Recent reviews by Shakespearicles™

> Spent the first 5 minutes trying to figure out how to reload.
> Realized that you don't have to reload. Ever.
> Cries in joy. A modern game that finally prioritizes fun gameplay before realism.
> Gets from point A to Point B in the level, killing the entire population of Murdertown without reloading.

10/10
Would never reload again.

An honest, hype/hate free review:

Let me preface this by first saying that A: I got this game at a *steep* discount, and B: I use a whole suite of mods.
That being said, I like this game. A lot. I recommend it, but not for $60. And the mods I use are mostly for graphical performance optimization that don't affect the core game-play experience. That part came later, as you'll see. I didn't get No Man's Sky until after the Foundations update. By then the over-hype, and ensuing backlash had (mostly) passed. I had watched a few Let's Plays, and I felt like I was ready. (read: I had low expectations.)

First, the bad:

The first time I started a new vanilla game, it took nearly 3 minutes to load, and the low FPS made the game nearly unplayable. I have a very good gaming PC, so this was new in my experience. This is where most people would have stopped and got a refund. To be fair, I spent most of the first day testing different mods to see what worked, or broke the game. (I highly recommend looking at Nexusmods.com) The optimization mods helped keep the game looking good, but brought the load time down from 3 minutes to 38 seconds. Tolerable at least.

My (good) Experience:

Once I got the game running smooth like butter, I did what any good tester would do, and tried my best to break it. You see, I had heard that most of the game-play was grinding. Grinding for money, resources for upgrades, for inventory expansions, etc. So the first thing I did was eliminate all of that to see if there was still a game left. After a bit of hacking, I started a new game with all inventor slots unlocked, all crafting recipes known, and 100 million units (money). Now you might say that it made the game stupid-easy, but I still had to find and collect the resources I needed. This way, I was still forced to explore. And I'm glad I did. You see, I could have just given myself unlimited warp fuel, and high-tailed it for the galactic center (the 'end' of the game) but I had already watched a video of 'the end' of the game and I wasn't in a hurry to reach it.

No. The hidden gem of this game is in the exploring. Once you've gotten the hang of surviving the basic elements of the weather, and the knack of dealing with the odd pirate attack, it's less about the pitched excitement of danger and combat, and more about seeing the sights, making discoveries, meeting aliens, and learning about the alien backstories and language, which is my favorite part. I like the varying pace of the game. Mostly peaceful, with excitement sprinkled in when you least expect it. Like going for a bike ride in the park, and then every so often the bike briefly turns into a bear.

I was able to get to, and focus on this aspect of the game quickly (within a couple hours) by eliminating the busywork of grinding. (And I won't sugarcoat it, the grind is real.) The grind serves to pad gameplay time, but I don't feel it adds to the experience in a meaningful way. BUT! you can still enjoy the game with the grind, just at a slower pace.

I was trying to see how fast I could get to the point where the -core- gameplay stopped being fun. But after over 25 hours (at time of writing) in a couple marathon sessions, I haven't found it. Sure, a lot of the locations have that copy-pasta feel to them, but it never stopped being engaging for me. Even if I started the game with the best ship and weapon, and all the upgrades from the word go, already knowing how the game 'ends', I would still have a blast jet-setting around and meeting people, and seeing things, claiming a home planet and building a base. (The last part, coming with the new update, bringing a whole other new, good, dimension to the game.)

Ultimately, I like the game. A lot! But I had to do a TON of exceptional things to get there, and that shouldn't be required of the average player. Which is a shame. Because at it's heart NMS is a fantastic gem. But it's mired by a lot of rough that you have to get through to see it. I can only hope that with future updates, these core problems may get addressed. As it is, my review is, like it's current rating, Mixed. But I still recommend it because I think it's worth a chance. This game needs more positive reviews to off-set the negative, vocal minority.


TL;DR: Good game at heart. Has (fixable) technical issues. KNOW what kind of game you're getting into. Don't pay full price ($60).

It's the kind of Farmville you can play and not hate yourself for after.

I start the game 180 days from retirement. Try to be a good cop. Get killed by the mafia after 10 days.
Play again. Be a dirty cop, working with mafia family. Get killed by the other mob family.
Play again. Try to play both sides. Die anyway.
Game message: Death is inevitable.
Game be deep.

10/10 would die again.

This is NOT the Stanley Parable. Do not let anyone try to fool you into thinking that it will be a similar experience. It doesn't have the same wit or humor or choices. It tries to pass off a half-finished blocky walking simulator as a 'game' or 'project' as being deep and meaningful, little more than a barely-interactive blog video. But this game is like digital bulemia. You hope that it will somehow change you, but just end up exactly as you started, left feeling depressed and empty inside. If you really need that, watch a "Let's Play", and save your money.

What can I say that hasn't already been said a hundred times over? If you liked the movie Apollo 13, get this game. If you like space or science, get this game. If you like comical explosions and puzzles, get this game. It's challenging, but not punishing. And even when it is frustrating, it never stops being fun. You can be terrible and still have a good time. What other games can say that? A genre-defining modern classic on a par with Minecraft.
11/10.
Get this game.

For starters, 3rd party launchers like UPlay that need to always be online can suck my d!ck.
Now, as for the game,
It's worth the 80's nostalge trip, with the self-aware videogame/movie tropes. And it rides that horse all the way into the sunset. There are four or five main missions that are each ~20 to 30 minutes of game time. The rest is two types of side quests; Rescue a scientist or hunt an animal type, Liberating outposts, And collecting TV's, Tapes, and Files, which DOES unlock weapon stuff so it's worthwhile. The island is fairly small, and you can fast travel. I liked it enough to see it through to 100% completion in less than 8 hours. But after all the novelty had worn off, this game left me wanting to go back and play Far Cry 3 again instead of ever planning on playing this again. As of this writing, the pricetag is $15, but I would definitely wait until it's on sale.

Best described as turn-based "Mark of the Ninja". I've seen reviews saying that the game is too short, but I don't feel that's true. It is a game with layers of difficulty. You can make the game as difficult as you want in order to achieve bonus objectives for skill points. Often that requires playing the same level multiple times until you have that 'perfect run', which really appeals to the OCD completionist in me :). That can pad out the game length significantly (if you choose to). It also ramps up the difficulty. At some points the game gests harder than a blind lesbian's nipples in a fish market. But it never got frustrating to the point of not being FUN! The harder the challenge, the more motivating it was to beat it. I remember thinking that the first boss was IMPOSSIBLE until I had that 'ah ha!' moment and solved the problem. It was VERY satisfying. After that I felt like I was ready to take on anything the game threw at me. And it delivered!
EDIT: Well over 50 hours racked up, this is one of those games I love coming back to and playing again and again.

If you liked the previous Saints Row games, then you'll love this. And you really need have played the previous games if you want to know what the hell is going on, plot-wise. It's familiar, but with a fresh twist. When I first started playing, I thought I knew what to expect. Playing as Johny Gat in Hell. Murder, mayhem, hilarity. Check. Cars, guns and super powers? Check. I was thoroughly enjoying it, and already ready to give it a solid 9/10. But then, out of F#cking nowhere, a musical number. Amidst the violence and explosions, A FULL MUSICAL number! The voice actor for Johny Gat holding a high F note in a duet with Kinzi Kinzington!!! And in that moment this game went straight to the top into my Favorites section.
Yeah, the main story is a bit on the short side, less than half the length of play time of SR4. But then $20 is a little less than half of the normal $50 price tag on longer games. So I'd say it's worth it.