No Man's Sky videogame is better than many give it credit for

Last August 24, 2016, No Man's Sky was released worldwide, both for PC and PS4. Developed by Hello Games (based in the UK), it was one of the most awaited games in recent years, despite it being postponed several times. In theory, the game allows you to explore over a quintillion different planets. That is over 1,000,000,000,000,000,000 different worlds. They are all procedurally generated. Basically, the game has a seed number, that automatically determines their locations, and their locations, in turn, determine what kind of planets they are (barren, desert, ice, fire, lush, etc), and so on. The lead developer, Sean Murray, explains it in more detail in this video. The game features exploration, survival, trading, and combat.

All new games start with the player stranded on some random planet and in need to repair his / her starship. This start serves as some sort of tutorial, as you learn how to use your multi-tool (used for scanning, mining, and combat), as well as how to make your starship fly again.

One of the countless planets that can be explored.

Not long after release, No Man's Sky began getting a lot of bad reviews. On one hand, the game had a tendency to crash rather frequently, on the other, people complained that, after seeing only a handful of planets and space sations, everything started to repeat itself. This led to a a series of flame wars on Twitter, Reddit, and other social networks, with many users claiming that No Man's Sky was a scam that promised many features that were missing from the released product. It even came under investigation by advertising authorities. But all these claims could not be further from the truth.

On November 28, 2016, a major free DLC was released for the game, the Foundation Update. It allowed players to claim a home planet and build a base in there using a series of user friendly tools, create a farm, and the ability to own a freighter as well. Other features that were added included making space stations more alive, and the addition of Terminus portals, allowing players to warp from any space station to his / her homebase, and back, easily.

A planet base created by a player.

On March 8, 2017, another free major update was released once again, known as the Pathfinder Update. This update added three ground vehicles that you get by completing a series of quests: the all purpose Roamer, the ultra fast Nomad, and the ultra high storage capacity Colossus.

Player roaming and collecting resources on an extreme planet aboard the (slow) Colossus.

The Pathfinder Update brought other features as well. Now you can see and visit the bases of other players (if you run into their homeplanet), as well as the ability to own more than one starship, which are stored aboard your freighter. Starships were also given classes: C,B,A, and S (with C being normal and S being the best).

Thanks to these free updates, No Man's Sky hes been slowly, but surely, gaining and regaining fans. There is even a reddit group dedicated to populating and exploring a specific region together.

It is assumed that a new update is being currently worked on, and while many assume that it will contain a storyline content and a mission content, we will only find out in time.

Agree? Disagree? Opinions?