Returning to No Man’s Sky after 3 years

I usually play huge sandbox games but after playing Red Dead Redemption 2 followed immediately by Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, I was a bit burnt out. Years ago, when it first came out, I bought No Man’s Sky. I played it for a bit and it was fun but after a while, I started to wonder what the actual point of it was. I felt like I was missing the point of the game and suspected I was missing something. I then read loads of people complaining about it and saying the exact same thing. It was a great idea for a game but was rushed and seemed half-finished. I vowed, yet again, to not buy another game on the day of release.

No Man’s Sky was published by a game developer called Hello Games. They got an absolute ton of shit, the head guy Sean Murray in particular, from the gaming community – normally a friendly and easy going bunch (HUGE levels of sarcasm there). Essentially, the developers had rushed the game out. Normally when this happens there will be further DLC that you have to pay for. But even with the whole internet shouting at them, Hello Games did something mental – they loved their game, saw its potential, and kept working on it. They then released a load of updates that allowed you to do increasing amounts of cool stuff. Build your own base, get in a submarine and explore the seas and so on. A few friends and online acquaintances recommended I give it another go. You can see how much work they had put into it with their release log.

I kept meaning to and, three years after I last played I downloaded it again. It was different. It was fun. There was lots to do. It also turned out that I had picked a particularly fortunate time to get back into it because there was recently yet another update. There is more multiplayer and, as a literal game changer, you can now play in VR. No Man’s Sky is primarily an adventure game and in VR it is incredible. I have also found some mad as shit planets including one that was all balls. Some of which would roll away as I approached, while others where huge and floating.

I think the VR element will be getting some tweaks because it seemed a tiny bit blurry and I felt a bit weird. I don’t normally get that. I have full faith that it will be improved because they have been improving it now for 3 years and counting. The dedication of the small developer to their game has been astonishing and a talking point among gamers who are used to paid DLC, loot boxes, micro-transactions and a whole of other shite.

This is not a review, it is just me saying how much I am enjoying No Man’s Sky after having had a three year break from playing it. It is a lot more fun and I look forward to trying out some of the multi-player elements as well as possibly a bit more VR. This is for all those players who, like me, had given up the game after getting bored post-release. I recommend giving it another go. I’m glad I did.

Here is a trailer for the last major update, ‘Beyond’.