There's plenty of non AAA, small budget and/or non affiliated to big publishers (not using the indie label because it's hard to know what people attach to that nowadays) that are perfectly fine games without sucking the homage titty
I think it's unfairly reductive. I'd take Invisible Inc. over a MGS. High budget games are plagued by sequels and a weird complex towards cinema, is that better when it comes to how derivative games are ?
And really I have no beef with NMS the game. Yeah the execution is meh (doesn't simulate actual mechanics, same gravity everywhere...) but it's cool. I'm not even miffed by the price though I would not myself pay 60 bucks for that. The only problem is the ridiculous hype and snowflake effect (lots of games covered that ground partly on PC, from FTL to Elite) which turned the vocal fanbase into insufferable evangelists who can't even reconcile plain contradiction by the lead dev who is perfectly aware of it (he even said he was naive with his latest DLC statement). Those peoples are just substituting a so called indie game instead of an AAA one but they stay as ignorant, non curious and oblivious to the big picture outside the walled garden of their corporate masters.
But yeah people need to stop romanticizing the "indie" label, and yes some games and experiences can only be achieved with a team in the hundreds.
