As the game is 'fine' nowadays, I'll switch this out for a Positive review rather than a Negative one (review will lose all its likes for doing so).

No Man's Sky is NOT for everyone as it marketed itself to be. It's boring, repetitive and can put you into existential crisis if you stare at its abyss deep enough. I also would never grab it at full price.

Yet, it can be a fun and relaxing experience with plenty of progression to go around, and different activities to engage in. It reminds me more of games like Animal Crossing than actual Space Sims and Sandbox games, as it's a game with many different paths' or activities to tread on and engage in, and you can switch between those whenever you want.

There's some fun to be had, but I've been hurt or disappointed so hard by this project that is hard for me to say anything more than that. It feels unfair to remain negative towards it though, as attempts to make it into a good game have been going on for years now.

It's still sad how the developers make new features as boring and annoying as they can be, only to be bashed into making things more adequate over time. A stubborn community and developers made this game become a thing after its release disaster, so you'd do well to fully adjust your expectations and watch some videos before buying into all the bait. That is, considering that this ship hasn't sailed for you yet.
If you're really into Sandbox games, it's very likely you'll find value here. If it's a Space Game / Space Sim that you're after..we'll just have to keep waiting while going through many playthroughs of X4 Foundations.

EDIT: Foundation Update is a tiny step in the right direction, but in the end the game's still shallow and without substance. The rebalance in this patch requires you to run around (and fly, and take-off, and land) a lot more after fuel, which make things even worse than it originally was.
Maybe in 6 or more months the game will be worth some fraction of its price.

This is a review by a non-crusader, non-hater, non-fanboy, who finished the game.
I think you can consider me a hardcore fan of space, sandbox and open-world/exploration games.

Do not buy this UNLESS you're a hardcore fan of one of the genres. Do not buy this expecting good story, lore, or a good ending. Do not buy this expecting anything at all. Your best bet is to wait for a sale and a ton of patches.

The issue that makes No Man's Sky so hard to review for media outlets and the like, is that it takes a lot of hours for you to notice all of the shortcomings and problems with the game. It took me 10 hours to realize it wasn't as good as most people were saying, 20 hours to realize the game wouldn't evolve past the initial activities you perform at the first hours on the game, and 30 hours to realize that, gameplay-wise, the game feels like it was designed by game design students for some assignment.

I love procgen, I play a ton of indie and underground games which feature it - like Dwarf Fortress, my favorite game of all time - but the issue with procgen is that it will only provide infinite scenarios, objects, npcs, and things like that. Even though that can sound exciting, it won't take long for you to realize that what makes a procgen game amazing is the meaning it attributes to the stuff it randomly generates.

Example: in NMS, you have NPC ships and freighters flying around. They do nothing, they are nothing, they change nothing. They came from nowhere and aren't going anywhere. That Space-Station you just saw has no meaning and makes no difference, just like the last 70 you flew by on your way to the Galactic Core.

Sean Murray was my personal hero for these last 3 years, but he bit more than he could chew..and he probably can't even apologize for the game's flaws, issues and incompleteness because he has a contract with Sony. Hello Games hasn't even commented on the missing multiplayer component yet, wanna guess why?

This is Spore 2: Overloaded.

In Conclusion (or TL;DR): Unless you're a hardcore fan, or you have money lying around and absolutely nothing else to play, or if you just want a chill game that costs as much as an AAA game with less depth and worse game design than freeware games, be my guest.
Everyone is streaming and talking about it, it's probably good...right?

[h1]Review Update 2 - March 2021[/h1] As the game is 'fine' nowadays, I'll switch this out for a Positive review rather than a Negative one (review will lose all its [i]likes[/i] for doing so). No Man's Sky is NOT for everyone as it marketed itself to be. It's boring, repetitive and can put you into existential crisis if you stare at its abyss deep enough. I also would never grab it at full price. Yet, it can be a fun and relaxing experience with plenty of progression to go around, and different activities to engage in. It reminds me more of games like Animal Crossing than actual Space Sims and Sandbox games, as it's a game with many different [i]paths[/i]' or [i]activities[/i] to tread on and engage in, and you can switch between those whenever you want. There's some fun to be had, but I've been hurt or disappointed so hard by this project that is hard for me to say anything more than that. It feels unfair to remain negative towards it though, as attempts to make it into a good game have been going on for years now. It's still sad how the developers make new features as boring and annoying as they can be, only to be bashed into making things more adequate over time. A stubborn community and developers made this game become a thing after its release disaster, so you'd do well to fully adjust your expectations and watch some videos before buying into all the bait. That is, considering that this ship hasn't sailed for you yet. If you're [i]really[/i] into Sandbox games, it's very likely you'll find value here. If it's a Space Game / Space Sim that you're after..we'll just have to keep waiting while going through many playthroughs of [url=https://store.steampowered.com/app/392160/X4_Foundations/]X4 Foundations[/url]. [h1]Review Update 1 - December 2016 [/h1] EDIT: Foundation Update is a tiny step in the right direction, but in the end the game's still shallow and without substance. The rebalance in this patch requires you to run around (and fly, and take-off, and land) a lot more after fuel, which make things even worse than it originally was. Maybe in 6 or more months the game will be worth some fraction of its price. [h1]Original Review - August 2016[/h1] This is a review by a non-crusader, non-hater, non-fanboy, who finished the game. I think you can consider me a hardcore fan of space, sandbox and open-world/exploration games. Do not buy this UNLESS you're a hardcore fan of one of the genres. Do not buy this expecting good story, lore, or a good ending. Do not buy this expecting anything at all. Your best bet is to wait for a sale and a ton of patches. The issue that makes No Man's Sky so hard to review for media outlets and the like, is that it takes a lot of hours for you to notice all of the shortcomings and problems with the game. It took me 10 hours to realize it wasn't as good as most people were saying, 20 hours to realize the game wouldn't evolve past the initial activities you perform at the first hours on the game, and 30 hours to realize that, gameplay-wise, the game feels like it was designed by game design students for some assignment. I love procgen, I play a ton of indie and underground games which feature it - like Dwarf Fortress, my favorite game of all time - but the issue with procgen is that it will only provide infinite scenarios, objects, npcs, and things like that. Even though that can sound exciting, it won't take long for you to realize that what makes a procgen game amazing is the meaning it attributes to the stuff it randomly generates. Example: in NMS, you have NPC ships and freighters flying around. They do nothing, they are nothing, they change nothing. They came from nowhere and aren't going anywhere. That Space-Station you just saw has no meaning and makes no difference, just like the last 70 you flew by on your way to the Galactic Core. Sean Murray was my personal hero for these last 3 years, but he bit more than he could chew..and he probably can't even apologize for the game's flaws, issues and incompleteness because he has a contract with Sony. Hello Games hasn't even commented on the missing multiplayer component yet, wanna guess why? This is Spore 2: Overloaded. In Conclusion (or TL;DR): Unless you're a hardcore fan, or you have money lying around and absolutely nothing else to play, or if you just want a chill game that costs as much as an AAA game with less depth and worse game design than freeware games, be my guest. Everyone is streaming and talking about it, it's probably good...right?