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.

EDIT: OH. You’re talking about No Man’s Sky. Just realized that.

There were a ton of robots and holotapes scattered around. The map was also 4x the size of Fallout 4, so it may seem like there’s no content.

The first quest after you exit the shelter was interesting and a good intro into the world. The Responders quests were fun and gave you a ton of recipes to use and eventually ended with the scorched massacre. That one quest you think there’s a human in a tower but it’s actually a robot and is central to a few other quests. The Brotherhood of Steel investigation quests. The quest to gain access to the Whitespring bunker and grounds. On top of that, all of the daily quests, nuke launches, meetups, 76 really offered a lot of stuff to do from day 1.