No Man's Sky: To Buy, or Not To Buy?

So, unless you follow me on Twitter (you probably don't), you don't know that I was a day one player for No Man's Sky. I preordered it and got my Day One DLC Preorder Bonus (A ship, 10k units, and a multi-tool better than the starter tool) and powered up and started play that same night.

My first impression? Unimpressed.

For anyone who is loyally reading this blog, you all know I'm really big on space themed media. Check my later reviews on movies such as Europa Report and Interstellar. (One day I plan on writing a full expose on why Mass Effect is one of the greatest video game series' of all time but that'll be pretty lengthy so...you know...don't hold your breath.) There's also Subnautica which, in it's own way is also a space themed game. Space is quite literally the last frontier, and there will never be an over abundance of games for that genre, so long as it's done right. No Man's Sky was so very, very close. No Man's Sky, however, fell short.

I don't know how many hours I've put into No Man's Sky. I'd probably be depressed if I looked into it (it'll never surpass my time on Skyrim at 300+), but regardless, I'm at over ten warps (going from one star system to another) and I still don't have an Atlas Pass v1. I'm not sure if I'm missing large portions of the game at this point, but I'm wagering I probably have because most doors are now requiring a v2 Atlas Pass. My research has shown that no current bugs exist concerning the Atlas Pass, so I'm uncertain if I've missed something or if the point in time in which you are able to receive your pass is vastly varied.

IGN however noted a very interesting day one bug for those accessing their Day One DLC, which made me very glad that I didn't access mine same day as this probably would have called me to return this game same day (see what I did there? Ha ha...ha...sorry.)

Also, what is with the procedural generation in this game? I see little to no differences in planetary topography, and when it comes to the generation of creatures in the game...well, this sums it up pretty accurately I feel:

I've literally run into the same vicious little praying mantis spider crab creature on so many different planets now that the last one I encountered I named "The Herpes of the Galaxy" - granted, their scientific classifications differ from planet to planet despite their biology not changing in the least, so the name isn't universal, just for that one planet. (On that note, is there an online catalogue of all the creatures found in No Man's Sky? I've been leaving a hilarious trail of names since I started and I'd hate to think that these aren't being saved somewhere).

I could go on, and I undoubtedly will throughout the length of this blog, but lets touch back to my first point of the game. I was unimpressed.

Why?

Well, for starters, I guess I expected to be more awed by the introduction into No Man's Sky. In a sense I feel that the game chokes its own sense of scope at the beginning, and every time thereafter. Perhaps a more visual reference of distance traversed (a galactic map?) would have helped sober me some more and provide some pride for my accomplishments, but alas, I've nothing of the sort.

Secondly, a game of this epic of a proportion (despite its many disappointments along the way) really deserves an epic soundtrack. None of the music here stands out. In fact, it's almost as bland as each of the landscapes I'm trucking around on while playing. This is the first game where Spotify has become a constant companion during exploration because the actual music is boring and repetitive.

Third, space combat is terrible! This was, and remains, a major component of this game! I have people chasing me down all of the time, and combat between me and even one other ship will often destroy my shields between 1-3 times before I can take them down. I have no real way to move and fire accurately. Each ship I find has a minimum of 16-19 slots, and 75-80% of those already taken up with the necessities of space ship operation (apparently) leaving little to no room for current upgrades - not that I'm receiving very many anyway! Virtually all of my "recipes" are already known, rendering a good portion of upgrades unattainable and leaving me with no reason to go looking for very many resources.

Fourthly, it is harder than FUCK to actually find lifeforms on a planet, at least all of the lifeforms. You'd think there'd be some semblance of logic involved, such as narrowing down food and water sources and isolating planetary pockets to guarantee a higher percentage of lifeforms results? Nope. Random wandering is the only way you'll find any of this shit. Bullshit. Scientific exploration apparently only goes so far in No Man's Sky, and on that note...

Gas giants. Water sources on planets. Breathable air for your main character. None of these things are in high supply, or even intermediate supply. Some of them aren't even options at all! Yet the universe demands that there at least be some forms of liquid on planets, and various planets that do not even consist of solid matter at all. Furthermore, while environments such as heat, frost, and radiation exist, what about various amounts of gravitational pulls? I find it hard to believe that each planet has the same level of gravity given their placement not only in the galaxy, but to their respective stars in their solar systems as well. Also, what about the blatant lack of black holes? Every galaxy has them, and generally in massive quantities (our own is no exception in this). Where are they in Euclid? Apparently no where. So we're in some weird ass galaxy that doesn't even behave by the few known rules of chemistry and physics as it stands today. I don't like that. It's a massive oversight in supposed creativity, and cheapens the feel of what I know space to be like.

At the end of the day I didn't feel as though I was exploring anything amazing or even really all that foreign. The only thing weird about this galaxy was it's sheer lack of any known information of the galaxy. That, and floating copper boulders.

So, to buy or not to buy?

Not to buy, I'd say, but only because this game did not feature 90% of what we were told would be there, and DLC is likely not to change any of that, providing we get any DLC at all. If you can find it for under $30 I'd say you could probably get a good few weeks to a months worth of relaxing game time out of it, but not much more than that.