No Man's Sky is an open world, space simulation, exploration, survival, sci-fi game with RPG elements. Developed by a very small studio called Hello Games. With all the flak they have received they pulled off some pretty amazing feats with the game despite their size. Containing over 18.4 quintillian planets in a galaxy to explore. At this point I have 70 hours in the game and have every upgrade to my ship, inventory and tools. I'm a pretty firm believer that someone reviewing content should have experienced it thoroughly. I am also a fan of letting people come up with their own conclusions. Pushing harsh opinions on others is my least favorite part of most critiques. So here's my review and experience in No Man's Sky.
The game starts with a white screen dipping into whichever planet you start on. In front of your character is a crashed spaceship and various boxes of loot. It's apparent that you have crashed in this unknown place. There is no backstory supplied, but soon you find out this is not home and probably nowhere near it. Who are we? Why are we here? A couple questions that we may never have the answers to.
This is where you make your first decision. Do you want help from "Atlas" on your journey or do you want to free form explore. Atlas will pretty much guide you in a tutorial. You must explore the planet and repair your ship and equipment. I really enjoyed my first couple hours in this game. It gave a real sense of mystery and survival. Scanning every few seconds revealed new way points, items of interest and resources.
I also encountered various animal species, plants and minerals that I could scan with my multi-tool. You can then rename and upload them to the server. This process can be done with solar systems and planets as well. Whenever another player encounters these things they will see that you discovered them and what you named them.
This brings us to the most exciting part of the first hours in No Man's Sky, intelligent lifeforms, Aliens. I remember scanning and finding my first outpost and the anticipation of encountering my first space bro. I opened the door and the screen turned into a letterbox and in front of me was what looked like some kind of cyborg. He was a member of the Korvax race and it was quite an epic moment. I haven't learned much of his language yet so I couldn't really understand him. He provided a question and if I answered correctly I would receive a reward.
It's fairly obvious to the player that you will need to explore and upgrade your inventory, ship and multi-tool. You can also learn alien languages which will also tell stories about the various races and the history of this galaxy. That's one awesome thing I didn't expect. The developers provide some pretty hard hitting feels and deep philosophies. It reminded me a lot of the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey. It's clear to me that the developers of the game are into philosophy and I really enjoy this aspect of the game.
No Man's Sky is at it's base a pure sandbox game. What one person enjoys will differ from the next. Some will enjoy exploring planets and seeing the different environments, weather conditions, flora and fauna. From oceanic planets to lifeless moons to extremely toxic planets with constant acidic rain. Others will enjoy stacking credits and pirating every ship they encounter. What I'm getting at is that this is a pretty niche game and is also very chill. Even though I have personally upgraded everything to the max. I find myself traveling to the center of the galaxy and stopping to see the sights. With that, I will tell you that some people will absolutely not enjoy the game unless they have acquired the sandbox taste. Like a fine brew, it can have quite a bitter taste on the pallete of a closed mind. Some might not like this type of game ever, we all like different things and that's a good thing.
It took me around thirty to forty hours to fully upgrade my equipment and ship, I kind of rushed it. I suggest taking your time and not going straight for upgrades because this can lead into a monotonous grind. A lot of people won't enjoy that so I think you should throw in a little bit of this and a little bit of that instead of grinding one thing at a time. Unless you enjoy that kind of thing. There are multiple paths that the game lays out for you. There is the Atlas path which is No Man's Sky version of a story mode. This will give you information on the secrets of the universe. I'm not going to get into that too much due to spoilers. Another option is to go to the center of the galaxy or find black holes. Black holes will send you closer to the center.
The Bad
Warning Spoilers ahead
Here are some things about the game that really let me down. After I upgraded everything I thought the real game began. I was sadly mistaken. The thing I looked forward to the most was flying around laying waste to any ships I saw. Pirating and destroying corvette class ships and taking all their sweet, sweet loots. Well, that isn't the case. The space combat is extemely shallow. When I started the game I got into a fight with some sentinels, which led to 5 waves of enemy ship attacks on me. The final attack being a sentinel war ship. Well, that was no different when I finished my upgrades. There is literally 5 waves of sentinels and that is the ENTIRETY of space combat. You can also help ships that are being attacked by pirates and aid in a space battle but it's pretty much the same thing. The ground combat is equally as shallow.
That's my biggest gripe with the game. Once you upgrade everything there isn't much to do with the upgrades. You can stack credits, explore and head to the center. That's it, and this really disappointed me. The game feels like it's missing quite a bit of content and I really hope Hello games is working on adding a lot to the game and as soon as possible or they may be in a bit of trouble. The game can also be a repetitive grind fest depending on how you play it. It's a truly sad day when you love a game and the end game content is basically non existent.
Graphics and Style
As an artist myself I can really appreciate the beauty of this game. The art design is spectacular and the color scheme gels really well. While not being the most cutting edge of graphical power it looks amazing. Everything is quite cohesive when it comes to looks. I remember flying off my first planet into space and it was quite awesome. It still is for the most part, always wondering what you will see when you break the planets atmosphere. The user interface is inutitive and easy to use, although it could use some work. I give the graphics and style of this NMS a 4 out of 5 only because it doesn't have the absolutely best technical graphics the world can offer.
Audio
My opinion on this game's audio pretty much mirrors my thoughts on the graphics. The music and sound effects are awesome and it fits in really well with all of the other elements in the game. The game uses "generative sound" to impact the feeling of different situations you're experiencing. The band who made the soundtrack for No Man's Sky is called 65daysofstatic. I'm really glad the game introduced their music to me because it's epic. I give NMS audio a 4.5 out of 5, it's great.
Price Point
Now here we come to a very controversial topic among games. I am frequently asked "Is this game worth it?" on my twitch streams. We are in a very interesting time for price points. I am actually working on a video purely rovolved around this. Some games offer thousands of hours of gameplay to people with a price point of being virtually free. For me price point to fun factor is a HUGE variable that decides the fate of a game's success. I currently have 70 hours in the game and have exhausted much of it's content, the game costs sixty dollars currently. Whereas starbound costed me about fifteen dollars and I have over one hundered and fifty hours over three to four years. Although I would say No Man's Sky offers a more immersive and beautiful experience. I would say that currently the price point is a tad expensive and of course it depends on the purchaser. I give NMS a 2.5 out of 5 on price point simply because much cheaper games can provide many more hours of entertainment.
Replayability
This is a tough point to judge. Mainly because No Man's Sky technically never ends. Once you reach the center of the galaxy you are just placed into another one. This is seemingly infinite as of now. So you could continue exploring, blowing things up and making credits forever. But, there doesn't seem to be much point in it as of now. I personally don't have much motivation to continue playing the game. Although it is a great game if you want to relax and do other things at the same time like watch streams or shows, movies or videos on another screen. There fore I give NMS a 3 out of 5 in the replayability category. I really hope this changes in the future as I feel like this should be the biggest selling point.
With the inaliz scoring sytem this game gets a 14 out of 20 total possible points. I absolutely enjoyed my time in No Man's Sky and hope they get some new content out asap. I am left with a sad feeling of what could be or what content I wish was in the game. At the same time I seem to come back to explore and head to the center for a very relaxing experience. That's my comprehensive on No Man's Sky and I hope it helps you in some way. Until next time, remember to be excellent and enjoy yourself always! Come hang out with me on twitch almost daily at 5pm est. Links are down below.
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