An update, and thoughts on No Man's Sky (Patreon)

Hey everyone. Haven't said hello in a while so thought I'd check in and let you know what's up!

I'm working on a video that has been very research-intensive (and fitting it in around real life stuff), but that stage is now, thankfully, done. The script is finally finished and recorded, so I will be working on all the other stuff this weekend. I'm really looking forward to getting this one out there.

After that, we're onto Majora's Mask Boss Keys. I've played about 2/3rds of the game so need to finish it up and then do the video.

I've been playing a lot of No Man's Sky, and might do something on that. How are you guys finding it? Here are my thoughts:

- Technically, it's a marvel. Being able to jump into your ship, dart up past the atmosphere and into space, and then rocket to another planet (all without traditional loading screens) is incredible. It's mind boggling.

- It turns out that procedurally generated stuff isn't that great for exploration. My desire to look at algorithmically derived rocks, caves, and animals lasted about 30 minutes. This stuff works fine as a background, but I don't think it can be the main event.

- Though, the game could do well to be less conservative. There aren't many surprises from planet to planet. Each is a round rock littered with resources, outposts, and animals in roughly Earth-like proportions. More wacky planets and fauna would make the surprise of landing on a new planet all the greater.

- The game's surprisingly tedious. "Life support power: low", "Inventory full", "Exhausted, wait for stamina to recharge" "Sentinels alerted". Many of the game's systems are just a nuisance and there are often too many button presses needed to do simple things. Try recharging your shield mid firefight.

- The alien language thing is super clever. You really get the sense of being - at first - an idiot interloper just doing stuff on instinct. And then, as you piece together the language, you make more intentional decisions.

- But the aliens are kinda, problematic, if I'm still allowed to use that word. How are these planets "unexplored" when every single one of them is inhabited by creatures. We're got this gorgeous, progressive, chill-ass sci-fi game that paints us as asshole colonialists.

- The game basically uses the same loop as Cookie Clicker. You start out with crap tools and tech, but after a little grinding you can buy / craft better tools. Which you use to... grind for the next spaceship or multi tool. Which... and so on. It's one of those hollow feedback loops that clickers and F2P games use to trap a lot of people. I'm shamefully quite susceptible.

- The whole "does it / doesn't it have multiplayer" thing is just weird. We get it: things change during development, features don't always work out. But with something so major like this, Hello Games should definitely be more clear.

So there we go. To me, No Man's Sky is st times beautiful and awe-inspiring, and at others tedious and repetitive. 18 quintillion planets is a lot, but it turns out they're all very similar, all inhabited by the same three species, and lacking much of substance.

This is definitely going to be a divisive game, though. The reviews are already mixed and I know for some people, it will be among their favourite games ever. For me, I'm glad I played it but I'm not sure for how much longer it will keep my attention.