No Man's Sky - Early Impressions/Reviews-in-progress Thread

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PantherLotus said:
you're not being sincere here -- the article in question goes to great lengths to show that every single concern from the disc-based game was addressed, which is massive. if you want to continue to debate the use of the word massive, go ahead. it's just dumb and a waste of time is all.
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I got killed yesterday for using the term "massive" to describe the patch simply because it is approx 800mb. The changes it makes are large.
 
Sylas said:
I do think complaints about the inventory are largely due to the fact that a lot of games ask you to collect everything these days. Or it's just become second-nature to have everything you possibly can rather than the Resident Evil-style system of carrying only what you need + some extras to sell. Preference certainly comes into play, of course, but it's hard to break out of certain patterns when every other game beats it into you.
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The old RE system is actually a good comparison.
 
Darth Smurf X said:
Here are my early impressions. Which, may or may not contain spoilers, because I have no idea what type of planet everyone will start on, but I can assume some things will be similar.

I thought for sure they'd start me in the shallow end, get my feet wet, teach me the basics before throwing me into the deep end. I thought my starter planet would be devoid of life, rich in resources, so that I could learn at a leisurely pace. Nope. I start out taking radiation damage and have no idea what I'm doing with only some VERY basic instructions. It felt almost identical to the very first time I fired up Minecraft—you know danger is coming and you have a limited amount of time to prep for it. And you are fumbling to figure things out. Fast. Once you get the hang of things though, the radiation warnings were easy to circumvent.

Exploring caves also gave me the Minecraft vibe. That feeling you could get lost and never find your way out... so I tend to play it safe and not venture too far in any given direction.

Then, I began fixing and upgrading things and life got easier. I found animals, non-threatening ones, and it was like a feeling I've never had in a game—knowing this animal will probably never be seen by another living human. And it moved and interacted with me and the other animals around it. I marveled at the tech behind this and could not believe this was random 'maths' at work.

Once I got my ship up and running, I went exploring the surface more, because there were things on my scanner that were too far to walk to, but a ship had no problem reaching them in seconds. Now I had a different sensation—Mass Effect 1. Except, prettier. With more variety. And things to do. I remembered tooling around in the Mako, trying to collect things, but this was the Mako on a completely different level. Someone didn't hand draw these mountains. There wasn't a set course that everyone in the world would follow, the same architect didn't design every base and everything was completely unknown. It was what I wanted the "extra credit" planets in Mass Effect to be. Driving the Mako around a barren wasteland had it's moments, but this was way better.

I actually like that you start off having to survive. It teaches you the game rapidly. And I know that once I upgrade a few things, the game will get easier. Then, of course, harder, I'm sure. Yeah. Your inventory is laughably small. But I know that can be upgraded later, so whining about it now is foolish. Unless you get paid to whine like the Polygon staff.

tl;dr - This game is amazing. It's the love child of Mass Effect and Minecraft and I can't wait to get home and play some more. It feels like someone transported me directly into the reveal trailer and handed me a controller. It's exactly what I've been waiting to play for years.
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Great impressions. Good to hear about the inventory.
 
Z3M0G said:
I'm calling it now... but when people start to reach the "center" of the same Galaxy we all start in, and start exploring planets around the "center", and still don't encounter the other thousands / millions of other players doing the same thing, and realizing that the planets are not graphically laid out the same for all players, people are gonna start asking questions.
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I get the feeling it's more like Dark Souls in that you can see what other players have discovered but you can't actually interact with the players. They haven't been very clear on it because if everyone is going to the center it would be inevitable that you would then meet up. Not the 1 in billions chance they have been stating.
 
flkraven said:
But then what's the purpose of exploring if not to collect things?
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You do collect things! Just not every single little thing. I don't carry a truckload of carbon on me because I know what it looks like and I can usually grab it if I need it (plus there's some fun tension when you realize your life support system is at 25% and you can't find any carbon because you weren't paying attention). I'll carry the stuff I think might be useful--or I'll remember where I found it/what it looks like when I do wind up needing it for upgrades.

Carrying random shit around doesn't really benefit you. It also asks you to think about what you want your loadout to look like.

Again, I totally get not liking it due to preference--but it really is the tried and true method of making you think about what you're picking up instead of just grabbing everything in sight. For instance, I don't carry any Iron on me until I need it. Then I find a rock and bust it open to get as much as a I need for what I need it for.
 
It's funny, the exact things that a lot of people seem to hate about the game and didn't expect are things that I predicted long ago. From the very first reveal trailer I gathered that resource collection was in the game and therefore would be an important part of why you are exploring. Fortunately, I happen to like collecting resources. Being a crap builder it's one of my favorite things in Minecraft; I always loved exploring caves to hunt down resources I needed.

To me, this focus on collecting resources and managing them thus makes the game sound even more appealing to me. Funny how opinions work. It sucks that people built the game up to be the second coming of Jesus and are finding that it's not what they expected, but I seriously have to wonder what people DID expect.
 
I'll be curious to see what people really think of this game in about a month from now after the hype has died down and everyone's had plenty of time with it.
 
I really like this game so far. The inventory management is really my only gripe, but I've been exploring like crazy and have found a few backpack / multi-tool upgrades to help add space.

All in all though, I find flying around the planets and in space to be a lot of fun.
 
Giantbomb talking about NMS on their live Bombcast for those premium members interested, static podcast for all will be up later.
 
ironcreed said:
It is actually a forest type planet that is teeming with life. And yes it procedurally generates once you enter. But it will now remain the same every time I go except for the changes I make from mining and such.

13925256_1149227291807703_4294900572991705363_n.jpg
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omfg cthulhu spawn planet

this is amazing
 
Sylas said:
I do think complaints about the inventory are largely due to the fact that a lot of games ask you to collect everything these days. Or it's just become second-nature to have everything you possibly can rather than the Resident Evil-style system of carrying only what you need + some extras to sell. Preference certainly comes into play, of course, but it's hard to break out of certain patterns when every other game beats it into you.
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Does anyone have a GIF of the Spaceballs camp fire scene?

"I said, take what you need, to survive.."
 
Hale-XF11 said:
I'll be curious to see what people really think of this game in about a month from now after the hype has died down and everyone's had plenty of time with it.
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I guarantee I'll still be firing it up to explore strange worlds and to have space battles and such. Then after they add building and owning our own space freighters, I will be playing even more. This game is only going to grow and the potential is scary.
 
Shrike Alvaron said:
It sucks that people built the game up to be the second coming of Jesus and are finding that it's not what they expected, but I seriously have to wonder what people DID expect.
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Game gets hate because of the hype cycle it built (whether or not it fanned it is another question).

The game got way too much hype and people built up unrealistic expectations for what the game contained. In general, Hello Games stayed silent on a lot of stuff and the fans ran wild with speculation based on little to no evidence. People came up with grandiose plans for what this game was.

Hello Games stuck by their vague marketing language and the hype bubble got way too large. The massive fans of this game have in general been awful (see Reddit) and yell at anyone who tried to reign in their expectations.

I'm actually excited to play it on Friday, but I'm going thinking it is exactly what I thought. A procedurally generated survival game which has some of the aspects that I missed in E:D.
 
gamechanger87 said:
Game gets hate because of the hype cycle it built (whether or not it fanned it is another question).

The game got way too much hype and people built up unrealistic expectations for what the game contained. In general, Hello Games stayed silent on a lot of stuff and the fans ran wild with speculation based on little to no evidence. People came up with grandiose plans for what this game was.

Hello Games stuck by their vague marketing language and the hype bubble got way too large. The massive fans of this game have in general been awful (see Reddit) and yell at anyone who tried to reign in their expectations.

I'm actually excited to play it on Friday, but I'm going thinking it is exactly what I thought. A procedurally generated survival game which has some of the aspects that I missed in E:D.
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Dude there has been so much NMS material to learn what the game is. Is consumers fault for getting the wrong impression.
 
flkraven said:
What are their thoughts? Can't watch live at work.
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Sounds like they're going to discuss for awhile, Adam Boyes is there as well, considering he just got out from under Sony I'm looking forward to hearing his thoughts.

With that said there's way too much to summarize, and they aren't really giving a definitive opinion, sounds like they're taking a cautious, wait and see approach. Lots of bits of gameplay info though.

Edit: Also Dave Lang and Chelsea from Iron Galaxy
 
prwxv3 said:
Dude there has been so much NMS material to learn what the game is. Is consumers fault for getting the wrong impression.
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Somewhat. It's also PR/the publisher's fault for not controlling the message of the game. If a large group of people build up an incorrect vision of what you are producing, you are doing something wrong in marketing.
 
Vince McMahon said:
It isn't. That's really the only thing standing in my way of really enjoying the game. It's frustrating.
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I'm having the same experience, first couple hours were like one of the brightest AND shortest honeymoon periods I've ever had with a game. Then the realization of the grind tedium with constant hud reminders of "go collect this to get that!" popping up regularly started to sour the experience. The homogeneity of the landscapes outside flora and fauna with a different atmosphere color filter applied, with the same landmark and base types on every planet does not make for a true exploration feel.

Was really hoping there would be less mmo lite crud and more emphasis on the actual exploration. All that planet space and exploration feels extra useless with the regular survival/inventory micromanagement shoved in your face at every turn. I hope they find a way to add more variety to the base loop, or offer an option to turn the survival grind reqs way the hell down. Right now it just isn't very fun for the exploration aspect past the initial first few hours.
 
Absolutely in love with the game.
Everything I've been wanting to play.

I'm actually trapped in a system right now. I can fly between the 3 planets and thier 3 moons, but I don't have an antimatter recipe so I can't make warp drives. None of the merchants sell them either.

It's exhilarating cause each pass through a base, outpost, or wandering galactic merchant I have that glimmer of hope I'll find it..

And that's something minecraft and alot other games never gave me.
 
After watching 3 hours of live gameplay... I have the feeling that reviewers are going to murder this game... :/ But i think i am going to give it a try on PC.
 
Sectorseven said:
Blaming the consumer is the weakest excuse one can make. It's not the customer's fault the game wasn't marketed properly.
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It is the customer's fault if they make expectations out of thin air while the game had a clear schedule from the get go, and Sean never bullshitted about it in the slightest.

It is ABC. Customers and/or some gamers turned it into A to Z. Don't start with the whole "the game wasn't marketed properly" while it has clearly always been mentioned as an explorer type game.

Gathering resources, upgrading gear, discovering planets and new species. There is nothing that is a lie in there. Now, what a lot of people did was adding their own sentences between those lines with wild expectations.

You are accusing Sony or HG for improper marketing while the game turned out to be exactly what has been marketed the past 2-3 years.
 
gamechanger87 said:
Adam Boyes just mentioned that Hello Games struggled to figure out how to market a game with an infinite universe without letting the hype train get crazy.
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Considering that it's essentially just a straightforward survival game in a massive universe, the anti-consumer rhetoric still doesn't hold up. They knew what they were doing when they were marketing this.
 
ironcreed said:
I guarantee I'll still be firing it up to explore strange worlds and to have space battles and such. Then after they add building and owning our own space freighters, I will be playing even more. This game is only going to grow and the potential is scary.
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Yeah, it has the potential to be Minecraft 2 in popularity.
 
prwxv3 said:
Dude there has been so much NMS material to learn what the game is. Is consumers fault for getting the wrong impression.
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And that attitude right there is why so much hate gets thrown at NMS in these threads. It's the constant attack from the defenders of the game and the over exaggeration about what was actually in the game. Any and all problems with the game are blamed on the audience.

While you didn't do it here, many defenders of NMS consistently tried to convince others that the game really did have a lot to do when the inevitable question of "Well what can you do in No Man's Sky?" came up. For a while there was some YouTube video that was shoved in anyone's face who dared to ask that question.

The problem was/is that while it is true that there are a lot of things to do in the game from FPS combat on the planet to dogfighting in space, none of it had any depth to it. As a result they weren't anything that was particularly fun to do. These activities provide only just enough content to provide bullet points on the box, but little more.

So that's how people got the wrong idea of what NMS is like, and why people such as myself have pushed back hard every time we saw such claims made.
 
letmetrythisname said:
Considering that it's essentially just a straightforward survival game in a massive universe, the anti-consumer rhetoric still doesn't hold up. They knew what they were doing when they were marketing this.
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Give me one piece of marketing that in any way shape or form lied about the game or is at least misleading.
 
Sectorseven said:
Blaming the consumer is the weakest excuse one can make. It's not the customer's fault the game wasn't marketed properly.
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Explore, fight, trade, survive. Gather resources, craft upgrades, scan aliens, explore planets. Many people knew exactly what the game was and what they were getting into

Considering the fun and stories people are sharing in the OT, I'm getting flashbacks to my dad watching me play Minecraft in a lot of the comments here

Or me watching gameplay of Euro Truck Sim. How the hell is that fun? You just drive around? And you have to park your truck and follow traffic laws? That looks and sound boring and dull af. Why would anyone play that?

And then I played it, and it clicked what made it a fun engaging game
 
prwxv3 said:
Give me one piece of marketing that in any way shape or form lied about the game or is at least misleading.
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Playing devil's advocate here, but is their vagueness misleading? Is the fact that people think the game is one thing and it turning out to be something different than what they crafted in their own minds, is the marketing partly responsible?
 
bananafactory said:
The game is what you want it to be.

If you go around killing all the animals and fighting sentinels and attacking ships then it absolutely is.
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But that wouldn't be very fun with such limited combat mechanics, it would be like doing nothing but fighting in minecraft. The game isn't what you want it to be if everything except "wander around and explore" is shallow and limited in its appeal.
 
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