I played No Man’s Sky for the first time today. It’s alright. I can hear the internet scream “BUT DAVE! WHERE’S THE HOT TAKE? WHAT ABOUT THE BRAND?” Deal with it.
I came into NMS knowing pretty much nothing about how it all works or really what it is. So if you want to watch the first 40 minutes of me faffing about and being awful at computer games, see the video below (Note to the reader from a more recent Dave: as of 2024 that video no longer exists).
I’ve played another few hours since. It’s not a lot to really say anything meaningful but I might not play any more for a while, I’ll get to why eventually.
First off there’s no HOTAS support. That was basically the only thing I wanted from it. Fucked it lads.
In my video everything looks a bit crap because all the default settings are medium, I guess that’s standard but if you go read my favourite set of guidelines you’ll see why that bugs me.
The UI is beautiful but so counter intuitive. It’s got the Destiny style ring cursor that needs to be held down for using some things but not others which boils my piss. Then there’s right click being the back button which I seem to be unable to remember, I end up just double tapping tab to reopen most menus.
The flight physics is not my jam. I’m an Elite nerd and that’s got probably the best space flight physics in any game at the moment so I guess NMS was never going to be my jam in this respect. Not being able to crash into the ground feels a bit weird and docking at stations is pretty meh. Get me, I’m edgy, hardcore and a space nerd.
The “multiplayer” stuff, naming things eh? What’s the point? I’ve named a system Sabaton and it’s planets Sabaton I and II. I just upload the data without renaming for some credits.
All the station interiors I’ve been in so far are the same. Most of the buildings are the same. Procedural.
Gathering materials is pretty underwhelming.
Performance, bad on PC.
The last in my list of complaints is its ability to give me crushing headaches! A combination of performance issues and the the Pulse Engine animations has been destroying me.
If I were to speak its praises then I’d say it’s bloody beautiful, The Atlas plot stuff is tantalizing and, some of the tracks on the soundtrack are just perfect.
I’ll go back to it if the performance issues get resolved because right now I’m not enjoying it enough to put up with the physical pain. In the meantime listen some super happy music, it probably wont give you a headache.