Honestly been a fan since day 1. Despite the bugs and missing features, the prospect of a universe sized space exploration game was a dream of mine since a kid playing Mario Galaxy. I would go into first person on the Comet Observatory and wonder what the endless stars had to offer. And No Man’s Sky delivered on that. I love just slowly gliding across the rings of a planet. Or driving an exocraft digging up salvaged data. It feels like the dream game I would hope for if it didn’t exist.

The opening sequence and tutorial has been streamlined over the years but with the amount of content and gameplay options I feel it can be confusing for newcomers. Things like frigate missions and farming are aspects of the game that I still don’t really dive into. They feel like they’re mainly there for rpg purposes. They’re helpful for units early game but stack a couple S class upgrades on your scanner and you can get 20,000 units+ from every flora and fauna scanned. Maybe that’s just me but there are certainly aspects I’m not really into.

The Artemis storyline introduced post launch isn’t great either. It’s a slog to get through and traveling back and forth between the same few planets gets old. So for a new player I think there could be a better introduction to this universe.

Of course the constant updates have been incredible from the devs at Hello Games. It’s undeniable the amount of passion the devs have for this game is as astronomical as the universe they’ve created. Though I feel it’s been hammered home by so many people that not many people actually talk enough about the game itself. It’s so hard to structure a review for this game because of the vast amount of gameplay avenues you can explore.

Some of my favorite things to do have to be the base building, using the photo mode, doing different missions at the nexus, and participating in the community expeditions.

The expeditions are by far some of the best experiences in the game and where I feel the game really flourishes. All players start on the same planet and work independently to complete missions in a tier system. Complete the missions and move onto the next of 5 tiers. Each one rewarding you with upgrades and gear at a much faster rate than the main game. You can also earn really sick rewards that carry over all saves and can be redeemed at a vendor. With how densely packed the game is with content it feels like a solid way to engage with a bunch of different systems.

Overall I really just love this game. It’s not one I can play all the time just cause with games like this and Minecraft I just get burnt out after a while. You truly get as much out of No Man’s Sky as you put into it. But building a home on a paradise planet with a sky full of celestial bodies you can travel to in real time is a remarkable feeling that still blows me away. One of my personal favorites that I could talk about all day.

Also VR is really sick too.