izigame.me

No Man's Sky is one of those games that have a vivid history. Hated by everyone after the release due to the lack of features promised to be in the game, it seemed the game turned out to be an important lesson on the dangers of entering the hype train. Hello Games, the developer, has not run the game into the ground however, but instead provided us players with a plethora of free content updates that broadened the scope of the game and in turn was slowly winning players hearts over once more.
The recent 4.0 "Waypoint" update was a waypoint indeed, showing us once more, that even the most dedicated community of fans can still collapse around the toxic, vocal minority residing inside, which in turn might corrupt valid criticism and concern of an unannounced change to a specific core element of the game and changes it into something more dire, as the recent review-bombing hints at.
The game had several changes to core elements over the years, one time even resetting the entire universe to implement a new procedural technology, reverting players discoveries and making familiar places strange and unknown once more. Changes like these have since then also been addressed by the lore of the game itself.
The game is set in a procedural universe within an artificial setting, teeming with life and many things to discover and do. You can aquire a fleet of ships, a capital ship, companions, multitools that double as weapons, multiple land- or seabound vehicles, build bases and more.
Here are my pros and cons:
Pros:
+ A large universe where a player can leave their mark forever. Being the first to claim a star system or even just a planet is a nice feeling. Due to the sheer size of the starting galaxy and the universe which countains hundrets of more galaxies, unclaimed systems and worlds won't run out that quickly.
+ The ability to collect more than one ships to build a fleet of your favorite ship types.
+ Additional collections like multiple multitools, multiple pet companions (some of which you can also ride) and multiple different kinds of exo-vehicles will add to the fun of exploration.
+ Owning a capital freighter type ship and a fleet of frigates will help you gain more ressources, currency and also offers a new place to build a base in, as well as more storage possibilities.
+ Owning a settlement that can be expanded and will generate ressources, once it's debts are paid.
+ Basebuilding. Although certain limitations do apply, the player can build and decorate bases, add storage systems and functionality and can upload their base to make it possible for other players to see (and interact with) their work.
+ Multiplayer. The game at this point has a multiplayer feature, which can be turned on or off to allow to play with your friends or with strangers or all on your own.
+ Lore. The game features quite a bit of a cosmic horror story, which shakes the existential boundaries of the games universe, the more the player learns about it. Sadly it is currently open ended and hovers like the sword of Damocles over players heads, making it sometimes hard to take lesser threats in the game's universe seriously.
+ Scenery pron (I had to type it this way): The game is beautiful. Many players screenshots here on Steam, on Twitter or on Reddit will attest this. Although the game's graphical style is not truely realistic and a bit more on the fairy tale side of things, the game world is still marvelous to look at and invites for many photo/screenshot safaris to happen.
+ VR. The game also features free VR support. I've heard from friends and other players in my gaming circles that it looks even better in VR, although I have no VR headset and can't confirm this, but I also have no reason to doubt this.
Cons:
- The game can feel a bit grindy in the beginning. Due to raising prices of some updates or inventory slot extensions of either the exosuit, the space ship or the technology slots of the multitool the feeling might persist long after some basic materialistic needs have been taken care of.
- The game has an interesting premise, but a bumpy execution. Vital parts of the universes lore are well hidden and can only be discovered after the main story has been completed and if the player pays close attention to locations they previously didn't have access to. Also the stories main characters are casually introduced without much chemistry going on between the player character and the NPCs in question.
- Exploration feels a bit lackluster. Due to the finite parts creatures, plants and planets use, at some point players won't run into anything new anymore. A large (almost unlimited) universe with a very limited variety might not invite for exploration for too long. Also a player will never be a pioneer. Being the last of their kind to awaken, most places have been already been settled on by NPCs. Everything discovered already has procedural generated names, even though they can be changed. But it feels like the NPCs have discovered everything and just allow the player to stomp through their backyards, pretending to "discover" new things that are already known to them. This "make believe" game of cataloging known assets gets old quickly.
- Base building has overall limits with a maximum number of base parts allowed per save file, which might severely hinder avid base builders who love to leave little outposts behind along their journey.
- The game offers much to do, but sometimes nothing much feels truely meaningful, partially due the arbitrary limits, partially due to the unresolved threat the main story implied to continue to exist. The saying "wide as an ocean, deep as a puddle" comes to mind.
- Combat. The game hasn't much exciting to offer in terms of combat. The only enemies are angry sentinels, space pirates or infrequent occurrences of aggressive predatory animals. The game offers PvP as well, but due to player griefing it's recommended to turn it off as soon as possible.