The First 15
I load into the game and there is an immediate sense of wonder.
I find myself crash landed on a planet that is -73 degrees celcius. That’s really really cold. Fortunately it seems my environmental suit can handle it.
I go off into the wilderness and start gathering resources.
I just got attacked by something that looks like a floating camera. Why is this thing attacking me?
I spend the rest of my time running around and gathering resources. I have a feeling I’m going to be doing this a lot.
Story
No Man’s Sky provides a storyline in the form of a quest line to reach the center of the universe. Players are free to race ahead with the quest line or to completely ignore it and go off on their own. The atmosphere of the Atlas storyline is haunting and mysterious. The game does a wonderful job of making you want to know more about what it is you’re pursuing. It leaves a trail of answers that you acquire bit by bit, but it also creates even more questions every time you find a new answer.
Along the way you encounter several alien races. You can explore the backgrounds of the different races, which are interesting and well crafted, but you can’t really do anything with those stories. They exist as a sort of interesting side note since whether you know them or not has no bearing on the rest of the game. Again, they are well written, but they don’t seem to help you in any way moving forward.
Interface and Controls
The controls are mostly fine, but there are a few odd mechanics that prevent the game from really feeling fluid. One issue is having to click and hold on menu options. The assumption for needing to hold down on a menu rather than just clicking on it is due to the console version having the same requirement. There is a mod that can correct this, but the base game requires it and it feels awkward to do every time you want to select an option.
Movement on foot can be a little bit slow. Fortunately, there’s a bug in the game you can take advantage of to make this a lot less painful. If you start sprinting, then perform a melee attack, then boost off the ground during the attack, you will maintain the momentum from the shoulder rush allowing you to eat up large amounts of space very quickly. The new speed feels just about perfect for exploring. I would like it if they removed the bug, but then set your speed while using your jetpack to match what you can get from using the bug.
Gameplay
The core gameplay of No Man’s Sky is well thought out and fun. You explore planets to gather resources and chronicle the various plants and animals you encounter. You will do a lot of resource gathering. Fortunately the game makes this task very easy and actually quite rewarding.
You also explore ruins in order to learn the language of the local alien race in order to better interact with them. The more of the language you understand, the more likely you are understand the computers and people you encounter. The more you understand them, the more likely you’ll be able to take the correct action to help them with whatever problem they have. The problem I have with learning languages is that when you move on to another star system, all of the work you did learning the language of the last race you encountered is rendered useless since you have to start over again from scratch. I would prefer that each language you learned/mastered boosted your efficiency at learning new languages. This way players are rewarded for their previous efforts since each new language they encounter gets easier and easier as they learn more and more.
The overall problem with the No Man’s Sky is that it doesn’t really go anywhere. Everything you do is mostly focused on earning money and getting more space whether it be more space on your ship, or your suit, or even your mining tool. But then, all that extra space really enables you to do is be better at gathering resources and making money. There isn’t anything to actually do with that money other than get better at making more of it. The developers have promised that more is coming in the future (building bases, etc.), but as of this writing there aren’t really any goals to pursue except to keep gathering and exploring. Again, gathering and exploring is fun, but it would be more fun if it built to something more.
Something I disliked is that you can’t build a new ship or even upgrade the size of your current one. Your only option for improving your ship’s cargo capacity is to buy a new one or to fix up a crashed ship and discard your old ship for the new one. Also, you can’t sell your ship. It just vanishes whenever you buy/find a new one. You can craft upgrades to the different components of your ship, but you can never increase the storage size of your current ship. I would have liked the option to craft a custom ship so that I could choose the look I want.
Conclusion
You will enjoy this game if you like wandering in search of hidden mysteries and doing lots, and lots, of gathering. The slow but steady progression of your equipment will appeal to completionist players who enjoy maxing out their character.
You will not like this game if you are looking for a game with lots of action or if you prefer a more linear sort of gameplay. Much of this game is about exploration and discovery, both of which then create space for you to set your own goals.
No Man’s Sky is seriously impressive as a world generating tool, but it needs something more to be a complete experience. It is a simulation in search of a game. The systems it has are fun and interact well together, but it’s missing that little something extra that could make it into a truly top tier game.
The Meaning Of Fun 