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Video Games: No Man's Sky

socialleper

socialleper

Bringer of doom and top shelf beer
May 31, 2009
10,158
13,690
Canyon Country, CA
#1
I heard about this game back in 2016. Before its release it was supposed to be a game changer. It bombed in its initial release, so I stopped paying attention to it. 3 years later it has basically been rebuild and is enjoying a bit of a rebirth. I had a three day weekend this week, so I hopped on Steam and bought it since it was on sale.

OH MY GOD! This is probably the most complex game I've ever played. If you are a little OCD or ADHD this thing will set you off in a million directions and devour hours of your time.
I can't decide if it is genius or diabolical.
Is anyone else playing this?
 
#2
I beta-tested it for a couple of months, which was fun, then played a week or so at release and quickly lost interest.
I have read that it's hugely improved with some serious updates, just never followed up...I may have to take a second look.
Good timing, as I'm sort of in between games right now, waiting for The Outer Worlds release.



Edit: 50% off this week! Excellent timing!:D
 
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#3
Oddly said:
I beta-tested it for a couple of months, which was fun, then played a week or so at release and quickly lost interest.
I have read that it's hugely improved with some serious updates, just never followed up...I may have to take a second look.
Good timing, as I'm sort of in between games right now, waiting for The Outer Worlds release.



Edit: 50% off this week! Excellent timing!:D
Click to expand...
There is a big update coming Wed so Steam has it on sale. That pushed me a little.
Most people say it has redeemed itself. The graphics has definitely improved. I can't say about the gameplay.
I can see how it wouldn't be for everyone. It is mostly farming and running around. Minecraft made that work, so there is a market for that.
The learning curve seems pretty steep.
 
#4
I love open world games and I don't mind grinding and exploring. I played it for a while when it came out but eventually lost interest when there was no really progression and it was just repetition for repetition's sake. I tried again when it was updated so you could build structures but it wasn't enough to keep me playing. I'll have to look into the new changes. I grabbed it from the PS network so I can download it again anytime.
 
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#5
It has always sounded tempting to me, since exploring virtual worlds is a large part of why I play - but the lack of plot / progression held me back. I'm not playing anything else right now, so I think I'll give it a try. Thanks for the "on sale" heads up.
 
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#7
Oddly said:
@bholder , I believe there is an actual story involved now...something to do with a crashed ship.
Click to expand...
The real trick would be procedurally-generated story lines that are actually fun for real humans. Don't think the AI's quite there yet though. ;)
 
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#8
Well after about half an hour and 4 false starts, I still can't figure out how to get over the initial hurdle of fixing the scanner and repairing whatever's broken before the environment kills me. Frustrating start for sure. This is on the easiest setting too. :(
 
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#9
bholder said:
Well after about half an hour and 4 false starts, I still can't figure out how to get over the initial hurdle of fixing the scanner and repairing whatever's broken before the environment kills me. Frustrating start for sure. This is on the easiest setting too. :(
Click to expand...
The learning curve is pretty brutal. Figuring out what element fixes what piece of gear takes a few hours.
The problem I keep running into is that you need all these items to charge your gear. But you always run out of space in your inventory. You want to sell the stuff you mine so you can buy new gear that is more efficient and has more slots, but you are too busy just trying to charge your gear.

The walking tutorial gets the basics together, but there are a lot of things it doesn't get into the details of. Currently I'm watching YouTube videos to help me figure out what is happening.
 
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#10
Reedt2000 said:
I love open world games and I don't mind grinding and exploring. I played it for a while when it came out but eventually lost interest when there was no really progression and it was just repetition for repetition's sake. I tried again when it was updated so you could build structures but it wasn't enough to keep me playing. I'll have to look into the new changes. I grabbed it from the PS network so I can download it again anytime.
Click to expand...
There is a loose plot to get to the "Center of the galaxy." I don't know if that was always there. Clearly you are some kind of "chosen one" or lost member of a rare species.
I kinda wish developers would knock it off with this particular trope. Why can't I be a regular Joe that is just good at something?
The open ended idea of the game was appealing to me when the game was being developed. The vastness of space is maintained pretty well so far. For me, at the moment the biggest challenge is figuring out the game's mechanics.
 
#11
It's a game I've wanted to check out but my backlog of games is so ridiculously long. Borderlands 3 is due soon too, so I'm not sure whether I'll pick it up this year. Right now, it's clean-up time (just like Toxie) with some leftovers like Exist Archive, Dragon Quest Builders, etc. Schedule is also pretty busy with BL3, The Outer Worlds, and my most awaited game of the year, Indivisible (a spiritual successor to Valkyrie Profile by the makers of Skullgirls - a combination of words that makes me swoon every time) on the horizon.

I've heard about the updates to NMS, so I'm at least willing to give it a go after all the bad press it got.
 
#12
socialleper said:
There is a loose plot to get to the "Center of the galaxy." I don't know if that was always there. Clearly you are some kind of "chosen one" or lost member of a rare species.
I kinda wish developers would knock it off with this particular trope. Why can't I be a regular Joe that is just good at something?
The open ended idea of the game was appealing to me when the game was being developed. The vastness of space is maintained pretty well so far. For me, at the moment the biggest challenge is figuring out the game's mechanics.
Click to expand...
My understanding from poking around the interweb is that when you got to the galactic center, it was a worm hole which whisked you back to the beginning of the game...
 
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#16
Here are a few things I've learned:
Salt (Chlorine) and Cobalt are valuable and easy to get once you find a planet that has them.

You can shoot asteroids to get interesting stuff.

If you have expensive stuff on you while in space, pirates start attacking you.

If you talk to the ships in the space stations or freighters you can buy and sell stuff to the pilots. Their economy isn't attached to sell/buy terminal thingy, so you can tank the value of something at the terminal, buy it cheap, and then sell it at a higher price to the pilots.

There are different "bad" environments. You can upgrade your suit to resist them, but only each "bad" at a time. So you need to upgrade your exosuit resist to heat, cold, radiation, poison, etc all separately. Lame.

You will never have enough inventory slots.
 
#17
Brief impression after a couple of hours...
It's not for me.
Too much gathering this to make that to repair the other so I can go do it all over again.
It runs well, and looks great, and I can see the attraction in wanting to build yourself a better base, etc, but frankly, after a hard day's work, I'd rather come home, load up Warhammer: Return of Reckoning, and have my dwarf go bash in a lot of goblin skulls.:D
 
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#18
Oddly said:
Brief impression after a couple of hours...
It's not for me.
Too much gathering this to make that to repair the other so I can go do it all over again.
It runs well, and looks great, and I can see the attraction in wanting to build yourself a better base, etc, but frankly, after a hard day's work, I'd rather come home, load up Warhammer: Return of Reckoning, and have my dwarf go bash in a lot of goblin skulls.:D
Click to expand...
It snowballs after putting some initial grind in. Once you beef up the ship and learn to hit planets that are more resource-heavy it is not as monotonous. You have to be awed by the scenery and flora/fauna. That is really what it's about, exploring things no one else has ever seen.
 
#19
I want to love the game so badly, but I can't. I would love the exploring new worlds bit, but I don't have the patience to get all the elements/minerals/supplies to actually make that happen.

I got a gamefly account in December (1 year at once) and it's been awesome. I've already made it worth the cost. I think I'll be keeping the membership. Just finished Ace Combat 7, and playing a short little decision based game called Late Shift. Once I get that platinum trophy I'll be moving onto Days Gone. All of this is in-between my MLB The Show franchise of course.
 
#20
The new big patch dropped yesterday. They are calling this No Man's Sky 2.0. I only got to play for an hour but I can definitely see some major changes to the interface and flow of the game.
Off the top:
Language help doesn't cost resources anymore, but does involve more clicks.
The Construction menu has been completely revamped. It might take a little getting used to. Since I'm a PC guy, I think all menu systems that have been made to work with a console are super lame. I have SO many keys. Why am I scrolling through menus?
When you want to sell stuff to starship pilots, you don't just click on the ship, you have to wait for the pilot to come out and talk to him.
When you are buying ship\mutlitool\Exosuit upgrades there isn't an option to buy things with units and nanites.
There are custom markers! Since I just started playing I didn't realize this wasn't an existing feature, and thought "wow, how did they drop the ball on this?"
There also seem to be new goodies when you mine asteroids. You can tell where platinum is, I got these clusters that can be broken open for resources or sold, and I got a "gold nugget" that after being examined gave me a Class S upgrade to my Photon Canon.
 

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