No Man's Sky

Purchased December 2017. Less than 5 minutes into the game you have to use your scanner after fixing it. Scanning anything crashes to the desktop, in full screen or borderless. Nothing to fix, fresh install. Fans like to make excuses for this game and that is unfortunate for newcomers that don't know real reviews from fan talk. This game is still broken, do not waste your money.

At its core, No Man's Sky is very simple - gather resources, fix ship, charge ship for flight, fly wherever you please, do whatever you please. Ultimately, it's about you - the player - and what you make of the game. It's about solitary exploration - venturing into the great unknown, seeing things that (very likely) have not been seen by any other player, documenting them, and naming them for any future visitors. It's about surviving the elements and gathering/crafting the resources needed to keep moving forward. It's about learning about the alien races, and forming your own understanding of the game's universe. It's not about missions, hand-holding, or any objectives beyond what you choose for yourself. It's not about multiplayer, faction wars, setting down roots on any given planet, or intense non-stop action. It's not about realism nor 'proper' astrophysics. I will also mention it is a very, very pretty game - if you like epic vistas, saturated colours, and views straight off the covers of vintage sci-fi novels. Mechanics-wise, the game has some setbacks: Inventory management can be a pain - a constant balancing act between using inventory slots for upgrades or left free to hold resources, though this also gives you freedom to build your character around your priorities. Flight controls are, to an extent, autopiloted - you will not be able fly low to the ground beyond a certain height. Menu controls use a "hold to select" function which feels a little counter-intuitive and takes some getting used to. Not all mechanics are explained at the beginning of the game. No Man's Sky isn't for everyone. And that's why it's difficult to find reviews that separate the objective (game mechanics) from the subjective (personal experience/tastes). I hope this review helps in understanding what this game is actually like. [I have given 5 stars to balance against the unjust 'reviews' about the game not loading, which the devs have resolved through a recent patch]

I would like to start by saying that I have been enjoying this game a lot, and as reviews so far seem to be heavy on the criticism, I thought I'd way in my opinion. People are always much more likely to post a review if they have something negative to say about a product, so you should bare in mind that most of the people who like the game are probably busy playing it. There are two main areas of criticism for this game from others that I want to address, PC performance and overhype, as well as my thoughts on playing the game. PC performance: Performance for me has been fine. Its not amazing, as I have a good system, and the game's requirements were quite low it should be able to run a lot better, but the game is still perfectly playable for me. Once I dropped vsync I stopped noticing any framerate issues. The game has crashed a couple of times for me, but not so much that its especially inconvenient. I can not argue however with the heaps of reviews that claim that they can't even run the game without crashing. This is a serious issue and I can't blame those people for being angry, but I can only speak from my experience. The game runs for me, and runs OK. I fully expect patches to get the game running more smoothly. Hype: This game was overhyped, but that's not Hello Games' fault. Gamers let their imaginations run away with them and expected a team of under 20 people to deliver a game that would never get boring and have infinite scope. I kept my expectations grounded in reality and got exactly what I was expecting, a very enjoyable game. My expectations were based directly on what the developers were saying about the game, so I don't understand why people are saying that they have been lied to. The game: No Man's Sky is not a perfect game by any means, and no game is. The inventory management is a little clunky, the ship controls are vague, and some parts are repetitive, but there is still much to like. I like the writing style when interacting with things, the visuals are beautifully realised, and the game does have surprises in store if you play it long enough. Optimism: The developers have said that they plan to expand the game in updates. For me I hope this means a level of development similar to minecraft, where the game has twice as much content in a couple of years. I'll be able to keep coming back to it, and find new things to do. Hopefully different game modes will be released, and more traditional multiplayer features along with modding capabilities so people can create different experiences. I do not think it ridiculous at all to expect these things.

Wow... What a gorgeous, if currently unplayable game! The same as others across the globe, I am having massive issues with Crash To Desktop, micro stutter, unpredictable fps & slow downs.. I can see there are many, many Youtube videos about it, but it's a truly horrible experience ruining an otherwise great game.. I am also experiencing massive slow downs after about an hour playing, as if the game engine goes in to a bizarre slow motion mode (like you are jumping in low gravity?) Performance Logs show CPU & GPU usage fall dramatically while in slow-mo mode, then I have to close & restart game. No other games I own show microstutter or slow downs at all (i.e. Doom in "Nightmare mode" gives me 130-150fps solid (depending on environment complexity !) so this is very frustrating to say the least... For reference, I'm running an 'i7 3770k overclocked to 4.56GHz, 32GB RAM, 1TB SSD & a GTX 970 FTW (Running @1565MHz) Windows 10. Latest Nvidia Drivers 372.54 (15th Aug 2016) no better than previous driver. Logs show my system at no point is getting over stretched, so horsepower is NOT the issue... Mix this with ALL online functions are not available if you don't use the GOG galaxy client (which is "effectively" DRM if you want FULL game functionality) and I am left feeling largely deflated. I asked GOG in a support call if this was going to be the case before release, and they didn't answer my question, they told me to ask Hello Games? which was no use, and they should know these things! I have a Oculus rift & HTC Vive (Thanks beautiful wife, you're awesome!) and I very rarely get motion sickness from either, however NMS microstutter IS giving me motion sickness, that's how bad it is!! So this better get patched and working or I am asking for a refund soon and will rebuy & retry this game after a year.. As this is definitely not "Working, Guaranteed" its currently, "MicroStutter & almost DRM free, Guaranteed" - My first & hopefully last GOG disappointment.

Well paying $60 for what turns out to be a pre-release alpha is annoying. It doesn’t even run well. My initial issues are as follows: 1) The game crashes to desktop every 15-35 minutes. No idea why, the window just closes. 2) The user interface is obtuse and cumbersome. For example when the game loads for the first time there is a white screen with a circle around the letter E, the circle is changing in intensity in a circular manner. Usually this means (in almost every other piece of software) that the system is doing something and you should wait. Somehow in this game you are supposed to know to press the letter E and hold it down until the intensity makes a complete circle, about one second. The user interface gets worse from here. 3) Often when I lift off from the planet with my spaceship I go directly to space, something I don’t want to do and have no idea how to stop it. 4) The HUD which displays temperature, health, etc. does not stay on if you are at full health. So if the weather changes or you are swimming you need to keep hitting the h key to see your air supply, temperature, etc. 5) In combat with your spaceship (which flies like Tubby the Tugboat) the view of your cockpit gets closer to the front screen, which means you can no longer see your control panel, so you don’t know your speed, etc. Outside of combat everything is visible. 6) It is impossible to point overhead, you can only point your weapon at an 80 degree angle or so. 7) The spaceship has an “auto land” feature. This means it will happily land you on the top of a tree, or cactus, or at the edge of a cliff and then pop you out of the ship (you have no choice) upon completion of the landing. If you don’t die from the fall sometimes you can get back via jet pack, sometimes not. 8) If this game is part crafting, there is little to no room to store the materials and do crafting, since the item crafted takes the same slots that the resources take. Moving everything around and dumping resources you will need later because there is no space is not fun, it is tedious. Something which seems to have escaped the designers of this game. On the positive side I do like bouncing around and visiting all the planets, it is just all the other factors detract greatly from the enjoyment of and the ability to play this game.