Without spoilers please, could you guys try to help me out?

Alright, so I have some cash in my Steam Wallet that I have been saving for whatever really.

With the first trailer for the game, I was really hyped for NMS. Then I found out it was survival/crafting type game which I usually am not a big fan of. With this week's videos I am interested enough in maybe preordering the game on Steam. However, what I have seen, the game looks a little shallow so far.

The big draw for me so far is the exploration. Finding new planets and lifeforms sounds pretty cool. So is the exploration of the space systems and dealing with space stations. My 9 year old daughter ate all of this up and as a minecraft player, she is excited to play and start naming shit after rainbows or something.

But my main concern is: is that all there is to the game? I don't know how long I can be interested in exploration alone before it gets tedious. Does the game get better? Does it get more complex?. Is there a reason to maybe explore different systems and trade/exploit with different species? I don't expect this game to reach the X series level of complexity, but I'd like it to be a little more than planet hopping until boredom sets in.

TL;DR - Preorder on Steam y/n ?

I usually do not like open survival games like what you get alot of on steam. But I'm liking this alot.

If you played something like adios or mirror moon ep and want something much much bigger then its a safe bet. It's not going to be like playing ed or an x game. But it has the feel of those game with little of the complexity.

The short answer is: probably not. I haven't played the game (yet) either, but at least to me it doesn't look like there's any major benefit to preordering it. Yes you get a ship with a slightly better hyperdrive and weapons but whoopty doo. Sean has said that more stuff is coming, but I've got a feeling that right now at least, what you see is pretty much what you get. If you've seen the GB videos and don't think it's enough, wait.

Thankfully with Steam you do have the option of refunding it if you get it.

This article was uploaded a the perfect time.

PC Gamer

I'm currently watching a dude I really dig; he's streaming NMS and it looks super deep and great. Way more rpg and ch. progression than I thought it would have/be about. Check him out...he's loving it.

https://www.twitch.tv/lokiitheimpaler

Preordering a non collectors version of a game?

Always no.

I'd say check out the Jim Sterling review on it, I just read through it and I agree with it 100%. It's just...boring. I'd say don't bother pre-ordering (I wouldn't recommend it in general, but it seems like you're getting it regardless).

If you're interested: http://www.thejimquisition.com/no-mans-sky-review/

This is without a doubt the biggest disappointment of the year, no question. It's not even bad, it's just so bland and boring and ugly.

Every other day I teeter on "I'll get this on PC" and "this seems like a huge waste of time at the moment"

I kind of want to see for myself but unlike other games that I watched footage for and instantly wanted to play, every time I've check out a NMS livestream I could not have been less interested as the person playing the game was either warping from planet to planet to pointing their laser beam at a mess of blurry textures. This was usually intermingled with a healthy dose of checking their mess of an inventory screen to see how much of the blues and reds they need to collect the same rocks but 10% faster.

It's surprising how little they built out the whole mining aspect of the game since it seems to make up 90% of the gameplay. You'd think there would be some clever mechanics tied to it or physics at least allowing for some marginal creativity in how you go about cutting down these slabs of green or purple. Instead it's just pointing a beam at something and watching it disappear in a puff of cubes.

They really must have spent all their free time transfixed by this idea of a procedurally generated universe that they either ran out of time to populate that vast space with things to do or just completely forgot to add meaningful gameplay. It really seems like the world they birthed is going to waste with very little interaction available. Give the ships some physics, make flying matter instead of it being just about pointing your crosshair somewhere and pressing the GO button. Make climbing the terrain a challenge: add grappling hooks, climbing claws, add a sense of danger to spelunking in irradiated caves. It all feels so listless, safe and inconsequential.

Tl;dr. It's a fucking terrible game.

@humanity: It's definitely growing on me, especially since I've been able to upgrade things, and even though I suspect the story aspect will be nothing more than a load of mystical bollocks it's giving my game time a bit of structure.

My biggest complaint right now is that the tools you're given to do your exploration are so bland. I'm not expecting 'Elite with flight assist turned off' levels of challenge but all you're doing while flying is basically pointing forward, like in Rebel Galaxy.

When someone spoiled me on what happens at the center of the Galaxy I got so fucking mad I almost threw my PS4 out the window. It's so unbelievably stupid and trite.

The PC port could end up being a technical mess. I never ever pre order games. It's just a bad idea. I'm going to wait for a sale on this one anyway.

If you take all the hype away from this game, it becomes an indie walking/exploration sim with a few extra mechanics.
I'm not implying that that's a bad thing, walking sims are fun little experiences, i just want people to realise what this actually is before they started thinking they were going to spend the next half a year of their lives playing it.

Bill Bailey appears in a new trailer for it. That made up my mind to get it.

I wouldnt pre order, the last minute delay is worrying as it could mean technical issues for the pc version. Also none of the preorder stuff seems like a good experience for beginners and could lead to missing tutorials etc (from my understanding I'm on ths fence as well).

As far as gameplay i wouldnt take anything from people who haven't played it themselves either way. Try too weed out people who only speculate or watch gameplay as watching snd playing are always 2 different things.

I'd get it if it came with Bill Bailey but otherwise fuck that shit. I just want a KSP with awesome graphics and interstellar mechanics.

Yeah, I'm probably not going to preorder or even buy the game this year at this point. The negatives definitely outweigh the positives with this game so far. And I can't justify paying full price for a game that I will probably get bored with in a few hours.

Your problem is not really a problem because REFUND.

I want to play it and think the game looks cool. But I don't think it's worth 60 dollars, massive universe or not the gameplay loop is rather shallow.

Will wait for a price drop.

@rafaelfc: This is how I am feeling too.

I wasn't super hyped for the game, but I was hoping it would turn out great, and still kind of want to buy it. But in Canada the price is way too high. I ended up buying Subnautica on steam for a third of the price. Not exactly the same, but a neat game in its own right.

On the other hand,

If you don't have ADHD then get it

Jeff's live Quick Look he did on Youtube is what convinced me to buy the game after being on the wait for a PSN sale side of the fence.

Fuck man, I'm right there with you. The title of this thread is exactly where I'm at. I've added this game to my psn cart and cancelled it multiple times. When I'm finally convinced to buy it I read something negative and immediately cancel it no will be lurking about this thread for the rest of the week to determine if I will be buying it for the weekend

I did buy it though I kind of wish I hadn't. The games aesthetic is great but honestly there's not much more to the game than exploring and crafting I don't think it does a great job at those either.

Hopefully they will put some serious work into the updates in which case it could be really awesome next year.

I'm pretty on the fence as well. I guess I should be grateful for the PC delay because it may save me 60 bucks.

I understand the game is what it is. You go to planets and collect stuff to upgrade things and that's it. But are the planets interesting to visit? Is there enough variety in the planet's designs and lifeforms to keep me entertained? I've seen a few cool looking planets on streams but a lot of them are just... here's a rocky baron planet that is orange and then next time it's blue and then next time it's green. Once I've seen a couple of nice looking planets is there anything more to see after that?

I guess a better question is.... for someone that has played many hours and visited many planets. Do you get excited to see the next planet or do you know what to expect at that point?

its a really polarizing game. but im loving it, so i say yes. im about a dozen hours in and its all about collecting resources, building things, finding new (better) things, and being really hyped about the next system your going to warp to. the excitement for me comes from what im going to find. there are alot of instances of carrot on the stick type of stuff; for example getting a lead on some mysterious thing out there in the galaxy and hopping different systems to get to it. the planets are interesting, and i honestly just love mining resources. the game has a really awesome look to it as well, and the scale is really impressive. its alot of fun to lose yourself in. but if your one of those people who just want a doom like experience (just hop in and the action starts) you will not like this game. there is alot of build up to things, and it does take some time to really get into it. for example, my first couple hours were simply finding resources to fix my ship to get it into space. but then the next big thing was - i was going to launch into space in a video game and explore planets. if that prospect interests you get the game. the alien species you encounter vary, but i feel like a dozen hours in i havent even scratched the surface of whats out there.

@shiro2809: thanks but i can't trust that guy as far as i can throw him. from what ive experienced of him he reeks heavily of the angry joe and random steam forumer over reactionary types. i.e. this game is total bullshit! no grey areas.

I don't go to his site or read his reviews, I just check out his videos every now and then but when I heard his site got DDoS'd after the NMS review I had to check it out, he sums up my feelings on the game perfectly. Even if you don't like him for whatever reason I'd still say give it a quick read, or just skim it.

After playing it for (however many hours), I think the biggest problem the game is often it repeats content. Like there will be a flower on one planet, and the same flower might show up again and they call it something different. Its to be expected though based on the size of the universe if you look around enough you're going to see the same assets with different colours eventually, at the very least.

That said, the thing keeping me playing is literally the diversity. I've only been to eight planets so far, but the geographical, environmental, and ecological diversity has made this universe really fun to explore. Like if you find a toxic planet you need to craft something to fend off the toxicity or run between shelters. The resource management stuff feel like a half step. However the very limited storage does give you direction, like "I'm going to focus on just this phase upgrade because if I want to make any kind of money I cant be lugging all this junk around".

I only wish the game delivered more on it's incredibly vague story elements (Grimoire cards? I'm kidding.)

I'm about a dozen hours in as well, and enjoying it way more than I thought I would. After hearing it was a survival game, I was pretty turned off and decided to wait until a steam sale to maybe pick it up. But hearing my coworkers talk about their amazing times with it convinced me to go ahead and pay full price yesterday. I've spent every game-playing hour since "just checking out that next thing on my HUD and then signing off..."

Buy it if:

• You want to explore incredibly large planets with very different feels to each. I spent four hours exploring my starting planet (lucked out and got a temperate planet with lots of minerals, vegetation, docile animals, and friendly alien outposts), and much later two hours exploring a barren wasteland which constantly dumped toxic rain (but which had a metric shit-ton of easy-to-mine rare minerals and alien monoliths to investigate.) Each felt like a completely different game and both were satisfying.
• You like piecing together a rather complex world from fragments of text recovered from terminals, conversations with aliens where you might only understand a few words of what they're saying, or weird interactions with ancient mystical machinery (think the sith artifacts from KOTOR.)
• You're interested in exploring every corner of the environment. If you're only looking for big glowing boxes to deliver tech upgrades, credit bonuses, and suit upgrades, you might miss entire upgrade systems that revolve around checking out tiny glowing boxes and switches and jars containing preserved animal specimens.
• You're down for some constant, though easy, resource management. Every four times your starting ship takes off, you need to refill its launch tanks with Plutonium. It's easy to find, but still a constant resource to find and spend.
• You want to feel like a tiny, insignificant speck in an impossibly large, living world.

Don't buy it if:

• You want epic space battles. They might be in there, but I've only entered one space battle so far and it's clunky at best.
• You want solid FPS combat. I've only entered combat twice with the robotic peacekeeping sentries on-planet, and the combat is also clunky at best.
• You want your hand held. I'm following the "tutorial" path (Atlas) and even with those guiderails, it wasn't until my coworker told me to largely ignore the "do this next" text, slow down, and just explore every planet that I started getting the upgrades, tech, and lore bits that have made the game much more fun. But when you're bored, following the "do this next" prompts does move the game progression along nicely.
• You are expecting an epic narrative. You're nameless, faceless, and of no import to the universe. The universe has interesting lore that plays out in interesting ways, but you just don't matter. There are no characters to speak of.

It is 100% not a AAA narrative action/RPG game that will take you on a grand journey. It's a sandbox that will provide interesting stories the more time that you put into it. Some folks will absolutely be turned off, and that's totally fine. If you're still on the fence, this is a safe "wait for a Steam sale" pick, but I already feel fine about the $60 purchase and can't wait to finish this post and continue playing :)

I get the inspiration for this game. They wanted it to feel like a classic 1970 sci fi movie. But if that were the case, each new planet would offer a story unto itself. Something that's worth visiting or escaping from. From what I've seen so far from the videos out there, this isn't the case right now.

The No Man's Sky game of my dreams, and it's the game that I really wanted this current version to be, is pretty much impossible/too ambitious to do. Imagine a procedurally generated universe with a Star Trek/Buck Rogers episodes vibe. You constantly move between planet to space station to planet. But on the planets would be different experiences and not just "hey this one is green and this one is yellow". But different individual experiences varied enough to keep a player wanting to see what the next planet brings. One planet could have hostile alien races that you need to fight/talk your way out of. Or when you land your ship gets damaged and you need to repair it while there are freaking dinosaurs ready to eat you if you get too far from your ship. Planets that create stories of their own that you can share with your friends while they do the same with you.

Maybe what I am suggesting is why there was so much hype for this game. Maybe people kinda thought this was the kind of game they were making. I don't know, but from what I have seen, there just isn't enough of gameplay to keep me interested.

Even still, I am undecided about getting this game.

This game just feels so boring and empty. I wish I had that $60 back.

You can't have massively procedurally generated universe and hand crafted story from a team of 12.

Exactly. This game seems like a nice first step to achieving that dream game I mentioned. What would No Man's Sky 2 look like?

Btw, I'm no game dev, but i think i could be possible to randomly generate those story moments I mentioned. Other games do that already.

I'm a-ok with the lack of story, it's just that there's nothing to do really. Fly to planet, run around and collect resources, look around, go 'neat' then fly off. Every single planet is the same thing, and most of the time it seems they're not even worth exploring. The planets filled with trees and grass look quite nice though and look like they'd be more fun to explore.

You're absolutely right, but a small team doesn't automatically place a game above reproach.

@humanity: no your right of course. Though I would argue for maybe expectations of such a project in the future to be tempered. Almost impossible I know nowadays.

I'm on the same fence. Basically I've decided to wait for some updates and new content. It looks cool but I'' pick it up when the price has come down a little and they're adding new gameplay systems (base building etc) in the future.

This might be one of those game that, a year or two after launch is notably better than the 'vanilla' base game. And although cool, No Mans Sky is almost the perfect example of a 'vanilla' base game. :/ Plus games are $90 after tax in Canada and that's a lot of scratch.

I was on the fence for this game on PS4 even after reading and watching lots of videos. But then, something great happened. One of the free PS Plus games this month is Rebel Galaxy. I downloaded it, installed it, and played it for about 2 hours before getting bored and putting it down. I don't know that I'll spend any more time with it. I'm not saying Rebel Galaxy is bad, it's just not for me.

I know there are many, many differences in these games, but there are enough similarities for me to understand that No Man's Sky is the kind of game that I won't enjoy. Survival/exploration just doesn't do it for me. I'm super glad I got to test the waters just a bit with Rebel Galaxy before dropping $60 on something I was bound to get bored with.

Playing the game of Steam and am really digging it, but the blurry planet textures are really bumming me out. Has anyone played the PC and PS4 versions? Is the PS4 version as blurry? Haven't heard people complain about how the PS4 version looks.