Apparently No Man's Sky has had another big update, bringing with it some sort of monster-training metagame to add to all the other things that game already does. With every new addition to that game, I feel myself less and less likely to ever return to it. Because it's just too much. There is too much game there.
This is an unpopular opinion, I know, because people love how much work Hello Games has put into No Man's Sky since its rather tepid launch ten years ago (which I rather enjoyed!) and from certain angles, this outlook probably looks a tad ungrateful, particularly as the last ten years of updates to the game have all been completely free rather than paid expansions or DLC.
I'm not denying that it is an admirable thing that the team behind the game have done — and to be honest, I'm most impressed that they've been able to make continually updating their ten-year old product somehow if not profitable then at least sustainable, with the studio only releasing one new game in the meantime — but… it's just too much.
No Man's Sky was already a sprawling, expansive sandbox game when it first launched. No, it perhaps wasn't quite what had been promised in the initial hype cycle, but it did have value, and it did feel like it had a clear artistic vision behind it; just one that wasn't particularly well appreciated. With every new major update, though, I feel like the game just gets more and more unwieldy — and, more to the point, potentially impenetrable to anyone either starting it for the first time, or anyone coming back to it after a long break.
This is where I am. I like the idea of No Man's Sky. I like the idea of a modern sandbox space sim. But I think you can put too much game in your game. If I were to boot No Man's Sky up now — and I could, I own a copy on Steam! — I would have absolutely no idea what I was supposed to be doing, what systems I was supposed to be engaging with, what was worthwhile doing, what was outdated and not really worth bothering with. And the game wasn't exactly forthcoming with a coherent sense of "this is what you're supposed to do in this game" from the outset.
You can probably say the same for any game that has evolved and changed over the course of a long period, of course. I tried Phantasy Star Online 2 when it first launched in English, and found it completely unapproachable, because the English version launched with a good 10 years of Japanese updates and additional material already loaded into it from the outset. Likewise, I'm sure Final Fantasy XIV probably seems rather daunting to anyone considering joining it for the first time now — though I will note that FFXIV has always been quite good about trickling out your access to its various features according to your progress through the main story, rather than immediately throwing you in at the deep end and bombarding you with a thousand possible things to do from the very beginning. (Final Fantasy XI is another matter, mind.)
To be clear: I don't begrudge anyone their apparently ongoing enjoyment of No Man's Sky, nor do I wish any ill on Hello Games for continuing to support what has turned out to be their flagship release. I'm just saying that I find it completely and utterly overwhelming, and I'm not sure I'm ever going to return to it at this point.
Want to read my thoughts on various video games, visual novels and other popular culture things? Stop by MoeGamer.net, my site for all things fun where I am generally a lot more cheerful. And if you fancy watching some vids on classic games, drop by my YouTube channel.
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