I signed up and played 76 after the first release—you know, the one with only like 3 humans.
It was my favorite experience. Empty, beautiful, peaceful and very exciting. The ambient music is my favorite of the whole series and it really set the tone.
I liked the feeling that you and a few other people online were the only real human survivors and the bots and mutants were the only things left in the world.
That changed after people complained… I quit after some changes were made. I logged in recently and now it’s full of generic NPCs and bullet sponge enemies. Not for me anymore.
I guess I’ll never be able to go back to that feeling right after release. It really was something else.
Anybody else play the game right after it was released?
It aimed for a very specific feeling. There was a sense of discovery and a dreading sense of isolation. It made you sit alone with your thoughts in between bouts of awe and wonder. Death was cruel and could be frequent, and the universe had nebulous rules which were never made entirely clear to the player. And why would it? You’re in the mind of a dying machine.
Current NMS is an excellent space sandbox minecraft-lite, but the experience of meeting players ten minutes into a new game, and a focus on community events and progression strips away that feeling of isolation.
It’s mostly fine. The game has a much broader appeal to match its marketing budget. The game was just obviously aiming at a much more niche audience initially.