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If you’ve ever stared into the stars late at night and contemplated what it would be like to explore the infinite, unimaginable depths of outer space, No Man’s Sky is a game for you. If you stare at the sky, get bored and feel like you’re wasting perfectly good time you could be using on blowing up virtual worlds, No Man’s Sky will feel like a ripoff. Just as much a museum and simulated galaxy creator as it is a traditional game, it’s one to play when you’re more in the mood for deep thought than satisfying action.
Game: No Man’s Sky
Consoles: PS4 (reviewed), PC
Publisher: Sony Interactive Entertainment
Developer: Hello Games
Release Date: August 9
The mad scientists at Hello Games set out to craft an audaciously gigantic universe that is so sprawling that it would be impossible to see everything it has to offer in several lifetimes. Its algorithms create more than 18 quintillion planets through randomized procedural generation, meaning it makes things up as it goes with a given set of rules. Each of those planets has its own set of creatures, plants and environmental wonders, all of which you can study and name or just ignore in a survival-based quest to move on to the next planet, with the ultimate goal being channeling your way to the mysterious center of the universe. The reason to explore, craft and upgrade is to make like an NCAA Tournament team and survive and advance. But go too quickly and you’ll get tired of all the repetition involved, and also sort of miss the point.
Make it your primary mission to hang out and appreciate the uniqueness and beauty of what you’re experiencing and you’re more likely to enjoy the journey. Playing No Man’s Sky with that sort of mindset can lead to the zen-like satisfaction of recreating your favorite team’s stadium in Minecraft, or spending all night patching together a jigsaw puzzle, just to see your creation take shape through bleary-eyed monotony. With as much variety as there is in the game, you’ll find yourself doing pretty much the same things on every planet. You can name things whatever you like and leave impressions that you were there, without knowing if anyone will ever follow along your path to appreciate what you’ve done. You stare into the lonely void to consider your helpless plight, and the point of it all. If that sounds like a good time to you, you will truly appreciate what this game serves up.
Since Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End dropped in May, big-time PS4 exclusives have been hard
If your astronaut dreams are to explore the great beyond with a friend, leave those behind. The only multiplayer action you can hope for is to sit beside a friend as you play, maybe with one person as a navigator or consultant and the other one at the helm. The PS4’s wonky Share Play function is another option, if you and your buddy both happen to sport lag-free connections that will minimize the slowdown and glitches that come with the mode. If you fly solo, you may see occasional marks left behind by those who came before, but don’t expect to meet up with anyone for some on-the-fly co-op in the manner of Journey. This is an experience designed from the ground up to be yours alone. The appealing — and frustrating — idea of the design is that your playthrough will not be the same as anyone else’s. Intermittent server problems troubled the game on launch day, which developers attributed to heavy use.
After a couple of slowish months, the Xbox One major release pipeline is heating back
No Man’s Sky will make as bottom 10 lists as top 10 lists at the end of the year. This is an outright, unapologetically mind-numbing and boring game if you’re expecting it to live up to a preset list of expectations. But it’s also something beautiful, mind-blowing and stunningly fresh. There has never been anything like it before, and if it flops, there will almost certainly never be anything like it again. It’s more for pre-J.J. Abrams Star Trek dweebs than trendy, meme-sharing Star Wars nerds. Its vision of space is a largely vacant, open-ended nothing in which dreams live to die and the inevitability of harmony always outlasts the fleeting friction of battle. This is your universe, your game, to make of what you wish. And it is also no man’s.
Gaming can be an expensive hobby, but there are always discounts there for those willing
No Man’s Sky Reviews Around The Web:
“After making my peace with the game’s most redundant elements, I refocused how I played the game—and just liked it more that way.” –Ars Technica
“What does it mean to be alive in a world where everything is driven by algorithms, and your existence is solitary?” –GameSpot
“This is an enormously complex game, but it gets there by means of networking together many different mundane tasks. ” –IGN
No Man’s Sky Screenshots
The publisher provided a review copy.
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