Many of us can say that we've been waiting for a game like NMS for a very long time.. but as with many games that release to a public that is already jaded and that have aged and played several similar games.. NMS is a hard game to like.
So I figured the most fair thing to do is to add NMS as a notch to the belt and not really focus on things like the cost of the game is us paying back Sony for marketing the game that is absolutely not worth its full price.
Again.. it isn't fair to consider that Ark is worth significantly more while costing significantly less.
It also isn't fair to play NMS like you would Ark.
At first when trying to explain what NMS is I said it looks like a 4X game.. but some people rebuked that by saying it is first person.. therefore it is a first person survival game.
It isn't.
Ark is survival and is survival done so exquisitely well that I recommend it to anyone that has any interest in NMS.
It simply isn't fair to call NMS a survival game. I haven't died once since the game launched and had put up some hours on Twitch to prove it... but since I was listening to some tunes in the background they silenced them :/ so I deleted them.
It's shit then that people that wanted to play Spore again have the chance to do so.. except.. it's too simple and way to bland.
My starter planet wasn't harsh but it was fun to have a good world. It has radiation which meant staying on the surface wasn't an option and had ok resources. I spent the first day as I did in Ark.. just puttering around. I tried to get all of the walking milestones in while building up as much of a foundation in language and craftable materials as my limited inventory would allow. Which sadly isn't much.
The game basically bashes you on the head to leave a world before you get a chance to actually get to know it.
Frankly.. it sucks that it is designed this way because it gives people the impression that its somehow OK to glance and dash.
Find a world. Name it. Leave.
What the honest fuck?!
Yes there are 18-with-18-more-digits planets.. or worlds.. in this game. That's an inconsequential number.
You'll never get to see them all and you're doing a disservice to yourself and the creators of the game by wasting time hand picking easy world's to find a handful of creature and sit there naming shit AND NOT exploring everything each world has to offer.
Of course that's too be taken with a grain of salt since the worlds while colourful are hideous compared to fans were an artist takes the time to make it just right. The plants and creatures get samey very quickly. But again to each their own.
Like you're spending 60-70 dollars to visit a star system (not a galaxy!) and perhaps visit a handful of the worlds.. basically taking a shit on each.. then leaving. How much of it will you even explore?
As there's no away to play NMS 'the right way' (there are good practices).. more power to you if that's what you want to do (poke around). Since the game has enough scale to please some of us it is good that it can capture the imagination of people who aren't anywhere near as dedicated.
So after hearing 'No free slots in n inventory' where 'ship' and 'suit' substitute n for the enoughisenoughth time I was done with world #1. I took off for the stars as the game had instructed me to do since the word go.. and was miffed that such an experience was the best the game would offer. Hours of tedium just to be able to fly around.
As for the survival aspect of being on a world of animated stuffed animals (compared to the vicious predators in vanila Ark that can and will kill you).. which is after being on The Island (Ark Survival) with nearly everything with teeth trying to kill you.. I mean it only has a leg up because you can get a grenade launcher and dig yourself to safety from whatever aspect of the environment is trying to kill you.
For the most part Twitch streamers call the sentinels an annoyance or worse because they keep 'interfering'. But if it wasn't obvious to you.. they are just custodians.. the game even eventually tells you that they are there to ensure no harm comes to living creatures (but they will also attack you for messing with bases and minerals. (I found a piggy bank world which is forcing me to kill them now.. OH WELL)
I called them free titanium because even at the very start of the game when all you have is a My First Master Blaster.. you can end any sentinels that come at you and when you only have a few left.. just run for cover.
Once you have that grenade launcher and can exploit one of the games almost unique features.. the Havok Engine's physics adding useful terrain deformation.. you can make your own cave and hide.. OR bust into a base and hide.
While those are good features.... WHY isn't everything destructible or craftable? You goofed destroyed everything in a planet.. You should be fine except no multiplayer.. And you can't hitch a ride back to the nearly empty only space station.
Basically everything about characters quests vehicles star system dynamics... All of it is shit. But it works. It's just to easy to imagine that if it hadn't been designed dirt stupid morons to figure out (again versus not being fucking too lazy to add a much needed tutorial) this game could easily have been more fun and it could have made much more sense and been worth the money.
Again.. because this game isn't Ark.. this is Art. It's about pretty colours and music and self discovery and not about hard science, economics, biology, politics, diplomacy, and all other topics it chose to scribble happy faces over with crayons instead of taking them seriously. And to appreciate it you have to forgo any notions that you are directing the story of the game.. instead you're on a journey (which the game loves to remind you).. except that that journey involves treading water like you were dropped into an ocean.. one that is about as deep as a puddle so at no point is your survival really in any jeopardy.
One of the only other games that comes to mind.. having mentioned destructible buildings.. is Red Faction Guerilla. But that game mostly only allowed you to destroy buildings.. not the terrain due to combat that happened all the time also it would have been computationally even expensive. I'm hoping that the next generation of consoles (either ScorpNeo or the one after) will have both AND the scale of NMS.
So while having only visited a couple of planets in two systems.. trying to make the most of what I can with what little I have .. the game is disappointing but DOES still have enough going for it to be fun.
Thinking about what the game could become if you can ever build cities and factories and run businesses like space tourism.. like have a SimCity applied to what is already in the game.. I'd be very happy with supporting the game from the beginning. I mean even if not.. it sets the stage.. something like this is a scale that can work in a fully functional game. Any less will have to have much more in it to live up to the bar set by 18-with-18-other-digits planets to discover.