It's not a builder or a roguelite or a strategy game. It's an exploration game with combat, discovery (naming stuff), trading, gathering, crafting, and upgrading. The hook being a near-infinite procedurally-generated universe to do any of these things in, with quick and smooth transitions between space and a planet's atmosphere, or a planet's surface on foot. It also has a GTA-like "wanted level," as there is an intergalactic authority that will come after you for disturbing a planet too much (killing wildlife, mining too many things, etc). There are a whole lot of NMS videos available on Youtube which will give you a good idea of all its systems.
It's not a "scam" and it's not magic. You can see a significant part of it being played. It's just a ton of math which has created the most open open-universe game ever.
No Man's Sky Release Date Announce
