Is No Man’s Sky Worth the Buy?

I, like so many others, eagerly awaited the arrival of No Man’s Sky like a university student waits for his degree. We laughed when Sean Murray would attempt an E3 demonstration and would cry when they would delay the release date (probably as revenge for us laughing at Sean Murray’s E3 demonstration). But finally on August 9, 2016 we got our mitts on the highly anticipated space exploration game. It was time to finally discover what this game was. And my personal journal began with a hold of the square button.

As the initial white screen transformed, a new scene was painted before my very eyes, a snowy landscape, a crashed spaceship and the sound of my hazard protection running low. In No Man’s Sky you have to manage your resources in order to survive, repair your ship, craft items and travel. While tricky at first, it becomes apparent what the most valuable and useful resources are and what you should prioritize. One major drawback right out of the gate is that there is no tutorial, and if you’re like me, you started on a hostile planet with extreme weather conditions that whittle away your Hazard protection, shield and then finally, your health.

This is actually where No Man’s Sky shines, everyone starts off on a different planet and no two planets are the same. Anyone who’s played Minecraft is aware of what a procedurally generated world is, for those of you who aren’t familiar, in simple terms, the world just keeps generating and never ends. No Man’s Sky ups the ante however and applies that to their universe, rather than their worlds. There are confirmed to be 18,446,744,073,709,551,616 different planets to explore. The sheer vastness of space is yours to explore as much or as little as you like. The developer of No Man’s Sky, Hello Games, explained while you do share the universe with other players, the chances of meeting another player are astronomically small.

That means that you are going into this experience alone, with only your wits and multi tool to aid you. While it may seem like a daunting task at first, traveling towards the center of the galaxy, you quickly learn what it takes to run your ship and to run your suits systems. Once you land on a planet you have to first find the resource you need, but then it’s a simple task of using your multi tool to mine said resource. While it may sound repetitive, No Man’s Sky’s graphics keep you interested in exploring and discovering more planets, species and solar systems. I feel refreshed on each planet I see, even the deadly ones that I find all too often.

No Man’s Sky does an excellent job at delivering a single player exploration adventure, but the game does have its flaws. My game has crashed a total of four times in the 38 hours I have put into it. And the sound effects are lacking, so much so that I listen to an audiobook while I play. The music is procedurally generated, just like the universe, so it tends to be hit or miss as a tone setter. More times than not the creatures make the same groans, which is doubly shaming because they too are procedurally generated. To their credit however, the looks of the creatures are almost always very different and sometime very humorous to look at, like a T-Rex with fairy wings flying around (one of my actual discoveries) and it reminds you why you’re playing No Man’s Sky, to have fun and explore the universe.

All and all, No Man’s Sky is worth the buy, while it has a few bugs and lackluster sound effects, it offers a creative spin to the space genre and overall a very unique experience. In my times in sales we had a saying “Don’t set out to satisfy or please your audience, set out to amaze them” and while No Man’s Sky didn’t absolutely blow me away, it did amaze me that a studio of fourteen people could deliver and endless universe and a great, mysterious, space adventure. I highly recommend that you give No Man’s Sky the ol’ college try.

Follow me @bigZandthewins