daggre

I'm going to say right off that this game might be too hard for some people. When the action gets going there is a LOT going on all around you and it can be a little overwhelming. That said, it feels exactly like what it's supposed to feel like: dogfighting in space! It takes a lot of practice to get good at the controls, especially the unique weapon types between different ships, but once it clicks... Oh man... There's nothing like unleashing plasma bolts at the guy in front of you while looking back over your left shoulder at another enemy and getting a missile lock on them using your "free look reticle" and then unleashing 5 missiles which wind around and track the rear target. Then there's the support ship, that lets you heal your allies by looking at them and using your alt-fire while attacking an enemy ship with your front-facing laser. Support-ship scenario: An enemy had almost taken out an ally's ship and was closing in behind them for the kill. I was able to heal the ally while at the same time damaging the enemy enough for them to break off their attack. My (now healed) ally turned around and finished off the fleeing enemy. Moments like that happen almost non-stop. Non-stop is relevant with VR though. After an hour or so I do need to take a break. There's nothing wrong with the latency of the PSVR, or the controls, or anything really. It's just a TON of information to take in all and once and it's a little overwhelming without breaks. So (unlike every other game I've played to this point) I just need to take breaks or move to some other game for a while. But for all-out action or to show off your PSVR, this is fantastic - far exceeded my expectations. Hopefully they push more story missions with emphasis on more carrier/destroyer, etc. There's not enough of that in the game right now but it's obvious they could add it since there is SOME of it.

In my opinion people are being way too hard on this game. I think expectations were just unrealistic. Of course it's not for everyone, but for those that like to explore and don't like boundaries it's a fun journey. Now, I've only played about 6 hours total and yes I could see where the novelty won't last forever but I'm having fun and still have lots to try. I actually like the alien lore stuff and the language discovery. Sure I want more variety in planets and life forms but honestly I'll bet that comes in patches and DLC later. It compares most directly with Elite Dangerous. That game is ultra-realistic in flight, but you can't really do anything interesting on planet surfaces. NMS has arcade-like flight but you can land and walk around. Both games are good in their own way, but even if the two developers combined their experiences it still wouldn't be for everyone. If this isn't your type of game, just don't play it. I rate a game's value based on the cost divided by the number of hours I enjoy playing it. A theatrical movie costs about $12 and I get 2 hours of enjoyment so that's $6/hr. I'm just scratching the surface on NMS and my $60 @ 6 hours has cost me roughly $10/hr so far. By the time it gets old it'll probably be pennies an hour, so in my book that's a "good deal". I will say this is exactly why review embargoes are a BAD idea. With a highly hyped game it encourages SOME people to get the game sight-unseen and then hate it and rant. If reviewers had received their copies a couple of weeks ago they could have published reviews explaining that it IS a resource gathering game and that the gameplay is simplistic compared to something like Elite. Then people who aren't into that sort of thing could have decided it wasn't worth their money. As this was handled though, a lot of people are going to feel burned (thus the review backlash).