So I picked up No Man's Sky a couple of months back before the last really big update. I played a good 40 hours and was keen on going through the story and building out my base, hoping to start a farm and make some money that way ... didn't really know what I was doing and playing on the survival difficulty.

Then the update happened, I found myself in a place I couldn't recognize with materials that weren't worth anything and a whole new economy. The first place on landed on hoping to get my base back basically trapped me in an endless loop of death due to the lack of resources and my inability to get off the planet or upload my base. I was pretty annoyed ... so I picked up Horizon Zero Dawn and licked my wounds.

I've come back to the game fresh and I'm noticing that the story is mostly the same and so Im not interested exactly. I'm thinking to basically start myself up with a good base and maybe a frigate and then head out and see whats to offer ... but then I started thinking ... is there anything out there? Is the grind and scan game that could go on forever (not necessarily a bad thing) or is there anything outside of the story or the economy to look forward to? The game does not do a good job at all in telling you whats over the horizon ... am I doing it right?

Sadly, that's No Man's Sky. It's just an exploration game, wrapped up in crafting and survival mechanics. If you're not into those features, you're not going to be into NMS.

I don't play it much, but when I do, I only grind/craft enough to support the continued exploration. I think there's something magical about just flying around and seeing new worlds, then wandering round on the surface and looking at the views, life, caves, etc.

There's no real purpose, other than seeing shit. It's like a holiday. You fly to New Zealand to see some mountains, but you don't actually get anything out of it besides witnessing the beauty.

Depending on your perspective, it's either the most awesome game ever, or completely lame.

Man its probably time to let NMS go, its not what we thought it might have been. Not terrible, but directionless and clunky.

@dudeglove: Thanks! That was really helpful

This just my opinion, but the on-planet bases are worthless! Frigates are the way to go. Frigates generate money faster, they collect exostic materisls faster which can be sold for more, and they look cool too. I might add that set up a grow-ops on freighters is very effective for space and harvesting. You can make an entire room that just has planting-beds so that you can harvest MASS QUANTITIES of various roots, plants, and bulbs....space grow-ops are the future!!!

I am not saying don't build any on planet bases, I'm just saying don't put your focus on that because the 'on planet bases' do less in the current game. If you do rebuild your base on a good planet remember to see where the nearest ocean or large lake is because all Nautilon (submersible) missions will needs deep water. Out off all the planetside vehicles only the Nautilon is worthwhile because it can go where you starship can't - underwater. So, make all the "Exocraft" and do all the mission the exo-technicians gives you, but never USE the exhoscraft to complete the mission it is a waste of time because they are ALL slower than you spacecraft.

@wanlaghima: People have given good advice here. For me, No Man's Sky is a good pallet cleanser between AAA games. I got tired of the grind, so I used cheat engine to get enough credits to buy a freighter, and the game is vastly different. Haven't really messed with the base building tbh, but I have Fallout76 for that now anyway.