Will, I pretty much agree with everything you said about modern gaming. I haven't really been hyped for a game in a long time, still not. No Man's Sky was probably one of if not the first "current gen" I bought for the PS4.
I wouldn't ever say I had early tickets to the hype train departing for No Man's Sky, but I was interested from the moment I saw it. I've learned a long time ago to not get too excited or set my expectation too high. I also like to go into games with as little info as possible. I normally only buy games after they are discounted some time after launch and I may skim a review or two or just check the aggregate scores just to make sure it isn't broken. NMS was a game I wanted to play while others were playing, before every secret was out there to be seen. Well now it doesn't really seem to matter how long I would have waited to pick it up. I may have waited if it wasn't for the Amazon prime discount on new pre orders.
So I went into NMS pretty blind other than I knew the general premise: explore, gather resources, build stuff, go to the center. I was aware of the launch week negative press but I was enjoying the game for what it was and not for what it wasn't. My expectations were low and actually met.
A guy I worked with let the internet ruin the game for him, I let the game slowly chip away at me and ruin it for itself. Yes, the game is overall a disappointment.
So the initial positives. One of the first things that struck me were just how hands off the game was. There is a tutorial but it's well played and doesn't beat you over the head. In fact the game is fine with just leaving you alone forever. There are subtle reminders to get you going, but there was never a huge arrow telling me exactly where to go and exactly what to do like most games. I find most games will not let you veer off the tutorial path at all, so in that regards; mad props NMS.
Really NMS is a game of firsts. The first time you do everything you feel great. The game starts off at a crawl with you ship busses but ramps up very quickly. The scope and size of the game is mind numbing at first. You stumble around your first area trying to get a handle on things and understand all the info that is never explained. The planet seems so big,you feel like you wonder for miles, that is until you fix your ship and you can see just how little area you've actually covered. I went into space as soon as I could and I was blow away by the size of the planets and the real time it would take me to get to the very near by space station. Hours of real time. I still needed to repair my pulse drive and hyper drive, so back to the surface I went. Hours turn to seconds and then you open the galactic map. There are an unlimited amount of bright dots, each with a solar system at least as big as you are. I just sat there in awe as I tried to scoop my brain back into my skull.
Awe unfortunately and quickly turns into repetition. With what seems like an infinite universe its amazing how little there is to actually do. Let's not even talk about how slow and annoying the journey to the center is. I'm still 160k light years away. In the meantime what is there to do in NMS. We'll other than the two quests the game gives you, it's all up to you. All or none of it can be done. Learn alien languages and lore; upgrade your ship, exosuit or multitool. I got a good enough ship and tool and maxed my suit and felt that was good enough. I finished the atlas quest and got a post-it note explanation of weeks of work. And that's one of my biggest complaints. The most interesting things happening are only ever explained via text. All this mysterious and wonder sci-fi things are happening to you or maybe only ever in your mind, but you get to see none of it. Hell I created star and was only told it happened then booted aimlessly back into space.
So what was once praised is now chastised. When I realized I was just going to keep seeing the same things and there was no benefit to upgrades or learning languages I wanted something else to do. I enjoy a good grind but damn getting to the center takes too long. At this point I'm just a fuel harvestor. I warp as far as I can, make more fuel, rinse and repeat. That got boring even with using worm holes (which randomly break very expensive upgrades).
I took a few weeks off from NMS and I got back in last weekend. Surely at the center is just a little text blurb and nothing else, but I do enjoy the game play. So I ended up where I began. I started anew and set my own destination. Now I'm Space Man Spiff, trading my way to a fully upgraded ship. When I'm done with that, I'll work on my multitool. The most important thing is that I'm enjoying the game again, I have purpose. I'm remembering to stop, enjoy the view and smell the space flowers
Is No Man's Sky a great game or a terrible game? A little bit of both and somewhere in between. There are some truly memorable moments to be had but most will walk away wanting more.
). Think MYST if you're old enough. All I will tell you is that you explore a house and there is a mystery to be solved. I finished it about 5 hours (probably cause I like to take my time and enjoy a game). And if you want just more than my seal of approval, my wife applauded as the credits rolled 
seriously 
