I love No Man's Sky and yet I also wish No Man's Sky was more, and less, of itself.

For a game describing a lonely, vast universe to discover, each world sure does seem to have a manned trading post and some sort of abandoned science facility and some alien artefacts on it. Each system definitely has a space station and probably some pirates to come shoot at you.

Discoveries are labeled as "yours" but it's clear that you are the colonial force coming to stake a claim on a universe which was inhabited and known long before you got here. I'm almost certain that's not the point the game is trying to make, but it comes off as unable to decide what it is, and I guess that speaks to the gamer revolt incited by the game's launch.

I missed the opportunity to play it in its original state, only getting it after a couple of major content updates intended to appease those early birds, and I suspect I'll never get that chance, but in those few moments after warping into a new system and observing your surroundings, and feeling far from anything, I think I feel the seeds of the feeling the game was actually intended to evoke, I just wish it were there for more of it.