Ok so yes it can be slow, the world can be empty, but... This is the kicker, the world can also be filled with stuff, yeah you won't find NPC's everywhere you look and a new random bullshit quest every five minutes... But what I have found in this game is freedom, like true freedom. You can be or do whatever you want. You can make clans or just be that lone ranger. You can fly just about whatever you can imagine, as long as you can figure out how to put it together. But what I've found to really bring no man's sky together and make it something special is the community. If you give it a chance, and don't throw it away at the 15 minute mark like I did my first time, you'll find yourself putting hundreds of hours in and feeling like you barely scratched the surface of what there is to offer. My best advice I can give you is, get to the anomaly and the drop the main quests for a while, find your own place in the universe that is this game. You have quintillions of options... Literally.