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

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Not surprised more reviews are coming in saying the same things. As always fun is in the individual holding the controllers experience, but many minds can think alike around core points.

I cannot justify spending £40+ on a game that suffers from things I know I myself will find disappointing. When it is patched up more and price drops I'll join in.

I do hope HG plan to discuss why cuts were needed and/or what they play to do about it. Continually staying silent for too much longer will really sour my opinion of them. Some hubris and humility around this project is going to be needed given all the quotes they, more so Sean, were spouting prerelease.
 
SlickShoes said:
I have followed some of those games and this seems much much worse by comparison. Maybe it's just that they were ages ago and I've forgot.

I've still not got over how horrific the master chief collection was, especially that day 1 patch that was bigger than my whole internet.
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To me it reminds me of the Order so much, there were plenty of people who were adamant that the Order was exactly what they expected and they loved it. Some just fail to realize just because a game is very enjoyable to them when it's a mass market product there is going to be a certain level of commercial appeal needed for it not to receive certain blow-back. If this was marketed like a niche game - I'm sure the perception would have been different. Simply put the marketing and price is no doubt in effect much like the Order might have been much better received had it been a $20 episodic game.


I'm not saying that NMS should be $20 - but personally if they want me to spend $60, Hello need to be really upfront about what type of updates are coming up and present a roadmap of when they would be released. Exploring auto generated environments and playing a survival game has never been very appealing to me. For me a space sim needs to be something like Civ but on a galactic level - that's something I'd spend $60 on but realize not that many other people would probably do the same.
 
Dreams-Visions said:
lol! Yea probably just perception. Nothing releasing to take NMS from out under the microscope for awhile. Seems like it could really use some positive news. But yea we've definitely been here before.
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Yeah that's one of the risks of releasing at this time of year, whatever you put out has everyones focus good or bad. Double edged sword!
 
BassForever said:
Which is totally fine even the objectively worst thing ever will have people who enjoy it and the objectively best thing ever will have people who hate it. People on both sides can acknowledge the positives and negatives to have an actual discussion but people are far too quick to go to extremes which is disappointing.
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Haha yep, that'd be the day ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
 
bigol said:
Even then it's absolutely not normal. My Ps4 crashed once since i bought it, with Witcher 3. Once in one year.

Crashing every six hours is a serious issue.
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I've got had a single crash in the dozen hours or so I've played it (probably closer to 20 hours). A few buggy/glitchy things, but nothing game breaking in the slightest.

Knock on wood.
 
ReplacementPelican said:
Your post is confusing me. He said there's physics in the planet's rotations and there is. I've seen herds of different species of animals wandering around together. Moons are far closer. Atmospheres have differing colours. You do break the speed of light and you dont get rewarded for killing anything.

I'm really confused, your list of issues reads like you haven't played the game. Or have I missed something?
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Doesn't seem to me that the planets rotate. Also I have gotten resources the couple times I killed an animal.

One thing I wish the game had was more varied weather. It seems even lightning and thunder aren't in the game which kind of sucks.

I have only been to a dozen planets and I'm already seeing plants and animals that look the same.

One barren planet was cool though, although it still had some plants even though it said flora none.

Stars not actually being part of the Solar systems is a bummer also.

I do think updates can really make the game much better though.
 
ReplacementPelican said:
Your post is confusing me. He said there's physics in the planet's rotations and there is. I've seen herds of different species of animals wandering around together. Moons are far closer. Atmospheres have differing colours. You do break the speed of light and you dont get rewarded for killing anything.

I'm really confused, your list of issues reads like you haven't played the game. Or have I missed something?
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But planets don't rotate. If you think they do, please do the following: Find a planet surface from which you can see other, neighbouring planets. If your planet rotates, you should see those planets set below the horizon after a while.

Sun movement is still independent of that, planets don't orbit anything (so "Newtonian physics" is BS), there are maybe three or four animal behaviours and a survival game not having "gold coins" or giving you "rewards" for mining or killing must be a first.
 
bigol said:
Even then it's absolutely not normal. My Ps4 crashed once since i bought it, with Witcher 3. Once in one year.

Crashing every six hours is a serious issue.
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Yeah, game has some stability issues for sure and no idea how Sony allowed this version to pass cert. Devs needs to step on this and fix shit up.

RulkezX said:
People set themselves up for disappointment with this game.

Hello Games have to shoulder some of the blame for that , further up this very page someone posted some of the more exciting claims they made pre launch , but people had really let their imaginations run wild with what NSM was going to be.

Rational people had sat back and looked at the size of the team and what was shown pre release and realised the game is what it is , while a the internet at large convinced themselves the devs were hiding all the answers to life's great questions for them to play this week.
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I'm not saying devs don't have things answer to and explain in more detail instead of dodging question. I just don't understand some of posts in this thread that are basically "See, game sucks! I was right! NMS was a lie all along! I hope it gets rekt in reviews even more than it already has!" It's not discussing reviews anymore, it is some weird gloating about how some projecting failing is best thing since sliced bread.
 
Las7 said:
To me it reminds me of the Order so much, there were plenty of people who were adamant that the Order was exactly what they expected and they loved it. Some just fail to realize just because a game is very enjoyable to them when it's a mass market product there is going to be a certain level of commercial appeal needed for it not to receive certain blow-back. If this was marketed like a niche game - I'm sure the perception would have been different. Simply put the marketing and price is no doubt in effect much like the Order might have been much better received had it been a $20 episodic game.
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Yeah, I can see in the future that someone buys the game in 3 or 4 months for $30 or less and then looks at the reviews and maybe can't understand the "low" scores as much as someone caught in the hype machine at launch paying $60.

Few of my friends have played the order and paid like £15 for it and thought it was fantastic. I've still not bothered with it yet, waiting for PS+....
 
Im sure gamers are doing what gamers do....hating. that is why i wanted to stop in and say how much I love the game! Its everything I wanted and expected. Absolute blast of a time.
 
So, PC version should be out today? I have a long weekend coming, but now I doubt if I should spend it on this game. I was always very sceptical towards NMS, but it's still a bit disappointing.
 
Tovarisc said:
This thread is so weird. Some people seem to be legit happy / glad that NMS turned out to be very mediocre / bad and hoping it gets shredded even further in future reviews? I don't even...

Edit: There is something seriously wrong with Joe's system. Watched plenty of streams and in them seen game crash like once per 6 or so hours played. Joe? Every 10 minutes.
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bigol said:
Even then it's absolutely not normal. My Ps4 crashed once since i bought it, with Witcher 3. Once in one year.

Crashing every six hours is a serious issue.
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Has he mentioned ever doing a database rebuild or whatever it's called? The one which puts PS4 in original factory setting/wipes HDD.

Dangerous Golf (another game I enjoy playing despite its poor reviews :P) dev suggested I try that when I told them their game kept crashing for me.

NMS has crashed all of once for me. Thank god for the autosave on landing/exiting ship!
 
Angry Joe decided to take the odd route of grinding for money(resources to sell) on one planet for hours, which in turn affected his opinion of the game. Not sure if he knew exploring and scanning/naming things gets you money just as well and wouldn't have been as tedious.

If anyone's a fan of EasyAllies(Formerly Gametrailers staff), here's a stream of Ben playing the game(deciding not to stream from the very start), giving impressions from a neutral standpoint and providing general advice to others on the game:

https://www.twitch.tv/easyallies/v/83066279
 
Tovarisc said:
This thread is so weird. Some people seem to be legit happy / glad that NMS turned out to be very mediocre / bad and hoping it gets shredded even further in future reviews? I don't even...
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Yeah, folks aren't even trying to hide it anymore.

I've seen the same people nitpick positive reviews to the letter while praising or not saying a peep about negative reviews, it's become quite grating actually(and I don't even own the game).
 
The Beastcast seemed pretty positive on the game.

Austin Walker and Alex Navarro (who is reviewing the game for Giant Bomb) both seem to like it a lot.

Dan Ryckert hasn't played as much but was enjoying it, but had problems with the inventory.

Vinny hasn't played it yet.

Jeff Bakalar likes the game but feels certain technical issues (crashes etc) are holding it back. His game seems to be stuck and he might have to restart.
 
There were some people discussing about if judging the content vs judging the gameplay a few posts above.

I wanted to add to that. We have to remind that for this kind of game, procedural sandbox, the gameplay IS the content. It isn't like a linear fps where the number of levels (content) have a main role in how much of the game there is, or the same with number of puzzles in a puzzle game.
In sandbox games the real content is how many things you can do (gameplay) in the sandbox.

Hell we can use the very literal example of a sandbox: the content itself is simple, generic and bland, but there is a ton of it, that's the sand; but you can pile up sand, you can throw it out around, you can mix it up with water, you can do castles with it, you can draw in it. etc. Gameplay.

That's why I don't understand when people get hyped with 'infinite!!" games, with people exclaiming "you can do anything!", as to me there are pretty small games: you can walk around, kill random enemies, find some objects, and not a lot more. That's not "infinite", that's fucking "three" [possible actions]. I would prefer developer would push the envelope in actions, but of course, that's way harder than making an almost infinite random landscape.
 
I've got this funny feeling the pc launch is going to provide a lot more drama. Considering that this version hasn't been shown yet and the ps4 crashes. Hopefully I'm wrong!

With the reviews it does seem to be hit or miss. Mainly misses. Can't help but feel this should never had a AAA price or AAA marketing. Too big a scope for such a small studio.
 
GSG Flash said:
Yeah, folks aren't even trying to hide it anymore.

I've seen the same people nitpick positive reviews to the letter while praising or not saying a peep about negative reviews, it's become quite grating actually(and I don't even own the game).
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That Jim Sterling review really opened the flood gates. Lots of "I knew it" and "It's everything I feared". It was the first review. Confirmation Bias: The Thread.
 
DMTripper said:
I've got this funny feeling the pc launch is going to provide a lot more drama. Considering that this version hasn't been shown yet and the ps4 crashes. Hopefully I'm wrong!

With the reviews it does seem to be hit or miss. Mainly misses. Can't help but feel this should never had a AAA price or AAA marketing. Too big a scope for such a small studio.
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The focus on price is a bit ridiculous. They have every right to be as much of a hit or miss in that price range as AAA titles.

And it's not like gamers are ever careful with their money anyway. People ten to overthink +/- $20 in one games price, and then go buy 50 $10 games they don't play at all anyway.
 
DMTripper said:
I've got this funny feeling the pc launch is going to provide a lot more drama. Considering that this version hasn't been shown yet and the ps4 crashes. Hopefully I'm wrong!

With the reviews it does seem to be hit or miss. Mainly misses. Can't help but feel this should never had a AAA price or AAA marketing. Too big a scope for such a small studio.
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Could go either way with the PC version. I hope it's a good port.

What I'm most curious to see is how the Steam community responds to it. There are so many survival games available on Steam so I expect people to be extra critical due to the price of the game.
 
T.O.P said:
That's totally irrelevant to what he said
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Is it? Should I take what he has to say seriously if he hasn't even played it? If someone hasn't played it, and instead just goes off what random reviewer #53 says about the game, and he(or anyone else) is here to judge a game they haven't played, that isn't just hating?

That is hating in my book. If you are judging a game and making negative comments on a game you haven't even played, that is just blatant hating. If I don't want a game and don't plan on playing a game, I don't spend time in that game's thread. Why? Because I have nothing constructive to add to the thread. How could I? I haven't played it. I will bow out of this toxic thread. You guys have a good time bashing a very good game!
 
CecilRousso said:
The focus on price is a bit ridiculous. They have every right to be as much of a hit or miss in that price range as AAA titles.

And it's not like gamers are ever careful with their money anyway. People ten to overthink +/- $20 in one games price, and then go buy 50 $10 games they don't play at all anyway.
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If you don't care about your money, that's no issue. Most people tend to take price into consideration when judging a game. What might be negligible for a 10 EUR title, might not suffice your expectations for a 60 EUR game. Would you go to McDonalds if their burgers suddenly cost 20 EUR instead of 2 EUR?

For a 60 EUR title most people would expect a polished title with a decent amount of content, whereas a 10 EUR game may not be as polished and be significantly shorter. There's a reason why all those indie games cost 10-20 EUR.
 
Tovarisc said:
This thread is so weird. Some people seem to be legit happy / glad that NMS turned out to be very mediocre / bad and hoping it gets shredded even further in future reviews? I don't even...
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Are you really surprised though? It's because many people on here, like myself, finally feel vindicated for having called out early on, even during the original reveal, that this game would be a shallow mess and that it couldn't possibly live up to the hype and promises, or at the very least, that there were some serious doubts related to how no gameplay of any substance was ever being shown. (Hence the many "Just what do you DO in No Man's Sky?" threads). And these people (you could call them naysayers) were just drowning in a sea of hype from people completely blinded by the pretty visuals and empty promises. They just couldn't believe that people were being so easily duped, unable to see or even worry about what might be (or rather, not be) beyond the facade, like they had thrown all critical sense out the window in favor of blind faith. Like they had never played games before and couldn't comprehend what games actually need to be good and fun beyond aesthetic.

So, 2 years later, to finally see most of these people finally drop off their cloud of hype and crash right back down to Earth, it feels good man. Very good. There's an old saying that goes "If something seems to be too good to be true, it probably is.", but somehow when it comes to Sean Murray, people were completely hypnotized, like Peter Molyneux before him, like John Romero before him, etc. I'm just hoping for the day that people will learn and cease to be amazed by smoke and mirrors, and be critical of any outlandish claim made by developers.
 
MarineMountie said:
Is it? Should I take what he has to say seriously if he hasn't even played it? If someone hasn't played it, and instead just goes off what random reviewer #53 says about the game, and he(or anyone else) is here to judge a game they haven't played, that isn't just hating?

That is hating in my book. If you are judging a game and making negative comments on a game you haven't even played, that is just blatant hating. If I don't want a game and don't plan on playing a game, I don't spend time in that game's thread. Why? Because I have nothing constructive to add to the thread. How could I? I haven't played it.
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Then go to the OT? Review threads exist for the same kind of purpose you are dismissing

Are we not allowed to read reviews anymore, take note of a few issues mentioned in these reviews, and then decide the game won't be for us? Must we be instantly labelled with the "haters" tag straight away?
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This is EXACTLY what this thread is for
 
T.O.P said:
Then go to the OT? Review threads exist for the same kind of purpose you are dismissing

This is EXACTLY what this thread is for
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It's hilarious, because in standard scenarios (when review copies are actually sent ahead of time to reviewers), NOBODY in a review thread will typically have played the game initially.
 
AtomicShroom said:
Are you really surprised though? It's because many people on here, like myself, finally feel vindicated for having called out early on, even during the original reveal, that this game would be a shallow mess and that it couldn't possibly live up to the hype and promises, or at the very least, that there were some serious doubts related to how no gameplay of any substance was ever being shown. (Hence the many "Just what do you DO in No Man's Sky?" threads). And these people (you could call them naysayers) were just drowning in a sea of hype from people completely blinded by the pretty visuals and empty promises. They just couldn't believe that people were being so easily duped, unable to see or even worry about what might be (or rather, not be) beyond the facade, like they had thrown all critical sense out the window in favor of blind faith. Like they had never played games before and couldn't comprehend what games actually need to be good and fun beyond aesthetic.

So, 2 years later, to finally see most of these people finally drop off their cloud of hype and crash right back down to Earth, it feels good man. Very good. There's an old saying that goes "If something seems to be too good to be true, it probably is.", but somehow when it comes to Sean Murray, people were completely hypnotized, like Peter Molyneux before him, like John Romero before him, etc. I'm just hoping for the day that people will learn and cease to be amazed by smoke and mirrors, and be critical of any outlandish claim made by developers.
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I feel a little ashamed but it's true. People need to be more skeptical. Being hyped is fun but too much can lead to poor industry practices to leverage hype to cover up blaring issues.
 
So it's not very good then. That's a shame. I was quite looking forward to it.
 
AtomicShroom said:
Are you really surprised though? It's because many people on here, like myself, finally feel vindicated for having called out early on, even during the original reveal, that this game would be a shallow mess and that it couldn't possibly live up to the hype and promises, or at the very least, that there were some serious doubts related to how no gameplay of any substance was ever being shown. (Hence the many "Just what do you DO in No Man's Sky?" threads). And these people (you could call them naysayers) were just drowning in a sea of hype from people completely blinded by the pretty visuals and empty promises. They just couldn't believe that people were being so easily duped, unable to see or even worry about what might be (or rather, not be) beyond the facade, like they had thrown all critical sense out the window in favor of blind faith. Like they had never played games before and couldn't comprehend what games actually need to be good and fun beyond aesthetic.

So, 2 years later, to finally see most of these people finally drop off their cloud of hype and crash right back down to Earth, it feels good man. Very good. There's an old saying that goes "If something seems to be too good to be true, it probably is.", but somehow when it comes to Sean Murray, people were completely hypnotized, like Peter Molyneux before him, like John Romero before him, etc. I'm just hoping for the day that people will learn and cease to be amazed by smoke and mirrors, and be critical of any outlandish claim made by developers.
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This sums up the situation perfectly. I will say that I was hoping the game would somehow deliver despite my reservations. Reviews like Jim Sterling's and various other impressions I've read confirmed my concerns about the games depth and lasting appeal.
 
AtomicShroom said:
Are you really surprised though? It's because many people on here, like myself, finally feel vindicated for having called out early on, even during the original reveal, that this game would be a shallow mess and that it couldn't possibly live up to the hype and promises, or at the very least, that there were some serious doubts related to how no gameplay of any substance was ever being shown.
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Great post. Exactly how I'm feeling. Believe me, I would have preferred to be surprised/wrong, but there were a lot of very good reasons to doubt that this game would live up to the hype that Sean Murray and Hello Games are responsible for creating. They created some impossible (clearly) expectations for this game.
 
cyberheater said:
So it's not very good then. That's a shame. I was quite looking forward to it.
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Make your own mind up? If its something you thought you might enjoy, give it a go and see for yourself.

Not aimed at you (promise), but this curious insistence on basing your purchasing behaviour based on what someone else has said ("I was really looking forward to it, but Jim Fucking Sterling Son says its mediocre, guess I won't bother") doesn't sit right with me. Try it, you might love it, we all experience things differently.

Personally, I think its flawed but very entertaining. Certain areas could be improved, but the game you can play today is great. Its compelling, the almost hypnotic loop of explore, loot, upgrade.

As for crashing, I've played maybe 6 hours or so, into my second system and had one crash. Hooray for autosaving when you leave your ship!
 
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