Yesterday I finally found the opportunity to give No Man's Sky a proper go and man, it got me hooked. Have 11hrs clocked in already. Thankfully there were no more crashes, no more lost progress. Playing the game, I found my way around how the save system works now as well. Anyway, many seem to have technical issues which is a shame regardless of the nature of the tech behind it. I for sure would have held off playing until proper performance on my end was established. Thankfully it is already
The start was rough for me. I always want no hand-holding from games but when I do get a game like that, I get utterly lost for hours. So it was with NMS. I spent around 9 hours strolling around my starting planet, looting all kinds of stuff until I noticed that I was in the "story mode" which has a thread leading you towards the center of the galaxy slowly but steadily. After noticing the blue hint box on the HUD serving this goal, I started making more progress. Unlocking (I assume) essential blueprints and mechanics.
Either way, I still had tons of fun exploring the few planets I have been on so far. The starting place was a rocky and ugly place which I now realize I've spent more hours than I should have as the second planet was a colorful and lush paradise in comparison. Much more wildlife, grass fields all across interrupted only by lakes. Gorgeous! It was here where the flow of the game started clicking more and more. It goes like this. You scan your near vicinity and all manner of material icons pop up with the real interesting places like outpost etc. and ancient alien monoliths which teach you each a single word of a single alien race. And it's not like a few of those will suffice, oh no. I have rummaged the area for hours and learned over 50 words which still at best let me understand half a sentence. It sounds repetitive - and it
can be - but the immersion of exploration and finding new interesting things along the way made it a really fun time sink throughout.
While walking around and scanning the area, I ended up finding a non-natural construction, an outpost of some sort. Inside it were loot and a blueprint. These are either for crafting new materials or upgrades. Outside was a search station which marks a site of interest, shelter, monoliths, outposts, manufacturing facilities etc. These spots are all of unique interest, whether it's loot, blueprints, knowledge or upgrade parts but they are for the most part looking the same throughout. A shelter will always look the same as will an outpost. This is where repetition can set in more clearly. Thankfully I have naturally avoided such a sense by varying the tasks I did and the planets on which I did them. I still want to go back right at it and research planets, learn more languages, buy better stuff. And I haven't even "unlocked" space fights and I assume some other things.
All in all, this game feels like Minecraft at times but also a walking sim, a dog fighter, a trading sim, a survival game at others. What makes the combination of so many genres work, is that it all feels cohesive, balanced and highly polished to me for the most part. Was expecting lots of glitches but it has been the odd sentinel clipping through a tree so far only. I'm constantly impressed at how smooth everything works, every aspect slides right into another and how atmospheric the
world universe-building is (not the universe generation but the lore and atmosphere!). This game won't be for anyone, heck I'm shocked this managed to break out of the niche which it's undefined genre-mix is. Well, seeing the massive media presence pull done by Sony I shouldn't be.
A fascinating ride of bewilderment and exploration, ticking all the right boxes and creating many I wasn't expecting. I'm getting a child-like feeling of finding and learning new stuff at every corner.
It's not perfect. A ginormous universe is a statistical achievement which won't mean that much to me in the end, as I'd be surprised to set foot on more than a hundred planets honestly. Planets sorely lack biomes and different climates which is a weird omission. Copy-paste structures designed by the devs will get only less interesting as time passes and a randomly generating mechanism on settlements and structures would have been heartily appreciated. Ground combat is passable with variety in ammunition but
so far not much in enemy variation. No matter what could have been better, what is here is marvelous, unique and immensely enjoyable.
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For those wondering what my specs are that it runs well: i5 4690, MSI 970, 16GB DDR3, SSD. Playing at 1440p/60 with zero issues. Definitely high-end but people with similar or better hardware seem to have problems, so I have no clue what the reason could be.
