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.