No Man's Sky (Next)
So, prior to BfA's release, I picked up a half-priced No Man's Sky and decided to explore the "Next" update/version of the game.
I'm still a little bitter are the creator(s) for the state in which the game originally released versus what was promised, but it sounded like it might be worth trying at this point. Verdict? I suppose it is, but probably not at full price.
It's a fine space survival/exploration/building game in that it offers a fair amount to do. The procedural generation is the big feature and it's... okay? The exotic worlds don't make the best use of this system, but they sort of epitomize the game to me:
- You scan it from orbit and see a "forsaken" or "glass" world or some other descriptor that makes you curious.
- You fly down to the surface and see a landscape strewn with bunches of something, perhaps floating monoliths or chromatic bubbles as far as the eye can see.
- You land and start scanning these features to see that they contain fairly typical elements, and though they look alike, there may be a few different kinds.
- And then... well... you move on. As cool as it looks, it's just a vast world of the same stuff ("Everything's on a cob!! The whole planet's on a cob!! Go, go, go!!") with no variety, depth, or real clues as to why it looks this way.
So, you venture from one system to another, slowly building up resources and upgrading your suit/multitool/ship. You land on generated worlds and scan a dozen or so minerals/plants/animals that start to seem the same after a while. you collect some of it to sell/refine/build things with. You get a freighter which is largely more storage and a movable base. You hire frigates that you can send on missions. There are a few loose plots out there involving some uber-machine Atlas, other "travelers" like yourself, the Sentinels that guard planets, and three main sentient races. The story seems like it probably goes somewhere, but it's probably less compelling than the other advancement mechanisms.
It feels colorful enough, but the game feels like it has very little depth to it. And that after a couple years in and getting closer to what was originally advertised. It's playable, but a long way from any sort of "must have."
I'm still a little bitter are the creator(s) for the state in which the game originally released versus what was promised, but it sounded like it might be worth trying at this point. Verdict? I suppose it is, but probably not at full price.
It's a fine space survival/exploration/building game in that it offers a fair amount to do. The procedural generation is the big feature and it's... okay? The exotic worlds don't make the best use of this system, but they sort of epitomize the game to me:
- You scan it from orbit and see a "forsaken" or "glass" world or some other descriptor that makes you curious.
- You fly down to the surface and see a landscape strewn with bunches of something, perhaps floating monoliths or chromatic bubbles as far as the eye can see.
- You land and start scanning these features to see that they contain fairly typical elements, and though they look alike, there may be a few different kinds.
- And then... well... you move on. As cool as it looks, it's just a vast world of the same stuff ("Everything's on a cob!! The whole planet's on a cob!! Go, go, go!!") with no variety, depth, or real clues as to why it looks this way.
So, you venture from one system to another, slowly building up resources and upgrading your suit/multitool/ship. You land on generated worlds and scan a dozen or so minerals/plants/animals that start to seem the same after a while. you collect some of it to sell/refine/build things with. You get a freighter which is largely more storage and a movable base. You hire frigates that you can send on missions. There are a few loose plots out there involving some uber-machine Atlas, other "travelers" like yourself, the Sentinels that guard planets, and three main sentient races. The story seems like it probably goes somewhere, but it's probably less compelling than the other advancement mechanisms.
It feels colorful enough, but the game feels like it has very little depth to it. And that after a couple years in and getting closer to what was originally advertised. It's playable, but a long way from any sort of "must have."
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