It's pretty easy to get to the vehicles. And they do change the game quite a bit. The nomad can do some crazy jumps.

Perhaps the most interesting thing is the change to the structure of the game itself...Now when you go to abandoned shelter, etc, you get a single currency that then can be used to purchase blueprints on space stations. So they got rid of some of the randomness and made repetition feel somewhat rewarding.

They made ship and weapon classes to make the search for look be more than just searching for more slots. So it can even make sense to buy a fighter ship with less inventory slots for the damage bonuses...even more now that you can have multiple ships if you have a freighter.

That being said, I'd be super exited about this if I was not burned on the game already. I want them to break their own rules when it comes to how the planets are constructed. They still look like palette swaps to me.

I've only recently started playing so I'm not sure how it compares to the vanilla game but I'm enjoying dipping into it for an hour at a time. Yet to use any land vehicles or mess around with the base building but it's cool to just explore planets so far and zone out.

I've only tried the Permadeath mode, and I've probably tried it like 20 times... I've made it off the planet twice.

It is a fun way to both see lots of new planets, but also force yourself to soak in them and get to know them instead of just blasting off. Leads to a lot of those "create your own story" feels, getting lost in a cave, desperate for protection from the elements, unable to find plutonium to keep life support going...

But that makes the runs where you do well feel so much better.

You can check out some of my runs (no commentary) on my channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/madriiax