Have You Played... No Man's Sky?

Have You Played? is an endless stream of game retrospectives. One a day, every day, perhaps for all time.

No Man's Sky has changed a great deal since the initial release, switching from a pure, lonely exploration experience to a game with base building, harder survival-based modes, rudimentary multiplayer and a lot more. I still prefer that original lonely exploration, though.

I think it's great that Hello Games have continued to support the game post-release, and I'm happy it's now satisfying more of what people wanted from it. But I have other games that offer bases to craft from parts, and I'm never going to enjoy settling down in No Man's Sky as much as I do in Astroneer or other games with more satisfying crafting and building tools.

No Man's Sky will always for me be about moving on. Landing on a planet, spending a while cataloguing some creatures and gathering resources, and then heading on to the next planet. I liked that the space stations were sparse and that interactions with aliens were mostly short. It's to their credit that even while leaning more towards what the audience wants, that core experience remains accessible. I hope Hello Games continue to support the game, but never bend too far from that original vision.