For example: The souls games have very little punishment (especially compared to their contemporaries when the older games released, where you load a save on death). You die and collect a thing you picked up in that period, nothing lost. They’re very challenging though. Ramping up punishment is a form of challenge, but permadeath doesn’t make it more fun, just adds a big punishment to worry about. That can be good, but NMS’s combat is not good, compared to other games that do the same things.
This isn’t to say it should do things differently. There’s plenty of reasons for it to remain as bland as it is, because it makes it approachable and it also easily functions with the proc-gen terrain. This is only a statement on what it is, not the quality of it.
A punishment isn’t the same as challenge.
For example: The souls games have very little punishment (especially compared to their contemporaries when the older games released, where you load a save on death). You die and collect a thing you picked up in that period, nothing lost. They’re very challenging though. Ramping up punishment is a form of challenge, but permadeath doesn’t make it more fun, just adds a big punishment to worry about. That can be good, but NMS’s combat is not good, compared to other games that do the same things.
This isn’t to say it should do things differently. There’s plenty of reasons for it to remain as bland as it is, because it makes it approachable and it also easily functions with the proc-gen terrain. This is only a statement on what it is, not the quality of it.