Care to elaborate on your feelings regarding NMS's release?
Sure!Now let me preface this by saying I have had a mildly positive outlook on NMS throughout its entire development. I thought the simplest concept they were trying to push was the most interesting for me; Using procgen tech to create a universe of mystery and exploration. That’s all I wanted from it, and I made to sure to take note of when the devs were being vague or when systems weren’t elaborated upon.
No Man’s Sky is a product of our age, I feel. Where the push behind indie games has become this sort of primal creation pool where games can surpass the quality that a AAA company can put out. Or at least, that’s what gamer culture has bred it to be.
When I said NMS is the conceptual opposite of Undertale in terms of release, what I was referring to was how hyping can affect outlook and overall success.
Hype is born from mystery, fueled by theories, and locked in by interest. When you don’t deliver on hype, it absolutely eviscerates the title’s approval in most cases.
Undertale started off small and unknown, which is honestly probably for the best. The hype for Undertale came after its release, which meant it was regulated and contained. The people who were pushing it knew exactly why they were pushing it. (Of course, it eventually came to a point where everyone was talking about “A little indie game called Undertale”, and people got sick of it, but that’s for another time.)No Man’s Sky however, made one simple promise; A universe of procgen planets to discover and explore, with a path to carve through it. Little else was elaborated upon. It was created by a small indie team, who promised something technologically impressive, with a sort of wander-whimsy attached.
But then a whole mess of things happened; The Hello Games flood, which pushed back development a ton. The delays, which ignited animosity in people who wanted to play the game. Sony’s backing of the game, and the launch date separations, along with patch-divergent versions of the game and absolute explosion of the NMS Servers.
The struggle to get to the game made it seem so much more significant than it actually was. That struggle, coupled with the hype, probably caused the game to crumple inward on itself in the public eye. Every cynic could point and laugh, and every person on the fence would feel uneasy. Even some diehard fans would redirect their hate, because they feel like they were lied to or hurt.
I guarantee you, if NMS announced 6 months before release, and quietly released on Steam with little fanfare and then let fans do the talking, it wouldn’t have the absolutely abysmal review scores and public opinion it has right now.
Hype + Significance of Struggle + Time = Disaster.
As for my own opinion on the game? I took a quick peek into it, and I feel like I’d like playing it some more. Is it GOTY? Certainly not. But it’s definitely impressive.
