Hello mates,
I did a fairly lengthy review on this game and thought I'd leave it here as people seem to be a bit torn as to whether or not they should invest in it or not. I hope it helps some of you make up your mind :)
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G'day guys :)
I've always been an avid fan of anything "space exploration", and was understandably excited about the release of NMS. Since it was revealed 3 odd years ago, I stayed away from it and anything to do with it simply because "hype ruins games". Pretty much every game that allows people years to generate hype, often based off of very little information, results in very disappointed customers come release date. For that reason, I decided to wait until the product was released and playable before I started teasing myself with what the game may or may not be like. TL:DR I went into this game with absolutely zero expectations and preconceptions, so my opinion is based purely on my own experiences with it after investing close to 10 hours playing it.
NMS accurately delivers to the gamer, the feeling that it sets out to; i.e. what it's like to be a lonely soul traversing the universe, exploring and discovering things that no other human being ever has. This is, after all, the most important element in NMS, and it is captured very well. NMS also manages to deliver the space exploration experience in a very simplistic yet enjoyable fashion. Anyone who has played other games such as Elite Dangerous will know how tricky it can be for new players to get used to, but NMS is very accommodating to players of all skill and ability levels which is going to appeal to the casual gamer, but perhaps not so much to the seasoned space traveler. The aspect that I personally appreciate the most, is that the game allows you to exit your ship and actually explore the planets on foot. Likewise, when you dock at the space station, you're also able to exit your ship and interact with the NPC inside of the trade station. Games such as EVE, Elite Dangerous and even Mass Effect 1 (whilst using the rover to explore the planets) allowed planetary exploration but only from within the confines of your vehicle. It's a nice change of pace and considerably more immersive to be able to interact with the world as a human being and not only as the ship you commandeer.
The above mentioned points are the things that I feel NMS has done well. Unfortunately however, the areas in which I feel NMS has fallen short, by far outweigh anything positive that can be said about the game and I will do my best now to explain why.
NMS is about exploration. It is about discovery. It is also about sharing your discoveries with others. Every planet you travel to will be unlike the previous one, and quite possibly unlike ANY that you have traveled to prior. The flora will be different, as will the range and variety of creatures that you encounter. In theory, this sounds like a very exciting premise, until you really think about what is going on and what makes any discovery important. The excitement behind discovering something new, is that you have been the first. This implies that after you, there will be more. Not necessarily that more people will physically go where you've been and do what you've done, but that you will in some sense receive some recognition for your discovery and that it will be remembered. In a universe with literally endless possibilities being experienced by thousands if not millions of other players, your discoveries hold little importance to anyone else and, as I discovered in my time playing NMS, hold little importance to yourself. I'd like you to consider any game you've played where loot is an important factor. I'll use Destiny for my example simply because I get a strong Destiny vibe whilst playing NMS. Even though discovering terrain/elements/flora/fauna is different to obtaining a rare weapon or armour, the same principle can be applied. The excitement that people get from receiving extremely rare items comes from the fact that a) they know what they've got, b) other people know what they've got, and c) there is an associated value on it. It is impossible to assign an associated value to a completely randomly created thing or object, that will almost certainly never be replicated ever again. In essence, this devalues almost everything you see and find in NMS.
Ironically however, despite the game's infinite number of possibilities for each planet, they all feel strikingly similar and uninspired. In my 10 odd hours with NMS, I've probably explored between 20 and 30 planets and have not once been "WOW"d since my second planet. Yes, the planets are different, as are the plants and creatures, but many of these differences come only in the form of a different name, which is also generated completely at random. The number of "discoveries" I've made on various planets that have been IDENTICAL except for a change in species name is very disappointing. Even on the odd occasion that I've encountered a seemingly "new" creature, 90% of its body will be the same as a creature I've seen previously. Now at this point you might turn to me and say that I've only explored 30 planets and it's too soon to make such a bold statement, but the fact of the matter is, you shouldn't need to explore 30 planets before you start seeing new and interesting things that make you want to keep playing. After playing a game for 10 hours, most people will have formulated an opinion on it and have decided whether or not they feel they should keep investing more time into it, or invest their time elsewhere. Sadly for me, I feel very little incentive to continue playing, though I will still give it a little more time to see if my feeling towards it changes.
There was another thread here on the NMS reddit that I was reading earlier today regarding the impossibility of meeting other players in-game. For those that didn't see it, two streamers who were randomly placed on planets within traveling distance from one another, organized to meet each other at the nearest space station. Upon arriving there however, neither appeared in the other's game, despite them being at EXACTLY the same location. Though I don't believe there has been any official confirmation on this as of yet, it appears that players may in fact NOT be able to see one another in game, which runs contrary to what the developers had apparently been saying all the way through development. Not good.
From a technical standpoint, the controls, at least to me, feel very sluggish and unresponsive. This is particularly noticeable when on foot. For a game built around exploration, fluid movement mechanics are a MUST. You wouldn't set out on an expedition in real life wearing a pair of your grandma's broken sandals, would you? That's what running around in NMS feels like to me. It's just not comfortable. Also, visually speaking, the game looks terrible on Playstation 4. I'm not arguing that the artwork itself looks bad, but the textures appear to be of a very low resolution and the amount of clipping, pop-in and glitching that goes on frequently is unacceptable for a $90 game (Australia) in 2016.
With all the above taken into account, I just can't recommend for anyone to purchase this title at its current asking price of $60 USD or $90 AUD. Whilst NMS has a lot of great ideas on paper, I just can't help but feel that it's fallen short in the execution of so many of them. If exploration is your bag then you may indeed enjoy this game, but please keep in mind that it is indie through and through and simply does not belong on PSN or STEAM with a Triple-A price tag. Had the game been more reasonably priced at the $20 USD mark, I wouldn't hesitate to tell people to give it a crack and see for themselves whether they like it or not, but at $60 USD, you're taking a big gamble on something you may never play again once the novelty wears off, which could potentially be VERY soon.
This is all of course, MY opinion, based on MY own experiences with the game. You are by no means obligated to agree with me or like what I've said, but I feel that too many people are afraid to say what they really think of this game just because they don't want to believe themselves that the thing they were waiting for for over 3 years, didn't live up to the hype it generated.
I posted a video of my first hour with the game in a thread of its own earlier, but will link it here as well for anyone wanting to see. Like I said at the start of this post, the first, and even second planets that I traveled to were both novel and exciting. The problem is that every single planet you travel to thereafter is essentially the same (with few minor cosmetic differences) and the novelty wears off very, very quickly.
Cheers everyone :)
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Needless to say, I caught a heap of flack from the NMS fanboys, but this is an honest and unbiased review of the game. I foolishly invested into the PC version as well when it was released simply because the graphics on the PS4 are so damn bad, and I wanted to give the game another chance on a stronger platform. Unfortunately however I've had issue after issue with the PC version and have submitted 4 tickets since its release date, but GOG has failed to respond to any of them as of yet.
It's not a dreadful game, but it's not worth the price tag, and it does get very repetitive very quickly.
Post edited August 16, 2016 by cheru2016
