No Man's Sky

Man, I wanted to like this SO much and it was SUCH a letdown. I adore games with exploring, discovering, and collecting things, and I have a high tolerance for monotony, so I thought, "Yeah, everyone's saying it's a letdown, but I like stuff that everyone thinks is bad." Don't buy into it. There's nothing to discover. I'm SO grateful to the friend who let me play it so that I didn't spend $60 on this.. "Game."

As wide as an ocean but as shallow as a puddle. For some hours it could be a pretty good implementation of Geogaddi from Boards of Canada as a chill grinding game (Def. play it while listening to it!). I was obsessed for the first 20 hours, then suddenly the illusion collapsed, probably due to the repetitive gameplay loop, and the too repetitive variations (visuals, mechanics, etc). I'm pretty happy I experienced it. It really made me feel like a space explorer, specially in PSVR2. Almost great.

If I had played this game at launch I might have a much different opinion but in 2021 this game is far better than just serviceable. I won't be dumping hundreds of hours into this game the way that some will but I finally feel like the promise of this game was delivered, even if it was too late for some.

Never played the initial versions, but the current iteration works fine as something to play on mute while listening to podcasts

one hour in: wtf what's with the hate this is amazing. three hours in: oh.

I got into this title after the 5.0 update, 8 years after its notoriously calamitous launch, so my experience is based on a purportedly much fuller and richer game world. And I do generally like sandbox games with exploration and crafting and all that. It just feels so grindy and toilsome, with most of the challenge being avoiding faceless hazards and reaching drab numeric milestones. Exploration is samey, and the creative element of the game isn't substantial or rewarding. Great UE though.

One of the greatest ideas for a game of all time, yet an epic disappointment. Did not function the way they advertised. However, the game does align with their original vision so I can't crack it all the way down. A major lesson is correctly setting expectations. None of the changes were in the direction of fixing promises. Still ate a few dozen hours though.

If it weren't for the terrible performance (mostly the constant stuttering), this would be my kind of game.

NMS never fulfills what it sets out to do, even after all these years of constant updates.

I don't care if it used to suck four or five years ago. The game is completely different now. It's everything it was promised to be and more.