Look, at this point I don't even know how the work Hello Games is doing on No Man's Sky is even remotely commercially viable.

But I appreciate the heck out of it, and it is amazing to look back at how the game was at launch vs. now. There was a period there, near the beginning, where my earlier thoughts on NMS being akin to an Early Access Title were looking like they wouldn't pan out. Progress was non-existent (so far as we could tell). When an update did come, it was small in scope and imagination.

Since then?

Broken promises from launch have been met -- including with the latest Origins update, the Sandworm shown in the earlier trailers. Almost any system you can think of has been expanded, improved or otherwise touched upon in some way.

There is still plenty of room for growth to be sure. I'd love to see further updates to the trade system for example, maybe something new in the area of combat missions too.

But even so, I am happy to be able to turn my thumb upside down and give this a hearty recommendation. It's at such a point now where if HelloGames came along and announced NMS 2 I could actually be excited by the prospect, rather than roll my eyes.

Feels like an early access title - and in fact if it had been released under that platform we'd probably not be seeing the extent of negativity we are.

We'd instead be seeing the review of type, 'Not recommended right now - only get if you're wanting to support the devs in their development of the game or see the development unfold. I'll update this over time as more updates are released'. You know the type.

Given the stated plans to continue patching in additional features and content I'm inclined to think about No Man's Sky in this light even though it has officially launched under the guise of a final release. It's an adequate base of a game. It has a solid foundation (technical issues many are experiencing aside) to be built upon which shows promise for another day, perhaps.

But the sentiment being expressed quite commonly of the game being a mile wide and an inch deep is an accurate one.

Each planet - no matter the size - has only a single biome on it.
The 'trading' element has no real depth to it given the swings in pricing (for the most part) is so minor that there is no real benefit to be had in bothering to transport beyond where you are right now - an issue compounded further by the limited inventory management game NMS wants you to play. There is no indication provided either through remote scanning, setting up probes or the like of supply/demand in other systems nor is there any real context provided when checking out a star system what it might 'produce' or have a need of.
The crafting is rudimentary and hindered significantly by the aforementioned inventory issues.
Aliens, and interactions with the worlds in general are generic and meaningless.

So many things, and so little of it offering any satisfaction.

And yet - at the time of writing this review I've put in about 8.8 hours and couldn't tell you categorically I'm 'done' with the game, even in it's current state.

There is something here to be sure, I just hope the grand success of this release (deserved or otherwise aside) allows Hello Games to deliver on some of the implied promise. Get the space stations and freighters talked about in the last patch notes out in a satisfactory way - add more depth to their trading setup, flight controls, planet diversity and more.

We could get that one day - or it could end up down the route of Spore, a similarly ambitious yet ultimately shallow game that in the end could only disappoint.