Is No Man’s Sky a good game after all the updates and fixing and adding all the stuff they promised?
I love space stuff but am not the biggest fan of Minecraft style crafting/mining. I don’t mind it in Stardew and factory games are a favorite genre of mine, for reference. Basically I like the mechanics but it matters how they are implemented.
I’ve been trying to find a game that I can just turn my brain off and chill after a long day and right now Stardew is starting to get a bit stale(or I’m just dreading winter since there isn’t much to do).
The game looks beautiful and I did spend maybe 100 hours on Starbound, which is like 2D NMS I think, but even on sale, it’s at the upper limit I’d like to spend.
The other game is Hyperlight Drifter and it’s $6 right now so I’m probably gonna get that one regardless.
Edit: I went ahead and grabbed it. I think my kid will also enjoy watching me play it.
The resource mining is faster than Minecraft I think. And once you get going with credits you can just buy a lot of stuff.
I like the game but it’s not terribly deep or directed. Like a sandbox, you have to bring some of your own initiative into it.
You can build a big base. The part placing stuff is very good (much better than fallout4). But you don’t really need to. It’s fun if you enjoy it.
Same with running a freighter. You can customize the layout as you want. But there’s not much of an extrinsic reward. Doing it is its own fun, if you like it.
You can fly around and scout new planets, but most of them don’t change much. Different visuals, but basically the same. If you enjoy that, and scanning all the creatures and minerals and plants, it’s fun.
You can fight sentinels, and that’s probably the most traditional game like part. Third person shooter, maybe ten different enemy types, they drop upgrade components. That’s a very standard game loop, but it’s also only like a couple hours of content.
You can collect different space ships, but even the most basic C-grade can do all the content. It’s fun if you want to have a cool ship, but that’s it.
You can pretty quickly amass millions of credits and nanites, but there’s not that much to do with them.
Do you see the trend? It’s all fun if you get intrinsic joy, but it’s not like, say, dark souls where there’s a big challenge to overcome.
So basically a pure sandbox then? That’s sort of what I was gathering when reading up on it.
There some “main quest” stuff too, but you can mostly ignore it.
I have 200 hours in the game. I just started a new save this week where I’m trying to stay on topic. It’s been pretty okay so far!
Oh I forgot: there are also Expeditions. Those are much more guided modes of play, but time limited.