JOURNEY TO THE CORE
BEFORE WE START:
No Man's Sky was developed and published by Hello Games and released in 2016. This title was released under completely adverse conditions compared to those presented at various conventions and fairs, and therefore, it was heavily criticized. After dozens of updates, the game became very similar to what was originally announced. The title has been fully released on Game Pass PC.
THE TAKE OFF:
No Man's Sky, as a pure survival game, instantly throws the player into the clutches of a planet immersed in the infinite universe. This planet can randomly be peaceful or malevolent, making the first steps more or less challenging depending on the type. The initial stages mainly involve learning the basics of survival, as well as constructing a small personal base. After these steps, the player will be unleashed into the universe of the Atlas, a mysterious deity or legend that requires the player to reach the center of the universe. As an interlude, the player can literally explore endless planets, take on dozens of side missions, and build bases on planets or immense frigates.
STALENESS UNIVERSE:
The gameplay of No Man's Sky is as varied as it is repetitive. In addition to the mere survival aspect of collecting resources, surviving in hostile planets, and fighting sentinels, players can venture into cooperative missions and raids on frigates and outposts. Furthermore, a small part of the game certainly involves space battles, albeit very simple ones. The true heart of the gameplay in this immense title lies in the exploration of thousands of planets, which often differ greatly, and the various space wrecks. A small mechanic that encourages exploration is the bestiary and encyclopedia of creatures and objects on the planets, offering small rewards in currency.
WHAT COLOR IS THE SPACE?:
Graphically, it is rather average, with a wide variety of designs and coloration of the different worlds. Certainly, the imagination behind some plants and creatures is exceptional.
SCATTERED ECHOES:
The audio component, like the graphics, is average. However, its great merit lies in creating extremely relaxing and mesmerizing situations, with fitting soundtracks for deep space.
BUT WHY 7?
PROS:
No Man's Sky is currently an extremely enjoyable and relaxing title to play and explore. The vastness and creativity of the game world rarely become tiresome, and the game's writing is unique and detailed, keeping the player engaged. Additionally, the main story, being very philosophical, will certainly stimulate the minds of the most imaginative players.
CONS:
The major problem with No Man's Sky lies in the immense repetitiveness that it reaches within a few days of gameplay. Every space station, NPC, planetary base, frigate, and most dialogues will always and uniformly be the same. Moreover, the game's strong survival aspect often leads to tedious farming sequences for normal gameplay actions. All these factors make it a highly enjoyable game even today, but it certainly doesn't lack some issues dating back to its release.
RATINGS:
Gameplay: 6.5
Music: 7.5
Story: 7
Survival: 6
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NMS is a hard game to rate they keep updating it all the time and with free content. I picked this up at the update NEXT, since then ABYSS, VISIONS and now BEYOND update have dropped. The many planetary graphical pop-ins I have found quite jarring. I am running this with a very low FOV also, because the frame rates on the planets can ****. In space the frame rate seems stable and pretty ok.
Story wise everything kind of makes sense in this universe when the revelation bombs hit. Though the story and/or the copy/paste side missions is not what drives my interest in this game.
The Developers give you a lot of cool fun unlock-able stuff to mess about with on land, in underwater and in space. The main personal carrot on the stick is all the researching and chasing after new tech or rare/exotic gear/equipment. All to the backdrop of looking at colorful vibrant worlds while listening to the great in game soundtrack. The game does offer other things like mining, base building, trading, bounty hunting, fleet management, farming, pets and cataloguing.
The game is far from complex or deep. Pretty easy to pick up and put down on normal difficulty and not much of challenge. It does have survival mode which is not even that hard ( perma-death as of yet to be tried ). This a pretty chill laid back gaming experience for sure. Took my mind of the Pandemic BS for sure.
2021 Updates have tanked the frame rates. PC and Console gamer hey developers no excuse not to put graphical and effects slider bars/toggles in the console versions. Which consoles games tend to run worse anyway, because they don't have beefier or upgradable tech. Lowering the resolution and FOV are the only tweaks available on the console. WTF is this 20-25 FPS crap now? Poor performance and very low draw distance and high pop makes does effect the immersion factor. That being said I have 300+ hours in this game.
Game comes with in built VR. The pixelation is alll pretty bad and the planets in space didn't look very VR. The VR cockpit was pretty cool, but not as amazing as Infinite War cockpit. After trying several different VR games the motion sickness has finally gone. Still with all that plastic and rubber on the head? Head overheat happens pretty quicky. Yeah even when using a massive floor fan to try and counter it. Maybe I need to use PS/VR in the winter or something?
With cartoonish art style and extremely bright colors this game has become just another manga clone for zoomers. Also, all infinite planets somehow look the very same. The core of the game is boring and complex grind and mining rocks. That's it.
I bought it just to play with my friends that was the only reason, well I can’t comprehend why but the game doesn’t let me be with my friends on the same group or session, I’ve tried everything…
SummaryNo Man’s Sky is an exploration and survival game set in an infinite procedurally generated universe. Whether a distant mountain or a planet hanging low on the horizon, you can go forth there. You can fly seamlessly from the surface of a planet to another, and every star in the sky is a sun that you can visit. Where you’ll go and how fast...