No Man's Sky is Elite for the 21st century. Pointless? Maybe – but also sublime

Critics of No Man's Sky tend to see games as entertainment products, while fans of this eccentric space exploration sim view it as an experience

When I was 13 I took the game Elite very seriously. The seminal space exploration and trading simulation, which presented the player with a ship and a vast galaxy and then left everything else up to them, was an utterly crucial piece of escapism for me. I had a cardboard overlay that I put on my Commodore 64 keyboard, which showed all the functions of the various buttons in the game; I saved up and bought a Quickshot II joystick because it looked a bit like something you might see on a flight deck in Star Wars. I cleared my desk of action figures, toys and comics so that it felt like a serious space ship. I turned the lights off in the little dining area where we kept our computer, so that I wasn't distracted by all the domestic detritus of the kitchen. I pretended the hum of the fridge freezer was my life support system.

Then I played.