It was a rollercoaster. I rage quit a few times after dying, some due to my own incompetency, some due to glitches. I finally found a way to easily backup my saves, but after that I only died once after being ambushed by a bunch of pirates in space.

Other than the frustration of permadeath it was really a lot of fun. The real joy to me in this game is improving things: your character, your ship, your mechs, your base, etc. When you have all of that stuff close to maxed out the game becomes boring. Prior to the expedition I would log in, collect my spoils from my frigates, fight sentinels for a bit to get Walker Brains, maybe farm some mats and then log out because there is nothing else I really wanted to do. It had become rote.

The expedition brought back the olden days when I had nothing and didn’t really know what I was doing. I look forward to the next one.

Firstly I just want to make it clear I am *not* accusing Hello Games of any devious intent here, I consider them absolutely one of the good guys of the gaming industry with the level of support they have given the game over the years!

However…. there is something about this game that I just cannot put my finger on. I will mindlessly grind for hours on end achieving absolutely nothing, feel angry with myself about it (to the extent I have deleted the game multiple times) then go back for more the very next day.

It’s like I have the desire to find the perfect ship, but then there is nothing to do with it other than the few random encounters that are the same wherever you might encounter them. Or I will look for the perfect Capital ship and accumulate a fleet of 30 living frigates only to then send them on missions to retrieve a trivial amount of resources that I didn’t need in the first place. Or I will system jump for hours at a time looking for a perfect planet, convincing myself that it’s not a waste of time because I can also check the Space Station for multitools while I am at it (see, killing 2 birds with 1 stone, totally not a waste of time!).

Seriously I don’t want to sound like I am hating on the game, I think they have done a fantastic job – but something about it has triggered an extremely bitter-sweet response in me. Maybe I have some type of undiagnosed condition like OCD or something that this game taps into…

Anyone else feel the same way?