Explore a universe with your upgradeable spaceship. Uncover and communicate with other alien races. Engage in combat, trading, exploration and survival. Reach the centre of the galaxy. Available on PlayStation 4 and Windows.

Explore procedurally generated galaxy

Miminal gameplay depth – Lack of optimisation

This game is absolutely massive, and has a decent idea, unfortunately that's all that it has going for it. This game has quintillion planets randomly generated in the vastness of space.

I was excited for this. It was promising. I knew the hype was through the roof and that pretty much no game like this (unless Star Citizen was thrown at us from a secret development room with every promise they've made) could ever break that, but I did hope for a little more than what No Man's Sky...

One of the most anticipated games of the year, No Man's Sky is somewhat of a letdown. While it certainly puts its best foot forward with a beautiful audio and visual presentation, to put it bluntly, it's boring.

The word hype is thrown around a lot these days when talking about video games. But few games have reached the heights of hype that No Man's Sky , especially considering the small size of the team at Hello Games.

A truly endless galaxy to explore; Several separate pillars of experience; Exactly as Hello Games described..

...which may not be what you expect; Texture pop-in can be obvious; Turning in discoveries can be a little tedious

No Man's Sky is an exploration game set in a vast galaxy of over 18 quintillion planets. Each one is massive--too big for any one person to explore fully in the span of a day--and if you're the first to discover one, you not only get to name it, you also get first dibs on any discoveries contained...

A massive; seamless world; Impressive tech supports a genuine-feeling journey; Unfettered freedom to explore numerous rewarding pursuits; Attractive ship and weapon designs; Meaningful narrative

Frustrating item management and UI; Shallow variety; Mediocre shooting mechanics; NPCs lack meaningful personalities

In short bursts, 'No Man's Sky' is amazing, but going deeper, I found only a void. There's a great framework, and an arresting visual style to go with an ease of mobility, but in a short amount of time, I despaired of finding any more interactivity or progression in the all-too-similar horizons and...

A stunning technical achievement and a mesmerisingly addictive one, even after you realise how simplistic and repetitive it really is.

Enormous game world is a pleasure to explore even when you know all its tricks; Competent space and land combat; Excellent art design and soundtrack

Highly repetitive main gameplay loop, that requires little skill and offers little danger; Poor use of intelligent aliens; Flawed visuals when on a planet; Infuriating inventory and lots of minor bugs

We've spent the last week or so working towards this review, and as such it's an updated version of the Review Impressions article you may have already read if you're a frequent visitor to the site.

With much of the No Man's Sky's structure having apparently been added in the final month of development, that's not so surprising. (The patch notes are eye-opening; mere weeks ago, this was half the game it is now.) There is tremendous room for it to grow and improve.