If you had shown me what I'm about to show you back in 2016 when I first played No Man's Sky, I don't think I would've believed it was the same game. Thanks to the base-building feature that was added shortly after launch, and more importantly continuous updates from Hello Games allowing for incredibly deep base customization, we have creations like this stunning underwater city from Reddit user Pleasant-Disaster837:
“Lost Sunken City” NMS base build. from r/NoMansSkyTheGame
The build is titled "Lost Sunken City," and it's highly reminiscent of the main setting of BioShock, Rapture. According to Pleasant Disaster, "there's much to be explored below the surface of the water," and everyone's invited to "come explore" using the portal address included in the first image.
The wildest part about this, to me, is that it seems to have been built without the use of mods, proving the tools available in the vanilla version of the game are enough to make it look completely unrecognizable. I'll admit, it's been a few years since I played No Man's Sky, but this is impressive enough that I'm highly tempted to re-download the game on PS5 and see what the game's base-building is all about these days.
It's unclear how much more No Man's Sky base-building will be expanded now that Hello Games is also working on Light No Fire, although studio founder Sean Murray recently revealed the somewhat disappointing news that only a "tiny" portion of the team is working on the follow-up "in the background."
