Hello Games have finally redeemed themselves after many years. No Man's Sky has definitely improved to be worthy of a thumbs up review. Well done.

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No Man's Sky shows some amazing potential. It has a grand vision and a solid foundation for something great. But in the end that's all this game really is...amazing potential.

The first 10-20 hours will be magical: a new planet flourishing with seemingly unique plant life and animals, resources to gather, a spaceship, once fixed, will be your portal to explore the vast cosmos. Look up in the sky and see other planets and possibly even moons that you can actually fly to and claim discovery like Christopher Columbus. It all seems like a fantasy come true.

Then reality strikes...

The front page of the No Man's Sky Steam store showcases some blatant lies.

For example, the page says "In this infinite procedurally generated universe, you'll discover places and creatures that no other players have seen before - and perhaps never will again."

That is a flat lie.

After about hour 20 where you should have a few hyper space jumps under your belt and have explored each planet and moon in the systems where you have visited, you come to the realization that the places and creatures you discover have some extreme likenesses, and in fact are exactly the same places and creatures that you have visited on previous planets.

The same plants, the same animals, the same buildings, the same life forms, the same space stations, the same ships, the same weather patterns, the same sentinels. It's ALL the same.

Everything is a clone of everything else, just on an immensely vast scale.

"At the centre of the galaxy lies a irresistible pulse which draws you on a journey towards it to learn the true nature of the cosmos."

This statement isn't even worth dissecting. It is just not true.

"But, facing hostile creatures and fierce pirates, you'll know that death comes at a cost, and survival will be down to the choices you make over how you upgrade your ship, your weapon and suit."

Death doesn't come at a cost; you simply respawn and go to your grave to get your stuff back. Unless you consider choosing not to recharge your life support as a choice for survival, there are really no choices to make that affect your survival.

"Trade convoys travel between stars"

No.

"Factions vie for territory"

No.

Mind you, I've taken these statements directly from the No Man's Sky Steam store page. I have not edited them in any shape, form, or fashion. They are just flat lies.

Then there was the promises by Sean Murray in his many videos about the features that this game would offer. Blatant lies and false promises. Certainly stretching the truth at a minimum. Stephen Colbert was even genuinely amazed and excited.

And then there's that multiplayer thing....that isn't quite multiplayer. More like an online catalog.

The final nail in the coffin of this terrific alpha build is its instability and crashes. No finished game should ever crash this much. EVER. And it's not even one game breaking bug. There are literally dozens of game breaking bugs. Nearly every action in the game has been tied to a crash. Hello Games has no respect for quality assurance. They've hyped up the product feeding on the hopes and dreams of anyone willing to drink the koolaid. Unfortunately they've laced that koolaid with cyanide...

No Man's Sky is ultimately a product launch failure, but it might be the most profitable failure of all time. Outside of the excessive crashing, I enjoyed the first 20ish hours. But boasting 18 quintillion planets, I expected a lot more variety and uniqueness that would continually keep the exploration and discovery aspects fresh and exciting. Instead the game hits a point where it feels empty, mundane, and downright boring.

Quite possibly the best stealth game ever. COTW is a pretty amazing hunting simulator. Unfortunately the game does randomly crash quite often, has some persistent bugs, and the base game is missing some key quality of life features like ATVs and tents. Overall, though, these shortcomings were easy for me to overlook since the gameplay is just spot on enjoyable. I can see how many would be put off by these shortcomings and just never give it the time it deserves.

I originally tried the free copy of COTW on EGS and it was good enough to make me want to buy on Steam and pick up some DLC, because f--k EGS garbage platform.

And Expansive Worlds needs to hire a better QA team to address the crashes and persistent bugs. Either that or their development team needs to get their heads out of their asses. The game is good, but stop being content with just good; make it great!