NO MAN’S SKY
The ambitious space exploration simulator, from Hello Games.
Ah, No Man’s Sky. Now here’s a game that’s proven to be polarising, friend…
For me, the writing was on the wall. I had read the words intently and ignored them anyways.
From the moment No Man’s Sky was revealed, it seemed to capture imaginations everywhere. It promised sprawling space exploration on a mind blowing scale. Saying people wanted to play this? Well, that’s an understatement! I wasn’t aboard this particular hype train, though!
I like space! I like exploring! This sounds like my kind of thing, right? So, what gives?
Sometimes your instincts will give you the heads up that a game just isn’t for you. That’s what my finely tuned ‘Spidey sense’ was saying about No Man’s Sky in the lead up to its release. In most instances I’ll heed the warning signs and play something more attuned to my tastes.
How did I find myself playing the game on launch day, then?
Hype can be an infectious thing! I got curious! After all, I like space! I like exploring!
No Man’s Sky is exactly the game I thought it would be, for better or worse. It’s sprawling and beautiful and a labour of love, but also the definition of an acquired taste… one that isn’t quite mine…
I can’t even remotely argue that I was deceived. The developers were honest from the get go about how things would play and what you would be doing. These folks totally delivered. I had an accurate sense of the game, even if that’s what triggered my apprehension in the first place. I fully accept that it was my decision to put any objections aside and try my hand at this thing.
For the most part, I’ll tend to wait until I’ve finished a game before I write up my impressions. No Man’s Sky isn’t one of those games you complete, though. There have been many times across the week I’ve felt I had seen enough to give some well-rounded thoughts. It’s safe to say that all those alternate incarnations of this piece would have had entirely different tones.
There were times I absolutely hated No Man’s Sky and was certain I was done with it, while there were other times I was totally immersed in it. Now? I’m somewhere in between!
Don’t expect an opening cut scene that sets the time and place. This isn’t one of those games.
We open on a space ship that has crash landed on an uncharted world. There are many repairs necessary if we want this piece of junk to fly again. These repairs are dependent on finding materials to craft replacement parts. We also have to maintain our life support systems. That’s all the set up we get and there’s not a lot of hand holding to be found. So, we go to work…
We’re introduced to the various gameplay mechanics while exploring the sights and sounds of the alien surrounds. We learn by doing and quickly master the basics of how everything works.
There’s all kinds of things to see and do on this planet. There are strange alien artifacts to decipher, exotic flora and fauna to catalogue, and minerals to mine. It’s obvious the planet is sprawling and we’ll never get to see it all, so it’s best to stick to the task at hand.
I assemble the required components and repair the ship. Getting this done has been good motivation. It’s pretty damn satisfying. Once the ship is repaired, the environments open up a whole lot. We’re not just confined to this planet, either — soon enough we break orbit and take to the stars. Believe me when I say that’s a great moment, right there. I smiled like an idiot.
The transition from planet to space is seamless. Soon we’ll be going even further…
The hook of No Man’s Sky is that the universe is truly sprawling. Every single star in the sky is orbited by planets that you’re actually allowed to explore. They are all procedurally generated too, ensuring that no two planets are a-like. As hooks go, it’s a compelling one, huh? That’s where the whole Star Trek spirit to boldly go where no one has gone before comes into play!
For a little while this is as engaging as it sounds. Some planets are dangerous, with radioactive or toxic atmospheres. Some planets are lush and beautiful, while some are rocky and arid. Some are covered in vast oceans, while others are covered in snow. They all require their own strategies to survive. The problem is they all start to feel the same after a little while.
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Full disclosure, I have never been the biggest fan of procedurally generated environments…
These are essential to provide the scale of No Man’s Sky, but they’re never as consistently pretty looking or well designed as something constructed by a designer’s hand. Soon enough the desire to explore these landscapes will go away and that’s a problem in a game so dependent on that sense of discovery. It doesn’t help when the gameplay starts to feel a bit shallow, as well.
While fixing your ship was initially great motivation, the mostly smaller scale and more mundane tasks begin to feel like busy work, with no promise that any thing will change or that it will be worth the effort in the end. Sure, you might be able to get a faster ship or better weapons, but then what? Every outpost looks the same, every alien encounter seems familiar.
It’s not too long before you find yourself just going through the motions — mining for the same minerals, encountering very similar looking wild life, and just generally doing the same things over-and-over again. Technically the planets might not be the same because of the whole procedurally generated component, but in reality a ‘been there, done that’ feeling kicks in.
The game wears out its welcome a whole lot faster than you would expect and you feel the grind. I personally need a bit more direction and gameplay variety to keep things interesting.
You could potentially spend hundreds of hours in No Man’s Sky, but the question is will you want to? Mostly, I think that just depends on what you’re looking for! I’ve made no secret that my instincts told me this game didn’t align with my tastes. I tend to prefer getting lost in a story. Your mileage will vary. This isn’t a title to be approached like other games, though.
There are genuinely moments of pure fun to be found in No Man’s Sky.
Things are at their best when you’re making your own fun, which is no accident — this is what No Man Sky really wants you to do. There are plenty of opportunities in this sprawling game.
While the game might not be great at providing motivation, you can bring your own…
The fun comes when you’re not focused on what comes next, but just getting lost in the happenings on a moment-to-moment level. The ‘big picture’ goal of getting to the centre of the galaxy just wasn’t enough for me, but accepting the game for what it was and realising my experience in No Man’s Sky would all come down to what I made of it was a turning point.
Challenging yourself in the framework No Man’s Sky provides is where I had the most fun.
There was this one planet that was heavily patrolled by aggressive Sentinels, a robotic security force. This planet also had rare pearls that you could sell for a high price on a nearby space station. Long story short, the Sentinels didn’t take too kindly to me stealing them. I had an incredibly good time just taking as many pearls as I could and fighting my way out of there. There wasn’t a whole lot that could be done with the money, but it was sure fun getting it.
I’d often use the game’s ‘journey’ milestone log to challenge myself, too — like intentionally landing on hazardous worlds and pursuing these goals under extreme conditions. You had an objective while also having the responsibility of keeping your life support systems active.
Pure elation can come from just flying your ship about, as well. I loved going through black holes and engaging enemy ships in combat and living to tell the tale. The novelty of activating pulse engines and accelerating to a nearby planet or weaving through an asteroid belt never really goes away. I think space is where I consistently had the most fun in No Man’s Sky.
While none of these things makes the game any deeper, they were enjoyable distractions while they lasted. There’s something to be said for how relaxing the game can be under the right circumstances and in the right mood, when the grind can be very addictive.
No Man’s Sky is beautifully set to an understated soundtrack. The visual design is often stunning to look at with a nice science fiction aesthetic. There’s some story and lore here waiting to be deciphered if that’s your thing, but it’s certainly not the focus of the experience. Criticisms aside, it’s hard to look at the sprawling universe the development team has created here with anything less than awe. It’s flawed, sure, but it’s an impressive feat all the same.
I was reminded of Spore, the ambitious Maxis game, more than once — especially when it came to the creature design. The planetary exploration also conjured flashbacks of driving around in the Mako in the first Mass Effect. You can’t help but wonder how this procedurally generated stuff could work with more traditional design in creating sprawling environments. This game could still certainly use more refinement and complexity on the gameplay front.
No Man’s Sky might be a technical marvel, but it’s not without its problems, either…
The game isn’t very stable and constantly crashed on a level I’ve never seen before on the PS4 — eclipsing the modest in comparison record previously set by Headlander. The crashes were so damn frequent that they broke the game’s immersion, I changed my behaviour out of constant fear that my progress would be undone by the lack of stability. When the game crashes after warp jumps, it lessons your motivation to get to the centre of the galaxy.
While my instincts proved right about No Man’s Sky, I definitely don’t regret trying it.
Written by Dan Clarke. August 21, 2016.
Originally published at dcpresents.tumblr.com.
