Re: I get to download No Man's Sky tonight!
Posted: Mon Sep 05, 2016 5:59 am
I didn't decide to buy this until a week prior to release. The game is exactly what they repeatedly described in the various preview videos. All the anger comes from people who obsessively over-analyzed the previews and hyped themselves into believing it would be more or different than it is and I really have no sympathy.
The giant list of missing features is about 60% plain wrong, 30% changed/cut features (pretty clearly for reasons of playability and accessibility and fun, from what I can see, which is entirely forgiveable), and 10% "yeah, they should have said they'd cut that before release". Even the often quoted multiplayer stuff is defensible: the PS4 and Steam versions (but not GOG, which is what I got) have people playing in a universe where other people have come through before you and others will follow and your sole contact with them is what you name things - so you get people finding planets named "no one will see this", or named after superheroes, or names with lists of minerals on the planet, or indications of where to find portals or bases or whatever - and it does, slightly, affect the experience and behavior of the players. It IS a multiplayer interaction, but a very tenuous one that actually accentuates the sense of isolation, and in retrospect it's pretty clear that's what Murray was aiming for although he didn't want to admit it. Problem is that's not what people understand when they hear "multiplayer", and a good chunk of the bad feeling derives from that.
I saw one person trying to argue a few days before release that it would be an MMO where you would just rarely meet people. I couldn't figure where he got that idea and it kinda worried me that I had missed something and might be getting a totally different game than I thought, but no, he was wildly off base. I think there was a lot of that - people taking specific words and phrases and convincing themselves the only possible interpretation must be X, Y, Z, and then being totally shocked when the reality didn't match up. Again, it's their own damn fault. There was a lot of talk about how the preview videos were from some different and better build of the game that got held back and they shipped a dumbed-down version instead - I couldn't figure that out, so I went through those things frame by frame and EVERY SINGLE THING in them is something that has happened to me in the game.
It's really too bad there was this wild explosion of anger but it really says more about the angry people than about the game or its quality.
Anyway. I'm really happy with the game. There definitely are a number of points where it could be improved or expanded, but there's enough in it right now to keep me entertained for quite a while. It has turned "what's over that next hill?" into a really solid game motivation mechanic. If you go into the game with the intent of grinding your way to goals as fast as possible, you will not remotely enjoy the experience; that sort of behavior means you skip and miss everything interesting the game has to offer. That's why all the reviewers are absolutely full of crap on this.
The giant list of missing features is about 60% plain wrong, 30% changed/cut features (pretty clearly for reasons of playability and accessibility and fun, from what I can see, which is entirely forgiveable), and 10% "yeah, they should have said they'd cut that before release". Even the often quoted multiplayer stuff is defensible: the PS4 and Steam versions (but not GOG, which is what I got) have people playing in a universe where other people have come through before you and others will follow and your sole contact with them is what you name things - so you get people finding planets named "no one will see this", or named after superheroes, or names with lists of minerals on the planet, or indications of where to find portals or bases or whatever - and it does, slightly, affect the experience and behavior of the players. It IS a multiplayer interaction, but a very tenuous one that actually accentuates the sense of isolation, and in retrospect it's pretty clear that's what Murray was aiming for although he didn't want to admit it. Problem is that's not what people understand when they hear "multiplayer", and a good chunk of the bad feeling derives from that.
I saw one person trying to argue a few days before release that it would be an MMO where you would just rarely meet people. I couldn't figure where he got that idea and it kinda worried me that I had missed something and might be getting a totally different game than I thought, but no, he was wildly off base. I think there was a lot of that - people taking specific words and phrases and convincing themselves the only possible interpretation must be X, Y, Z, and then being totally shocked when the reality didn't match up. Again, it's their own damn fault. There was a lot of talk about how the preview videos were from some different and better build of the game that got held back and they shipped a dumbed-down version instead - I couldn't figure that out, so I went through those things frame by frame and EVERY SINGLE THING in them is something that has happened to me in the game.
It's really too bad there was this wild explosion of anger but it really says more about the angry people than about the game or its quality.
Anyway. I'm really happy with the game. There definitely are a number of points where it could be improved or expanded, but there's enough in it right now to keep me entertained for quite a while. It has turned "what's over that next hill?" into a really solid game motivation mechanic. If you go into the game with the intent of grinding your way to goals as fast as possible, you will not remotely enjoy the experience; that sort of behavior means you skip and miss everything interesting the game has to offer. That's why all the reviewers are absolutely full of crap on this.