This week it’s been reported that No Man’s Sky has finally hit Mostly Positive review territory on Steam. This is quite an achievement for the game that was absolutely slammed at launch. If you don’t remember or weren’t paying attention, the game was pitched to fans as something completely different to what launched. In fact, it was pitched as what it would become a few updates later. No one made it clear to fans that at launch, it wouldn’t be that great, and would feel like it’s missing a tonne of content. In total, it’s taken five years and seventeen updates, the latest of which launched last week, for the game to actually hit Mostly Positive territory. But, I don’t know if that means much to me.
I love Steam because it’s a platform where I can find all sorts of mental games that are similar to others that I’ve played. What I don’t like about it is that it’s all too easy for someone to refund a game just because they don’t gel with it immediately. It’s also way too easy to review bomb a game, nailing it and making it look terrible to users who rely on reviews to tell them if it’s worth putting their money down on a title.
I try not to pay too much attention to the Steam reviews section because of this. It’s way too easy to get excited about a game but avoid it at the last second because of a personal vendetta that someone clearly has. Instead, I look for critical reviews like our one of Evil Genius 2. Critical analysis from a press outlet that has no bias is probably the only review to trust, even though many people are convinced we’re paid for the reviews we write in this industry.
No Man’s Sky is a great example of how a game can come back from the brink. It launched in a sorry state, and there are still videos you can find about how bad the game was upon release. Now though, this game is a shining example of how to support a community, and if it weren’t for people leaving good reviews, you might never know it.