Spoilers for a few random encounters below. I can't figure out how to spoiler tag via mobile.

I love it. It's obviously got some flaws here and there, but for me personally it's been an enrapturing experience my 20+ hours so far (nothing compared to some of you, I know). I love the exploration of planets primarily, surveying them and then selling said data to Vladimir again. It's a strangely compelling loop I find myself returning to.

The "procedurally generated" areas have story behind them like one having the heating system malfunctioning and reading the stories of the crew attempting to get them fixed. Another was of an invading parasite species not native to the planet taking over. One even was a heartbreaking log of a crewmate recording his final words for his wife and family, which I just found randomly exploring a planet searching for "supporting life" for a mission. I get people's frustration not every planet is like Boston or Skyrim ... but there's some seriously good stuff here if you just put your boots to the ground and explore.

Ship building is amazing. I love customizing my ship, the different habs, and assigning the crew I run with. This also extends to outpost building which feels manageable. Not a requirement like Fallout 4, but also deep enough to be entertaining when I desire to do so (primarily for Helium 3 plants). Piracy and ship combat is great, as blowing out the engines of a ship, boarding said ship, taking it over, selling said ship (I have a mod which reduces the cost of the registration fee which is pretty exorbitant in vanilla IMO) and then using that money to improve my own is another compelling gameplay loop that makes me seek out combat instead of avoiding it all together.

Overall, I love it through and through. There's some hitches like the aforementioned registration price, the combat AI of enemies being rudimentary (standing in the line of fire for 5 seconds is not a good look) and the maps in cities are inexcusable and will need a fix. But altogether it is easily my GOTY.