No Man's Sky

I've been playing this game since release, and over the roughly 2 years since then it has basically been remade from the ground up (writing this just after "Visions" release). The original release was obviously very divisive, and understandably so. It seemed like there were two versions of the game pitched pre-release; the "chill exploration game" and the giant ambitious multiplayer space sim, only one of which was really delivered on. I was disappointed by the release version in a number of ways (mostly performance related), but enjoyed it as the chill (albeit kind of janky) exploration game. It was good for what it was, but could/should have been great. Well, in my opinion at least, it now is. They've delivered on both promises at this point, much more than i had expected, and still more is evidently in the offing. It's now every bit the game i had in my head when watching the first reveal trailer, and then some. I think if you are into space games (and have a beefy modern system) this is an essential game. Which brings me to my one big caveat; the performance on this game is still a (weird) issue. Right now the game runs mostly fine on my system, but following the past 3 major updates the game has been borderline unplayable for at least a month afterwards before unspecified issues were (apparently) resolved. Thankfully Gog allows opting out of updates and rolling back to previous versions... Anyway, short version is don't let the questionable history of this game scare you off of what is now a fantastic experience.

After two large updates I can say that I am happy with what I spent on the game. I know a lot of people were unhappy and I was definitely disappointed with the game on release - but I had tons of fun playing it. Even if it was, lets be honest, an Early Access game. I am happy with Hello Games, as I truly believe it was more Sony's fault the game released unfinished, than it was theirs. They seem to still love their game, and push to make it better with hard work and dedication. Good on you for sticking to what you believe in, and pushing the envelope where others wouldn't. That being said, the game is still missing pieces that were showcased from before the game even launched. I just hope they continue to evolve and add to their game - because it has a lot of potential, just needs the right toys.

Remember when games were fun, and not filled with "pride and accomplishment"? No Man's Sky finally delivers that. When this came out, it was a repetitive shell of a game. So much potential, squandered on what boiled down to an inventory management minigame where the primary game mechanic was seeing how long you could go before throwing it away in frustration. It's clear now, however, that this was due to time constraints. Years and years later, this is now a spectacular game with pretty good performance and surprisingly few bugs, all considered. They should have held off on release a couple of years, as it turns out that Sean Murray is *not* a liar, just an optimist of epic proportions when it comes to when things will be ready to ship. He is what Peter Molyneux aspires to be: A dreamer that can actually deliver. No Man's Sky is fast approaching what we were promised for release, and has a bunch of bells and whistles added to that. Even multiplayer works really well, and that wasn't supposed to be the huge part of the game that it now is. Base building is fully on par with any of the survival-ish buildy-games out there, and the Build Camera just makes it fun. They've pretty much fixed all the things I screamed at my inventory for in the release version, and once I spent a little time getting organized it's all just very comfortable. For example, they increased the size of the storage containers from 5 slots to 20 slots, making them Actually Useful, and regular materials stack to 9999 now. I don't remember exactly, but I think they stacked to 250 at launch. This is a completely different game without the frustrating "What should I throw away?" minigame. So glad I went back and took another look. This is among my favorite games now.

When this game came out some 5 years ago, it was one of the most disappointing releases, ever. In 2021, it is just so different, and fully realises the promises that the developers made all those years ago. It really takes me back to playing the BBC electron game 'Elite' when I was a kid. This was the game I was hoping to play one day. Thanks Hello Games for fulfilling what you promised, and for all your hard work getting there. There's hope for CDPR's Cyberpunk 2077 yet :P

I took my time to play this game seriously twice in the last two years. First time I got bored after a few dozen hours, but I followed the main "story" till the end just to see if something else would happen. The second time I played with the harshest survival settings possible and had great fun struggling to survive in my first planet. But, after a while, it got boring again. The issue here is that the game loop is so darn repetitive. For instance, one of the most important things to do in the game is to increase your inventory size. And you can simply maximize it in the first system you are, and your only challenge and enemy will be your patience to repeat the same patters dozens of times. The developers added a lot of content over the years, but the procedural generation makes everything play almost exactly the same. After you saw the first planet, the first space station, the first settlement, the first derelict freighter, etc. you saw everything. The different kinds of planets are just visual skins, creatures and plants are simply irrelevant (I never looked at them any longer than the needed to scan)... Also, to make things even more "easy" and less offending to anyone, distance is complete irrelevant. From anywhere in the universe you can just go back to anywhere you already visited in one click. You will never feel like you are travelling deep into the space to discover hidden marvels to bring back home. Your are just going from one place to another completely similar to do the same stuff. Are you wondering what lies the different star colors that you need to unlock with upgrades will bring? Well, your guessed right: exaclty the same stuff, plus one mineral with a different color needed to go to the other kind of star. Don't deceive yourself, the game will never progress past those first times you do something. Am I being repetitive in my review? Well, it's just because this game is... so... darn... repetitive!