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No Man's Sky - Early Impressions/Reviews-in-progress Thread

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Klyka

Banned
If you're getting into Elite because you want a better NMS, you will be solely disappointed the first time you "dock" at a space station or land on the surface of a planet (one you can actually land on that is).

Elite has an in depth space combat (and also a ground combat but not as in depth and not on foot) system + their entire galaxy for free exploration in your ship and on atmosphereless planets.

No Man's Sky has the landing on planets and walking around stuff but all of the gameplay stuff is severely lacking.

So basically, both games right now are on opposite ends of the spectrum.

Elite is adding the things that No Man's Sky has right now.
We can believe that No Man's Sky might add the things Elite has right now.
 
One can a like that game, but speaking of endless diversity and enjoy of exploring is embarrassing.

You got all themes after visiting a few planets and this themes vary only a bit from then on. And on top of that planets fauna and flora is often really randomize and does not work in context of the surrounding. For example big creatures on a barebone planet, they probably eat stones to get so big. The game seems to have no physics or "nature laws" that are resemble anything we know or even make sense in the context of the game. It's all a big colorful mashup of nothingness.
 

Irminsul

Member
This; as an avid Elite player a lot of people are going to be sorely dissapointed if they buy Elite Dangerous expecting it to be similar to NMS.
I don't expect that at all, that's why I said if I want Euro Truck Simulator in space, NMS isn't for me. Because it doesn't deliver on the "getting there is part of the challenge" part, i.e., the simulation of it all.
 
I think this is one of the games where you can extract from the review score how long a reviewer played it. Like played more than 3 hours or not.

.

That's nonsense. Some people like games with grindy game mechanics so if the reviewer is one of those people they will be much more forgiving whereas someone else may just drop it at that point and not want any more.

Don't agree with what you said about seeing all planet variety within 7 or so visits, so far for me that's not accurate at all.
 

Z3M0G

Member
This game had TWO months of 'IGN First' coverage... and I sensed they were frustrated through that process and got almost nothing out of it.

IGN US is gonna butcher this game.
 
give me that Previously Recorded review on NMS

nm9EfCD.jpg
 
I feel like they might should have focused on a maybe smaller universe with more detail, random for each player and seeds for universe generation. And seeing as Multiplayer is basically non-existent, it only makes more sense. The more planets I see, I feel like they basically look the same with different colors. All planets having only one biome is a big part of that I think. Maybe quintillion should have been reduced to billion or million for the sake of working on more complicated ecosystems.

I love what Hello Games has done, this is a great start, but it really needs refinement I think.

I still want to play the game for myself, but I'm not quite as excited as I thought I'd be.
 
In terms of space exportation, this is the current state of procedural planets in games with this scale and/or seamless landings. Elite Dangerous is gorgeous, has an awesome scale and scope, and is my first space sim so it's special to me, but its worlds are like this. Evochron Legacy and Space Engineers are the other ones

No Man's Sky

Astroneer is the only one I've seen that really compares in terms of vibrant style and variety, but that's not out till Fall
 

Reckheim

Member
I don't expect that at all, that's why I said if I want Euro Truck Simulator in space, NMS isn't for me. Because it doesn't deliver on the "getting there is part of the challenge" part, i.e., the simulation of it all.

Sorry; I didn't mean you in particular. I just don't want people thinking Elite is a pick up and play type of game like NMS. There isn't much hand holding if any at all.

Not to mention NMS is mostly about exploration and that is one area that Elite needs a lot of work on ATM.
 

Aaron D.

Member


Seems if I want "Euro Truck Simulator in space" Elite: Dangerous is the far better choice. Oh well.

VideoGamer.com[/url said:
"No Man’s Sky’s contemporaries – namely Elite Dangerous and Star Citizen – make a point of having your ship feel like a real machine, with screens to monitor, systems to manage, and controls to learn. Overshooting your destination is possible. The vast distances involved require skill and smarts to conquer. The fact that Elite’s galaxy is made up of endlessly repeated shit is somewhat mitigated by the attention demanded by its finer details. Another valid comparison is Euro Truck Simulator – a game that’s dull as fuck, but gets away with it by putting all of the player’s attention on the driving, not the destination."

"...No Man’s Sky doesn’t have time for any of that. Interplanetary travel is as easy as pointing your nose at a planet (that usually fills about 20% of your screen) and engaging the pulse drive. Landing is automatic, and requires no more interaction than a single button press."

"...It’s not that No Man’s Sky is wrong to attempt to simplify space travel, or to take the minutiae of it out of the player’s hands. It’s just that it does so to such an extent that getting around its galaxy is devoid of any tension. The stakes are so low that the space travel itself, the very thing people buy this to do, becomes little more than a nicely shaded loading screen between locations which, behind the window dressing, are functionally identical."


Aaaand I'm not on board anymore.

LOL. I keep going back and forth on this game like it's a tennis match.

But ultimately I was hoping for a relaxing ETS in space experience more than anything. None of the above sounds like it hits the mark for what I'm looking for out of the game.

It's certainly still on my radar. But I'll wait to see how the dev matures the game over time with patch updates.
 

RK9039

Member
This is the current state of procedural planets in games with this scale and/or seamless landings. Elite Dangerous is gorgeous, has an awesome scale and scope, and is my first space sim so it's special to me, but its worlds are like this. Evochron Legacy and Space Engineers are the other ones

Astroneer is the only one I've seen that really compares in terms of vibrant style and variety, but that's not out till Fall

Nicee, I'm really looking forward to Astroneer. Hopefully Frontier are able to wow us with atmospheric planets too.

Anyway here's this other game with procedural planets.

 
Are there any Space games out there coming out that aren't procedural?

NMS was sort of the final nail in the procedural coffin for me so I'd love to see something going the opposite direction in regards to that, any recommendations?
 

Tomat

Wanna hear a good joke? Waste your time helping me! LOL!
Sorry; I didn't mean you in particular. I just don't want people thinking Elite is a pick up and play type of game like NMS. There isn't much hand holding if any at all.

Not to mention NMS is mostly about exploration and that is one area that Elite needs a lot of work on ATM.
That's fair. I should have explained further in that I'd rather take a game with deeper action and flight components than one with a shallow exploration competent and seemingly not much else.

It's a poor comparison to make I guess. The reason I brought Elite up at all was just because I have seen it mentioned a lot this week. Reminds me that I should give it a look.

With that said, I still want to give NMS a fair shot so I still plan on getting it for now. I really want to like the game for what it seems to be, an easygoing exploration game. (Although the "low stakes" description in the Vodeogamer review kind of sucks. Sounds like the game would be more interesting with more ship control and danger)
 

jaaz

Member
Are there any Space games out there coming out that aren't procedural?

NMS was sort of the final nail in the procedural coffin for me so I'd love to see something going the opposite direction in regards to that, any recommendations?

Sta Citizen won't feature all procedural planets. They will have some planets with landing zones that have fully-fleshed out space ports/city scapes, as well as procedural planets. That's Chris Robert's vision anyways.

If you're shooting for a universe where you can land just about on any planet, I don't think you can get away from procedural generation of some sort.
 
Sta Citizen won't feature all procedural planets. They will have some planets with landing zones that have fully-fleshed out space ports/city scapes, as well as procedural planets. That's Chris Robert's vision anyways.

If you're shooting for a universe where you can land just about on any planet, I don't think you can get away from procedural generation of some sort.

I should've clarified that I'm in no way expecting it to be some vast universe full of planets, no. Like you said, that'd be absurd to expect. More like a handful of really fleshed-out planets more like stages.

Maybe in reality I just want Metroid Prime 4...then again who doesn't?
 

mokeyjoe

Member
In terms of space exportation, this is the current state of procedural planets in games with this scale and/or seamless landings. Elite Dangerous is gorgeous, has an awesome scale and scope, and is my first space sim so it's special to me, but its worlds are like this. Evochron Legacy and Space Engineers are the other ones




Astroneer is the only one I've seen that really compares in terms of vibrant style and variety, but that's not out till Fall

Yeah, they always look so barren though. I don't think there's a game out there which really compares with NMS in terms of the amount of stuff it piles into worlds. It's not always perfect, and some of the things it throws up end up being kinda silly, but at least there's 'stuff'.
 

Kacho

Member
In terms of space exportation, this is the current state of procedural planets in games with this scale and/or seamless landings. Elite Dangerous is gorgeous, has an awesome scale and scope, and is my first space sim so it's special to me, but its worlds are like this. Evochron Legacy and Space Engineers are the other ones




Astroneer is the only one I've seen that really compares in terms of vibrant style and variety, but that's not out till Fall

Nice man. I'm gonna do some research on Evochron Legacy and Astroneer. I had no clue either existed but they look great.

Also, Space Engineers sounds like a much better game now than when I last looked at it. It's been in EA forever though. That worries me.

Also also, I need to fire up Elite again. It's been a while and the planet stuff seems neat.

Guess I have a space-sim weekend ahead of me.
 

mokeyjoe

Member
Elite has an in depth space combat (and also a ground combat but not as in depth and not on foot) system + their entire galaxy for free exploration in your ship and on atmosphereless planets.

No Man's Sky has the landing on planets and walking around stuff but all of the gameplay stuff is severely lacking.

So basically, both games right now are on opposite ends of the spectrum.

Elite is adding the things that No Man's Sky has right now.
We can believe that No Man's Sky might add the things Elite has right now.

Yes. I do feel it might be easier for NMS to add the Elite stuff than vice versa.
 

Aaron D.

Member
Also, Space Engineers sounds like a much better game now than when I last looked at it. It's been in EA forever though. That worries me.

Also also, I need to fire up Elite again. It's been a while and the planet stuff seems neat.

Guess I have a space-sim weekend ahead of me.

The current Humble Survival Bundle has Space Engineers in the BTA tier for just over $5.

I'm also strongly considering re-downloading Elite. I've got about 25 hours into it, but I never picked up the Season Pass with the planetary landings.

Wonder if that's cheap anywhere?
 

Kacho

Member
Are there any Space games out there coming out that aren't procedural?

NMS was sort of the final nail in the procedural coffin for me so I'd love to see something going the opposite direction in regards to that, any recommendations?

Have you played Rebel Galaxy? Might not be what you're looking for but its a good game.
 
I think the bottom line is that there is a certain assumption, or implication, what a $60 price tag 'gets' you, whether that assumption is justified or not. Quite frankly, after the time I spent with NMS at my friend's house, I would've been pissed if I had dropped $60 on it. I don't have any logical reasoning breakdown for this at all but it just didn't 'feel' like a game that should be full price to me.

But if NMS would have cost $40 or $30, you would have been fine with it?

I can somewhat understand the feeling, but it is what for me is a bit overthinking game prices.

That said, if I don't like a game at all, then I can be a bit annoyed at it. But I have followed a game for a longer time, hoped that it will fullfill certain expectations, then I think that getting to know the result for myself, and getting the product when I want it, are two factors that I would include in the price.
 

depths20XX

Member
Yep yep, that Eurogamer review is pretty spot-on.

"Sean Murray and his team at Hello Games set out with one goal: to create a game that is science fiction. Mission accomplished."

The bar is that low huh?

"This team set out with one goal: create a game that has dragons in it. Mission accomplished."
 

Kacho

Member
The current Humble Survival Bundle has Space Engineers in the BTA tier for just over $5.

I'm also strongly considering re-downloading Elite. I've got about 25 hours into it, but I never picked up the Season Pass with the planetary landings.

Wonder if that's cheap anywhere?

Dude awesome! Thanks for the heads up. I'll definitely grab it at that price.

The bar is that low huh?

"This team set out with one goal: create a game that has dragons in it. Mission accomplished."

Yeah, that's not something in reviews I find helpful and it comes up a lot with No Mans Sky.

Do you think that would fly with Fallout 4? "Well Todd Howard and his team at Bethesda Game Studios set out with one goal: create a post-apocalyptic game. Mission accomplished." Nope.
 

Arttemis

Member
I feel like they might should have focused on a maybe smaller universe with more detail, random for each player and seeds for universe generation. And seeing as Multiplayer is basically non-existent, it only makes more sense. The more planets I see, I feel like they basically look the same with different colors. All planets having only one biome is a big part of that I think. Maybe quintillion should have been reduced to billion or million for the sake of working on more complicated ecosystems.

I love what Hello Games has done, this is a great start, but it really needs refinement I think.

I still want to play the game for myself, but I'm not quite as excited as I thought I'd be.
The size of their universe is only a product of a mathematical equation, not focused work that would have otherwise been spent on variety. They did what they were capable of, and then created an algorithm to spit that out to an unimaginable repetition. If they had reduced that number to the scale of millions, it would not have had any impact of their biome diversity.
 

mokeyjoe

Member
The size of their universe is only a product of a mathematical equation, not focused work that would have otherwise been spent on variety. They did what they were capable of, and then created an algorithm to spit that out to an unimaginable repetition. If they had reduced that number to the scale of millions, it would not have had any impact of their biome diversity.

I doubt that. I haven't played any open world games yet with more variety.
 
But if NMS would have cost $40 or $30, you would have been fine with it?

I can somewhat understand the feeling, but it is what for me is a bit overthinking game prices.

That said, if I don't like a game at all, then I can be a bit annoyed at it. But I have followed a game for a longer time, hoped that it will fullfill certain expectations, then I think that getting to know the result for myself, and getting the product when I want it, are two factors that I would include in the price.

It's the opposite of overthinking it for me honestly. My friend who purchased it brought it up first. His statement was that $60 for "this" in its current state was bullshit, with which I agree.

If I had purchased it, I would've still been pissed at $40 or $30, totally agreed with that. However, it's only logical to be more pissed at dropping $20 more. Sure, it's not fair probably, but if the price tag implies budget title, my expectations are a tad different and/or more cautious.

The only games I truly just kind of throw away without even getting pissed about if they end up sucking are probably PSN Classics (PS1/PS2 etc.).

Just to clarify though, I'm not rallying against the game being $60 or whatever, I truly don't give a shit, just sharing my experience with the game and the price point DID come up when my friend and I talked about it.
 
I feel a little ashamed but it's true. People need to be more skeptical. Being hyped is fun but too much can lead to poor industry practices to leverage hype to cover up blaring issues.

On the flip side, this is exactly the kind of game that teaches people to be skeptical, especially with games promising the moon (or the literal universe, more often). For me that game was Spore; perhaps we simply need one of these every decade.
 

tcrunch

Member
On the flip side, this is exactly the kind of game that teaches people to be skeptical, especially with games promising the moon (or the literal universe, more often). For me that game was Spore; perhaps we simply need one of these every decade.

Yeah, this played out exactly like Spore, except that some people (who presumably were not around for Spore) got mad when you brought up Spore as a comparison.
 
The bar is that low huh?

"This team set out with one goal: create a game that has dragons in it. Mission accomplished."
You're selling it short

They wanted to make something that brought that old-school romantic vision of sci-fi to life, those planets where odd plants and natural formations line the horizon and massive planets and moons looming in the sky
 
It's the opposite of overthinking it for me honestly. My friend who purchased it brought it up first. His statement was that $60 for "this" in its current state was bullshit, with which I agree.

If I had purchased it, I would've still been pissed at $40 or $30, totally agreed with that. However, it's only logical to be more pissed at dropping $20 more. Sure, it's not fair probably, but if the price tag implies budget title, my expectations are a tad different and/or more cautious.

The only games I truly just kind of throw away without even getting pissed about if they end up sucking are probably PSN Classics (PS1/PS2 etc.).

Just to clarify though, I'm not rallying against the game being $60 or whatever, I truly don't give a shit, just sharing my experience with the game and the price point DID come up when my friend and I talked about it.

But what does he mean with that state? Does it feel unfinished, buggy, or is the concept nowhere near worth the money?

If you drop $60 on a game you greatly dislike, then you're well within your right to be dissapointed, but I for one would want to pay $20 for a game I greatly dislike either.

I see that thinking sometimes, "this game is crap, wait for a sale". Why would you want to spend any kind of money or time on a crap game, with the amount of games that gets released all the time?

I feel a little ashamed but it's true. People need to be more skeptical. Being hyped is fun but too much can lead to poor industry practices to leverage hype to cover up blaring issues.

It sounds really boring to be thinking that way.

Dare to dream I say.

I'm yet to play this game, but I'm confident in saying that I want to Hello Games that I appreciate their effort and ambition with this title. And I'm confident in saying that based on my experiences with dissapointing purchases. I bought Republic: The Revolution day 1.

Those who can't deal with the potential for dissapointments just should be there day 1, and the result for shitty industry practices are on the ones who drop the money too early.

Because what has Hello Games really done wrong here? Believing in their own game? The hype generated is the result of gamers, not the devs.
 

Chinner

Banned
?

In the UK, 'mental' is often used colloquially, like how in the USA you might call someone 'a bit crazy' or 'insane' or whathaveyou.
Yes I live in the UK, and I know how it's uses. Just be aware of your usage, as you're using it in a negative context and could viewed as using mental health as an insult.
 

Kacho

Member
I see that thinking sometimes, "this game is crap, wait for a sale". Why would you want to spend any kind of money or time on a crap game, with the amount of games that gets released all the time?

With No Man's Sky it generally sounds like the first few hours (8-10ish) are well liked and enjoyable. The game might not live up to some peoples expectations but if it's fun and novel for roughly 10 hours a $20 price tag is much easier to swallow.
 

Bl@de

Member
4Players Review (German)

Summary: A fascinating journey with a great futuristic aesthetic, that offers many magical moments despite its shortcomings. It could be an entertaining game, if it wasn't for the numerous crashes. (quick translation by me)

Score: 59%
 

bj00rn_

Banned
Elite has an in depth space combat (and also a ground combat but not as in depth and not on foot) system + their entire galaxy for free exploration in your ship and on atmosphereless planets.

No Man's Sky has the landing on planets and walking around stuff but all of the gameplay stuff is severely lacking.

So basically, both games right now are on opposite ends of the spectrum.

Elite is adding the things that No Man's Sky has right now.
We can believe that No Man's Sky might add the things Elite has right now.

They are able tto keep adding in Elite because they built a great solid framework from the bottom. The amazingly detailed space simulation, the combat and the background simulation is almost second to none overall, not to mention the sound in the game which is top class. It was void of life though, it has gotten better, and they can keep adding exactly because they have this solid framework in the background. NMS on the other hand.., I suspect the only way forward for NMS is a sequel.
 

CHC

Member
The bar is that low huh?

"This team set out with one goal: create a game that has dragons in it. Mission accomplished."

You didn't read the review did you? The "is" in that sentence is italicized and the whole idea of the review is that despite its flaw, the goal of the game was to capture that forward-looking wonder of sci-fi book covers and films like 2001. Few other games have attempted to evoke the same feeling and Eurogamer thinks Hello Games was successful at it.
 

Nirolak

Mrgrgr
All right, I've got 25 reviews written up with pull-quotes from 23 of them.

Do you want the new thread now? It will be missing some of the bigger sites like Giant Bomb, IGN, Polygon, and GameSpot, but there's a significant amount of content.
 
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