I tried getting this game on PC back in 2018-19. I found myself frustrated and not enjoying it at all, things like the inventory and feel of the game just didn’t feel right to me. All in all I logged maybe 1 hour 30 minutes?

Fast forward to just about a week ago, I have all these gamepass games and the new MW2 game and all I can think about is playing No Mans Sky. I played 8 hours straight. I haven’t done that to any game since 2011 just out of highschool. Hell I haven’t stayed up past 2am to game since 2009. Yet last night I found myself begrudgingly forcing myself to get off at 4am.

Its been so long since I’ve felt the wonder of gaming, the feel of whats just beyond the next hill.

This game might not be perfect but I think it does what a lot of games forget to do these days and just create fun. Nothing is to serious, yet the game can be as serious as I want it to.

I’d consider myself fresh as can be to, I’ve only made 1.5m credits and just made my first 6000 nanites, I’m still rocking the newbie ship with no extra goodies attached and I simply can’t find the time to settle down because the call to the next system drives me to see whats beyond.

Whenever No Mans Sky 2 comes along, I really think Hello Games will be in a better situation as a team both in organization and finances and I think then we will see all that No Mans Sky could ever be.

Also you guys as a community are great, so many people inviting me to party up, a few of you have stopped at my rinky dink little hut and waved or pointed at me. You guys have been a blast at making this big Univerae feel not so empty.

I have been through the game in nearly all of its permutations for a regular 4 years since launch. Participated in Waking Titan, in theorycrafting, all of it. Still use my day 1 save nearly all the time. I welcomed every new feature with open arms. The expeditions – chef’s kiss. Various features like derelict freighters and changes to base building – great. This patch, from a lore perspective – amazing! The customization and combat features – excellent! Hell, I even got a kick out of some stuff I missed, like the settlements.

But over time, every instance of my return to the game has been less lengthy until I began outright skipping more and more patches (been almost 2 years until I returned to this one) as the one thing I wanted to see in patch notes was nowhere to be seen.

Planet generation and exploration, at present, feel formulaic and sterile.

I don’t even have to visit a cold planet to know what it looks like. it’s the exact same every time with a difference in tree density. I barely have to visit a lush planet as they are mostly recycled between themselves and every single one has superheated storms. With very little difference, I am seeing the exact same generation and planets I have been seeing since around NEXT came out. The very same building blocks. They do not feel like planets, they feel like biomes. Animals are great to ride and befriend, but wild animals behave and look the exact same as in launch – chaotic.

I want to sink my teeth deep into developing my character, my journey, my fleet, my base and my empire. Hell, even finally commit to a galaxy center permadeath run. But what is the point if the exploration feels dead and if I feel like I’ve traversed every single planet a dozen times before? What was supposed to be the main attraction of the game and the expectation of millions of permutations has been, as of now, completely abandoned for the sake of easier introduction of new features in predictable worlds.

So I ask – can Hello Games crown all the great features they introduced over the years with an actual planet and animal generation overhaul? Can they truly give us long term explorers some new wonders to gaze in this endless universe? Can they, at last, provide the universe the depth that matches its width, even at the cost of a universe reset?

I believe they can and I hope they will.

After using primarily fighters for hundreds upon hundreds of hours of my main save, I had finally found an Explorer that I knew had to be my new main. Helped that a natural S-Class just kinda fell into my lap. Transferred all my tech and cargo over, but decided to ditch the positron and phase beam in favour of just a dual-weapon loadout with infraknife and rockets (my fav combo anyway).

After optimizing the layouts with the given SC slots, I was resigned to the overall damage potential being 20% that of my fighter, and the infraknife achieving only 50% of the DPS. I thought I’d give it a try anyway.

Holy shit.

In the next pirate freighter encounter, I finished off the freighter in half the time. I was still skeptical, so I took on a host of combat missions, including solo pirate missions from the Nexus, sentinel freighter battles, and various random encounters. The results were all the same – the Explorer eviscerated enemies with a terrifying efficiency and brutality that my maxed-out S-class fighters could only dream of.

I had read similar stories of such performances, but hadn’t experienced it first hand. But now I know and I can hardly go back to my fighters.

Now if they can only fix that bug so both of my outboard engines are lit up.