Let's talk No Man's Sky.

For this next post, I want to talk about No Man’s Sky.

What is it, you ask? It’s a game in which you explore the galaxy, if not the universe. This universe is comprised of eighteen quintillion planets. And I’m assuming that’s not counting the moons around each individual body’s orbit, which can also be explored. I was following No Man’s Sky for a while, only really picking up heavy interest around two weeks ago. Every planet is randomly generated via the game’s system, and with the engine that No Man’s Sky uses, the estimate is again eighteen quintillion planets. Even if everyone played the game in the entire world, there still would be a massive chunk of the universe unexplored. Wow. And it’s not just the planets, but what’s on them. The fauna, the wildlife, the aliens and fish even. The terrain, the oxygen/hydrogen levels, the weather and the color of the sky and grass. There aren’t any gas giants present, but that’s a very minor annoyance.

Now, not every planet will be lush or vibrant. Most will be barren. Makes sense considering Earth is the only known planet with intelligent life (If you can call it that).  I look forward to mining those barren planets, though with the sentinels, the game’s equivalent of cops and police force lying about, you can’t do it too much, and you can’t really go around killing the wildlife you do encounter, even if they attack you. But I’m not exactly looking to kill everything in my path, though you are able to do that, with the equal consequences of your actions becoming present. Now, I’m a massive space buff, and a nature buff to boot, and this looks like a game that mixes nature, biology, space, and technology all in one. And it has a set release date, nearing late June of this year. Unlike another game people are comparing this to, No Man’s Sky looks to be unaltered and meddled with due to greedy publishers and touchy team members (Hint: The game I’m talking about is Spore. Now that’s a sob story).

But moving on, the footage shown recently allows you to trade with other explorers, mainly resources, minerals and so on. And trading will be a big way to obtain resources needed to upgrade your ship and suit. On top of that, you can also scan the surrounding area around you and classify wildlife, fauna and discover places of interest, ranging from an old station, a landmark or even a monolith with alien language inscribed. These monoliths allow you to learn a word or two, and use them in a phrase should you encounter life that speaks said language. Your choices depend on if you get in their good shoes or if they attack you. Each alien will be randomly generated with a basic body, limbs, features and color. As you get closer to the center of the universe, your main objective of the game, the life you encounter will be more complex and hostile. One piece of footage showed a giant ape-like beast in a snowy terrain, some stegosaurus in the 2014 footage, and in a desert terrain, a giant snake-like creature. It moved pretty fast.  One piece of footage showed a blue raccoon creature coming to you as if it were a tagalong while you were attacked. Perhaps you can play the role of a rescuer along with being a trader, pirate or researcher. 

Possible sentient life?

 Sean Murray IS being secretive about this game, and for good reason: Spoiling any of the major details would spell disaster for any game and people are still confused about what you’ll do in this game when it’s already been shown and said: You mine for resources with your gun, upgrade your ship and gun, find planets, explore them, upload your discoveries to an atlas and earn money, upgrade your suit for more treacherous planets, and basically do whatever you feel the need to do. Space is the last frontier we have yet to explore, and we won’t be doing so in this lifetime, but in this game we’ll be able to, and exploring whatever areas you’re allowed to or able to is enough to sell the game to me. And people are so hellbent on multiplayer, for what reason? Singleplayer games are fine, and it’s obvious Sean intended for No Man’s Sky to focus predominately on singleplayer, though he said you may meet up with another player as you play the game. I really don’t like how people are using that to attack the game or outright bash it. The last thing I want is to explore a nice, calm planet and run into another player who either kills me or acts like an ass for the sake of it, and I can’t even get away from them because they destroy my ship or kill a dinosaur, bringing attention to the sentinels. My experience with Splatoon is enough to determine wastes of life like that, and it’s not reaching to think all of the life you encounter in No Man’s Sky is more intelligent than the players you encounter in Call of Duty and other AAA shovelware.

The monoliths used to learn the language of the aliens you'll encounter.

What exactly lies in the center of the universe? You can see it as you explore the galactic map. It’ll take you a good while to get to the center of the universe, and you need the right ship to make it there. I’m wondering if it’s some type of message or maybe a serene, graceful world. Like a ‘heaven’ of some sorts. It’ll take a while to get there, nonetheless, and I intend on taking my sweet time playing the game. 

The game comes out in late June, and we’re only a few months away from seeing if it’s worth all of the anticipation and hype it’s gotten. I think it’ll be something to look forward to. It won’t be groundbreaking, or revolutionary, but it may scratch an itch I’ve been trying to get at for a while. And then again, it may be. We’ll have to wait and see.

A portal that takes you to another planet.

And the wait will be worth it.