to load for so much even when you're not playing online. When you open the game and try to press Offline, the Nintendo Switch Online pops up immediately which is quite annoying.
Playing multiplayer, which is kind of this game's main gimmick, isn't fun. You can't pause time when crafting, or looking at the map, when playing with someone else. But you can, when you're playing Don't Start Together alone. Ironic.
Pushing past these features, and deciding to play this alone instead of with my partner as I envisioned, DST has a lot of good qualities. It takes a lot of good parts of Minecraft with its crafting and breaking parts down as resources, the art style is so unique and beautiful, the music is lovely, the creatures are punishing and varied, the world and character selection make you feel like this world isn't going to be an easy one to get through, which I like.
However, when Winter rolls around, the game gets even more challenging on top of it being an already challenging game. Marble, a resource needed for the excellent Marble Suit, is a very finite resource which I disliked. The pets you can have tag along with you after inspecting and giving food to an Animal Den, are essentially useless which is a wasted opportunity (they should have at least some minor ability!). Hounds are so unbelievably hard to tackle and appear so often in the game, as well as Pengulls.
Overall, I had a nice time with DST, but its poor multiplayer functionality, ridiculous loading times, and other negative gameplay features make it a game I don't want to invest a lot of time into. And, with it being ported onto the Switch 2 years ago, and still having these issues, I don't see it getting better.
Playing multiplayer, which is kind of this game's main gimmick, isn't fun. You can't pause time when crafting, or looking at the map, when playing with someone else. But you can, when you're playing Don't Start Together alone. Ironic.
Pushing past these features, and deciding to play this alone instead of with my partner as I envisioned, DST has a lot of good qualities. It takes a lot of good parts of Minecraft with its crafting and breaking parts down as resources, the art style is so unique and beautiful, the music is lovely, the creatures are punishing and varied, the world and character selection make you feel like this world isn't going to be an easy one to get through, which I like.
However, when Winter rolls around, the game gets even more challenging on top of it being an already challenging game. Marble, a resource needed for the excellent Marble Suit, is a very finite resource which I disliked. The pets you can have tag along with you after inspecting and giving food to an Animal Den, are essentially useless which is a wasted opportunity (they should have at least some minor ability!). Hounds are so unbelievably hard to tackle and appear so often in the game, as well as Pengulls.
Overall, I had a nice time with DST, but its poor multiplayer functionality, ridiculous loading times, and other negative gameplay features make it a game I don't want to invest a lot of time into. And, with it being ported onto the Switch 2 years ago, and still having these issues, I don't see it getting better.