No Man's Sky

In the end, No Man's Sky is an addicting grind fest of a game that can successfully lure players looking for a relaxing experience of discovery further and further into the vast unknown. It's not action packed, nor is it story intensive. At times it is an intriguing push forward, at others it is a slow burn of slow travel. No Man's Sky certainly isn't for everyone.

No Man's Sky is not the fever dream I imagined when I saw the first trailer. However, it is still an amazing technical feat, even if it's still rather full of bugs.

For the time being, No Man's Sky on PC runs slightly better than the console versions, the control system doesn't work very well with the mouse + keyboard combo, and that's about the only differences worthy of being mentioned. All the potential of the game and the disappointment are still there.

Despite its missed opportunities and forgotten promises, I’m still glad I dropped the money to experience No Man’s Sky. It’s something unique in a world where most of what we get are sequels or off-shoots. Fortune favors the bold, and I hope this is just the beginning of the type of innovation we can expect to see from Hello Games. And frankly, I hope they take all the time they need with their next game.

No Man's Sky breaks the record in falling short of the hype – which is an incredible achievement in the category of super ambitious space games. The huge universe is a repetitive, lifeless and meaningless place, no amount of random generated creatures can change that. The most unforgivable fail is making the spaceship such a pain to fly, which makes exploring the vast universe simply a chore. However, at its best the game is epic and many of the issues should be easy to fix, so this might not be the end of the journey after all. [Sept 2016]

No Man’s Sky is a textbook example of how overenthusiastic PR can hurt a game: in the end, bar was raised so high that fans expecting things that weren’t even promised. To meet such demands, NMS had to be a breakthrough space game with revolutionary procedural generation system and unbelievably advanced AI. Since Hello Games couldn’t conceivably deliver, they should’ve used pre-launch interviews to state, time and again, that it’s just an indie space exploration game with a very routine gameplay loop. [Issue#212, p.50]

Relaxing exploration and some lovely scenery coupled with repetitive systems, frustrating menus, and a lack of real discovery.

It's partially broken, shallow, repetitive and aimless, but hang me, I still kind of love it. [Issue#255, p.56]

While some poorly designed systems and mechanics chip away at your patience, the feeling of flying seamlessly from space down to a peninsula you spotted from orbit never fails to enthrall. [Nov 2016, p.106]

If you enjoy the game art and somewhat hypnotic aimlessness of wandering through generated universe, you could wander for another five or ten years. Otherwise, you leave the game after a few hours never to come back. [Issue#266]

Absolutely bursting with breathtaking vistas, No Man's Sky works best as a stellar walking sim. Sadly the half-baked survival elements only detract from the experience.

An impressive piece of technology capable of generating some truly gorgeous vistas, the game layered on top however disappoints in almost every way and just has no depth. Planets are fun to wander around whilst gathering resources to move on but you won’t linger.

An atmospheric walk through the beautiful worlds soon become a routine stereotype because of very poor game mechanics. It's also drowned by its technical flaws. It can bring some brief relaxation, but isn't immersive enough for deep and long gameplay.

I guess the strongest thing I can say is: I’m struggling to want to play No Man’s Sky again, let alone contemplating getting to the centre of its universe.

No Mans Sky would've made an excellent tech demo of something greater yet to come, or as a $20 independent game from a studio trying to find its footing. It certainly doesn't live up to what was once a marquee title during one of Sony's E3 press conferences, and it doesn't come close to justifying its $60 asking price. No Man's Sky had so much potential in delivering a game that compelled and rewarded unbridled exploration. That it fails to do so only makes its shortcomings more striking, and it's disappointing when compared to how the game was described leading up to its release.