I decided to finally play this, long after hearing about its rocky af launch.

"The game is so much better than it was." Everybody told me this.

The gameplay loop in this is boring. Boring. Boring. Boring. I love games where you mine resources, or craft new things from said resources - I love games like Minecraft, and Deep Rock Galactic. This game's resource collecting cycle, mine this, do that, to do THIS, rinse and repeat - is very tiresome. Having to wait in spaceports for a ship you like to come in at random is a very gruelling experience - I wish you could just open a bulletin board in-game, and buy from a variety of spaceships. Having to wait / hope to see what you want, is a major pain.

"Oh, but what about the flora and fauna in this game, surely you liked that?"

I was enamoured at first w/ the seemingly random nature of the enemies, the planets, and the plantlife. This very quickly wore off, after I saw the same damn planet 3 times in 3 different solar systems. Also why the hell is there only 1 biome per planet? C'mon, you know planets don't actually operate like this in the universe - if a planet is capable of life, surely you'd find forests on occasion, or green plains, or hell even a disproportionately sized mountain every now and then. You do not - everything you see in this game is rote and predictable - even the random elements.

I've gotten sick and tired of seeing the same ugly fauna on many of the planets I've visited.

"Why, the fauna's not the same! The game uses procedural generation!"

Yes, this is true, but the 'pieces' that are randomized between animals remain the same. It can be exciting to find a new different looking species, until you see the same pair of legs, and the same beak on another creature billions of lightyears away.

Also what is w/ the constant sand-worm jumpscares? I landed on a planet almost 100% covered in water, and this stupid desert sandworm still jumps out. You never know when it's going to happen, and it is LOUD. Like really loud. It's been a little while since I've played, so maybe this has been ironed out a tad.

This game tricks you. "Surely I can just go to any planet, or distant star I see in the distance, right?"

Wrong. You have to do a bunch of BS in each solar system to be able to progress to the next. Gimme some damn freedom, I'm not asking for you to render one complete static universe all at once, but more to allow me to exit / enter solar systems at any given time.

The game has some cool moments though - the graphics are pretty nice, as is the re-entry process every time you break through a planet's atmosphere - this is always exciting, and is done very effectively. I like the random names of the planets, and such, as they very closely represent the type of names we've given to real celestial objects.

I think I've given this game a fair enough shake - I've nearly played 24 hours.

"Hurr durr, but game gets better 50 hours in!"

Stuff it. I was so sick of hearing that argument when it came to JRPGs, and I'm sick of hearing it when it comes to crafting / exploration games like this one. If a game can't do right w/ nearly a day's worth of time invested, then something is wrong.

I don't even care if they continue to update this, I expect to see the same things / planets recycled over and over again.

Not worth 66.49 CAD, despite being of AAA scale. If you're interested, wait a couple years for this to be $15-$20. I'm sure some people have enjoyed this title, but I am not one of them, a shame really, as I was SUPER hyped for this game.

Such is life. Life is nothing but disappointments interspersed w/ fleeting moments of joy - and that's kind of what this game is, too.