It's been three years since my last game post, and it feels oddly appropriate that my last review was for The Last of Us, a game which seemingly everyone but me liked. So what brings me out of retirement? Well, the game that seemingly everyone but me wants to hate: No Man's Sky.
Also since this is going to be a loooong one, I'm going to bold the important bits for a tl;dr version.
A primer (scroll down if you don't care about the game's history...but you should):
No Man's Sky has been in development since I last left this blog three years ago. What must be understood is that the hype machine began immediately. We were promised an entire universe, filled with creatures and planets and ships and space stations all waiting to be discovered by you. We were promised seamless transition from planet to space, space to planet, something that had never really been done before. And so imaginations went wild as we tried to process the immensity of such a game.
Fast forward to four months ago. Everything we've seen building up to this release has been incredible. The planets move on an axis around the sun. There are giant space battles, and different alien factions you can join depending on what you want to focus on. There is a detailed crafting system. The starships not only look cool but all fly differently depending on if they're built for combat or exploration. And possibly the biggest promise to leave Sean Murray's (the creative director of the game) mouth? We could do it all with other people.
Now fast forward to release. It's finally in people's hands, the reviews start pouring in...and they're overwhelmingly negative or average. So what happened? I think the biggest culprit is the hype machine that would be literally impossible to fulfill after three years of building to insane levels. However, there are some legitimate gripes as well. Somehow the game we were shown four months ago has been severely gutted. Almost everything I described above, that we could see on screen four months ago, are completely gone. We can all hypothesize about why they're missing, but instead I'd like to focus on the game we got.
So without further ado...the actual review!
No Man's Sky starts you off on a random planet on the edge of the galaxy. Your ship has crashed and broken and objective #1 is to find the resources you need to repair it, leave the planet, and get out to the rest of the universe. There is also a strange pod next to where you landed, with a pulsating red sphere in it purporting to be something called "Atlas" that promises to show you the way, though you can refuse it and explore freely.
"Tutorial sphere?" I thought. "Sure, I'll bite." And then...nothing. No tutorial. I scratched my head, and continued on.
Depending on what planet you're plopped down on first, you may have to deal with any number of things. You may get a ton of interesting flora to identify, or it could be barren. You may encounter peaceful wildlife, or vicious creatures that charge and bite you, or no creatures at all. You may get a planet rich with gold deposits, or nothing but the Heridium you need to rebuild your engine. However, the one thing for certain about whatever planet you end up on first...it will draw you in. It will feel like exploring a completely new world for the first time. A world that no other person may ever see but you. Everything looks and feels completely unique and alien.
And when you finally rebuild your ship and launch for the first time into space, seamlessly leaving that planet behind and looking back at the small and almost insignificant area you covered compared to the size of an entire planet...no other game has inspired the awe that I and I think many others felt at that moment. As you look in space around you and see other planets with obviously different environments, and pull up the galactic map to see just how many different star systems there are, it's hard not to think...the hype machine was right. They did it.
Unfortunately, you then have to land on your second planet. And this is where the magic starts to fade.
You quickly realize that all those alien and unique plants you saw...aren't so unique. You see some repeated textures, some repeated structures, repeated plants that have the exact same shape but a slightly different color palette, animals with similar pieces put together in randomized ways. And this I think was, in the end, No Man's Sky's biggest downfall:
Yes, they made a universe. But they didn't limit what showed up where, and they didn't have enough pieces to make exploration beyond a couple planets significantly different.
But what about that Atlas thing that seemed like the tutorial but wasn't? Well, it turns out Atlas in essence is the "plot". If you accept the path of Atlas, when you bring up your galactic map it'll point you towards an "Atlas interference". When you arrive, a new massive space station greets you, and on the inside you get a tiny bit of text description/plot, and can choose to either abandon the path, or continue. If you continue, you'll get an Atlas Stone and be on your way. DO NOT SELL THE ATLAS STONES if you intend to go on this path. I, and many others made this mistake and managed to cut ourselves off from the end of the storyline.
But what about the things you can find on each planet? Abandoned warehouses growing over with this strange slime. Beacons that point you towards alien obelisks, colonial outposts, shelters, crashed ships you can salvage or repair and make yours. Buildings with new recipes or blueprints hidden behind sealed doors you have to blast open to get to. Large trading posts where alien ships come and go that you can trade with. Alien artifacts scattered across the landscape, each one teaching you a piece of the language of whichever race rules that system.
Once again, there's a lot to do, but it's the same on every planet.
So if the planets don't feel unique, and you do pretty much the same thing on every planet, and I didn't even get to see the final bit of the plot, why did I actually like this game?
The short answer is, because I personally still found the drive to explore and see all the different combinations of things interesting. Despite the fact that it's repetitive, despite the fact that you'll see a lot of the same plants sticking out of the ground on each planet, despite the fact that so many things we saw just four months ago are completely stripped from the game, it's still an interesting exploration sim.
The alien races all feel unique, despite being completely the same gameplay-wise. In fact, each race gets a fascinating backstory told through these alien obelisks you find scattered around the planets. You get a massive amount of credits for discovering every animal species on a planet, which drives exploration and to see just what weird combination of legs, head, tail, and arms you'll find next, but credits are ultimately pretty useless except to buy suit upgrades (which add a slot to your too-cramped inventory) or new ships (which cost millions and aren't worth it).
It is by no means perfect. The gripes against it are completely well-founded. But I put so...many...hours into this game, and liked it enough to make it the third game I've ever platinum trophied (meaning you got every single trophy, which in this case means you get every single milestone: walking a certain distance, hyperspace jumping a certain amount of times, surviving for a certain amount of hours in extreme environmental conditions, etc.). Basically even though I could see the inner working of its randomization early on, I still found the results of that randomization worth exploring for HOURS.
As you might be able to tell, this game is NOT FOR EVERYONE. I personally felt like I got the $60 worth out of my experience, but I think more will find the price point acceptable at the $40 or even $30 mark.
There's so much more to get into, both in praise and criticism, that I haven't even touched, but the fact is, this is a solid foundation. They have made some giant strides in game design, but for now it's still just that, a foundation. Whether they will filter back in all of the missing features that were promised, or just wait until the inevitable sequel remains to be seen, but for now, I do recommend at least renting it, and making your own little dent into the universe they've created.
No Man's Sky gets a 7/10.
