Recent reviews by Chief O'Brien

Opening was actually pretty good. Very much a Control/SCP vibe to it - and then I was dropped into the world to be greeted by hundreds of half built houses abandoned by players. At one point, the game asks you to place a campsite as part of the main story which is fine, except that I was surrounded by hundreds of other, abandoned, campfires that really ruined the experience.

Game didn't feel responsive like you'd hope from a shooter, though the building seems alright. Wouldn't recommend. Don't care for the game resetting to be honest. I have enough FOMO in my life.

I am not the same person as I was before playing this.

This game has changed me.

Sharkmaid. And crabs.

Hello Games lied on initial release, took consumers' money and ran for the hills. Never an apology.

No Man's Sky Next is a face-saving operation designed to bring their company back into a reputable position. And it's worked, thousands of gullible people have taken the bait.

The game is still devoid of content, the "procedural" content is at most - comical. The user interface is still horrid, and counter-intuitive. The gathering of resources, by expending significant amounts of resources, is a tedious task that is rarely rewarded. Every time you want to leave a planet surface, even if it's to fly a little further away on that same planet, requires fuel which will deplete extremely quickly and you'll be forced to create more fuel just to do the same thing.

The aliens still ramble nonsensically. Your learning of languages isn't via classes, or books, but through clicking on strange stones on planets. The "story" is, well, non-existant. The aliens in the game are happy to sell away all their ships at a few clicks, but they'll charge exorbitant prices for them - and for little upgrades. The ships also seem to follow a very common design pattern with the few variations relegated to wings, positioning of components and colour.

Free-form gameplay is the core concern, however, of most people. If you enjoy building structures that serve little purpose other than to build other structures, then you're in luck. Though once you get a freighter, it all seems rather pointless.

You'll get communications from random pirates at random points, demanding random amounts of credits, or your cargo to avert an attack - you have six seconds to press numerous keys to respond after which there's no way to communicate again. Or die.

Sentinels function as ecological balancers - as so the wiki says (it's not apparant in the game) and they'll attack you if you harvest resources near them. If you do somehow (easily) aggro them, your only real option is to die as they'll hound you pretty much forever. Alternatively you can leave everything behind and jump system, or sometimes hide in a premade structure and hope that works.

These are all very small fragments of what is wrong with the game. Nothing to say of the numerous gamebreaking, and frustrating glitches, bugs, and crashes that you'll experience.

Don't get too attached to a save, as you could easily lose it. The save function is awkward and saves at random intervals (leaving ships, etc), so make sure you abuse the few save functions available to stop crashes from wiping your progress.

Personally, I wanted to enjoy this game. I wanted to believe that Hello Games had redeemed themselves. They haven't. It's another pile of hot garbage, that a vast amount of people are hailing as amazing. It isn't. They took my money, and I can't get it back. Don't let that happen to you.

Avoid, at all costs.

It's great until you realise that the 600 hours you put in was bought by someone in 6 minutes with a credit card and all your effort was for nothing.

If your personal fantasy is to have your eyes assaulted by what can only be described as a unicorn wetdream on LSD, then you'll probably enjoy this 'game'.
I use the term 'game' lightly, as my experience can only be described as initially being hand-held like a bald-headed child with some sort of mental disorder through the most basic of tasks (walking left-to-right, climbing a ladder, not ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ yourself), only to find myself afterwards being thrown head-first into a moshpit of anime girls and boys, with seizure inducing fancy effects. After being treated like a limp-footed mental case, to be then thrown into one of a million brightly coloured menus, characters, obscure quests and overly-attached Power Rangers, to say that I was confused and overwhelmed would be an understatement. Imagine listening to anything by Skrillex without being on some sort of party-drug.

Between the hundreds of anime look-a-likes forming a blockade between you and making sense of where you actually are, the glowing icons, incomprehensible menus and quests, the frankly bizarre dialogue and the somewhat disturbing music (clealy the result of multi-generation JRPG inbreeding), you'll find yourself wanting to commit seppuku at an alarming rate.

If you're 8 years old, a brony, or perhaps someone who enjoys self-torture, then this will probably be an epileptic treat. If you want to keep your sanity or dignity intact, then stay away.

She's a harsh mistress, EVE. If you're cocky, or careless, she'll put you on your knees and keep you there. But the rewards are equally severe. To some it's a nightmare, to others it's a second life. Amidst the miners, traders, pirates, captains of industry, loyal servants of the state, pioneers and explorers, you'll find your place.

EVE is an investment, and for a long time it can seem like that it won't pay off, it's not a simple, instant-gratification game. Although the old tired line of "being whoever you want" and "do whatever you want" gets tossed around a lot with MMOs, open-world games and other similar genres, it does ring true to an extent. You can do what you want within the boundary of the game, but guaranteed you will rub up against people who are doing what they want. As I mentioned previously, EVE is a harsh mistress. You may think your simple mining vessel isn't a threat to anyone, and maybe it isn't. But there will be somebody out there who will see you as a target, encroaching on their territory, or their resources, or just see you as a fat juicy killmail.

It requires a lot of work, but the rewards in the long-run are fulfilling. When you spend those weeks, training skills, piloting small ships, mining and making scraps, only to finally step into your new battleship, or mining vessel - there's no feeling quite like it.

And it's not easy to let go of, either. I've played seperately over 5 different periods since I first entered the world of EVE 7 years ago, and while to some I am nothing but a whelp in terms of power, skills, finances, or reach, I feel I have come a long way. I have my place in the EVE Universe, and it is forever changing.

It's not for everyone, but for those who do find the pull to jump and seek our their destiny amongst the stars - you're in for a treat.