Despite being a day 1 player, I am only going to consider the current state of the game in this review. There will be no mention of the initial release, outside of this foreword. Additionally, my initial purchase of this game was on Playstation 4, so don't let that low playtime fool you. I've been at this awhile.

With that out of the way, No Man's Sky is a masterpiece of the sci-fi genre, combining excellent gameplay with an art style straight out of a 1950's book cover. You start out on an alien world separated from your crashed starship, with nothing but your exosuit and multi-tool. The latter is a high-powered analysis and mining device that can study flora, fauna, and minerals, located various resources and junk, and mine up all the things you'll need to repair your ship and equipment; but most importantly, in the infamous words of Ruby Rose: "It's also a gun." This universe is hostile, and you'll quickly find yourself equipping the multi-tool with such weapon modules as boltcasters, grenade launchers, and even an impenetrable shield powered by your own life support system! Believe me, you're gonna need it.

You'll be in space before long, though. The initial repairs to your ship are quite simple and guided by tutorial, and launch fuel is quite easy to synthesize. Your first stop will no doubt be the local space station: there's one in almost every solar system, and they'll be among your most frequent destinations. Here you will find various alien tourists from whom you can learn the galaxy's languages. At the galactic trade terminal you can buy and sell various wares. Technology merchants will sell you upgrade components, and mission dispatchers offer tasks and rewards for completing them. Other pilots will occasionally fly in who are willing to trade with you, or even let you make an offer on their ships. Perhaps the most important feature of a space station is its teleporter, which can take you to other recently-visited stations or to one of your bases.

Oh yes, there's base-building in this game. Your options for construction are limited at first, but that multi-tool of yours can locate data capsules which you can collect and use to unlock blueprints. Simply plop down a base computer and you can begin. Any good base should, at the very least, have its own portal and a means of generating power. You'll start with the basic biofuel generator, but it is quite inefficient. To really get a base going, you'll have to go green. Solar and geothermal energy are where it's at in No Man's Sky. You'll have to wire up everything into an electrical grid for these to do you any good, of course.

But who needs such primitive setups when you can make your base in space? Get yourself a capital ship, and alter its interior as you please. The extra storage space is also nice, as are the nine landing pads upon which you can keep all those starships you've been buying up. Of course, a capital ship is nothing without a fleet, and you'll find more than a few frigate captains willing to sign on with you. Send them out on missions in groups of up to five, and monitor those missions from your mission control room(s). Or land on them: different types of frigates may give you free resources or coordinates to a point of interest whenever you do so.

You're not alone in this world. Early on you will be introduced to the Space Anomaly, a multiplayer hub you will summon and visit rather frequently. Up to 16 players can be present at once in this hub, and double that number can play together out in the real world. The greatest feature of No Man's Sky has always been its community, and some of these players you meet may very well be part of an out-of-game group such as the Galactic Hub Project, or the Explorers Alliance just to name a couple. It's not quite an MMO, but travel the stars enough and you'll find that there's more to No Man's Sky than procedurally-generated critters, planets, and NPCs.

And of course I would be remiss if I didn't mention the main story! That'll take you about 30 hours, and let me tell you, it's quite a ride. If you're not questioning the meaning of life by the end, you have no emotions.

If any of this sounds remotely appealing to you, get this game. My words can only do so much justice to the masterpiece that is No Man's Sky.