Before-purchase thoughts on No Man's Sky

So lets talk about No Man's Sky and the initial reception. The game has quickly become somewhat of another Spore, just as I figured it kind of would. Infinite worlds of possibility, you can go and touch them all, and then people say... boring? Well not everyone. Actually at least a 1/3rd of the people uttering it are talking out of Lets Plays, because watching is apparently supposed to be the thrill instead of playing. However there's already a moan of disappointment coming out of gamers making the circles, as well as finger-pointing, and mocking the team's vocal director. Something clearly went wrong, but I think its more on the end of hype. Look I don't know everything, and I'm going to proclaim that as loud as possible. (including the title, this happened without having or playing the game.) I have only read bits and pieces of what the game is about, and formed a general quality check on what people have came to conclude. I've got two responses to add to that: I'm optimistically curious enough to stop looking into spoilery content and wish to get this at a cheaper price, and #2 is: I told you so.

Heck you know what, I told you twice in two different ways. People who were disappointed with this game stopped looking at it as a game, and looked at it through some 3rd eye imagination. They heard of the big scope, heard there was multiplayer, and space travel, and thought they'd be on the biggest most endless and incredible space adventure game ever. They failed to listen to the damn gameplay mechanics, a huge problem I dedicated an article to where they can't seem to distinguish a game's depth from its premise, and will selectively choose to run wild with the premise. I even called it specifically out with this line "Then there's the upcoming No Man's Sky where I've already discussed the net has this problem of being super hyped over sheer scope in space." Oh but I also warned you sooner in this article all about No Man's Sky and how it wasn't likely worth its price tag.  In the article, I specifically said this very relevant-to-today line...

"Its an exploration game based on scope, and very basic elements of essentially sight seeing. There's some upgrades going on in the background, but it basically seems to funnel into just making exploration easier like getting a better suit for hostile environments. That scope is gloated about because of just how huge it is though. Its an entire universe boxed up into a game. How can they do that? Well, its computer generated. Five years ago this would have been incredible and unimaginable, but honestly that's just another tick off the box for your generic indie game on steam now. Its actually not but so impressive. The size and scale is still there, but ultimately we've seen these games enough to know the seasoned gamer will easily catch the patterns quickly and want something a bit more... developed."

Yet what are people doing? Already moaning about how repetitive the side-quests are. They're moaning about the progression grind, how its just another survival indie crafter, the tediousness, how its minecraft in space, or how shallow (or even broken) the multiplayer is. That tedious work is all par for the course of what I was talking about. You'll see the seams in the machine-sowed world, you'll notice the gameplay rhythm, and once you do the immersion and wonder gets can fade. Whether that happens over a month into the game, or your first few hours in, depends on how much this kind of game appeals to you.  Oh except the multiplayer, that has little to do with the tediousness, and more to do with how many times they back-paddled the multiplayer-wowing, and switched to more of a "THIS IS NOT A BIG MULTIPLAYER GAME!" like five-to-six times before launch. Again, pay attention to the gameplay related news, and not just buzzwords that fuel your imaginations on what the game will be. That doesn't excuse the issue where two people met up and failed to see each other, but that oddball case aside, it was clear this wasn't some game where you're starting clans and waging wars against people in some action packed way, nor was it made to co-op with your best friend. In the developer's own words for those not paying attention, this was always going to be "a niche game and it’s a very very chill game."

Okay so now that we have all that said and done, lets talk more positive. I'm not trying to tear the game apart, and I'm not against the people who are genuinely happy. Some people just wanted a really awesome big 3D space world to travel in, run into mysterious caves, see where your new equipment will take you, and learn about alien life. No Man's Sky has that in a big way, and I'm not the only person to suspect that its practically the closest we'll get to a spaceman spiff video game, and that is the best selling point you could possibly give to me because it almost makes my imagination run with the game (as in being in awe at each new planet, and curious as to decode its stories and place) rather than against it. Under that light, and the way its been dubbed "addictively boring", I get it and kind of want to dabble in that sort of game. There's a part of me that really just wants to go to each place, just to look up into the night sky and be in complete wonder at the skybox... then go and play with the weird deer dog people of planet Nogg Prime.

However I'm not sure how or when the mood for that type of fun will occur to me, and if its the sort of thing I'd put down $60 for. Its a shame that such a price tag is holding this game back for me, and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it drops down to a more typical indie survival crafter price soon.... or at least comes to redbox. Until then, there's Abzu for $20, and that holds a very similar place if its anything like Journey. Meanwhile I'm trying to steer away from spoiling stuff. Even merely skimming videos, I found a guy going to a planet with floating sky-islands, and I just had my mind blown and went "I wish that was my discovery..." and closed it because I didn't want to see anything else without being there. This game is a bit personal to the idea of discovery, and so it'd be awful to discover it all through some internet video someone else is playing.

Look and gaze in wonder, and then you'll find joy

So for what it's worth, don't touch this game unless you really understand what you're getting into. This isn't some epic space shooter, the ultimate everything-in-a-box spaceship game, its rather the journey of a lonely adventurer trying to make his way in the world. Its essentially about you, and your discovery of a nearly empty universe, and that's kind of not what your average gamer is necessarily looking for. The big sellers go to competitive sports games and easy FPS games. Games with flashy show-off motions, and being a breezing power-fantasy of some kind. I myself love that with the right depth applied, which is why Doom and Dishonored are incredible games to me, they're power-fantasies of monster bashing space-marines, or sneaky magical thief-assassins you can just goof around with. No Man's Sky isn't that kind of thing, its a spaceman spiff sort of game about getting lost and mellowed out in a vast universe, in the same way a Minecraft fan can just lose an hour to seeing how deep a cave goes or can be modified. I kind of love that notion when its applied to space, but not for the same way and price I'd pay for Doom & Dishonored. However it does touch a few people in a good way, and on that note I hope they're really having a good time.