First Impressions: No Mans Sky

 I was recently wandering around the high street with my fiancee when we meandered into a local money traders store. For those not in the know Money Traders is a second hand electronic goods store in the UK that sells and buys everything from microwaves to video games, the latter of course interests me so I found myself leafing casually through the stacks of games in a stuffy little corner of the shop. I found myself perusing the PlayStation 4 section and came across 3 copies of No Mans Sky on the shelf, usually that's not an odd thing I mean, these shops tend to come into multiple copies of the same game but what really caught my eye this time was the price. I was and am aware of the turbulent launch of No Mans Sky, a much hyped product with a spectacular fall from grace when it finally hit stores in 2016. I don't think I'd ever seen such a ferocious backlash nor so many undelivered promises at launch so needless to say I avoided that game like the plague.

  No Mans Sky is such a marmite game even now as Hello Games appear to have affected a monumental turnaround in the intervening time, churning out free updates at a rapid pace adding the once promised features to the game leaving many players finally satisfied with their space exploration experience, though with equal number voicing their displeasure, claiming that these features should still have been available from the start. I of course had watched from a distance, feeling sympathy for the players that had bought in to the lies but at the same time careless, as I was quite disconnected from it all.

  So here I stand, in Money Traders, looking at 3 separate copies of the same game with an ever furrowing brow of confusion. You see, 2 of the copies were priced at a hefty £28 (I could only assume an inflated price due to the games 'second coming') but the 3rd copy astonished me as I flipped it over and read the price tag. £7. Just £7...

"Huh" I said to nobody in particular.

  I'd heard the good things about the game in the past few months so I though hell, why not? I quickly went to the till and purchased the game before any of the staff could notice the price tag discrepancy and thought nothing more of it as I went about my day. Indeed it wasn't until after Christmas that I finally ended up powering on my console and starting the game up.

  As the music kicked in my excitement levels rose, the ambient and dynamic soundtrack of the game is certainly impressive, kicking in at just the right time to make otherwise dull times traversing the environment a wondrous and beautiful experience. My game juddered violently as I loaded into the universe, the frames lagged and stuttered and then suddenly there I was. My character awoke in a snowy clearing surrounded by huge thick trees. The wind blew through the leaves and battered my ears. I noticed a beeping and a robotic voice telling me that my thermal protection was failing. I begin to panic as the sides of my visor freeze up. Am I going to die straight away? I desperately follow the instructions in a small text box on the bottom right of the screen and fix my scanner and with the scanner I find the resources I need to recharge my thermal protection. "Phew". Panic over. My introduction to No Mans Sky is relatively quick and easy, I sort my life support systems out, I find my ship and am shown how to repair it and within about an hour of starting out I'm in space more or less free to explore.

  The game is certainly pretty although the occasional frame rate issues do sap a bit of the immersion away and the tutorial system seems to be robust enough to assist a new player. I'm not sure how things have changed from launch but a strong opening was just what this game needed, I'm off and to the next planet as soon as possible. I'm learning how to find and gather resources, how to craft, how to build things. There's a really cool photo mode that lets you freeze time and free-cam around the get some nice selfies and the ability to go from first to third person mode on the fly is a nice addition.

 I played for about 3 hours and haven't had the chance to try anything multiplayer related yet but between the robotic sentinels, passive and hostile flora and fauna and the occasional ship flying overhead as you explore a planet it never quite feels as empty as it could. My only real gripe came towards the end of my play time where the endless hunt for resources became something of a chore but in a few hour burst I had a blast and will probably do so again next time I play.

  In this experience I can see a really good, promising and robust survival exploration game with plenty to do but I can't help but feel kind of sad when I play it. I was lucky enough to get hands on with No Mans Sky over 2 years after release, when it was in a far better state than it launched in and playing with all the new features and goodies made me feel awful for the players who paid full price for what was an extremely bare bones product at launch. Yes it is good that Hello Games admitted their errors and made the effort to turn it around but why was there ever a mistake to correct in the first place? No Mans Sky is a fun experience but also a dour monument to what could have been, what should have been. You can almost hear the angry and disappointed cries of let down players but in space, no-one can hear you scream.

By Dan A. Fox