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No Man's Sky could end up being the "Spore" of this generation

SerTapTap

Member
Because we haven't seen enough shooting or what? Or enough cutscenes?

What is people want from this game?

Space marines shooting humanoid aliens while delivering classic lines. I just want a game about exploring cool shit and don't frankly care if I can interact at all. I think I'll be pleased, but some people seem to think that just because it's a game there needs to be space battles or orcs or something.
 

Not Spaceghost

Spaceghost
Sorry but no.

This is the game I've dreamt about since I was a kid.

Being able to explore a vast galaxy of alien planets all in real-time.

Even if the mechanics are paper-thin, I'll just make do with my wanderlust.

This is precisely the reason why I am extremely skeptical of NMS being able to fully deliver how I want it to deliver.

This is a game that I have been imagining in my head for years, now it's finally coming out and everything they say almost feels like it's exactly what I want to hear.

Honestly I am very ready for NMS to be a disappointment after you've "settled in".

I hope it hell I am wrong but I've been distancing myself from the project hoping that I can at least be surprised enough by the game that I will love it even if it isn't what I what I envisioned it to be.
 
People continue to act like NMS is this overly ambitious thing that's never been done before and will fail because of that, which just isn't true. We haven't actually seen much gameplay outside flying, but it's been heavily described, and most importantly, NMS isn't a new type of game at all. A lot of the territory it's traversing has been charted before over the last 30 years. We just got Elite Dangerous which let's you fly, fight, and trade through 400 billion 1:1 scale solar systems. Making procedural generated galaxies isn't as much of a massive risk as people think it is. And the gameplay that NMS does describe in its previews sounds extremely similar to the Elite games and other space trading sims. Try to imagine it as somewhere between Skyrim and Grand Theft Auto V, except you have a space ship and there isn't a main quest. This is just the first time a game like this has gotten a lot of attention from console gamers.

The main differences with NMS are that it's putting a lot of focus on planetary exploration from the get-go, and it's extrapolating the idea of Elite to an unprecedented number of planets and galaxies. I think there are really only two major risks to NMS right now:

1) The variety in its procedural generation doesn't hold up across the game's 18 quintillion planets, and they end up becoming repetitive at some point in the game.

2) The PS4 audience is put off by the game's sense of total freedom and people can't figure out how to create their own goals within its universe.


This is a PC/PS4 game
 
Space marines shooting humanoid aliens while delivering classic lines. I just want a game about exploring cool shit and don't frankly care if I can interact at all. I think I'll be pleased, but some people seem to think that just because it's a game there needs to be space battles or orcs or something.

I don't think it's that it would be interesting to find some sort of other life and have interactions with it, build a relationship through politics..there is alot that can go into exploration instead of picking plants and taking pictures of a rhino with ten heads
 

ILoveBish

Member
You sure that's not hindsight bias?

What

The first reveal of spore was incredible. The problem is the game we got looked entirely different.

The first reveal of Spore made it look like one of the greatest games ever.

No, I remember watching the unveiling, thinking man this game looks awful, then saw so many people lose their minds over it on forums. Then it came out and looked as awful as I thought it was. Dunno what to tell you guys.

You have no idea what you're talking about. Either you weren't there or hindsight affected your memories.

Thanks for letting me know about my own memory.
 

ironcreed

Banned
Space marines shooting humanoid aliens while delivering classic lines. I just want a game about exploring cool shit and don't frankly care if I can interact at all. I think I'll be pleased, but some people seem to think that just because it's a game there needs to be space battles or orcs or something.

Needs bald space marines vs the aliens and a 'riveting' game story to hold it all together. Not to mention some team death match and capture the flag. Who wants to discover and make their own fun in their own unique version of the galaxy anyway?
 
Yes, because gameplay = shooting and cutscenes.

Cut the word stuffing and false outrage if you don't have anything worthwhile to post.

It's an honest question, because I really don't get why the game gets so much stick. People say that it seems to lack of gameplay, but if not shooting like I said, what kind of gameplay is it that people are missing in this game?
 

komplanen

Member
Personally I doubt NMS will meet the expectations of many a Gaffer myself included. It'll be a novel game to play for a day or two and then most likely forgotten.
 
It's getting pretty irritating that any criticism or questioning of this game is met with thinly veiled "go back to calladuty" rhetoric. I'm pretty sure the people asking to see more of the game than walking and flying aren't asking for a "cinematic experience," they just want to know what there is to actually do in this huge game space.
 

Skyzard

Banned
You should listen to the latest Game Informer podcast that is about No Mans Sky. They specifically bring this topic up.

Someone posted a link in the thread earlier where he talks about Spore...he says it was good.

I know there's supposed to be some form of combat, but has it ever really been called an FPS/shooter by anyone on the team?

I've seen one bullet fired at a pretty passive drone.
 

daveo42

Banned
What

The first reveal of spore was incredible. The problem is the game we got looked entirely different.

Yeah, this was the bigger issue with Spore. The game changed so much between reveal and launch that it was almost night and day in comparison and was off-putting. I don't see NMS changing much between now and launch and Sean has even said that they are holding a lot of stuff back right now to avoid spoiling anything this game will offer.

I think we have all the current gameplay mechanics the game will have available spread out over a few different features and what those are seem solid enough as a base for a game where you explore a galaxy.
 

Dysun

Member
I completely agree with the comparison. People expect too much out of this game, the backlash will be severe.
 

Amir0x

Banned
Does anybody remember Spore? The Will Wright / Maxis game that won every award known to man before it was released, but as soon as it came out, nobody gave a f and was quickly forgotten?

I think No Man's Sky has a chance of suffering the same fate. The premise of it does sound cool, specially in this post Interstellar age. But when we really think about it, the mechanics behind it seem to be paper thin.

Do we like the concept of No Man's Sky more than what the game could actually be?

I don't even know the concept of this thread to be honest. Any game in theory has a chance of being the next "Spore" given enough high minded ideals about someone's game in development. What does even grasping that sort of conjecture accomplish for someone? I know precisely what the game is, I know what we're supposed to do according to extensive interviews about the product. If they execute these disparate gameplay elements combined with the astonishing fact that given the size of the universe in this game it would take well over 500 million years for any one given individual to see everything in the product (and that's if you only spend one second per planet), it's an endearing game on its face.

The mechanics of many games are "paper thin", and some of them still end up being spectacular given the goals the title is trying to achieve. Sometimes it is the sheer majesty of surfing the universe with an incredible randomizing algorithm that makes the game appealing. Other times it's my addiction to stat whoring in a title like Disgaea, and that rabbit hole ain't ever stop it's so deep.

So yes this game, just like many other games, has the potential to be all hype and no successful execution.

Given what we've seen however and how everything interconnects according to the facts given in interviews about gameplay, I'm not too concerned. I'm obviously expecting some elements to be quite shallow, and some parts to be better than other games.

But given the way the game is described so far if they simply executed what they've said - and I have no reason to be pessimistic yet given their other incredible games - I'll be quite satisfied.
 
It's getting pretty irritating that any criticism or questioning of this game is met with thinly veiled "go back to calladuty" rhetoric. I'm pretty sure the people asking to see more of the game than walking and flying aren't asking for a "cinematic experience," they just want to know what there is to actually do in this huge game space.

Explore, gather resources, buy stuff, shoot stuff etc. If that doesn't sound interesting than this game is not for you.
 

Amir0x

Banned
I completely agree with the comparison. People expect too much out of this game, the backlash will be severe.

Name a goal that people expect, given what has been said about the game, that you feel is a likely candidate for not being successfully executed upon launch?

A big problem is people hoist upon products like this a whole host of imaginative nonsense that the devs have never once said about the game. In those cases, I blame the consumer for failing to educate themselves about something rather than the developer for not being able to adequately match every flight of whimsy from some corner of a forum somewhere.
 

Skyzard

Banned
Having played Elite Dangerous which has the whole universe mapped out or something...

It's not that huge of a plus. Sounds awesome because your imagination runs wild...but it's not that awesome.

Fair enough it doesn't have planetary landing yet and the discovery is basically different types of nice looking spheres and objects...but with it being procedurally generated by an indie...how much variety can there actually be for it to make you want to explore the whole universe...

I stay for the combat and flight mechanics in Elite Dangerous.
 

Y2Kev

TLG Fan Caretaker Est. 2009
I don't enjoy this type of game at all but why are the mechanics "paper thin"? What would make them not paper thin?
 

RoadHazard

Gold Member
There's no rational reason to believe this at all. NMS isn't being intentionally dumbed down for the casuals, for one.

Is it incredibly ambitious? Yes. Could it end up being less amazing than many of us hope? Sure. But these Spore comparisons are just silly.
 
It's getting pretty irritating that any criticism or questioning of this game is met with thinly veiled "go back to calladuty" rhetoric. I'm pretty sure the people asking to see more of the game than walking and flying aren't asking for a "cinematic experience," they just want to know what there is to actually do in this huge game space.

That really justifies all these outrageous statements on No Man's Sky?

Do you want to know the ending of The Order 1886?
Maybe you want to see all the cutscenes for Halo 5?

The game doesn't even have a release date and you want to know absolutely everything about it.
 

Htown

STOP SHITTING ON MY MOTHER'S HEADSTONE
It's getting pretty irritating that any criticism or questioning of this game is met with thinly veiled "go back to calladuty" rhetoric. I'm pretty sure the people asking to see more of the game than walking and flying aren't asking for a "cinematic experience," they just want to know what there is to actually do in this huge game space.
If they actually cared, they'd know what there is to do in the game space. The information is out there. The information is in this thread. The information is in every thread about this game.

Still every time this game comes up there's a chorus going, "BUT WHAT DO YOU DOOOOO"
 

Crom

Junior Member
Because we haven't seen enough shooting or what? Or enough cutscenes?

What is people want from this game?

Why do people always bring up the space marine defense?

No one is saying they want Space Marines. They want a game with actual things to explore rather than a huge galaxy with tons of plants and rocks to look at.

I personally would want detailed worlds to explore that a designer set up (take Pikmin for example) with actual things to interact with. A small team can in no way accomplish this. Not knocking the team but there will be little actual substance to this game likely.
 

KingV

Member
I feel like the game has a severe risk of every planet being functionally the same with different window dressing. I.e. fight robots among giant space elephants with blue trees vs. Fight robots among space chickens and red grassland.

Different looking spaces, but always doing the same thing.
 

ironcreed

Banned
It's getting pretty irritating that any criticism or questioning of this game is met with thinly veiled "go back to calladuty" rhetoric. I'm pretty sure the people asking to see more of the game than walking and flying aren't asking for a "cinematic experience," they just want to know what there is to actually do in this huge game space.

A fair point when put that way. I want to see more of the actual gameplay myself, but what it is has been explained. You explore an increasingly alien and hostile galaxy as you go deeper and deeper towards the center. All while gathering materials and upgrading your ship, etc.

All along the way, there will be encounters with increasingly weird alien life, hostile pirates and so forth. But yes, we do need to see more of all this in play. To which point, I can understand some of the criticism. Like I said, I am waiting to see all of this myself. I was merely being a smart ass in my previous comment.
 
Explore, gather resources, buy stuff, shoot stuff etc. If that doesn't sound interesting than this game is not for you.

There's plenty of stuff they've talked about, but they haven't shown much in their actual videos yet (at least in terms of how you'll be doing things; i.e we saw trading in the PSX trailer but it was sort of out of context).

Thing is, that DOES sound very interesting to me, but I'm not convinced the game is going to do an interesting job of those things yet. In particular, I'm curious what there will actually be to explore. If the planets are procedurally generated but all variations on desert, jungle, different colors etc... I dunno, I'm worried that won't hold my interest. Starbound had the exact same problem. Exploring is only interesting if I can either do or see a massive variety of things. That's what I want to see more of, and they of course don't need to show their entire hand before release but something a bit more detailed would go a long way for me.

I know that there's more information out there, but I want to see some of it, and not just a few frames of shooting or whatnot in the trailer. I don't think it's unreasonable to be excited by the prospect of the game but unsure of how or if it will deliver.
 

RoadHazard

Gold Member
Having played Elite Dangerous which has the whole universe mapped out...

It's not that huge of a plus.

Fair enough it doesn't have planetary landing yet and the discovery is basically different types of nice looking spheres and objects...but with it being procedurally generated by an indie...how much variety can there actually be for it to make you want to explore the whole universe...

I stay for the combat and flight mechanics in Elite Dangerous.

Lol, "fair enough"... just disregarding the MAIN DRAW of NMS as if it's some small bonus. The game will have space flight and combat, yes, but that's not the main focus like it is in Elite. NMS is all about exploring strange alien worlds on your own. These are two games that might seem similar on the surface but are trying to achieve very different things.
 

MrxDemix

Banned
I thought Spore looked better pre-release. I'll have to play NMS before casting judgement, but I don't see what all the fuss is about beyond the amazing graphics.
 
The limits of the game will only become apparent once we play it

And Clearly there is still plenty of mystery here despite mountains of documentation about how the game is supposed to play

We just need it in our hands
 

Diknak

Neo Member
Procedural generation is a buzz word that gets thrown around a lot. Sure, you will get a near infinite number of possible scenarios, but that doesn't mean it's interesting. You will see the same tree models over and over again, they just might have red leaves instead of blue.

NMS looks like an amazing tech demo . . . but I really haven't seen enough of it to make it seem like a compelling game that will be fun beyond a handful of hours.
 

Crom

Junior Member
It's getting pretty irritating that any criticism or questioning of this game is met with thinly veiled "go back to calladuty" rhetoric. I'm pretty sure the people asking to see more of the game than walking and flying aren't asking for a "cinematic experience," they just want to know what there is to actually do in this huge game space.

Exactly. I like all types of games. I love games with puzzles and figuring things out (Zelda or even Space Quest for example)

The thought of going to different planets and exploring them, figuring out things, making actual discoveries, dealing with alien life, etc sounds awesome. Games like this would need a team to specifically set up scenarios or puzzles. This game doesn;'t have that.

Flying to random planets and looking at plants while figuring out nothing does not sound awesome to me personally. That is what I see this game as.
 

daveo42

Banned
If they actually cared, they'd know what there is to do in the game space. The information is out there. The information is in this thread. The information is in every thread about this game.

Still every time this game comes up there's a chorus going, "BUT WHAT DO YOU DOOOOO"

It's just become a terrible meme around this game. While info was sparse after its announcement, there's next to no excuse to actually ask this question other than to troll or make a drive by joke post.
 

Amir0x

Banned
I don't enjoy this type of game at all but why are the mechanics "paper thin"? What would make them not paper thin?

Can you form an intergalactic empire and then intricately build your city up on your planet of choice?

No?

Not deep enough
 
Explore, gather resources, buy stuff, shoot stuff etc. If that doesn't sound interesting than this game is not for you.

Those mechanics do sound interesting, but it completely depends on how they're done. If the exploring is just wandering around slightly different looking planets to find slightly different looking animals or pick up a certain coloured plant, that wouldn't really be fun. They've mentioned finding things like structures and crashed ships but i haven't seen it explained in what way you can interact with them or what sort of things there are to actually find. It would be pointless exploring if there's nothing interesting to find.
 
I'm hyped for the game but I can see it going south quick. Doesn't matter how innovative the game's systems are if it isn't fun to play. And the lack of any real info about gameplay at this point is disturbing.
 

AHA-Lambda

Member
I still don't understand what no mans sky is or why I should be excited.

This, there will be backlash from a contingent. It may be impressive in scope but from all that's been shown and cagely said, it sounds to be like any other survival exploration game.
 
Exactly. I like all types of games. I love games with puzzles and figuring things out (Zelda or even Space Quest for example)

The thought of going to different planets and exploring them, figuring out things, making actual discoveries, dealing with alien life, etc sounds awesome. Games like this would need a team to specifically set up scenarios or puzzles. This game doesn;'t have that.

Flying to random planets and looking at plants while figuring out nothing does not sound awesome to me personally. That is what I see this game as.

And that's exactly what the devs want you to do. Figure out shit on your own, and maybe they'll do a bit of leading.

This isn't World of Themepark Warcraft. Do you think people start playing Minecraft, jump around for a bit and then give up?
 

eXistor

Member
I'm very intrigued by NMS, but I'm also the camp that has serious doubts about it all. I just feel like it's gonna lack any kind of substance. They keep telling us all these things, but as far as I know (and I'll admit right here that I haven't followed everything about this game) we're still in the dark about how these things work, mechanically. Sure you can shoot things, but how does it work? Does it feel weighty? Is there any kind of balance? Stuff like that is gonna decide whether or not the game is actually gonna be fun to play.

You explore. Okay, but what is the reward here; similar looking vista's? How do you mine stuff? By standing next to a vein and holding X while a bar fills? Or do you actually swing a pick yourself? If all these gameplay elements are not gonna be fleshed out enough the game will not work or be fun. I think we have every reason to be cautious here. I'm very interested by the game and I'm probably gonna play it anyway, but as of now I give it a 50/50 chance of it actually being good. If it fails, it'll at least be an interesting failure.
 
I'm hyped for the game but I can see it going south quick. Doesn't matter how innovative the game's systems are if it isn't fun to play. And the lack of any real info about gameplay at this point is disturbing.

How do people keep missing that GIANT gameplay explanation FAQ post thats been floating around GAF for months now
 

Z3M0G

Member
I said the exact same thing about No Man's Sky just a couple weeks ago.

- Best case, it'll be another Minecraft
- Worst case, it'll be another Spore
 
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