So my score for this game isn't going to be just positive. There's a negative aspect too. Here goes: Gameplay is fun. Space Combat is great (could be slightly better). Space Trade is well made.

Problems: Game's got no official tools to help guide you (which planets to go to, etc.) and the fan-made ones sometimes make errors due to the sheer number of things they have to keep track of (imagine a LOT of Star Systems, now imagine cities, space stations, and space carriers in each system. Now imagine keep track of their individual inventories as you make your trade run).

Some friends got frustrated and left the game. A handful still play the game. I recommend this if you like Space Combat and don't mind the grind (you can grind without going into Trade. You just have to be good at combat. I started off with Combat. Got into Trade so I could upgrade my ships faster. Also did Exploration for fun) but keep in mind, whenever you explore a new system, you can sell your Star Charts to different in-game (in-universe, fictional) Faction Contacts. That ought to pad things out.

Having said all that, I would say this game IS very fun. It's just frustrating at times.

The start is rough, you can get to the biggest ship outside a fleet carrier within days using some youtube starter videos and as of the time of this review mission stacking (getting the same pirate kill mission from multiple system factions n addition to grabbing both a hard and easy kill mission from at least one of those to spawn the easy threat signal).

The nuance is being able to engineer (mod) you're individual components to make them better than the shop versions and buying the specialty modules from each of the 11 major factions particularly the Prismatic shields of which you need to buy I think 7 or 8 to have one for each type of ship going forward.

The main benefit is being able to choose solo play to avoid getting ganked by players while transporting valuable cargo/mining and starting/stopping play whenever you want outside of being mid combat which makes it good for casual play.

So I haven't played this game for a good 5-6 years, as it was always way too empty and lonely for me. Now I got disappointed by the development of Star Citizen and the unconvincing Starfield and thought I would give it a try again. Boy I haven't been disappointed! I can discover hundreds of million of star systems and planets like in NMS, but the graphics and the engine are simply more convincing. I can walk around on stations and planets like in Star Citizen or Starfield, but the sheer vastness is fantastic. If you go out of the standard bubbles of civilization, there is a good chance you will discover new planets and life forms, maybe even find your personal asteroid mining field. It feels to me like this is now the game I actually hoped for from NMS, Star Citizen and Starfield. The universe is also not empty anymore - NPCs and intelligent alien species are found everywhere. I decided that I will go on a mission of discovery and research - but honestly every style of play now finds it's niche in this game! Thank you to the devs for polishing it so much and giving me the VR experience I always dreamed of!