If you felt hyped, that should be a red flag you won't want to ignore. You know it's time to have a critical look at the game to make sure the game actually lives up to your expectations. I'm sure I'm not the only one here who's been burned from marketing hype. I've got two burn scars from Medal of Honor: PA and Halo:CE and I don't want a third. Not being preachy here, just giving a friendly warning, that's all :)

So what is the point of this game? The description isn't very clear. Do you kill stuff?

Exploration, upgrading your equipment, reaching the center of the universe.
Based on what I've read about it.

Do you level up? Those dinosaurs in the trailer, can you kill and loot them?

I don't think so.
You can find stuff to craft with apparently.

Edit:
This might make it a bit clearer:
https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2016/03/03/no-mans-sky-preview/

i agree with you with little exception - i dont think (if you do at all..) than weirdness of creatures must to depend on how far away (in terms of astronomical distances) is some planet from our part of galaxy. the more important is concrete solar system, place of the planet on it, its mass and so gravity, atmosphere composition...

but ok, im big fan of procedural generating in games. the state when one doesnt know how things will develop itselves.. always i liked better procedurally generated dungeons like probably most in the daggerfall, than such you can find maps on the internet for. not mentioning the craps of prerendered scripts. this game rises hopes on me that such games will be more common in future. maybe creators deserve the high price for pioneering.

Glad to see NMS coming to GOG. Or at all for that matter :) (good lord, about flipping time). Will I pre-order today? Nope. Will I pre-order in June? Probably.

Don't worry, I have neither a current Windows nor 8GB of RAM and if it's regionally priced I won't buy it anyway so I'm safe from buying anything just for being strongly intrigued, Ziggurat was an exception - quite a turd but at least DRM-free, multiplatform and flat priced so at least I supported the good cause with my money.

Pre-order incentives. No thanks. That is a practice I won't support. Do I buy the game before it's released to get the entire game before knowing if it's good or not? Do I wait for reviews and if the game is good buy an incomplete game at the same price? I'll handle this like any other game with pre-order instances... I'll consider buying it next year after the price has been reduced by a lot, and then wait for the inevitable 66% or 75% off sale.

I'm convinced that any publisher that provides pre-order incentives either doesn't believe their game will sell that well, or they are just trying to take our money early so they can have it and we don't.

I do commend the developer/publisher for releasing DRM free though.

Kudos to Frozenbyte for releasing a playable demo before they released their game. Now that is a developer that believes in their product.

It's kind of sad to see so many people complaining about the price just because they don't know the dev. I agree that the price is, in fact, very steep and that many people can't afford it, but that doesn't mean every single one of these release threads has to turn into a "principles" and/or "pricing" discussion (a "discussion" that is basically people taking jabs at GOG and the studios).

This isn't a AAA game and, yeah, I understand why a lot of people aren't willing to trust a small studio with €60 in a pre-order; I also understand how the pre-order bonus might seem kind of weak to justify the investment, but Hello Games have been doing this for some time, I trust them, they're extremely capable, creative folk that I trust can bring a breath of fresh air to the ever-staler video game industry.

People pre-ordered Fallout 4 en masse even though they knew it was just going to be a reskin of Fallout 3; people keep pre-ordering games from studios that don't need the money at all, studios that keep pumping out games devoid of all creativity and "soul", but when a small studio pours their all into an ambitious project (that Sony fortunately backed almost entirely, otherwise it wouldn't have come to fruition, complain about consoles all you want, but without consoles you wouldn't even had had The Witcher 3 -- maybe because the "PC Master Race" is way too used to paying €5 for their games, whereas the "console plebs" still think it's fair to pay €50), everyone starts complaining that they're an unknown studio and that they know nothing about the game, and the usual GOG Forum talk of "principles" and "selling out" and all those slippery slopes some of us grew accustomed to in the past few years.

All I'm saying is: give these guys a chance. Their future is pretty much relying on this game, and at least they're releasing it, which is more that can be said about Star Citizen, for instance. If No Man's Sky falls flat on its ass, at least I know that my pre-order went to support someone who was trying to do something new, something different. Bethesda and EA and Ubisoft and Blizzard and Activision don't need my money, they'll just keep releasing the same games over and over again, but these guys could do with some help -- if only to show them there's interest in their game on the "great" PC platform, and especially on the GOG store.

That's actually a very good point. You have no chance to play the game, or even know if it works properly until well after the 30 day mark.

Unless it's 30 days after its release perhaps?

My rule of thumb, don't pre-order anything and wait a few months after the reviews are out to get an idea of what your looking at.

you don't level up in the traditional sense, but you do upgrade your ship, your suit and your multitool/gun.

yes, you can kill any creature... and you might (I dont know for sure) get resources for doing so, but you'll also draw a wanted level similar to Grand Theft Auto for doing so and will need to fight the sentinels.

i think.... again don't know 100%...that some creatures will be unkillable until you upgrade your weapon.... ie, too big for a weak weapon to kill

One thing I recall dev saying, was reaching towards the center makes it cheaper/easier to upgrade.
Myself, I`m off to the stars.

Adios all o7

EDIT: Something I mentioned on another forum:

"At first I thought it seemed pricey, especially as I haven`t really seen anything of the game once under way.
Like, do you basically just explore? Maybe pick up one or three things to upgrade & then explore & that is it?

They could do with showing a tad more of what you can do in game.

But then.... Elite Dangerous (base game) sold (still sells?) for that price & it only has exploring, upgrading & you can`t even land on planets & explore them.
ED also is just "go there, shoot someone/thing/loot something, go somewhere else" to the game.
NMS you can destroy anything, albeit at your own risk
Also, doesn`t NMS have more, & I mean waaaaaaaaaaay more, planets that you can travel to & from?
Also moons, can you land on those too?

Oh, also, ED you have to be online, even when playing single player mode.
NMS you don`t (I think)

I am definitely tempted, but will wait to see more of what you can/can`t do "

You can play offline.