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No Man's Sky Review Thread: The Scores Have Arrived (read OP)

newtypepilot

newtypepilot

Member
Crazy Diamond said:
CpsFFGnUIAA5hN4.jpg
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wtf...
 
B

BleedOrange

Banned
Just goes to show you the power of marketing money, intentional vagueness, and a 'pretty' aesthetic can do for a game (I personally think it looks okay at best).

If Sony hadn't've thrown so much money behind this game it would probably be just a tiny blip on the 'indie survival game' radar on Steam.
 
B

bunkitz

Member
I think this is just a case of it being a really divisive game where some people will really love it, while others will really just get bored of it and not think of it as much of a good game.

If you enjoy this type of game where it's mostly just about exploration and your own personal experience, then go ahead. Enjoy the shit out of it. I think I'll enjoy it quite a lot, although I don't know for how long. Don't let other people who don't enjoy it or like it as much deter your experience. It really baffles me why so many people make such a big deal that other people should like the things that they like.

This game is simply not for everyone, and I'm not surprised.
 
S

ScribbleD

Member
I'm enjoying it, but I find it hard to disagree with the critical consensus on this one. Its ambitious, but falls short of its potential. Feels like the best 6 / 10 in recent memory.
 
M

Moon_frogger

Member
bunkitz said:
I think this is just a case of it being a really divisive game where some people will really love it, while others will really just get bored of it and not think of it as much of a good game.

If you enjoy this type of game where it's mostly just about exploration and your own personal experience, then go ahead. Enjoy the shit out of it. I think I'll enjoy it quite a lot, although I don't know for how long. Don't let other people who don't enjoy it or like it as much deter your experience. It really baffles me why so many people make such a big deal that other people should like the things that they like.

This game is simply not for everyone, and I'm not surprised.
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I do enjoy this type of game. I love don't starve. I love elite dangerous. I love starbound. Unfortunately this seems to be a poor example of those types of games with no real hook. I know there was a big controversy over no mans sky regarding the whole 'what do you do in this game' thing. To a causal observer it was a legit question, to die hard supporters of this game it was an annoying meme kept alive by trolls who wanted to ruin discussion. It turns out the former was the truth though. You really don't do much at all in this game. It doesn't build towards anything. The tedious gather just becomes more tedious. The frustrating combat just becomes more frustrating. The size and scope is totally meaningless when ever planet, every system is just an unsuprising variation on the same thing, again and again and again.

I'd even go so far as to suggest you might get more enjoyment from no mans sky if you haven't played other, better survival crafting type sandbox games and most people who fall into this category will eventually move on to much more interesting, well crafted and feature rich examples of the genre.
 
U

UncleSporky

Member
Crazy Diamond said:
Thread title should be changed to "This game is exactly what the developers said it would be".
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Quite a few people saw this rallying cry coming. There was so much mixed messaging before launch, there was no way that a lot of people wouldn't go in expecting one thing and end up getting another. And the fans are compelled to keep defending it and say, hey, if you don't like it's your own fault for not doing extensive research.

If I could quote my own prophesy here:

UncleSporky said:
Javier23 said:
He's right. But those who complain will be the only ones to blame. These guys are not lying to anyone and they've repeatedly established what the whole game is about. If you buy this game at a full price and then drop it a few hours in because it's boring you're an idiot and you didn't inform yourself properly before dropping the 60 bucks or you didn't have very realistic expectations in the first place. It's just Noctis IV with a facelift. You either like the concept or not, but don't pretend it was supposed to be anything else.
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This is going to be a deafening rallying cry at release for the people who have gone all in on info about NMS. No one else out there knows about the multiplayer, no one knows that you can't build anything persistent on planets, etc.

Friend of mine who is really well informed about games in general just asked our chat group if we would play NMS with him when it comes out and I had to break it to him.

Honestly I don't think it's fair to say people have no excuse. The marketing has been bad on this point. I think the majority of people who buy the game are going to be disappointed to learn the truth about the game, and you can only blame them so much before some burden has to be shouldered by the devs as well.
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By the way, old NMS threads are really fun to read.

This guy is looking safe right now:

loganclaws said:
Exactly. And to all the other people who replied to my post, no I'm not happy about it, but I do find it entertaining how some of you think this game will be somehow interesting for more than 2-3 hours at most. Procedural generation usually makes exploration mundane as there are no special hand placed challenges or encounters. But let's just wait and see. If you go back through my post history, I made a deal with 5 lucky winners who will get a free copy of the game if the user metacritic is above 85 (I think that was the number we agreed on, I'll have to go back and check) after three months from release. My expectation is that the game will go the way of Spore and Black and White, innovative but extremely lacking in gameplay.
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I think most this has mostly been proven false by now, especially the part about dungeons and generated elements:

More_Badass said:
The game is designed as such so that what you encounter later in your journey is more alien and less Earthlike than at the start. So like a roguelike expanding your item pool as you progress, you can't see or know everything after the the first dozen or two dozen planets because the game hasn't introduced it all yet. So what's over that next ridge will change depending on far along you are in your journey

And of course the generation is more than just trees, caves, and ocean. Alien ecosystems, different weather and environment types that require different gear to endure, building "dungeons", etc.
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SomTervo said:
The outer edge of the galaxy, algorithms generate:
- relatively normal 'familiar' shaped planets
- relatively normal physics
- relatively normal animals
- safer atmospheres (in terms of radition, toxicity, etc)

As you proceed closer to the center of the galaxy the algorithms generating:
- planet shapes get more insane
- physics and planetary 'laws' start being bent to the point of breaking
- animal shapes, abilities, properties and animations start getting bent to the point of logical breaking - you might find a winged elephant with the animation model of a bat (there are near-infinite permutations which even the dev team haven't seen yet)
- atmospheres get increasingly volatile - with increasingly unsettling combinations like freezing + water + radioactive, in far higher doses/danger thresholds than ever before

Keep exploring to the center of the galaxy and you will see new things.

I even recall reading in one preview that the dev team gathered around the journalist to ogle at his screen because he found a mineral/element none of them had seen before. This suggests even resources are procedurally generated to match their environment.
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G

Gurrry

Member
5 hours in, PC, im digging it

it was never going to live up to the massive hype, and i never really followed all that stuff either... so my hype wasnt through the roof.

however, what is here is a pretty awesome space exploration game that im having a good time with, regardless of its technical issues.
 
E

Effect

Member
Well just got my refund email. So now I just have to wait for the charge to clear. There are things I like about this game but that "newness" of it wore off extremely quickly for me. Far quickly then I thought. Even if I put the performance issues aside this was not worth $60 to me. The feedback loop is very repetitive and it's a repetitiveness that is apparent very quickly. There is nothing story wise or other that helps hide that. What you're doing in the loop is very boring and not that fun to actually play from a gameplay stand point. Control over your ship is bad as well.

I am interested in seeing how the game grows though and if it changes enough and there is enough to do I'll likely pick it up again. At the moment though I don't feel comfortable spending money on this.

I can't help but compare this with Elite Dangerous which does similar things but more. While it might not be fair to compare to some people I spent the same amount of money on both. So they will get compared. While I like that planets are actually ones I can walk around on and they have color in NMS that isn't enough for me at the moment.
 
T

ThoughtsOfSpeaking

Banned
Don't want to tote my own horn, but I called this months ago.


ThoughtsOfSpeaking said:
Meh. I doubt id be interested even at $6. I Just don't understand how people are going to remain engaged with this. It looks like a string of "thats cool" moments, but nothing that resembles a satisfying gameplay loop.

The question with this game isn't "What do you do?" but rather "Why should you care about doing it?" Nothing murray has shown even comes close to answering that question for me.

I can see alot of people picking this up and loving it at first, then dropping it relativly quickly.

The greatest thing about No mans sky is going to be its marketing campaign.
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ThoughtsOfSpeaking said:
One of the biggest cons this generation. Would have been fine if treated like any other indie title, but has been elevated to the second coming of emergent gameplay.

It may have have some fantastic moments, but moment to moment it's going to be lifeless, dull and full of busywork.
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M

mercenar1e

Member
BleedOrange said:
Everspace. Xbox console exclusive.
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It's a mediocre game at best. I'm currently in the beta for the PC.

Anyway I'm not actually surprised over the reviews. Sean danced around most of the questions about the game with vague answers and he just comes off skittish while doing so.
 
Go_Ly_Dow

Go_Ly_Dow

Member
ThoughtsOfSpeaking said:
Don't want to tote my own horn, but I called this months ago.
Click to expand...

The game has its reedeming features, but the marketing campaign for this game did a number on many people by making it look like a much deeper and mysterious experience than it actually is. Especially that recent IGN video series with Murray.
 
H

Hupsel

Member
Guys you are doing it again, hyping a game judging it by gifs that were meticulously made to look incredible awesome without knowing much more about the final game NotLikeThis
 
T

ThoughtsOfSpeaking

Banned
Hupsel said:
Guys you are doing it again, hyping a game judging it by gifs that were meticulously made to look incredible awesome without knowing much more about the final game NotLikeThis
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Does seem pretty ironic some are ready to fall in the same trap, again and again and again.

Guess that is why that the hype machine never stops.
 
H

HariKari

Member
NMS is like an endless Ubisoft open world game, but with low production value everything. Even the biggest moment in the game - buying a new ship - is super fucking tedious. Outside of the procedural generation, it's not impressive at all. Ugh
 
C

Conkerkid11

Member
BleedOrange said:
Just goes to show you the power of marketing money, intentional vagueness, and a 'pretty' aesthetic can do for a game (I personally think it looks okay at best).

If Sony hadn't've thrown so much money behind this game it would probably be just a tiny blip on the 'indie survival game' radar on Steam.
Click to expand...
Have you played it yourself though?

I actually can't think of many survival games on Steam which would be capable of competing with what this game offers besides maybe Subautica.
 
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