I played about 20 hours in 2020-2021 and about 5 hours for Echoes. Any review of this game will be outdated because Hello Games will always keep updating and adding little features which makes the game slightly better. Will it be enough? I'm not sure. It's hard to overhaul what is basically a task list with randomized space art. Sure maybe smoke some w33d and just vibe out to your own playlist of music and endlessly mine/shoot/trade. Great. But all for what? To go back to base to organize your pitifully small inventory? There are so few meaningful interactions that make you want to see more of the world (unless its game breaking bugs), i don't know why you would want to. Every outpost is the same, all the dialogue is the same, nothing feels unique.

Now this can work if the mechanics feel good and the interactions give you some tension, but my god the m/kb controls are still terrible, and the controller controls are only slightly better. Every fight can be done with circle strafing, or just pumping recharges for your ship. Clunky controls mean you cannot design precise fights (also without fixed locations/set pieces it's hard to code AI to respond accordingly).

Now maybe if the game had always-on multiplayer where you can always interact with individuals, it might feel more alive and dynamic. But after getting out of the first system realizing i would have 10+ more systems all with endless mining and resource farming, I saw no point.

At least Minecraft has some gimmicks/mods to each encounter/fight.