Honestly, having not played for 10 months, that was pretty much the perfect way to get back into No Man’s Sky. I really enjoyed the feeling of “starting over” without much of the actual tedium and slow progress of a real new start. The Expedition gave you just enough of a footing in the universe to get going quickly, while still asking you to do a decent amount of legwork to progress. Knowing how all of the systems worked, from basic UI all the way to expansion stuff like Derelict Freighters and scanner tracking helped a lot, though I think the Expedition would also be a great way to introduce those features to players returning from an even longer hiatus as well. I give it an A+ overall, well written, interesting and very well executed, with just the right amount of time needed to accomplish each minor goal along the way and the Expedition as a whole. Not sure how much I will ever use the “reward” (see below), but the real reward is the friends we made along the way or something anyway, right? =)
My new pet, with Slainte Station in the background.
Nice! Thanks for the heads up. I had a lot of fun doing the 4th one, so messing around with the first 3 that I missed sounds like a perfect holiday plan.
I realize I’m probably asking a pretty dumb question, but - do I want to play No Man’s Sky? I guess what I’m trying to figure out is whether it’s worth the time investment since I can play it through Game Pass, but I’ve found it difficult figuring out exactly what the game is all about, or maybe what itch it’s meant to scratch. I know there’s exploration and there’s combat but I guess I’m wondering in which direction it’s weighted, if in fact it leans more toward one than the other. Or to put it another way, if I dig the world building in the Mass Effect games, the mystery of Outer Wilds, and the exploration and openness of Elite Dangerous, will I find something to appreciate here? Also, how busted is it these days or is it pretty solid at this point?
I’d say it focuses much more on exploration. A little combat is thrown in for flavor, but that’s it.
As for bugs, there are a bunch of them, but the only game-breaking bugs I know of are related to working on story mission stuff or Expeditions milestones while in a player group (or even just with other players in the same lobby).
It’s kind of like Minecraft. Relaxing exploration, lots of digging/gathering resources, with a bit of combat and base building. Except here the ‘biomes’ are different procedural planets you visit. Obviously there’s more to the game, but that’s the kind of vibe it has I think.
It is very immersive (especially in VR) and kind of unique. Not for everyone, but for me one of the all-time favourites. :)
That’s interesting, I had not heard the Minecraft comparison and I don’t think I knew there was base building, sounds like it might be a relaxing time.
It’s very relaxing. Combat is an afterthought, crafting and resource gathering are easy, and the flight model is designed such that the average cat could probably navigate space quite easily. It’s a game about being in, and exploring, a vast universe - emphasis on vast. The comparison to Minecraft is quite apt, with much less combat and obviously many more worlds compared to Minecraft’s one.
It couldn’t ever be my main game for great stretches of time, but when I get the itch, my god I enjoy it. It’s one of those games where you always have a dozen each of short, medium and long term goals. And when you get fed up of your own creations there’s a universe of other players’ bases to explore within very easy reach.
Jumping in to third the Minecraft comparison. There are more goals to work towards which is nice but overall it is the same seeing the sights, resource collection, and building cycle.
It’s very easy to get stuff done in No Man’s Sky. There’s so little grind compared to e.g. Elite: Dangerous.
Well before I hit 70 hours of playtime on my main save, I had done all quests, had several bases, S-rated pretty much everything, a nice ship & freighter, a big settlement, etc.
The flip side is that I have 100+ hours. I have most of the base missions done, a nice A class ship and freighter, a B rated settlement that is finally making dirt, and a serviceable but not great base. I have too much fun jumping around and searching for new ships to deal with the other stuff.
Cool guys, I certainly appreciate all the feedback. So, one more question: is it worthwhile to start with the expeditions that are available now? I’d kind of like to pick up a Normandy but I know these expeditions are only around for a short while, are they difficult or fairly newb friendly?
I think they are newb friendly. At worse you will get a few guiding quests at start but fail to finish the expedition in the time given. At that point your save becomes a normal save and you go about your business.
The “best practice” advice over on the unofficial official Discord is to play through the main story (Artemis Path) in a Normal save once, before jumping into pretty much anything else, because there’s a lot of good, essential knowledge there. (It’s like one big tutorial, really.) The game holds your hand in a lot of ways, but it doesn’t do a great job at explaining basic features, outside of that.
But personally, I say go for it, provided you don’t mind being somewhat confused while you try to get a handle on basic stuff. If you do hit a wall, the #nms-help channel over there is pretty great, and of course you can just ask questions here if you prefer.
Yeah maybe that’s the way to do it (you play the guitar on the MTV). Looks like the expeditions last two weeks so I should have time to start a new game, get my feet wet and try out expeditions in between.
