No Man's Sky

Deuce said:

The talk I'm hearing from friends and internet reviewers is pretty much what I expected: tons of samey, unfinished-feeling rocks.

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Reminds me of Destiny's release.

Nilly said:

I like to have a bit more of an objective in my games. I used to be really into open world games but lately they bore me, and this seems like the pinnacle of open world. Even stuff like GTA and Skyrim I feel lack direction when I've played them recently. Might just be a phase I'm in but give me a linear but well crafted experience a la The Last of Us or Spec Ops The Line and I'll have a better time. (Although that said, I've sunk a fair few hours into Kerbal Space Program lately )

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Skyrim had a definitive main quest line to stick with. They also had a bunch of significant multi-part quests.

Fishking said:

Skyrim had a definitive main quest line to stick with. They also had a bunch of significant multi-part quests.

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I felt that Skyrim had one of the best mixes of open-world content plus a definite storyline, with dozens and dozens of subplots and quests ranging from short and simple to long and complex.


Wonder when someone will think to combine the hand-crafted and proceedure-generated approaches for a space game... some worlds are generic, some are custom, some of the generics have custom features, etc...

Goshin said:

I felt that Skyrim had one of the best mixes of open-world content plus a definite storyline, with dozens and dozens of subplots and quests ranging from short and simple to long and complex.


Wonder when someone will think to combine the hand-crafted and proceedure-generated approaches for a space game... some worlds are generic, some are custom, some of the generics have custom features, etc...

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The problem is scale. Hand-crafting even a single planet is impractical, you'd have to use semi-automated tools anyway. Any custom content would be relegated to one or two "point of interest" areas on the planet, and the entire rest of the surface would be the same procedural crap.

Fishking said:

Skyrim had a definitive main quest line to stick with. They also had a bunch of significant multi-part quests.

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I know, don't get me wrong it's a great game, but on my second play through I found myself bee lining through the main quest line, and IMO if you don't explore the open world you're not really seeing the full potential of the game. Just wasn't enjoying the exploring. As I say, lately I've just preferred something a bit more linear.

Deuce said:

The problem is scale. Hand-crafting even a single planet is impractical, you'd have to use semi-automated tools anyway. Any custom content would be relegated to one or two "point of interest" areas on the planet, and the entire rest of the surface would be the same procedural crap.

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There was an old "tabletop" RPG called "Traveller", one of the very first science fiction role playing games.


At the time, it seemed pretty awesome. There was a proceedural planet generator system which was pretty interesting, and produced a digital code that described the planet's vital statistics in a reasonably succinct manner. You could then, if you wanted, customize the details... but since the scale of a typical campaign could include dozens if not hundreds of worlds/systems, most would remain relatively generic.

Supplements later detailed a lot of the more important worlds and whatnot, but the basic rules were rather skeletal, a framework to build on.


The random world generator could produce some bizarre results also... like a world with a corrosive atmosphere but billions of inhabitants! And a relatively low tech level also. Made no sense, so I concluded that most of the inhabitants were a native species that could breathe the atmosphere without harm. A later supplement said the same thing, but in more detail.



Basically, there were about a dozen options per category, middle ones more common and higher/lower numbers more rare... bell-curve... a quick calculation says there would be about 45 million possible combinations. As with all paper-and-pen RPGs of course, the details depended on the imagination of the referee....


One thing about the old book-and-dice RPGs, they could be a lot more flexible and versatile than computer RPGs, if you had a good GM.

Nilly said:

I like to have a bit more of an objective in my games. I used to be really into open world games but lately they bore me, and this seems like the pinnacle of open world. Even stuff like GTA and Skyrim I feel lack direction when I've played them recently. Might just be a phase I'm in but give me a linear but well crafted experience a la The Last of Us or Spec Ops The Line and I'll have a better time. (Although that said, I've sunk a fair few hours into Kerbal Space Program lately )

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That is my biggest issue with open world games. The novelty wears off pretty quick. Honestly as I have gotten older, gaming in general has become less entertaining.


Sent from my grapefruit using smoke signals.

Goshin said:

There was an old "tabletop" RPG called "Traveller", one of the very first science fiction role playing games.


At the time, it seemed pretty awesome. There was a proceedural planet generator system which was pretty interesting, and produced a digital code that described the planet's vital statistics in a reasonably succinct manner. You could then, if you wanted, customize the details... but since the scale of a typical campaign could include dozens if not hundreds of worlds/systems, most would remain relatively generic.

Supplements later detailed a lot of the more important worlds and whatnot, but the basic rules were rather skeletal, a framework to build on.


The random world generator could produce some bizarre results also... like a world with a corrosive atmosphere but billions of inhabitants! And a relatively low tech level also. Made no sense, so I concluded that most of the inhabitants were a native species that could breathe the atmosphere without harm. A later supplement said the same thing, but in more detail.



Basically, there were about a dozen options per category, middle ones more common and higher/lower numbers more rare... bell-curve... a quick calculation says there would be about 45 million possible combinations. As with all paper-and-pen RPGs of course, the details depended on the imagination of the referee....


One thing about the old book-and-dice RPGs, they could be a lot more flexible and versatile than computer RPGs, if you had a good GM.

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Honestly that sounds cool and that and NMS makes me think about the universe. There has to be


Sent from my grapefruit using smoke signals.

Nilly said:

I know, don't get me wrong it's a great game, but on my second play through I found myself bee lining through the main quest line, and IMO if you don't explore the open world you're not really seeing the full potential of the game. Just wasn't enjoying the exploring. As I say, lately I've just preferred something a bit more linear.

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I don't know why, because you could develop a character however you wanted, but the lack of definitive different classes of characters is what bothered me the most.

I've now got a couple of hours into the game and what I can tell you so far is that it's interesting. I can't really give it a thumbs up or a thumbs down yet because I get the impression that I haven't yet scratched the surface of the game.

There is no doubt that the focus is on wandering around and collecting stuff to make more stuff. That much I get!:lamo

It took a little while to figure out how to use the inventory, make necessary parts, etc. There isn't a tutorial but the process it pretty straight forward. There's also a marker for where your ship is so getting lost isn't too much of a problem.

What I've got so far is that I need to keep a good supply of various material to re-energize my suit, tool and ship. Some of what I need is readily available everywhere and other stuff is a lot harder to come by. That doesn't seem to be much different than any other game.

What is different is the scale of things. The planets I've checked out so far are all huge. I'm not sure it would be possible to fully explore one on foot and even flying over the surface would take a while. Traveling from one planet to another is also straight forward and there is variety though I suspect that there will be more variety as I travel farther. My understanding is that planets vary based, in part, on their distance from their sun and the type of star their sun is. I wasn't seeing big differences at first but it occurs to me that I haven't traveled out of even one solar system yet.

There is definitely lore attached to either the system you're in or, perhaps, the whole universe. I've run across one race of aliens but have seen sign of a second race.

My guess is that this is going to require another bunch of hours before I can really do justice to a review.

Lutherf said:

I've now got a couple of hours into the game and what I can tell you so far is that it's interesting. I can't really give it a thumbs up or a thumbs down yet because I get the impression that I haven't yet scratched the surface of the game.

There is no doubt that the focus is on wandering around and collecting stuff to make more stuff. That much I get!:lamo

It took a little while to figure out how to use the inventory, make necessary parts, etc. There isn't a tutorial but the process it pretty straight forward. There's also a marker for where your ship is so getting lost isn't too much of a problem.

What I've got so far is that I need to keep a good supply of various material to re-energize my suit, tool and ship. Some of what I need is readily available everywhere and other stuff is a lot harder to come by. That doesn't seem to be much different than any other game.

What is different is the scale of things. The planets I've checked out so far are all huge. I'm not sure it would be possible to fully explore one on foot and even flying over the surface would take a while. Traveling from one planet to another is also straight forward and there is variety though I suspect that there will be more variety as I travel farther. My understanding is that planets vary based, in part, on their distance from their sun and the type of star their sun is. I wasn't seeing big differences at first but it occurs to me that I haven't traveled out of even one solar system yet.

There is definitely lore attached to either the system you're in or, perhaps, the whole universe. I've run across one race of aliens but have seen sign of a second race.

My guess is that this is going to require another bunch of hours before I can really do justice to a review.

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How would you say the gameplay is so far? Like how much are you actually enjoying the game?

TheGoverness said:

How would you say the gameplay is so far? Like how much are you actually enjoying the game?

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It's not an action game by any stretch. So far I've been taken out by "sentries" but it seems that they only attack if you attack them first or if they get it into their heads that you're tearing up the environment too much. There's plenty to explore and you'll run across assorted buildings, debris and artifacts enough to keep it interesting. Once you figure out how to make money that gives you something else to do. I'm still not sure what some stuff does or how to access certain places so I know I'm missing out on a few things.

I've never really played a game quite like this so it's a little difficult to evaluate it in terms of "like/don't like" yet. At this point it's mostly learning and that's fun though not necessarily exciting. I will say that inventory space is REALLY limited right now so I'm constantly trying to sort out what I need, what I can get rid of and what I want to hang on to for a little longer so I can sell it. The planet I started on had tons of gold deposits so I was able to sell that and come up with a respectable amount of cash but, unfortunately, I can't find that planet now that I have discovered I need a whole lot more money to buy a ship with more capacity.

I think I've got interplanetary travel down and know what to look for when I land so that I can refuel. That's a plus. I also figured out that I can fly over planets at low altitude to discover new places instead of just walking everywhere. That has also opened up some more options.

Right now I'd definitely say I'm enjoying the game but it's kind of weird that NPC's are few and far between while other players just aren't around. There isn't even a normal tutorial so you're very much alone in the universe. As far as gameplay goes I haven't run into any issues. Everything seems to run nice and smooth. The mechanics of getting from planet to planet are clean and there are no load screens I've run across yet. Flight controls on my current ship get the job done but it damned sure isn't Sky Fox.

While it appear that there aren't any puzzles (ie. find this, use it on that to get in there) the lore aspect leads me to believe that the whole game is a massive puzzle to be solved. I almost get the impression that I'm supposed to be looking for the meaning of the universe or something.

Goshin said:

I felt that Skyrim had one of the best mixes of open-world content plus a definite storyline, with dozens and dozens of subplots and quests ranging from short and simple to long and complex.


Wonder when someone will think to combine the hand-crafted and proceedure-generated approaches for a space game... some worlds are generic, some are custom, some of the generics have custom features, etc...

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been thinking along those lines myself it would be nice to have endless worlds in games or at least full sized ones even if most of it has nothing to do with the plot

never did like getting to the invisible wall at the border of the game in sky rim or oblivion

Been playing this game for about 10 hours throughout the week. It's definitely not for the C.O.D. bros who can't enjoy a game without blood and bullets. This game reminds me of Sega Genesis' old "Starflight" game. The fun is in the exploration. I was up until 2am the other night. "Just...one...more...hyperjump." You definitely need a healthy dose of imagination with this game.

I can't wait to see what kind of planet I'll find next. Will it be frozen? Will it be molten? Will it be radioactive?
I can't wait to see what's in the next star system. Will I find more more alien words to decipher? Will I find a new starship?

It's a nice relaxing game. If I wanna try and burn through the game, I can. If I want to take my time and explore a planet for an hour? I can do that too.

Granted...after too long, I might get bored with NMS, but I would think that I'd at least get my money's worth out of the game, unlike some of those "bro" shooter games that are over within 8 hours of play.

I'm probably going to get this in a week or two. Looking forward to it.

Hmm thought this was an online game.... but it aint. Guess one could "try before you buy" via the underbelly of the internet.. not that big a download.

if i had a bit more free time, this would be a game that i would find interesting.

PeteEU said:

Hmm thought this was an online game.... but it aint. Guess one could "try before you buy" via the underbelly of the internet.. not that big a download.

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It was a surprisingly small download and, frankly, the game has become more engaging the more I play. I've been a little slow picking up some of the nuances of how all the various mechanics work but as I sort things out what started as tedium now has a good bit more meaning.

Lutherf said:

It was a surprisingly small download and, frankly, the game has become more engaging the more I play. I've been a little slow picking up some of the nuances of how all the various mechanics work but as I sort things out what started as tedium now has a good bit more meaning.

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Yes it was.. and easy "illegal install".. and nothing works. Hmm okay it is an illegal copy, so that might be it... but what the hell, I start googling. No it is a common problem even with Steam. Why? Oh, look at the requirements...

OS: Windows 7-10, 64 bit version - CHECK.. but wtf 64 bit version requirement?
Processor: Intel Core i3 ... CHECK, but no AMD?
Memory: 8 GB ram..CHECK, but wow wtf?
Graphics card: nVidia GTX 480, AMD Radeon 7870... NOT CHECK..quite high requirements to be honest.. why? Oh because the game requires OpenGL 4.5... seriously? No wonder there are so many complaints over the game not working, as AMD does not support OpenGL 4.5, and nVidia barely does..

Thank god for pirate software as it saved me 60 euros for a game that can not play because of the developer being a dick.

I got a few more hours into the game over the weekend and here's where I'm at -

1. There is a lot of similarity between planets but that's not necessarily a bad thing. All the landscapes I've hit so far (maybe 11 planets) are rugged terrain. So far collectible minerals have all had essentially the same appearance on each planet. Plutonium, for example, seems to show up as a red crystal formation on every planet. Every planet appears to have caves and giant monolith looking outcroppings of certain elements. Every planet seems to have the same kind of buildings scattered around and the buildings all seem to be cut from the same set of plans. You tend to run into a lot of the same technology drops when you find stuff.

2. All of the similarities listed in #1 should make this game just another grind but it's not coming off that way. Some planets have lots of plants and animals, some are blazing hot, some are saturated with toxic rain, some have highly combative "sentries". These factors, along with a bunch of others, make planetary exploration just different enough that it keeps things interesting. Furthermore, there's a certain sense of purpose in learning new alien words and lore. While you don't encounter tons of NPC's you do get better reactions from the ones you come across when you understand a few words of their language or respond to them in a culturally appropriate way.

3. This game can be a time sink on (or exceeding) the scale of Civilization. The urge to see what's at that next marker on a planet or to discover a crashed ship you can nurse back to service or see what you glean from the next monument is pretty much irresistible. The urge to mine a few hundred units of Aluminum to sell at a space station or a trade outpost is intoxicating. The urge to rocket over to the next unexplored planet is every bit as tangible as the urge to eat that next potato chip. I was kind of surprised to see that I sat down to play for a few minutes before dinner only to turn around and realize that 4 hours had passed.

4. I've made a few discoveries that really changed my attitude about the game but I don't really want to talk about them because the whole point of the game is discovery.

I still don't know exactly how to characterize this game. I suspect that if you like the Civilization games you'll like this one too though the games are definitely not in the same category.

It's like....I know I should be bored with this damn thing....but I'm not.

I keep finding myself saying "wow" under my breath. Again...if you lack imagination, or are only interested in those linear first-person bro-shooters, then don't get this game.

It's a game full of "little things" that add up to a compelling game. The color of the star influences the lighting of the planets. Feeding some dog-looking dinosaur makes it prance around with a little happy face above it. Trolling around a planet looking for 2001-like monoliths that let you learn new words to an alien language. Coming across a black hole, and debating with yourself whether or not diving into it would kill you, or put you through a wormhole.

I swear...if I were into recreational drugs, this game would melt my brain.

Velvet Elvis said:

It's like....I know I should be bored with this damn thing....but I'm not.

I keep finding myself saying "wow" under my breath. Again...if you lack imagination, or are only interested in those linear first-person bro-shooters, then don't get this game.

It's a game full of "little things" that add up to a compelling game. The color of the star influences the lighting of the planets. Feeding some dog-looking dinosaur makes it prance around with a little happy face above it. Trolling around a planet looking for 2001-like monoliths that let you learn new words to an alien language. Coming across a black hole, and debating with yourself whether or not diving into it would kill you, or put you through a wormhole.

I swear...if I were into recreational drugs, this game would melt my brain.

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That's where I'm at with it too. I just spent the better part of two hours repairing a wrecked ship that's only slightly better than what I have because....well, because I feel like it.

PeteEU said:

Yes it was.. and easy "illegal install".. and nothing works. Hmm okay it is an illegal copy, so that might be it... but what the hell, I start googling. No it is a common problem even with Steam. Why? Oh, look at the requirements...

OS: Windows 7-10, 64 bit version - CHECK.. but wtf 64 bit version requirement?
Processor: Intel Core i3 ... CHECK, but no AMD?
Memory: 8 GB ram..CHECK, but wow wtf?
Graphics card: nVidia GTX 480, AMD Radeon 7870... NOT CHECK..quite high requirements to be honest.. why? Oh because the game requires OpenGL 4.5... seriously? No wonder there are so many complaints over the game not working, as AMD does not support OpenGL 4.5, and nVidia barely does..

Thank god for pirate software as it saved me 60 euros for a game that can not play because of the developer being a dick.

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The user reviews are savage on metacritic, first time Ive ever seen a game get criticized this badly.

PoS said:

The user reviews are savage on metacritic, first time Ive ever seen a game get criticized this badly.

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I've been seeing that but it's just plain not a game people have seen before. If you like to use your imagination and constantly see what's different over the next hill you'll love this game. If you want your story handed to you you'll hate it.

PeteEU said:

Yes it was.. and easy "illegal install".. and nothing works. Hmm okay it is an illegal copy, so that might be it... but what the hell, I start googling. No it is a common problem even with Steam. Why? Oh, look at the requirements...

OS: Windows 7-10, 64 bit version - CHECK.. but wtf 64 bit version requirement?
Processor: Intel Core i3 ... CHECK, but no AMD?
Memory: 8 GB ram..CHECK, but wow wtf?
Graphics card: nVidia GTX 480, AMD Radeon 7870... NOT CHECK..quite high requirements to be honest.. why? Oh because the game requires OpenGL 4.5... seriously? No wonder there are so many complaints over the game not working, as AMD does not support OpenGL 4.5, and nVidia barely does..

Thank god for pirate software as it saved me 60 euros for a game that can not play because of the developer being a dick.

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If your graphics card is less powerful than a 7870 or 480, it's ancient and the fault is not the developers.

If your graphics card is more powerful than that, odds are you need to update the drivers.