In a sentence, No Man's Sky is a surprisingly relaxing survival/crafting game. This is as descriptive as calling the NASA Voyager 1 probe an antenna yeeted into space back in the 70s. There is a lot I could say about NMS, but I will try to be brief for the sake of this review.

No Man's Sky is a vast cosmic arena, a sandbox of epic proportions. In fact, there are supposedly more planets in the game than there are grains of sand on Earth. The game offers an endless sense of wonder, and even a hundred of hours into the game, the excitement of discovering a secret planet with a unique biome, finding an S-class item, or stumbling upon a small, particularly cute squeaky animal in the grass, is very real.

NMS space is absolutely full of interesting stuff. The first time you spot a planetary archive in the distance, or rewire a Sentinel ship to accept a human pilot, or fly your brand new custom ship, or understand the rough meaning of an alien character's speech, or start piecing together the fascinating backstory of the mysterious forces of this universe, you feel like an actual explorer, braving the great unknown just because you can.

There are games that do space combat better than NMS, and certainly games that have better building mechanics. The combat is fairly basic, and the survival aspect becomes trivial after the first couple of hours. Nonetheless, all of the game's systems fit together in a very satisfying way, and many of the new features are built upon the same core concepts. Everything is sufficiently familiar to feel intuitive, while also novel enough to be engaging. You will probably re-design your corvette many times before you are satisfied with it, or re-arrange your Multi-Tool modules to optimise the stats, or Feng Shui the heck out of your base.

There is a story to help guide you through the sheer scope of NMS, and introduce new concepts without overwhelming you. Of course, you can ignore it entirely and just wander: the game encourages that. You can lose yourself in building vast space-castles, or cataloguing and naming fauna and flora. You can become a pirate, raid capital ships, and evade the law. You can trade, or delve underwater for salvaged ships and other treasures.

Playing NMS can be a humbling experience, a realisation that a small team of not even 50 people have built a nearly-endless, ever expanding game on top of bespoke, purpose-fit technology, engaging with the community, acting on feedback, and delivering a glorious game that is far more than the sum of its parts. It's been 9 years, but the updates keep on coming, each being worthy of a paid DLC. There are seasonal events with unique rewards. There is even multiplayer, and after being alone in space for so long, it feels genuinely odd to see actual human players, who will very likely give you expensive gifts when they see you.

Anyone who played a modern game had exposure to the vast greed of AAA publishers. NMS has no season passes, expansions, or microtransactions of any kind. All cosmetics are earned in-game, often in cool and unexpected ways. There are only 3 currencies, and it's very clear how to get each of them. Yes, inventory management can get annoying, and sometimes the sheer incredible size of the game can be overwhelming. The fact Hello Games managed to fit all that content in 30 Gb never ceases to impress me.

They that go into space in starships, that do their business in the great unknown, they see the works of Sean Murray's team, and their wonders in the infinite.

No? Was that too pretentious?

In a sentence, No Man's Sky is a surprisingly relaxing survival/crafting game. This is as descriptive as calling the NASA Voyager 1 probe an antenna yeeted into space back in the 70s. There is a lot I could say about NMS, but I will try to be brief for the sake of this review. No Man's Sky is a vast cosmic arena, a sandbox of epic proportions. In fact, there are supposedly more planets in the game than there are grains of sand on Earth. The game offers an endless sense of wonder, and even a hundred of hours into the game, the excitement of discovering a secret planet with a unique biome, finding an S-class item, or stumbling upon a small, particularly cute squeaky animal in the grass, is very real. NMS space is absolutely full of interesting stuff. The first time you spot a planetary archive in the distance, or rewire a Sentinel ship to accept a human pilot, or fly your brand new custom ship, or understand the rough meaning of an alien character's speech, or start piecing together the fascinating backstory of the mysterious forces of this universe, you feel like an actual explorer, braving the great unknown just because you can. There are games that do space combat better than NMS, and certainly games that have better building mechanics. The combat is fairly basic, and the survival aspect becomes trivial after the first couple of hours. Nonetheless, all of the game's systems fit together in a very satisfying way, and many of the new features are built upon the same core concepts. Everything is sufficiently familiar to feel intuitive, while also novel enough to be engaging. You will probably re-design your corvette many times before you are satisfied with it, or re-arrange your Multi-Tool modules to optimise the stats, or Feng Shui the heck out of your base. There is a story to help guide you through the sheer scope of NMS, and introduce new concepts without overwhelming you. Of course, you can ignore it entirely and just wander: the game encourages that. You can lose yourself in building vast space-castles, or cataloguing and naming fauna and flora. You can become a pirate, raid capital ships, and evade the law. You can trade, or delve underwater for salvaged ships and other treasures. Playing NMS can be a humbling experience, a realisation that a small team of not even 50 people have built a nearly-endless, ever expanding game on top of bespoke, purpose-fit technology, engaging with the community, acting on feedback, and delivering a glorious game that is far more than the sum of its parts. It's been 9 years, but the updates keep on coming, each being worthy of a paid DLC. There are seasonal events with unique rewards. There is even multiplayer, and after being alone in space for so long, it feels genuinely odd to see actual human players, who will very likely give you expensive gifts when they see you. Anyone who played a modern game had exposure to the vast greed of AAA publishers. NMS has no season passes, expansions, or microtransactions of any kind. All cosmetics are earned in-game, often in cool and unexpected ways. There are only 3 currencies, and it's very clear how to get each of them. Yes, inventory management can get annoying, and sometimes the sheer incredible size of the game can be overwhelming. The fact Hello Games managed to fit all that content in 30 Gb never ceases to impress me. They that go into space in starships, that do their business in the great unknown, they see the works of Sean Murray's team, and their wonders in the infinite. No? Was that too pretentious?