Recent reviews by Lord Canaris

These are my thoughts and impressions, this is by no means a professional review, only my ramblings about the game:

My computer specs are in my Steam profile if you're curious. I run the game between 50 to 60 FPS at max settings with a GTX 770. In the looks department, the game is a work of art. That's not to say it's technically stunning or flawless, but the color palettes in use and the designs are a veritable feast for your eyes. That said, there is information to suggest the PC port of No Man's Sky is upscaled from 720p and this negatively affects image quality.

The aliens are unique even if they look like they could be from Star Trek (they're all humanoid in shape with four limbs). Building architecture is distinctive and varied, from ancient ruins to imposing monoliths to modern habitation modules used as shelters from the often savage environments and looming space stations hanging in the skies.

The starships are also great. There is a great deal of variety and the designs are clearly modular. You may see two similar ships sharing the same frame and cockpit but completely different engines and other structures, such as stabilizers and wings or pods and dishes. More importantly, none of it looks out of place. Things look like they belong together and that's definitely a plus.

I'm not sure why so many have had technical difficulty with NMS, why so many people seem unable to tweak graphics options before refunding, or why so many people are so eager to talk about a game they've never played or haven't played enough to actually get beyond the skin of - it's looks - and into the meat of the mechanics. Two hours is not long enough. Do you judge a vacation before you've even left the driveway? Of course not.

In a day and age of handholding questlines and in-depth tutorials I can see why some struggle with the gameplay or find it shallow. You're given some very basic guidance in the form of popups in the lower right as you go. No part of the game, from your first steps to the later stages that I've just begun to reach is really explained to you. Personally, I prefer this, because that's what No Man's Sky is about: exploring and learning rather than being along for the ride. It's not hard, but it does require an open mind.

You will learn words from various alien languages, though none of the things (aside from a handful of notable examples) aliens say to you will ever be completely translated. This leaves you to figure out what the being is trying to intimate on your own. When you don't know many words this can be quite the gamble. NPCs are passive and come in a wide variety of flavors: there are the Korvax, Gek, and Vy'keen races that I've encountered.

Interaction with NPCs is limited, however. You speak to them once, fulfil a condition and they will either reward you with a blueprint, a rare item, or pain if you make the wrong choices. The monoliths work in a similar fashion, presenting you with a situation and you need to attempt to guess the right response.

Sometimes you will come across interfaces which require you to solve a number problem. These are always prime numbers, simple subtraction, or inputting the right sequence of numbers. As far as puzzles go these are incredibly easy and a bit of a let down. Something more challenging would have felt more rewarding. On the other hand, the number of times you will do these is very high because you need to do them in order to get certain useful blueprints and quick and dirty is better in that case.

When it comes to exploration, be conservative. Spending the first few hours of gameplay in your starter system may seem like a good idea but it isn't. There's nothing there that's terribly valuable or unique. Not even emeril, gold, or iridium. I can't fault the developers for the number of players who think that all of the worlds are copied and pasted when they've only even seen one or two. The sheer variety I've encountered in both species of fauna and flora and terrain has been mindblowing. From giant grazing animals on lush forested worlds to carnivorous fish in the waters of an ocean planet. Variety is there.

In fairness, though, planets are essentially a biome unto themselves: there are no continents to speak of, the climate and weather is the same for the entire planet, and the creatures are pretty much distributed across it's entire surface from pole-to-pole. So while each planet is different the planets themselves are the same all over the surface.

The reward for discovering all of the species on a planet may be tempting but is also very time-consuming in some cases. You have to look high and low and often enough, there will be one species that simply evades you after hours of searching. In my opinion, it's simply not worth the excessive amount of time you might spend. By no means is doing so difficult: you hold F and aim at a creature. It can be extremely tedious however and a serious distraction from the progress you could be making by carrying on.

For all of that one thing I don't like is that you can't viably retrace your steps. Going back to a star system you just left is almost impossible. Be sure you're ready to move on.

Making units, the in-game currency, is fairly straight forward and based almost entirely on trading rare and very rare items you come across or are rewarded. To put this into perspective, I came across a radioactive planet which had large amounts of radnox which sold for over 500 units per piece. This gives you a sense of some progression and some impetus to explore more thoroughly. Almost all of my units income has been in selling rare and very rare items and uploading individual discoveries.

Pro-tip: don't hoard resources. If you have any brains, you'll figure out which ones you need to stockpile with time but there are none that are unique never to be seen again.

Now that I am 20+ hours into the game, I feel I have experienced enough and have enough information to properly critique No Man's Sky's control scheme. In a word: frustrating. Sometimes it feels like you're going out of your way to do the most simple tasks. Some examples include landing on landing pads at structures on planets (I found myself basically flying upside down so that I could see when I was over the pad) to the most basic tasks like recharging your shields. The act of holding the button in order to interact with things is also not intuitive.

Thankfully there is aim assist because even with KB+M aiming is not a trivial matter. Mouse acceleration and smoothing are poor, I don't see an option to adjust sensitivity, and fighting in space without the aim assist is almost impossible. InHello Games' defense, they are working on this issue and hopsefully will release the changes to the stable branch soon!

Though I touched on it briefly above: the flight controls are so basic yet somehow prevent you from doing anything easily. Handling of your starship can be a chore, whether that is maintaining your angle of attack of making a turn. And many people accustomed to flight sims or games with decent flight models will not enjoy this. There is a system in place to prevent you from crashing into the ground, annoying in and of itself, but it also exists - albeit softened - in other places where there are obstacles. It's almost as if planets and starships are magnets you are trying to push together on the same pole.

My final thoughts: the game is an artistic masterpiece with a compelling story you have to piece together yourself, combined with rich alien life and a broad variety of topography and lots of crafting. It satisfies me in many ways and I find myself thinking: just one more. The sometimes awkward inventory management, frustrating flight controls, and combat that's more annoying than deep doesn't break the experience for me. This isn't Minecraft in Space. Was it worth $60? For me, yes, and I got what I expected. I want more.

Minor SPOILER below!

Where to start? This game has many aspects I enjoy, aside from simple farming. It has exhaustive inventory and finance management and social interaction. It does echo the old Harvest Moon games and even references them in some places but brings it's own charm to the table. Love and marriage don't feel simply tacked on, either. Overall, I would suggest this game if you're looking for a fun and nostalgic addiction. "Just one more day," indeed. Definitely worth the price tag and more. I was addicted for a few dozen hours... which brings me to the caveat (which ConcernedApe is tweaking).

The 'ending' falls decidedly flat. Even veterans of this genre of game will have a difficult time living up to your Grandpa's lofty expectations. I scored a 5/13 Great Honors, which lit only two candles at his grave, and this was extremely underwhelming. I knew he was coming, I found the note at the aforementioned grave early, and I knew I would be judged a la older farming games. I didn't know it would be so harsh and run so counter to his wishes to me on his deathbed. He wanted me to be close to nature and people, so I focused on that, but total worth is weighted much more heavily! I was still worth 600k gold at the end, but that wasn't enough, either.

Restoring the community center is apparently worth only ONE point! Being worth a million gold is worth five. Lame.

Again, ConcernedApe has listened to the players' responses and will be tweaking the end so at least there's that, and it's not a big enough negative to make me tell others the game's not worth it. I very much enjoyed my 2-year playthrough, although gramps did, indeed, sour my desire to continue playing. Which is a shame as there's a lot left unfinished.

In the end, this is one of the best games I've played this year so far and more complete than many larger projects (for example, one of Chucklefish's other games, Starbound). Especially when you consider the size of the project itself has been very small, this is quite an achievement. This sort of game goes back to the days when development was about passion and attention to detail, driving toward an ultimate goal that was not simply dollar signs. Most developers and publishing houses have either lost sight of this passion or have allowed external issues to cloud their judgement. I'm looking at you, EA and Ubisoft.

I'll have to come back to it later and see how it has progressed, perhaps when multiplayer is implemented?

I'm over 40 hours in now and my thoughts are simply this: Game of the Year 2015 and perhaps the best game of all time.

My pick for the 2014 Game of the Year.

An amazing, innovative game that takes the best concepts of the past and brings them to the now. Better than Minecraft in every way; I prefer the nostalgic, old-school sprite graphics in this kind of game. The sidescrolling element makes things less complex and smoother. Simple is good from my perspective. My only regret is not having invested in it while it was being developed and enjoying it as it matured like I did with Minecraft.

A woefully underrated game.