No Man's Sky.... Piecing it together.

Before I waffle on about what I'm currently doing in the game I have to say that No Man's sky is a game that you will either love or hate.  I've been seeing alont of things being said by a lot of people in txt and video's online. Nothing can be all things to all people.

Good examples of both sides are here....

Love:

 boogie2988  No Man's Sky HYPE and First Impressions

Hate:

Many A True Nerd No Man's Sky - Lonely Planets 

As you can probably guess from my last post I'm a lover of the game. It's kept me engaged and intrigued. I'll explain more below, but before I do I'd like to share some youtuber insights that are helpful in understanding gamplay (gamers of the game) and the game/game company. 
 
I've linked the next clip from boogie2988's video "Rambling: Cravecon, Traveling, NO man's Sky", at the No Man's Sky part....

TotalBiscuit, The Cynical Brit 's talk on the game is also well worth listening to....

 

I've continued to play and some things have become more clear while adding yet more mystery. I'll try to explain without spoiling too much but even for as much as I know I'm still lost in the dark.

I've been killed twice, both in space battles. Both times I respawned in the local space station and got to then fly out and reclaim all my inventory items. Death in this game is not so scary. I've only lost time. If I'd have lost most of all of my inventory I would have been peeved. It's a lack of real risk but if there were that real risk it would have peeved me off further and having to grind for materials again or grind to sell and buy items again would have made me log off and not return for a while. Not quite a rage quit but defenitley would have narked off if it was that way. Thankfully it isn't. It "just" a little inconvenient. And that is without doubt much better.
Those deaths' lead me to a part of the story, when you respawn the title message given is "Generation #", so on my first death I was respawned and read "generation 1" the second time "generation 2". What this means beyond respawning in a new body I don't know. Is my character a machine? A clone? Something else? Maybe the journey will answer all these questions.

The more I delve into the monolithic ancient structures to initially learn the language, I come across them and learn their stories. Those stories point towards many things but the overall sense is a dislike of the galaxy sentinels. A war with them for one race. I could say a lot more on what I've found but it's fragmented and leads me to draw conclusions. Is my character a weapon? Or just a lost traveller.
The bigger picture is also being revealed more as I travel from system to system. Some races are very laid back and relaxed, there seems to be a war on but nothing is really happening. But the latest system I'm in is really on the front lines. No wonder I've been killed twice. I've come across scared npc's both looking to have their responsibilities removed from them. Even talking to these front line NPC's seems vague as I know only some of the language. One NPC wanted me to injure them, maybe so they could go home. Another wanted me to shoot it's omnitool while pointed at him in another "casualty" go home moment. Others are just straight out belligerent and aggressive hurting me no matter what I answer. They are aliens and I don't know the language. I know 50 words and their conversations have none of them. Well OK one word keeps popping up. "Interloper". Yep that's me. It's strange when you see a two line sentence from an alien and it had the word interloper four or five times. Me needs me more words.

I choose at the start of the game to take direction from Atlas. This has been a mysterious force/entity/faction that revels little and explains even less. My last scan and prompt form atlas gave me the system I'm in at the moment. War is in the air in more ways than one as I've explained. But in this system Atlas has it's own large station. I went, I saw, I have more questions. I'm sure this is going to be a long journey.

I'm the kind of gamer who does the side quests. A completionist. This game is O.C.D. central for a completionist because it will never be done, even with the "main" story line completed. My current system is the last system I will visit and do "my thing". My thing is to visit all the planets/moons, gather a resale materials and catalogue the plants and animals for credits/units.
When I move on I intend to do as little as possible and besides "claiming" the system name, I'll gather only what I need to move on. Easier said than done but I'll see how that works out for me and how long I can resist the "one more look" instinct.
 
One big draw to me was the statment from the game creators that the game would not have paid DLC and that all content after release would be free. It seems that they are reconsidering that. Which really peeves me off. More detail's here:
http://www.pcgamer.com/no-mans-sky-creator-walks-back-no-paid-dlc-statement/

For a great lets play I've found Dan Gheesling's series to be interesting. Worth a watch if your trying to make your mind up or just want to see more.