1.0 Launch Day for Switch 2 🙁 huge disappointment (refunded)
SUPER long post for those who feel like reading! :)
For context, I have a Switch 2, a PS5, and a Steam Deck - I dont have a PC so when i saw the announcement that Starsand Island was going to release a console port at the end of the summer with 1.0 I was pumped! I knew right away I was going to get it on Switch 2 so I could get the best of both with handheld and docked. All the trailers and gameplay i saw looked great so I set a reminder on my phone and excitedly waited for release day.
I knew the game was in Early Access for awhile so I expected it to be more polished and ready for console release. I also saw people had some performance issues during Early Access, but I figured as someone who has played quite a few Early Access games on Steam it's normal in the early stages for developers to see what works/ what doesn't and work on fixing the issues prior to full release with better optimization and more content. I had actually tried to play this on Steam Deck in early access but with the performance issues making it not playable, I returned it and figured I would just be patient and wait for the full release.
Fast forward to this morning: I woke up early, bought the game on the Nintendo Store, got it downloaded and ready to go and man.... I've never been this disappointed about a game EVER.
The game suffers heavily from pop ins, frame rate issues, heavy lag/delay, so. many. bugs. And the worst part of it was the game was consistently crashing, making it unplayable and overall a horrible experience. And this wasn't deep in the game either, this was in the first 5-10 minutes and just didn't improve no matter what i tried to do. The nonstop pop-ins almost made me feel like i was getting motion sickness. I did expect the longer load screens (probably about 1 minute long each time), but I couldn't even get to the options menu to try to see if there was a performance/quality mode adjuster because the "start" button just wouldn't register (found out there's a bug effecting the menu too).
After about the 5th time the game crashed in the first 30 minutes of trying to play the game, I gave up and went on a deep dive - found articles and went on youtube to watched some streamers doing play throughs and discovered pretty quickly this game was hardly playable on Switch. I thought "oh maybe i should get it on my PS5 instead". Others are saying it's better but still rough quality on even the PS5 Pro, Xbox too. The better quality of the list was PC, but that wasn't an option for me.
So what did i do? Well I knew it was a long shot because I know how strict they are about their policy on returns, but after explaining the issues with Nintendo Support chat and how the game is genuinely not playable due to the game constantly crashing, they were able to issue me a refund for the game. I will say they did try to tell me I should have went on Nintendo.com and looked up "info on compatible play modes, the ESRB rating, and game play descriptions and reviews on other sites before making purchases in the future" LMAO they can miss me with that but my response was simple -
"This game was fully released today, available on the Nintendo store for $40 as a verified Switch 2 release... that communicates to the customer the game they are paying for is optimized for the Switch 2. This game is not."
So.. my refund is being processed.
Overall (in my opinion) - There's no excuse for a full console release coming out of early access for the public to buy on every device available to beTHIS bad. This is not to say this is on Nintendo, i have no idea if it's free reign for developers to slap a Switch 2 label on games with no verification by the company in place that it actually works. But I've played the Cyberpunk port on Switch 2, Im confident that this console can handle Starsand Island so it isn't a performance issue for the console in my opinion. To me, this is on the developers for pushing a half baked game on all consoles without thorough playtesting to ensure the quality matches and justifies what we're paying for. Looking at some feedback from those who played Early Access on PC the content did not change much with "lack of content and feels incomplete" this is not a new feeling when it comes to games now a days. We're getting some $60-$70 games that are partially complete at full release so they can give us paid DLC on top if we want a full game.
I have never made a Reddit post or review like this before for a game in my life but this is just my personal experience (Please be kind:) . Some may have better (or worse) experience than me. I generally do a ton of research and wait to see others reviews before buying... but I guess I was just hopeful that if a developer does a full release for a console and advertises it to work... then it works.