No Man's Sky

No Man's Sky has come a long way since it's 2016 launch, that let's be real, wasn't even close to what it was advertised as, since then it became an example on what development on a failed game should be. Hello Games not only didn't abandon this game, but made it one of the TOP 10 games of all time in the Survival Genre, and they show no sign of ever stopping, updating it as much as Mojang updates Minecraft with every year the game being not even close as what it was a year before, and for that everyone should wander into space, but keep in mind that on a planet the time moves differently that even affects you IRL.

When I first sat down to play No Man's Sky with a serious intention on trying to see what this game really has to offer in 2023, around the time when everyone came back to it, I couldn't tell why I spent hours upon hours on this game. Not only because I usually don't play nor like games in this genre, but because I really had no clue why I spent nearly 18 hours of my life playing a game that basically builds upon the same gameplay-loop. Explore planets, collect materials to upgrade, and maybe occasionally have a goal which you complete the story in. In 2023 I made it pretty far. I had a mothership, a whole army, and I made a sick goal to wipe out the entire Korvax nation (to be honest, my intention was that I had to make a nation my enemy so I can farm them for OP gear, and not really the first thing I mentioned). 

No Man's Sky on the surface has so much to offer, yes, you can make bases, discover different solar systems, different environments, grind for better, bigger, faster ships, upgrade your gear so you REALLY explore those planets, but why..? Why would I want that? Am I really doing all of this to reach the core of the galaxy? What if I already reach it? Should I do expeditions? Should I start a new game? Maybe grind anomaly challenges? Since the thing about No Man's Sky is that you could build bases, you could do fishing, you could explore, but it all comes down to reason, that you don't wanna acknowledge, because this game is genuinely fun, and by no means I want to say otherwise, but I still have to mention that the game's updates seem to focus on surrounding your discoveries, rather than giving reason to them. For the first time it's magical, even for the second time too, but the more you play you start to lose interest in the game until another update comes where enough time has passed for you to be concerned about the same things you did before (perhaps you even start a new game) and this is also proven by the Steam player counts as well. More than 50K+ people return upon an update, and 2 weeks later it goes back to the 2000 mark which happens to every game sure, but this is a significant loss and it proves that the game has nothing to offer after a while.

There are two type of survival games. Let's take Subnautica, that is a story game with survival elements rather than true survival, you can build bases, discover the ocean, but eventually you are going to get to the story's end, and there is Minecraft, where you have infinite possibilities, no story, the game can be even called as a programming language now. No Man's Sky is kind of none of those. It has a story, and no matter how hard NMS forces you to follow it, you can even travel to another galaxy, no problem and do something else, but since that so called "something else" isn't that strong to keep you on your toes, you eventually go towards the story, which isn't super interesting, tbh it's pretty forgettable, but it might have some interesting bits if you've seen it for the first two times, but for most players who have already seen the story, they have to keep pursuing the "something else" that now has biomes, jungles, the exploration gets an "Awe" look, but the minerals don't change, the reasons to do stuff, doesn't change which is why the game can't really keep you invested longer than 30 hours, and if it does, you are likely experiencing stuff for the first or second time, or you are just really persistent on going to the centre of the galaxy. Whichever is the case to you it isn't bad, and I praise the devs for constantly updating the game, but I hope when Light No Fire releases, they won't abandon it, and gives us at the very least a POI update.

Overall, No Man's Sky is a grind-heavy survivor game, that can be customized however you want, you can explore, do quests, but you fail to try the reasons you are doing those, which eventually makes you part away from the game, which does not feel like what No Man's Sky tries to achieve, but at the same time they are achieving it, since you will eventually come back to it, when a new update sucks you in like a black hole in the vast of the universe.