I feel like I could see this coming from a mile away. I'd see people on reddit and other forums talking about the game's systems, with ridiculous scale and intricacy, and just be baffled because every single gameplay video they released boiled down to a relatively shallow survival experience where the main focus was really just exploring and discovering new things. The people deep on the hype train were talking about a game that to my mind didn't seem to exist.
Maybe the marketing gives the "Just the tip of the iceberg" impression off a little strongly, but when it comes to this stuff I generally feel that what you see is what you get; I never built out some grandiose expectation for what this game was because what I actually saw seems to be essentially what the game is. And I kinda think I'll dig it, but if I approached it with hyped up expectations I think I would be disappointed to.
I won't make silly generalizations like "If they thought the game was something other than what it is, they are idiots", but just speaking for myself, nothing about these early impressions has surprised me. This is exactly the game I was expecting from the jump, and it seems pretty rad, and an incredible base to build from with post-launch support. That said, my expectations came almost entirely from actual gameplay videos and not from absurd echo chamber reddit threads.
I just hope the Hello Games guys don't let the divisiveness get them down. Maybe they could've marketed better, but now just accept that the game you made, while great and unique, is not for everyone and just ignore the negativity and vitriol this game will get from communities and critics who let their imagination run wild. You made something great for what it actually is, so fuck the haters and just keep making it better.
