No Man's Sky is no longer the mess it was at launch. I honestly believe that in it's current iteration, this game fulfills all of it's promises. It is features a truly infinite multi verse and yet a single planet is so vast and so full of things to do that you could choose to never leave it. It runs great on my hardware without any issues and in my 20hr of play time i have not encountered a single bug. Give this game a chance because it deserves it. It delivers an experience that no other game on the market does at the moment. Each time something in this universe generated (like a planet, a species, a space ship etc.) you have the option to upload it to a central database and it becomes a permanent fixture of this ever expanding world. It's like a hundred thousand computers are simlutaneous creating this digital universe that is only getting richer by amazing, totally free updates that Hello Games are releasing on at a very face pace. I love this game, and I wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone. This is my game of the year 2018.
So I really like this game despite its terrible flaws. First off, this is a legit Fear Effect game. It manages to capture the essence of that series quite well, which has me excited for the upcoming Fear Effect Reinvented. The biggest issue with the game is that the devs haven't managed to make up their minds whether they want to make a twin stick shooter style game or an X-Com style tactical strategy game. This blending of genres simply doesn't work. The AI, rushing your mindlessly would have worked well in a shooter type game but not in a slower paced, tactical scenario. As it stands the combat gameplay is simply terrible. Additionally the voice acting, while not THAT bad, feels a little stunted with characters not always portraying the correct emotion and tone. Nevertheless, those are the only flaws with the game. Everything else, including presentation (graphics, music, sound, story) is great IMO. You have to understand that this game had a very limited budget (funded by kickstarter), and the fans demanding Sushee to port the game onto consoles has definitely impacted the quality of the final game. Hopefully, Fear Effect Reinvented comes out nice. I mean, the original game was fantastic. All they need to do is to upgrade the graphics and revamp the tank controls. Here's hoping the don't F it up unnecessarily. Fingers crossed.
Presentation: 10/10 - Phenomenal, painstakingly handcrafted world. A great and fresh cyberpunk world. Sound design: 10/10 - Simply astounding. Incredibly fear inducing. I never experienced such a range of fear. Music: 2/10 - Is there any? Story: 8/10 - Main character performs really well. Others are OK. The heart of the plot is very cliche but the Cyberpunk overlay makes it very interesting. Gameplay: 5/10 - Walk around, read, follow some blood trails. A walkathon. Average: 7/10 - Well worth playing
Pros: - Great controls - Great metroidvania aspects - Great atmosphere/art/music - Levels crafted with a lot of care - Interesting cast of characters - Varied gameplay/areas Cons: - Backtracking - Can be too difficult Also I did not encounter any techical/frame rate issues in 15+ hrs of gameplay so far.
A Key for online access? No. This must be stopped right here and not allowed to manifest itself into more sophisticated and threatening forms of DRM. GOG is our go-to for DRM-FREE gaming and we would like it to remain so. As much as it is understandable for the good people at GOG wanting to expand their business and increase profits, this goes against the very nature of this service. I don't want to bash the game, for it is an excellent work of the industry, however, I think you should not purchase it on this platform.