this post was submitted on 27 Mar 2024
635 points (97.7% liked)

Games

32671 readers
629 users here now

Welcome to the largest gaming community on Lemmy! Discussion for all kinds of games. Video games, tabletop games, card games etc.

Weekly Threads:

What Are You Playing?

The Weekly Discussion Topic

Rules:

  1. Submissions have to be related to games

  2. No bigotry or harassment, be civil

  3. No excessive self-promotion

  4. Stay on-topic; no memes, funny videos, giveaways, reposts, or low-effort posts

  5. Mark Spoilers and NSFW

  6. No linking to piracy

More information about the community rules can be found here.

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [email protected] 186 points 8 months ago (7 children)

It's pretty amusing that this game went from over hyped to an absolute dumpster fire to probably one of the best space games ever made. One hell of a comeback story.

[–] [email protected] 90 points 8 months ago (2 children)

Honestly to me it's more promising to see a game studio stick behind their game like this rather than having the initial game be good. A good studio will still have bad games, but knowing that a studio will stand behind their bad game and work on it until it's good means a lot.

[–] [email protected] 35 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

It's definitely cool, they could have pulled the rug and run away with the money.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 8 months ago (1 children)

we just have to do some work on the overhyping a game and preorder part, but its looking like i might pick up this game

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago

I got it off GamePass back in November 2020 for my One S and played it a lot. Work has kept me busy so I've had less time but I have bought it twice since then - once for PS5 and then when I bought my Series X.

It's been worth it. I don't play multiplayer much and I've missed most of the Expeditions but I enjoy it a lot every time I play.

You can follow the quests or not. I honestly enjoy exploring the different planets. The graphics are good. On my PS5 save, my home base is on a planet where the grass glows when the wind sweeps across it at night.

I'll sit and just watch it throughout the game night.

[–] [email protected] 59 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (7 children)

I don't see why it's suddenly the best space game... The core mechanic seems to be the same as the original. Mine materials that are the same on every planet, so you can build space ships and better miners that take more materials and do it over and over again.

When I was playing on launch day, I had a really good first impression but it turned into disappointment, since all the planets had the same minerals. May as well stay on the first planet forever.

[–] [email protected] 41 points 8 months ago (3 children)

That is pretty reductive. Like, it's a sim. You could describe just about any sim the same way. "You just do this thing to do that thing". How is this any different from any other game?

I'm not saying it's the best space game, but I had fun when I played it and it definitely didn't just feel like I was mining materials just to mine more materials.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 8 months ago (1 children)

The problem is that NMS is very repetitive and bland. Learning alien words takes for-fucking-ever, finding freighter upgrades is one of the worst time sinks in the game, combat feels more tedious and padded out than that of Everquest, looking for "that one cool ship" or "cool looking weapon" is pure RNG and lucking out on it not coming as a C class, upgrading inventory space is either a system jumping time sink or "planetary exploration" time sink.

Nearly nothing you do in the game gives you a sense of accomplishment and, after 4-8 hours or so after first starting playing, you're unlikely to look forward to any specific activity because "it's fun". There's a lot "to do" but very little motivation to, like why even bother being the mayor of a settlement?

Even on permadeath the game offers no real challenge once you're off the starting planet.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 8 months ago (2 children)

Isn't there a "journey to the centre" and interaction with other players?

[–] [email protected] 6 points 8 months ago

Isn’t there a “journey to the centre”

Yes, though it's a cheap "new game plus", without even feeling like a "new game". Once you manage to get to the center, you're thrown in a new galaxy in a random planet and have to get back to your ship, only some upgrades you've installed on yourself and your ship might break. Yet you can immediately call your freighter and any exocraft.

There's also Artemis' questline, with an interesting concept but overall underwhelming delivery.

Story spoilersArtemis is stuck in a simulation, just like you, player, are stuck in one. The whole universe is a failing simulation created by Atlas.

.

interaction with other players?

From my experience, which pretty much ended around 1 year ago with the game, player interaction could be summed up to:

  • finding someone else's buildings during a community expedition
  • finding someone else's buildings in a quicksilver quest
  • someone giving you free stuff while you're idling in the anomaly

Apparently there are guilds now? In any case, I never saw anyone looking for group, because the game has nothing that only a pair or trio can do, or do faster/better than a solo player, other than base building

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago (1 children)

From what I've found online, the "center" of your galaxy is just a portal that sends you to the edge of a different galaxy where it's different but more of the same.

Kinda like Starfield actually.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 8 months ago

The irony is how much Starfield copies from NMS, often the bad things and as a worse copy, like scanning stuff on the planet surface, jump range limitation, space "exploration", shitty performance

[–] [email protected] 11 points 8 months ago (4 children)

If this isn't even remotely a sim.

load more comments (4 replies)
load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 32 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

I think a lot of people are just very, very pleased with how well it's being supported compared to its initial launch and how this game company has become an outlier in the industry. They conflate their love for the company's business practices with the game's mechanics. So while the game may be great, many subconsciously give it a boost because of its legacy.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Every planet doesn’t have every material you need for crafting everything. But a single solar system likely has most of it. There are key elements on every planet that are meant to make sure a player never gets stranded. I guess one could argue for that to be a game mode though if it isn’t already where you very well could end up on a planet and have no way to survive.

A lot of people like the gameplay loop from day one but the initial lies about how multiplayer worked was a driving force behind the unhappiness. Once that was fixed it was a shallow experience but a lot of people would have been content with it. Instead Hello Games keeps supporting it and putting out new content updates. There are still a lot of features and improvements people would like for the game and those very well may see the light of day with the passion Hello Games has shown for improving it. That’s why so many people think favorably of them. There are a ton of other bigger studios that would never show this level of dedication and community support.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (3 children)

I agree, they did the right thing and much more. But the game still doesn't feel very fun. It's missing a reason to do things beyond just exploration and seeing new randomly generated animals and colors.

I was hoping for it to have some Elite qualities where you would travel with rare cargo to make money, but it doesn't even have any rare cargo or any demand for unique minerals on planets...

It's not fun, which is the main problem. The devs have built a universe to explore but hasn't accounted for that humans don't think different shapes and colors are very interesting when it's the same otherwise.

load more comments (3 replies)
[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago (1 children)

What, like Minecraft, still possibly the most popular game on Earth? I mean, all you do in Minecraft is mine the a couple of minerals that are the same on every seed, and use them to make better tools to mine minerals faster, and grow the same crops so you don't starve, and do it over and over again.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 8 months ago (1 children)

but in minecraft it's enjoyable!

not trying to be cheeky—i wrote up a long part about modding capacity and level of sandbox freedom etc., but i am sure you're already very aware of that lol

so taking it as just vanilla: at the end of the day mining in minecraft feels relaxing and satisfying to me while in NMS it feels like a chore. i absolutely hate mining out ore deposits with a mining laser.

(breaking plants and minerals is kinda fun though)

like minecraft really nailed game feel

obviously this all depends on personal preference anyway, but if players have to do the same thing over and over again, then it needs to be very enjoyable in and off itself to do so.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago

You said what I wanted to say, so yeah, can only agree with everything.

load more comments (3 replies)
[–] [email protected] 36 points 8 months ago (23 children)

Meanwhile in Star Citizen.

And they're all "in stock". How lucky!

[–] [email protected] 9 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Whoa, false scarcity, virtual goods tied to an online service, and nosebleed prices? What's not to like?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 8 months ago

It's not false, it's artificial. Some ships are indeed only buyable for a limited time. Or for certain periods.

load more comments (22 replies)
[–] [email protected] 8 points 8 months ago

Among the best space games? What the heck are you comparing it to?

IMO it's an okay giant sandbox but terrible as an actual game.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 8 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 3 points 8 months ago (5 children)
load more comments (5 replies)
[–] [email protected] 6 points 8 months ago

Just wait till star citizen releases. Anytime this century, just you wait.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago (5 children)

probably one of the best space games ever made

Don't stretch it. Maybe it could be #10 in a top 10, but when you have the likes of Elite Dangerous, Space Engineers, X4, Freelancer, plus little known indies like Empyrion Galactic Survival and Evochron Legends, it'll hardly be anyone's top choice.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 8 months ago

I mean, I generally agree with your assessment, but elite dangerous? I love Elite, but it is not a good game. Best thing to come from Elite Dangerous is the community.

load more comments (4 replies)