Like a lot of people, I’ve played NMS since launch. Occasionally, I’d go away for a bit and then return to it to see the new updates. I’ve also gotten friends into the game and helped them along the way. I’ve always kept my main save. There’s something about the continuity of my one character who has been across the stars several times over and collected odds and ends from places I will never see again.

Today, I had an interesting idea. Along my journey I’ve left bases. Some of them were more fleshed out homes that I used for long periods of time. Others were cobbled together out of necessity for the tasks at hand. I decided to go through and destroy all but two bases. I am taking the time to deconstruct each base piece by piece, and it’s quite amazing how many vivid memories resurface as I do this. I could tell you what was going on in my life during each base’s construction. One that I will never destroy was built with a close friend, and I found a hidden message terminal that I left near a mine shaft that congratulated him on the birth of his firstborn son. We had been playing the game a lot since he was home with his expectant wife, and that was the last time that we played before he stepped into fatherhood.

I think a big part of No Man’s Sky is how therapeutic it can be. I’ve escaped a lot of bad days by logging in and exploring the stars. I have found it extremely peaceful to return those locations to their natural state and revisit a few parts of my recent life while I’m at it.

I typically wouldn’t see myself as the person to make a sappy post about No Man’s Sky, but I must say that it is truly amazing how each floorboard and each wall captured some sort of memory.

Have you ever went back to those dusty locations in your saves?