The SKY‘s the limit
NO MAN’S SKY (PEGI 7) XBox One, PS4, PC ★★★★★
WITH so much time and so little to do, there’s never been a better excuse to dig through the old games you have lying around. One of the titles that caught my eye was No Man’s Sky, a game I abandoned a few weeks after its release in 2016.
Heavily inspired by classic science fiction, No Man’s Sky was billed as a glorious first-person, open world survival game, where players could explore planets in a procedurally generated universe.
The hype surrounding the open world adventure started in 2013, and by the time Sony got involved it was being sold as one of the greatest games ever made.
But when it finally arrived on consoles it differed so much from the game described in ads, trailers and interviews that some players demanded their money back, and even made complaints to the advertising standards authority.
It wasn’t a bad game by any means, it was more frustrating. Menus were clunky and badly explained, and planets felt more like variations on a theme than uniquely generated worlds for you to explore.
The huge number of people who initially logged on to play
the soaringly-ambitious survival game soon walked away, and apart from a loyal core of players, it looked like that was it for No Man’s Sky.
But four years, and many, many updates later, and No Man’s Sky has evolved into a very different beast.
In the last four months there have been updates that introduced ‘living’ spaceships, and Exo Mech suits for you to wear on your adventures.
No Man’s Sky is now starting to feel like the game I always hoped it would be – and much closer to
the game its developers, Hello Games, wanted it to be. There’s now a full multiplayer experience, so when you get fed up being out in the universe on your own, you can team up with other players to build bases and explore star systems with.
And speaking of bases, your hands are no longer tied as to where you can build them – if you fancy putting it on the hill overlooking the lake, knock yourself out.
The game’s engine has also had a significant overhaul, in the way it generates, and renders planets. The biomes – the flora and fauna – have been greatly expanded, and you even have a personal submarine to dive down to the depths of the oceans to scavenge for supplies and resources.
Another huge update saw VR compatibility introduced. Dubbed the ‘best and worst’ of modern VR gaming, the experience you have very much depends on the system you’re playing on.
Those on cheaper systems, like the Rift S, reported bad cases of simulation sickness due to the poor frame rate, while those lucky enough to be playing on more powerful and expensive hardware were blown away by the sheer size and scale of the environments.
Most importantly, the game’s core mission – to get to the centre of the universe – has taken a back seat.
This is now a universe I want to explore, and can have fun while doing so.
Is it perfect? No, far from it. There are still bugs and glitches, some quite cute and others that are crushingly frustrating. The Inventory Management system is awful to use, and space battles feel a little lacking... they’re just not as much fun as they should be.
All that aside, this is a game which has come on in leaps and bounds – and its latest update, Beyond, is possibly the best yet. Who hasn’t wanted to race around in a Mech?
If you have this game sitting gathering dust in a corner of the room then it’s time to dust it off and give it another go.
I promise you won’t be disappointed.
Bargain buy: £24.99 at cdkeys.com