I'm big into space games in all guises, exploration/combat, first person, 3rd person, RTS etc.
NMS is a game that promised a lot, delivered little on launch but has updated and patched so much that today it's a shadow of it's launch day version(in a lot of ways).
I don't often prepurchase games. When I do its because of the game developers previous works. Cities skylines is why I'm going to pre purchase Surviving Mars. Xcom was why I prepurchased Xcom2. So NMS was a let down in more way's than one for me after a hype inspired prepurchase. I also have a thing for getting the most out of games. So NMS is still on my list to get more entertainment/gamplay from. With this games upside of progress via patched content and updates I'm feeling better about the game. If there were no updates than it would really have felt like a scam purchase.
Subnautica or Planet Nomads may be the better no No Man's Sky-esque adventure today that NMS should have been (even as an experience), but my investment in NMS is overruling or is that my obsessive miffedness (its a word!) and need for this game to 'get gud'.
It's easy to say things should be a certain way in retrospect, especially regarding NMS(it did have it's ground breaking elements). It's even harder when there were so many expectations let alone derived information, no answers and a launch day with 10 million % hype. Maybe that's my nostalgia for the hype talking.
NMS has had a lot of updates and I've found them all to be worthy of inclusion but none are a true game changer that keeps me hooked to constantly play.
My original gameplay was boiled down to the 'get to the center of the universe' theme. The main overarching aim of the game. The secret worth ruining was indeed worth ruining in that regard. However my playthrough felt like I was stuck in a loop with no progress even in doing that task.
Some of my journey:
no-mans-sky-again
hello-hello-hello-games
back-to-no-mans-sky
no-mans-sky-pathfinder-patch-patched
no-mans-sky-another-quick-look
No matter the number of jumps the distance to center was barely decreased. Black holes were more like one of those shortcuts someone suggested that at the end leaves you the same distance from your destination than before that shortcut, yet your situation is now 'worsened' because you haven't a clue where you are now(cut off from all previous explored systems); And there is no going back. There is only so much of that you can take.
Still for some reason I have hope in the next update, in the greater plan, that will do something to "fix" my gameplay hook. I may be naive in this belief, hope is hope. The dev team do genuinely seem to want to make the game greater. Time will tell. Maybe patch 1.5 (inclusive of patch 1.4) will be a real game changer (out soon TM).
For now the game is still on my long term "to play" list. Maybe I'll dip back into it for a nostalgic look at what was (and could have been) among what is there now. Experience it for the sake of experiencing it. Take a walk on an alien planet and potter about with a mining laser.... Not thinking too hard about it (time to cut the cord yet?).
Two vids worth a look.
Pro(ish). SomeOrdinaryGamers
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