First off the bat: Did Sean Murray lie? The answer to that is a resounding 'yes' but it was difficult to have a conversation when in the madness EVERYTHING was being constued as a lie. The thing is though, I knew he was 'provaricating' right from the off (I'm British). I was never ever fooled by his shy, humble act -- the way he would let his head and shoulders drop when asked a question pertaining to his 'genius'. There is no question he and his team could rightly be seen as geniuses but he knew it and played coy. 

I was never fooled by the target footage either, as I'm never been fooled by any target footage. It's always the same story and if you know what to look for it's easy to tell those demos we saw were played very carefully and very slowly for a reason. I was however fooled a little by his penchant for vagueness, thinking it only the developer's want for his game to be truly 'discovered'. But alas, it wasn't, it was to cover a genuine lack of content and the repetative gameplay. We were promised a galaxy but really only got one pixel's worth of content on each planet, a reference most genuine NMS fans will understand.

That being said I've enjoyed it ironically, played it for over a hundred hours and feel as if I've got my money's worth, but what I've realised in the last few days is those supposedly rare planets are so rare they might as well not be there at all. I no longer land on planets, simply choosing to cruise up to one, take a peek and leave immediately, warping to yet another solar system in the hope of being surprised. I see a white over the planet and then the trees ... I'm out. Been there, done that. I see rock and a cactus ... I'm out. Been there, done that. I see a ruin or a building or a space station ... I'm out. Been there don't that.

I don't know what went wrong with the algorithm that produces this game but it's certainly stuck in its ways, refusing resolutely to offer anything but a pixels worth of topography spread evenly across these planet sized planets. I no long want to take pictures of the creature because quite frankly I've seen them all. Yeah, ok, one hopping pineapple might have a flower as a hat and another might have grass as a hat but esentially they're identical. It's really odd though, which is why I question the algorithm. I've seen the heads of slugs on deer but never seen the slug body and I've seen an ants head on a buffallo like creature but I've never seen the ant's body. It's as if they never had time to set up more animations for different creatures but used those assets as best they could anyway.

I do enjoy taking pictures of the planets though which is now my ONLY motivation to continue. If only they'd get rid of those God awful floating rocks or those spaghetti rock formations that break the aesthetic of most planets infected by them. And the flora, supposedly procedural, is clearly now stored assets. I think Sean was using the superformula but had to remove it for fear of legal action. He'd just had problems with Sky and I would doubt he'd want to piledrive his headaches further. I just pray that when they finally add content it is woven into the fabric of the game and not just thrown down willy nilly as a peace offering. Building bases might be fun if new gameplay and threats are introduced, or in order to get the upgrades you're required to complete tasks/missions/quests. If It's  just linked to 'wealth' then it will feel as arid as most of the planets.

So there you have it, the honest opinion of a NMS fan. Score:

Bored/10

... And who thought I would pull any punches?

Honestly it was a fun game, but after awhile, I don't have the motivation for it. It is like one of those tech demo's that you decided to pay 60 dollars for. 

It's good enough for me to get once it's discounted and they figured out how to make it singleplayer.

What? Its single player only...

You do need patience and I have it in bucket loads. It's now been stretched so thin it's close to snapping. Don't you just hate mixed metaphores? They're procedural.

Extrapolating on what the target is aiming for isn't the same as accepting the finished result with look exactly the same as the target footage, and I also wanted to help promote the game because it's a fresh idea with ambition. I'm talking about how I feel 'now'. I mentioned that I liked it and felt I got my money's worth but this game is designed for longevity, the aspect I'm addressing here.

I will be turning it on again once I've finished here and I'll likely potter around for half an hour or so but the honesty in me HAS to aknowledge that I am now 'bored' with the game. It needs much more content and I'm praying to God that content isn't just a sticking plaster, rushed out to try and appease those who feel let down.

I seem to recall many a thread where you were this game's ultimate champion prior to launch. For it to take your optimism and turn it to boredom cannot be a good sign.

I was and still am. For anyone new to the game it will feel fresh, interesting and inspiring, but I've traversed the galaxy, finished the Atlas path, upgraded everything, finished all the milestones, earned the platinum trophy, visited a solar system called 'The Galaxy Is A Box Of Chocolates' and seen the centre from the surface of a planet called 'Carter' through the vastness of a startless space.

Now I'm bored and forced to contemplate the bad too.

Before the game completely broke for me on a technical level (unavoidable crashes within five to ten minutes of boot-up) and I returned it, I was butting up against the same kind of fatigue. I seemed to have every useful blueprint by day three, and the only ones missing were for alloys and the higher-level atlas passes that don't seem to serve much useful purpose anyway. I was starting to see repeats on the flavour text for various alien, ruins and factory encounters, so even from the lore perspective I wasn't getting much new.

The strategy I came up with to try and combat the feeling was to find a really spectacular solar system, and basically make it my 'home system.' I'd branch out from it to explore the surrounding region, but sooner or later I'd always return 'home.' At this point I wasn't playing the game to find something, or to progress in any way, but rather just to sit back and sort of chill with some pretty pictures.

It was actually working, before the aforementioned crashes shattered my remaining patience. xP The slower pace meant I was fiddling less in crafting menus to make warp cells, shooting less space asteroids for fuel, less launch thruster refueling, etc.

You might be similarly well served. Just find some absurdly pretty planet and plant roots for a while, at least until some content comes out that makes you want to start moving again.


(For some reason the last thread I posted in, the one about the 'No Man's Sky Rant,' won't fully load on either my PC or mobile, so I can't see your last post on it Gribble; don't know if it was a reply to me or not.)

I don't know why people are being so hard on No Man's Sky, I think it does a pretty good job of accurately portraying space & space exploration... a bunch of similar-looking rocks floating around, and a whole lot of nothing going on.