No Man's Sky (video game)

Destiny was that way too, nothing they promised in the reveal vids came into the game. Star Citizen is going to be like this too i bet, i think it mostly got backed so hard because the guy in charge came up with Wing Commander.
 
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I bought it, mostly as a diversion from The Division frustration I was getting. I played it for about 12 hrs total last weekend on it and it's fun, quite the rabbit hole when it comes to resource gathering and exploring. I think I spent almost 4 hours on the first planet.

I think the biggest gripe is the lack of anything else to do besides gather resources, upgrade your equipment/ship. I like the isolation, and flying around in my ship, it IS AWESOME. But the gathering does get tedious and your ship runs out of "take off fuel" pretty easily. I enjoy doing mostly PvE and solo stuff and it has that in SPADES..obviously. But there does seem like a lack of interaction with anything, and not just other players. Even the outposts are manned by 1 NPC alien and on space stations there isn't anything else to do but haggle with the other beings that land. I see myself coming back to this game, but I don't really see myself investing a whole lot of time, frequently playing it but I think I'll be playing it more than The Division. I do wish I had waited for this to drop below $30-40, but like I said...The Division....

Maybe people were thinking this was going to be kind of like Skyrim in space(it felt that way at first but you feel like you're a scout for the Federation or something)

All that being said, I downloaded D&D Neverwinter(free on PSN), and I'm playing the $#@! out of that lol.
 
Seeking out alien monoliths and learning the languages has kept me occupied. It's pretty easy to jump between pairs of beacons/alien artifacts. Each monolith tells you a bit of a story as you go along. I feel like this game is ripe for some DLC soon.
 
I have experience with games that seem incredibly promising but end up ho-hum.

I played Star Wars Galaxies from one month post-launch until about April, 2004. Now there was a game that promised all sorts of stuff...and sucked.

I was super hyped in the lead up to SWG. That quickly vanished upon launch...
 
I bought it, mostly as a diversion from The Division frustration I was getting. I played it for about 12 hrs total last weekend on it and it's fun, quite the rabbit hole when it comes to resource gathering and exploring. I think I spent almost 4 hours on the first planet.

I think the biggest gripe is the lack of anything else to do besides gather resources, upgrade your equipment/ship. I like the isolation, and flying around in my ship, it IS AWESOME. But the gathering does get tedious and your ship runs out of "take off fuel" pretty easily. I enjoy doing mostly PvE and solo stuff and it has that in SPADES..obviously. But there does seem like a lack of interaction with anything, and not just other players. Even the outposts are manned by 1 NPC alien and on space stations there isn't anything else to do but haggle with the other beings that land. I see myself coming back to this game, but I don't really see myself investing a whole lot of time, frequently playing it but I think I'll be playing it more than The Division. I do wish I had waited for this to drop below $30-40, but like I said...The Division....

Maybe people were thinking this was going to be kind of like Skyrim in space(it felt that way at first but you feel like you're a scout for the Federation or something)

All that being said, I downloaded D&D Neverwinter(free on PSN), and I'm playing the $#@! out of that lol.

See, every Elder Scrolls game I've ever played has felt "empty" to me. Oh, sure, there are NPCs wandering about saying the same 5-10 phrases ("...until I took an arrow to the knee."), but they feel more like animatronic puppets than actual denizens of a living, breathing game world. I gather that the alien NPCs in this game are all identical, as are the buildings in which they operate, and they don't say or do much at all.

And everything else I've heard is about how the game is essentially a BASIC program that goes something like this:

10 COLLECT "RESOURCE A"
20 UPGRADE "ITEM A"
30 USE "ITEM A" TO COLLECT "RESOURCE B"
40 UPGRADE "ITEM B" WITH "RESOURCE B"
50 USE "ITEM B" TO COLLECT "RESOURCE C"
60 REFUEL SHIP WITH "RESOURCE C"
70 FLY SHIP TO "PLANET X"
80 GOTO 10


And that's the game in a nutshell.

Now, in and of itself, this is not a bad thing, necessarily. If you enjoy the very process of doing this stuff over and over again, then it's probably an amazing, fun game. And, of course, one can level similar complaints against games like the Assassin's Creed series or the Far Cry series, which are similarly repetitive. But at least those games provide the backbone of a story and context to your actions to keep you going. You're not "doing" just for the sake of "doing." You have to enjoy the "doing" for its own sake to continue enjoying the game, of course, but the game at least tries to convince you that you're doing it for more than just "You know, because you like exploring and stuff."

I've also gathered that the game has not yet (and may never) figured out how to effectively balance the "grind" against the "reward" or to disguise the "grind" as anything other than actual grinding. This is a common problem with MMOs (e.g., "Go kill 10 rats to get a better sword so that you can go kill 20 rats"). Most games gate content for two reasons: (1) to act as a kind of gradual tutorial, and (2) to keep you from getting bored right from the outset. In most games, your weapons/ships/stuff/tasks/etc. become gradually more complex and at each "level," you have the introduction of new complexity/options. The idea here is that you don't start the game with literally every weapon/item/whatever you'll ever have, because that's overwhelming. In addition, if you started the game with every single power you'll ever have, you'd get bored pretty quickly. Game designers understand that people like the "leveling" process. Even sequels do this, even when they start you with everything you had at the end of the last game, because you'll now need new tools that are introduced by this game.

But the thing is, that stuff needs to be sufficiently different in the experience of "doing" it. You can't just give people a sword, bow, and armor, and then say at each level "Your sword has upgraded to Sword+1." They won't care. It's the same sword, even if it's now +52 and has a blue glowy aura. Yet, it sounds like that's mostly what No Man's Sky does. Sure, you upgraded this or that, but it's still basically the same gameplay over, and over, and over again. If you like it, awesome. If not, well...too bad. Because that's all there is to the game.
 
Exactly. And it's either going to be your thing or not.

There's less story/background in this than in Destiny. The only real story is "Get/find the center of the universe", and the only thing you can really change is your ship and multiool/weapon. There are 3 different races I believe(I've encountered 2), but when you're on the surface of a planet, the beings you run into(which are masked variants of the species who exist in whichever territory you're currently in, wear pretty much all wear the same mask and suit.

It's pretty bland other than the no load screens and going into space back to a planet and back and forth. If you play GTA and love to just run/ride/fly around(notice I didn't say "and cause mayhem"), then you'll also like this game.


ETA: The Skyrim comment mostly comes from the similar feeling when walking around. There are a couple of other moments, but mostly the walking around bit lol.
 
I've got around 30 hours into this game. I like it, but think of it as a game that I will play in between other other games. I read somewhere that this game will continue to grow and be a work in progress. Hopefully, they will add more content in the future. More things to do and perhaps a way to meet up with other people. That could be fun. I think this game has a lot of potential. It's just not quite there yet.
I do however love the landscapes. I haven't got bored looking off to the horizon (yet). Another thing I really like are the ships. There is some very ugly ones, but for the most part they are pretty cool. I would like to see when people start to model them. I also think they pulled off the vintage sci-fi look really well. I'm really liking that.
 
I bought it, mostly as a diversion from The Division frustration I was getting. I played it for about 12 hrs total last weekend on it and it's fun, quite the rabbit hole when it comes to resource gathering and exploring. I think I spent almost 4 hours on the first planet.

I think the biggest gripe is the lack of anything else to do besides gather resources, upgrade your equipment/ship. I like the isolation, and flying around in my ship, it IS AWESOME. But the gathering does get tedious and your ship runs out of "take off fuel" pretty easily. I enjoy doing mostly PvE and solo stuff and it has that in SPADES..obviously. But there does seem like a lack of interaction with anything, and not just other players. Even the outposts are manned by 1 NPC alien and on space stations there isn't anything else to do but haggle with the other beings that land. I see myself coming back to this game, but I don't really see myself investing a whole lot of time, frequently playing it but I think I'll be playing it more than The Division. I do wish I had waited for this to drop below $30-40, but like I said...The Division....

Maybe people were thinking this was going to be kind of like Skyrim in space(it felt that way at first but you feel like you're a scout for the Federation or something)

All that being said, I downloaded D&D Neverwinter(free on PSN), and I'm playing the $#@! out of that lol.

I'm going to try Neverwinter now that i'm done with destiny for good, i got a ton of backlog to do but i want something to just boot up. I'm reinstalling all my psn games i didn't beat yet too. Maybe i'll get No Man's when it's on sale.
 
Solo4114
how LIFE is essentially a BASIC program that goes something like this:

10 SLEEP
20 EAT BREAKFAST
30 GO TO WORK/SCHOOL
40 EAT LUNCH
50 MORE WORK/SCHOOL
60 GO TO STORE BUY STUFFS
70 GO HOME MAKE/EAT DINNER
80 DO DISHES/SHOWER/HOUSEKEEPING
90 GO TO 10


And that's life in a nutshell.....

:p ;)
Most games are very repetitive in their nature. Some hide it better than others :)
 
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@Solo4114
how LIFE is essentially a BASIC program that goes something like this:

10 SLEEP
20 EAT BREAKFAST
30 GO TO WORK/SCHOOL
40 EAT LUNCH
50 MORE WORK/SCHOOL
60 GO TO STORE BUY STUFFS
70 GO HOME MAKE/EAT DINNER
80 DO DISHES/SHOWER/HOUSEKEEPING
90 GO TO 10


And that's life in a nutshell.....

:p ;)
Most games are very repetitive in their nature. Some hide it better than others :)

I don't disagree. And such is the source of existential dilemmas and midlife crises. :)

But in seriousness, while it's true that most games are a repetitive series of tasks, they usually occur within a particular context. A story structure, a purpose to the exercise, even if that purpose is simply "To win the match." And they usually try to differentiate the activities a bit better than what it sounds like NMS does.

Turning back to the Elder Scrolls, for example, there's always a plot to the story, and a plot to the side quests. And even if you just meander and do random stuff, the random stuff you do is actually pretty varied. You can cast and craft spells, enchant weapons, make potions, use a wide variety of weapons, interact with a variety of (admittedly fairly stiff) NPCs, collect a range of things that function differently in the game.

NMS, by comparison, sounds like you basically just keep getting "Sword+N" over and over and over again. Maybe your laser tool now has a green laser and can operate 17% faster, but it's still just "Laser+17%." It's not like you can now use your laser as a sniper rifle to take out the guards around a monolith that you need to read in order to unlock the power of a galaxy-spanning network of teleporter pads or whatever. It's just Laser+N.
 
I don't disagree. And such is the source of existential dilemmas and midlife crises. :)

But in seriousness, while it's true that most games are a repetitive series of tasks, they usually occur within a particular context. A story structure, a purpose to the exercise, even if that purpose is simply "To win the match." And they usually try to differentiate the activities a bit better than what it sounds like NMS does.

Turning back to the Elder Scrolls, for example, there's always a plot to the story, and a plot to the side quests. And even if you just meander and do random stuff, the random stuff you do is actually pretty varied. You can cast and craft spells, enchant weapons, make potions, use a wide variety of weapons, interact with a variety of (admittedly fairly stiff) NPCs, collect a range of things that function differently in the game.

NMS, by comparison, sounds like you basically just keep getting "Sword+N" over and over and over again. Maybe your laser tool now has a green laser and can operate 17% faster, but it's still just "Laser+17%." It's not like you can now use your laser as a sniper rifle to take out the guards around a monolith that you need to read in order to unlock the power of a galaxy-spanning network of teleporter pads or whatever. It's just Laser+N.

I'll take buying a crappy game over a midlife crisis any day of the week :p

Elder Scrolls I find is a rather good example. You do the same thing over and over but since the story tends to be good it isn't such a bad thing. But then there are the times where you realize you're just walking around a dead world with very few NPC that actually seem to have more than the regular 4-5 lines of dialogue. I used to X but then I took an arrow in the knee and now I have to instead do Y. We have all been there ;)
 
I agree on the Elder Scrolls NPC's (and NPCs in general).
If you're going to have such an expansive world like, say, Skyrim (to stick with TES) and make a big deal out of the different architecture and politics of various cities... then you need a little more variety in your NPCs: guards with more than 2 lines of dialogue, don't repeat the exact same bard in every tavern, etc.
As for this game.. looks promising, but it may be too early to tell. I'll wait, watch a few more gameplay videos and give it a think if/when I have the time/cash to upgrade my system.
 
Well so far for me NMS is basically a $60 tech demo. It has some impressive aspects but it is very much half baked at this point. A mile wide and an inch deep.

That's what I have been seeing as well. I also must recant my earlier post about Star Citizen. Once I saw that it was in Alpha and that it wasn't a monthly subscription I dropped some money on it. Less than I would have paid for any other game and I have to tell you if this hashes out to be half as good as it looks it will be the most epic space sim ever. Just the very limited alpha product is outstanding. I will pick up NMS down the road I am sure but will likely stick with Star Citizen.
 
I got the PC version and am already 40 hours in. I have been following this game since the start and it became exactly like I thought it would be and I really like it. The game doesnt feel complete yet and at the moment I feel like it isnt worth the 60 bucks, but its lots of fun and it has a lot of potential. Some of the animals I have encountered are rather... unique, but thats also where the fun is. I love the ship designs, would love to model one someday. I also enjoy finding the alien monoliths, learning about the different species and their languages and I hope to someday actually understand some of the things they are saying instead of random words. Havent really encountered any glitches or bugs other than some drops in the speed and framerate (not that I expected anything more from my laptop), but the experimental update from Hello Games fixed that for me -> https://steamcommunity.com/app/275850/discussions/7/ But, yeah, when the price drops a bit and some more content gets added I would definitely recommend it.
 
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