No Man’s Sky PC Review

Developed By: Hello Games

Published By: Hello Games

Release Date: August 9 [PS4], August 12 [PC]

Platforms: PC [reviewed], PlayStation 4

Price: $60

No Man’s Sky is about promises. Literally speaking, it’s a procedurally generated, first-person exploration/survival game, in which players are thrown into a vast universe and tasked with staying alive, upgrading their spaceship and equipment, and unlocking the mysteries of the galaxy. On a more abstract level, however, it inherently carries the assurance that it is something special; that within the randomized solar systems and endless vastness, a depth exists that can draw the player in, show them things they’ve never seen before. In some ways, No Man’s Sky keeps this promise; in others, it harshly breaks it.

Facts first. 18,000,000,000,000,000,000 planets to explore, each roughly the size of Earth. That’s a pretty mind-boggling number to wrap your head around, and it’s important to understand early what it means. You’ll never ‘beat’ No Man’s Sky. There is something of a story, pieced together through reaching Atlas Stations nestled between systems, but it’s extremely light and there are less than subtle hints that developer Hello Games didn’t really want to include it anyways. [At one point, I pretty blatantly felt I was being mocked for following the narrative.] In truth, it’s better to approach the game as something in the vein of Minecraft, or a less stressful Don’t Starve. After starting out stranded on a planet with a wrecked ship, you’re tasked with gathering resources to repair your broken vessel, escaping off world, and reaching the center of the galaxy.

Black Holes can throw you really far, but not necessarily where you want to go.

Once you fix up your ride and unlock the ability to travel between solar systems, the gameplay loop becomes something along the lines of “Enter a system → Check out a planet that looks interesting → Land and search for upgrades for your ship and multi-tool [a mining tool/blaster hybrid kind of thing] → Gather fuel and materials for building said upgrades and keeping your ship running → Repeat. It’s all quite simple but I found it pretty compelling, at least for a little while. Despite the recurring presence of space pirates and hostile robots known as Sentinels, things are usually very relaxed; it’s a good time if you zen out, put some music on, or listen to a podcast. Randomly generated animals are interesting and often hilarious, and quick money can be made by uploading the species that you discover to some kind of in-universe internet.

This sense of relaxation is enhanced by the aesthetic of the game. Beautiful sunsets on alien worlds are a sight to behold, and exploring a cave full of glowing fungi only to discover a valuable cluster of artifacts is pleasant, in a low-key kind of way. Most of the time, the design is surprisingly cohesive for the scale of the game; I found myself thinking “Yeah dude, giant green mushrooms actually really fit well on this planet full of blue stalagmites and flying eels.” The game’s greatest value is in the fact that most of what you discover is legitimately unique, at least in some ways. While everything is procedurally generated, ultimately making each planet at least slightly distinct, you start to pick up patterns really quickly. Crystals show up more often in caves. Sentinels will always attack you if you loot gravitino orbs. Asteroids contain copper, nickel, iron, or iridium. A lack of unique terrain generation doesn’t help much, either. It’s pretty much all rock. Sometimes it’s recolored to look like ice, but it still -seems- like rock, and there’s no sand, no snow, just hard surfaces and water. Weather hazards, ranging from radiation to fire storms, can make things seem a little more intense, but surviving them is literally just a matter of plugging resources into your life support systems.

The inventory is a hot mess.

Despite the theme of exploration, No Man’s Sky isn’t a very solitary game. Every planet has crashed ships, alien trading posts, and research bases. Every solar system has a space station for trading with an alien inside that will usually give you items if you complete a language puzzle using words unlocked through finding bits and pieces of lore. While convenient from a gameplay perspective, it honestly kind of kills the mood. The game tries to sell the idea that you’re an intrepid explorer pushing into the unknown, but everywhere you go, someone else has been there. I’m not really sure that there’s a feasible solution to this kind of problem, so it’s something I mean to lament as much as criticize, but it still sucks, and is a major blow to the possibility of the game feeling truly memorable.

On top of this, the game is a mechanical nightmare. The controls are stiff and awkward, with a miserably slow running speed and counter-intuitive aiming that gums up the on-foot exploration and combat. I literally had to use a minor exploit that involved pistol-whipping the air and then jetpacking to make traversing planets tolerable. Ship controls are even worse; you can’t actually turn your head inside your cockpit without turning the whole ship, making it impossible to scope out a second target while shooting at a first or even getting a decent view of your surroundings. As if that wasn’t bad enough, the starting inventory space is hilariously cramped. While you can expand it over time, upgrades permanently take up space and make it a painstaking process to actually have room to carry trade goods.

When I look at No Man’s Sky, I see an ambitious indie team that dreamt of building an awe-inspiring galaxy, full of exotic wildlife and teeming with enticing mysteries. It’s a beautiful fantasy, but the reality just doesn’t support it. For all the width, there is no depth; for all the exploration, nothing really worth finding; for all the work, no real payoff. I compared it to Minecraft and Don’t Starve before, but the problem is that it’s Minecraft without the building, Don’t Starve without the constant danger. No Man’s Sky is a wonderful concept, but at the end of the day, it’s about promises. And for the decidedly AAA price of $60, the inherent promise is for more than I feel the game delivered.