I love the concept of exploring and surviving in space on a virtually endless number of worlds, but with procedurally-generated games of this sort there's always the question of, "what is there to do?" To an extent, Minecraft and its ilk can be excused as an outlet for creativity, but for me there's gotta be more. The appeal of Minecraft is very short-lived and it feels like a colossal waste of time after that.
I've settled on getting a PS4 for my racing game needs, so I've only just started taking a closer look at NMS. I'm curious to see what all there is for gameplay; I know the end goal is to reach the center of the star map (for what reason and what waits there?), and that there's crafting and trading, "police" robots that will attack you if you misbehave, pirates, and some caves to explore. And a rumor that 90% of the planets are uninhabited wastelands? But no building stuff?
There's also a survival component to the gameplay, which also involves the crafting system, and there's a kind of open ended story. Well, not a story in the traditional sense of the word in a videogame, but more a lore of the universe, that you can uncover if you wish (and try hard enough I guess). There are several alien races, all of which have unique languages that you can learn one word at a time from finding things like ancient obelisks. Learning the languages apparently will allow you to better interact with the aliens, enabling better trading and finding out information about the universe.
We have been slowly drip-fed info about the game for years now, and I believe it's because Hello Games didn't want to give too much away, as the game is very much a survival exploration game at heart, and supports numerous play styles.
As for the centre of the galaxy, nobody knows what will be there, and HG have even said that it's likely most people won't end up making it there, or even try to make it there, as it's completely optional. The point of going to the centre is to see what's there, and if you're looking for some kind of progression to the game, I believe this will be the objective of your play time. In order to get there, you'll need to play for a long time, doing whatever it takes to get the technology required. The planets and star systems closer to the centre will be far more difficult than the outer rim systems players start on, so if you mission to the centre, you will find it gets more and more difficult.
Edit: Lastly, there are still a number of things we know nothing about, and I doubt we'll be told much more before release. The reason for that is the same as the reason there's no map or hand holding when playing. They want the game to be proper survival and proper exploration. You will literally be mostly the first and only person to see the things you see, and the game won't be helping you to find out how everything works and where stuff is. Personally, I find the whole idea and approach very refreshing in today's game landscape. PS4 has great games of all types, and so much to choose from, but NMS will provide a genuinely unique experience.
