No Man's Sky

Born too late to explore the world. Born too soon to explore the universe. Born in the right time to do both in a video game.

Though multiplayer is not yet available, I'm feeling I got what I was expecting from this game, not in a rush to get multiplayer experience, but would be good to get it soon for the ones who want it. This last update came with whole new content, satisfying so far with this patch.

I bought this game mostly after watching the video - it promises good only space sim action in the vein of Freelancer or Elite but in a massive universe. The reality is that it is dull and repetitive. I've sunk about 12 hrs into it now and all I've done is mine minerals and unlock an alien language WORD FOR WORD so means I don't understand what any NPC is saying. There is virtually no tutorial to speak of, the interface is far too simplistic (clearly meant for a dumb-sole game), the flight model is the equivalent of a Fisher Price kiddy car compared to the Ferrari that is any decent space sim (it doesn't let you go below a certain altitude, you immediately come to a halt if you get near any terrain). But by FAR THE WORST SIN is that there is no bloody map! In an exploration game! On a planet you wander around aimlessly using a scanner which temporarily shows items of interest in a very short range (these icons fade in seconds, forcing you to continuously ping the scanner - WHY?!) and this only works on FOOT. in your ship, it only reveals undiscovered locations (leaving out useful info like resources so you're forced to randomly land and hope to find resources you need), Once you find somewhere interesting its impossible to find your way back as there's no map, you can't set any way points, you don't even have a bloody compass. There are no local landmarks as it all looks uniformly mountainous with crazy vegetation) and with no compass you have no idea which direction you're going. Solar systems are just random groupings of planets with a space station somewhere. Again no system map to navigate (like Mass Effect), you can only see what planets are around on your tiny radar or just looking out of the cockpit. Combat is tacked on rubbish. Overall a massively overhyped game thats like a pretty gift box. Nice to look at (if you like cartoony, Spore-like graphics with a colour palette like those tests for colour blindness) but totally empty.

I've had this game for years now, but the mac version only being given to those who bought on ste*m is a kick in the teeth, I paid the same price as they did back when the game was buggy as hell and I don't even get the same support and updates as them. Questions have been asked about this on multiple platforms by multiple people with no answer.

I guess I am one of the few that have had no issues playing this on my system. Granted it is a i7 quad, 8GB RAM and 960M GTX video card so not a slouch but it is not amazing by any means. There have been a few hitches with Frame rate here and there but nothing that took me out of the world or broke my concentration. I also have it running textures High but everything else Medium. Have not tried it with all high settings. Figured it was running fine I would let it be for now. I have started the story stuff but wanted to find all the animals on the planet I am on. Might be the only planet I bother with that so figured might as well get it done and out of the way. The game will get horribly repetitive. It is a great game for casually playing while watching some movies or something. I do not see the story getting very in depth. All in all I am content with the title but it had a huge hype train so I get the disappointment. TL;DR: Game is fun and casual, not in depth and has some opitimization issues (I did not experience many myself). pick it up on sale.