I bought No Man's Sky on release and was very disappointed like many others. Like many others, I expected the game to be different than it was (mostly because they claimed it would be different than what it turned out to be). Base building wasn't necessarily part of that, though it does sound like a significant update.

Is there anything more to it than just the base building though? Would you say it's worth another look? I have some friends who actually really enjoyed the game as it was originally, so if you're like one of them, keep in mind that I'm not. If it's just as fun as before for you, it probably won't be for me.

How dense is this update exactly? It sounds pretty hefty. It'll be a while before I can check it out (still playing Destiny on weekends and busy with FFXV now), but I'm curious what you guys think.

If it's just as fun as before for you, it probably won't be for me.

It's probably not for you then. The core gameplay-loop is still the same. It's just that with basebuilding they have added more context/reasons to the existing resource gathering mechanics.

I enjoy the exploration part of the game (played around 25 hours of it) and basebuilding is fine for what it is, but nothing to make me want to go back. If their next update adds more reasons to engage in combat and includes some quality of life features (e.g. upload more than one discovery at a time) I might go back. But for now the name of the update is very fitting.

Your mileage may vary:

Started in a radioactive planet (just light radioactivity, no storms).

Ship was 9 minutes away on foot.

You need Zinc to fuel your Radioactivity resistance (not essential, just find a cave and let it refill), and Thamium to fuel your life preservation systems (absolutely essential).

Combine that with the very fast Survival depletion rates and a very sparse amount of Zinc or Thamium flowers on my starting planet and you've got 3 hours, several deaths, and only the slightest progress towards finding and then launching my ship.

I ended up saving at a new outpost immediately before dying, which glitched the save and provided me full invulnerability and no sound. "Okay," I thought, "I'll just take advantage of this and be done with the aggravating starting planet with some cheezy supply harvesting."

I saved the game several times while in this state.

I decide to remove the no-sound/invulnerability after I'd done my half-hour of harvesting and restart the game.

I load the save file and immediately die. I do the same with the other two save files.

My game is unplayable.

I know this update provides more to explore and tinker with, but as far as I'll ever know the game is basically the same.

theres a huge thread on this page for it already.