This game is seriously, seriously underrated, in a way nobody and everybody seems to be looking for at the same time.

Many call it "boring". But you know what it is? Deeply, deeply relaxing. A universe to explore to yourself, run locally, no DRM or servers that will go down some day, without grand themes of a space opera, or saving the universe, or having the burden of the galaxy on your shoulders. No choices with insane consequences for everyone and everything. There's you, your ship, a vast universe in front of you, (genuinely well written! see below) friends besides you, and wherever the road takes you, and choices that affect people along the way. That's it. People. Help or hurt people if you're so inclined.

We all want freedom of choice. To make our own fun. Well *this is it*. Do you really want it? I vote yes. This is my universe to retreat to and I like it *because* it's less grand, and closer to reality. *Science* fiction, not science fantasy. That makes it comforting, to see a universe where there's giant crises sure, but they can be understood. And people just do their thing. As people. Not grand overlords, or larger than life heroes. People who do their best. No elder gods, no blending of science and spiritualism, just a ship around me, interesting characters beside me, the stars in front of me. Adventures that really are *adventures*, of my own making or not.

I really do like the characters. They're not dependent on dangling fancy character designs in front of our eyes like jangling keys, because they're written to be...well, people. Like you meet on the street, for good and bad. And as far as the main cast goes I really dig the voice acting. Background NPCs too, they're Fallout 4 quality at least. Pro tip, turn off the dialogue camera, everything *immediately* stops feeling like Oblivion and much much better.

Another great thing here; though the maps may be largely procedural, every single planet, plant, creature, is handcrafted in a very Bethesda way. Every single biome of every single planet will have completely different animals, but they're not procedurally generated sloppy-feeling things like No Man's Sky does (all of my love I could possibly give to that game though xoxo, another favorite). For example, I landed on a random iceball, and saw there were plants and animals...and suddenly got really freaked out, because the animals walking around had the same names as the plants. Apparently, on that small little rock, when the plants grow up enough, they get up, start walking, and start hunting. It was horrifying and so much more horrifying because it was completely wordless. Lots of stuff is like that, love it so much.

This is by *far* the best Bethesda engine for modding. One of the best for anything. This is a trillion times better to mod for than any of the other Bethesda games, that includes installing and creating. Some of the common tools don't work because not enough people have sat down and given this game a fair try, but installing manually is genuinely seamless. I'm not kidding. No mod manager and I think I'm up to 40+ and a script extender, and not light stuff either. I hope that illustrates how much less spaghetti code is going on here; I'm genuinely astounded. This is also my favorite shooter of them all even just using my controls.

Last note, a super interesting one to me, something is *deeply* atmospheric about this game. It's seriously creepy, but in a very, very Bethesda way. Something is not normal here. At all, in a very very interesting way. The thing that first struck me in an incredibly unnerving way was finding some familiar faces on the planet of Khayyam II, Khayyam system :) No spoilers from me, but keep your eyes on the wildlife there, and let me know if that freaks you the hell out like it did me. Very different but equally upsetting vibe from the walking plant planet, maybe a little worse.

Quick summary to wrap up:
Genuinely incredible game if you want to adventure through the stars without losing your mind stressing out trying to save them. Good Bethesda writing as much as anything ever was IMO, putting aside rose tinted glasses and recognizing *everything* else they do is no different, just this is a little subtler, was a life saver. Handcrafted creatures to find everywhere you go. No DRM, no servers that will ever go down, really good modding capacity, good ship and ground combat, good vibes all around. I guess the question I would recommend you ask most when deciding whether or not to buy this is, do you want yet another "reinventing the wheel from the ground up, this must be everything" game? Cause that's valid. Do you want a really, really, really good RPG that knows what it is, does its best to be a really good RPG without throwing the genre out with the bathwater? That's valid too. If you picked the second answer, I recommend this game more than anything else for years, and years, and years. This gives you *so much freedom* in *balance* with you as a player. It's not your galaxy, but your life to live and path to wander in it. Seems like a lot of people *cough cough organized review bombers* don't want freedom like they think they do.