No Man's Sky

Few games have reached the prerelease hype and anticipation as No Man’s Sky let alone an unestablished franchise from a developer with just a few indie games under their belt. With the game finally in our hands we can decide if the hype was justified or not, and the answer is a little of both.

At its core, No Man’s Sky is a space exploration title where the lose objective is to find the center of the universe in an enormous sandbox universe. The gameplay relies heavily on a Minecraft style of resource management and crafting whilst combining with the trade system and exploration similar to Subnautica or Starbound. The true gravy of the game though is a fantastic achievement in that the procedurally generated universe it creates on the fly looks astounding. Resources, flora, fauna, geography and environment, all accurately respond to the planets surrounding it and atmospheres in a way that boggles the mind with each planet unique to the next. Over 18 quintillion stars fill the game, each being its own vast and immersive world, virtually guaranteeing you’ll never visit the same location twice.

For all the wondrous art direction, compelling soundtrack and excitement for brand new discovery, the game is certainly not without faults. Ignoring the storyline which seems to be more of a flimsy driver to establish key items with the player, the game is still quite glitch filled. Game crashes, clipping into mountains and space stations or suddenly being thrust off the planet mid-flight are all too common whilst playing even after the Day 1 patch. Though it’s fair to assume these will be cleaned up very quickly. Being a resource gathering game, the hunt for technology and ‘rare’ items, becomes taxing and derivative. Once the initial gleam wears through, you’ll find yourself performing the same tasks over and over, eventually skipping as much as possible to shortcut the game into pushing itself to a new direction. It’s a pitfall most survivals fall into and this is no exception.

So is No Man’s Sky worth shelling out eighty bucks for? Well, yes. The game is bare at the moment and after around 20 hours of play you may be bored, but developer Hello Games and founder Sean Murray have backed this game heavily along with some industry giants (See Sony Entertainment). This is the blueprint for a title that will be added to for a long time to come, everything is laid out for quick and expansive content to continue and some of which that has already been promised with no extra cost. It’s just your choice if you wish to get on at the ground floor or not.