The Sky is Falling: Where No Man's Sky Lost Me

Recently I wrote an article detailing my first impressions of No Man’s Sky. Since then, my time playing has dwindled from little to none at all and apparently I am not alone.

Various media outlets have been giving No Man’s Sky negative reviews and negative player reviews on Metacritic are near equal with positive ones. Many feel that it has failed to deliver on what was promised. Suspicions started to arise after two Twitch streamers realized they ended up on the same planet in the game but could not see or interact with each other. Multiplayer was implied from the beginning but this event proves that is not the case. The creators also said you could become a trader to complete the game, or you didn’t have to mine for minerals at all but this seems to be far from the truth. Players accused Hello Games (Creators of the game) of lying because they completely whiffed on incorporating gameplay mechanics (or at least stretched the truth) they said would be part of the game.

 Don’t get me wrong I enjoyed my first binge of hours in the game enough to warrant me playing for nearly a week straight. The gameplay is super addicting. Every time I found an outpost, trade platform or just cool animal running around I would have to stop and check it out. This made me forget about whatever goal I had set for myself in game whenever I discovered something new.

This is part of the intoxication of No Man’s Sky and other games similar to it like Minecraft and Terraria. They give you a feeling of excitement and curiosity as you find new discovery after new discovery. It helps you to form your own narrative as you play and feeds your desire for creativity. Eventually the initial feeling you get from exploration dies as you realize it turns into a big grind fest as you try to find the best stuff.

Another problem is lack of an actual narrative in No Man’s Sky. I would like to have some background as to why I am traveling to all of these planets, trying to get to the center of the galaxy or following the path of Atlas. Without giving away spoilers I have read what happens after you complete the path of Atlas or go to the center of the galaxy, and frankly it does not seem worth it.

In essence No Man’s Sky is essentially a sandbox game on a universal scale. It has all the mining that players of Minecraft will find familiar but without the fun of creating your own world from the materials you find. You can engage in space combat and on planets against hostile wildlife and sentries, but even this seems unimportant. Space combat is random and doesn’t offer any exciting rewards for winning engagements. Killing sentries is a chore more than anything else as they end up guarding a valuable material you may want and aggressive T-Rex looking things do not pose any real threat after you blast them with lasers a few times.

But the oddest part of the entire experience to me is that there are many players exploring the galaxy but with no way to interact with each other. We are all going about our planet exploration in this giant universe void of any player life but our own. It is kind of a depressing thought knowing I am traveling in this vast space with no one able to experience it with me. It is like I am lost in purgatory with spaceships.

While No Man’s Sky is fun and addicting, it is missing many components that I believe are essential to any game priced at $59 USD. They can add new features in future updates but based on how developers usually dish out new content you will probably have to reach into your wallet to dish out cash for some paid DLC. I think it is worth a play through especially if you enjoy games like Minecraft but you should definitely wait until the price drops. I may investigate the universe of No Man’s Sky in the future but not  until new features are added that improve on the fun experience they started, and make up for the false ones they claimed.