I forgot how much of a blast this game is. Good old fashioned FPS fun. Very atmospheric as well. My only complaint is that the version purchased is not optimized for modern systems the way some GoG releases are - I highly recommend going out and installing the latest 227 patch (at the time of this writing) and HD textures. The game will run better, the graphics will pop more, and you'll get widescreen support
This game is a classic for a reason. The atmosphere is by far the best in the series, even if it obviously lacks the scale and quality of life improvements in D2 The biggest issue I have here is with Blizzard - it blows my mind that the only way they were willing to service this game's online community was to... do nothing at all; just force people to play the legacy version of the game on legacy Blizzard servers. If they wanted to do anything consumer-friendly here, and maybe jazz their own product up for the 21st century, they would have worked with GoG to offer server support to the improved version. Of course, that would cost money - like all game development does. Seems like they were hoping for a quick buck. But on GoG's end, this is a great score. The GoG version is indeed improved, and to be honest I don't mind not playing with anyone online. This is more of a solo game for me than Diablo 2.
There is some real magic hidden in this game. Ever since I was playing X-Wing in MS-DOS I fantasized about the type of game that this is. If only I could I just take my X-Wing and run off to find myself a Dagobah or Hoth... A few patches in, it now runs well (not great). It also delivers considerable variety in the planets you can find. A lot of the things people claimed were missing at launch turned out to be things they simply hadn't discovered yet. I've seen dinosaurs, flying space eels, vast oceans, engaged in a huge space battle, found underwater temples, and taken countless pictures of gorgeous sci-fi sights. The game is, however, very flawed. Navigation between systems remains abysmal. Shooting is clunky (not really "bad"). The same can be said for space flight and combat. The crafting is simplistic. The animal behaviors are simplistic. The AI interactions are very shallow at best. All in all, a lot of the negatives you have heard of it ARE true. So why am I giving it 4 stars? Because DESPITE its flaws, it has delivered experiences I have always wanted; that I hoped this game would deliver; that I wasn't sure I would ever have; and NMS has provided just what I wanted out of the game - even if there IS room for it to improve. 30 hours in, and I am still having fun. I am almost certain that people complaining about barren worlds, soulless grinds, etc simply had bad luck in where they started and threw in the towl after being faced with a few dud planets in a row. Because there's some magical stuff out there, provided you are willing to leave a dud planet behind and keep exploring. This game is a completionist's nightmare, because you have to be willing to cut your losses with a lame planet, rather than getting crushed by the grind to 100% a planet that just doesn't interest you. The game is about discovery, so go discover. Keep moving and exploring. That is what the experience is about, and where it shines most brightly. NMS is sublimely relaxing.
I loved this game back in the day, and I love it now. It's strategy with a twist. The "RPG" undertone to it is very thin, but it's a perfectly satisfying premise for building dungeons full of dastardly minions. As a rather old game - it is what it is: the graphics won't blow you away, and of course one can imagine ways to improve upon the gameplay (larger maps to build in, perhaps a system to draw in minions of a certain type beyond expanding their room type). But the graphics are still relatively attractive, and create the appropriate atmosphere. I am running the game with only minor issues on my Windows 7 machine. Lenovo x60 tablet with windows 7 home premum (x86). Game "runs fine" except for a video flaw where half the screen is "shadowed out". Switching to "safe mode", however, solves this issue for me, and it runs beautifully from there. I suspect this video issue is a hardware/driver incompatibility problem, and not windows 7 per se. At any rate, it's up and running and more than enjoyable.
