It's fun for about the first 10 minutes. Then you see the matrix and realize what's going on: it's just a bunch of flashing neon lights and explosions masquerading as a video game. It's great at making ADHD-riddled teens sit still for hours at a time, but anyone looking for something akin to "depth" or "strategy" will be sorely disappointed. I was curious why the game had such a high rating, but it turns out an army of ADHD teens were told by a YouTuber that it was good, and their inability to think for themselves or be entertained by anything but strobe lights and neon has caused the review section to be flooded with fanboys vehemently defending their master's position. Just look at Captain Iraq's negative review...as of writing this, it has 112 out of 125 downvotes after less than 12 hours of being posted. Just sad.
A lot of the negative reviews are from 2016, and this game earned those reviews back then. However, as of 2020 there have been some seriously massive updates to the game that have fixed or at least smoothed out a lot of the problems. Hello Games took their customers' complaints seriously and, without implementing a monthly charge or any micro-transactions at all, took one of the biggest flops and turned it into one of the biggest successes with a seriously dedicated player base. It has been called "Minecraft for adults" and they're not wrong. With the new base building options you can spend hours perfecting your own private lair, mining operation, farm, etc. There are literally hundreds of billions of proceduraly-generated planets across 256 galaxies to explore. The new multiplayer elements make gaming with a friend easy, and the weekend community quests give everyone an excuse to meet up and play together (or against each other!). The optimization has been improved, there's a little more variability now, and the developers are still working hard to release new updates, bug fixes, and community events all without charging you an extra dime in the process. Now is a great time to check it out, but after your 200th straight hour playing the game, don't say I didn't warn you.
