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Arguably the most awaited game of summer ’16, No Man's Sky finally landed on our PCs and consoles this week. With its immense, unique worlds it brings to the table a new perspective to open-world games, game design… and to life itself.

The game's most likely feature to catch one’s attention is its immensity. This game is not merely open world but open universe. Boasting over 18 quintillion (1.8×10^19) life-sized planets teeming with their own fauna and flora, you can explore each and every one to your liking. Your only limiting factor is the range of the hyperspace jump engines of your current spacecraft and how much fuel the craft presently carries. No Man's Sky is so immense that Hello Games estimated that more than 99.9% of the planets would never be explored by players, The developers managed this feat by procedurally generating almost all elements of the game, allowing mathematical formula to create an exponential set of unique features rather than having the rather small developer team designing them individually. Following in the tracks of Minecraft, the game offers a paradigm shift regarding the possibilities in open-world games.

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However it wasn’t all roses for them. From the game’s secretive development debut, initial tension among the Hello Games team, losing most of their equipments in a flood, delaying the release date, death threats and day-one updates, they've had a lot to deal with. One might also wonder about the point in making a game so immense if all you'll experience is less than 1% of the whole game. But hey, it’s an indie game that offers an AAA experience. We have to appreciate that at the very least!

Moreover, their fundamentally different approach to game design challenges the conventional ways. “The physics of every other game—it’s faked,” the chief architect Sean Murray explained to The Atlantic. Their game on the other hand offers something else. Every star that you see in the sky is an actual place that you can go to and explore. And your exploration is even credited for being the first to discover a planet and other types of information. Within 24 hours of the game's official launch, Hello Games reported that more than 10 million distinct species were registered by players, exceeding the estimated 8.7 million species believed to exist on Earth. “It’s our universe, so we get to be Gods in a sense,” said Murray in the same article.

Speaking about Gods, over on YouTube Mike Rugnetta asks a simple yet pressing question: "If we are able to simulate universes of massive, life-like complexity within our universe, should we wonder or worry if our own is simulated?” No Man’s Sky might not emulate life as we know it but how far are we from creating such an emulation ourselves, how far are we from being our own Gods? Even prominent figures are leaning towards a simulated “reality”. Elon Musk recently fuelled this thought by stating that “the odds that we're in base reality is one in billions”. When confronted to the question, Sean Murray's answered that "even if it is a simulation, it’s a good simulation, so we shouldn’t question it.”

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So what do you all make of it? Should future open-world games be procedurally generated to allow for more randomness and exploration in games? How big is too big? And lastly, what does that signify about our own existence? Are we in a simulation or will we create one? Nevertheless, cogito ergo sum... right?

GBAtemp No Man's Sky Review

 

[Pedeadstrian]

when some drones showed up and caused some bad craziness for me. I kept shooting them down but more of the fuckers kept showing up, until I ran out of charge for my pissant mining pistol, and holed up in my ship. Was just under the amount of iron needed to repair the launch system.... while those sentinels were blasting away at the ship. WTF. Not even half an hour into it and I'm screwed already.

I can already tell this is gonna be "fun."

You shoot at what is basically the police in the game, get surprised when more come, then get trapped and blame the game for it? That's not really a "WTF" moment.

 

[GuyInDogSuit]

You shoot at what is basically the police in the game, get surprised when more come, then get trapped and blame the game for it? That's not really a "WTF" moment.

Not surprised more showed up, as the game DOES tell you they will come, but I was surprised that I was so quickly overwhelmed AT THE BEGINNING OF THE GAME.

 

[puss2puss]

Its actually a pretty cool game! Sure its not a call of duty or fallout or zelda.. but it does give a great feeling when roaming space or hovering a planet with the ship. It even gives a small 'metroid game' feeling with the musics and planets

We cant deny it, its awesome to be able to be on a planet, jump into the ship and fly to space without any loading and with full control.
At first i tought it was kinda dull..but the more i played, the more i loved it and dicovered features. Last sunday i played 13hours straight, discovering stuff and renaming everything i find (even an empty planet got the honor to get a name, LifelessBead..) , i really enjoy navigating through space.

Of course, it would be wayyy better with more goals and missions (although there are some kind of missions already..)..
...but what the game has right now is definitly not the only things it will have in a near future! More features to come later...

Plus, mods are coming along in an good pace! Like the mod to instant click, and the mod to remove the auto pilot when near the ground.. pretty cool to be able to fly near mountains lol

i say give this game a try or atleast keep in touch with the news of the game, but dont take too seriously the negatives comments, tons of people who cmments shit didnt even play the game yet they just follow the others lol..

 

[T-hug]

 

[puss2puss]

^ yah unfortunatly Sean talked as if it would be all there from the start..but i think, he wanted to make sure there would be enough people buying the game to actually be able to then 'boost' his team, to then put those features in the game..lets hope it wont take too long for a huuuuge update or else peopke will loose interrest and think it was all lies..

 

[GuyInDogSuit]

Couldn't be closer to the truth....

 

[XavyrrVaati]

Okay the thread title needs to be changed to "The Skybox is the Limit," because I can't fly into the sun. It's not even there lmao. I really hope they make this game everything it was supposed to be.

 

[GuyInDogSuit]

Okay the thread title needs to be changed to "The Skybox is the Limit," because I can't fly into the sun. It's not even there lmao. I really hope they make this game everything it was supposed to be.

They made so many promises, but it all fell short. They haven't even made semi-good on ANY of those promises and PROMISED any patches or updates to give us what they originally promised. It's really sad what the gaming industry has come to....

"Let's give them an unfinished game, then charge them even more for the stuff that SHOULD have been in it to begin with...."

 

[p1ngpong]

Watching the games popularity flatline after three weeks is remarkable http://steamcharts.com/app/275850#1m

It even has its own steam refund disclaimer on the shop page which I found amusing.

My initial reaction when I saw the games file size was correct, it delivers on none of its promises and does nothing well. This has got to be the biggest deception and money grab in gaming history... but oh wait.

The size of nes roms, procedural generation, algorithms, updates and muh exploration.

lol

 

[Zeriel]

This is why you never trust developers, game trailers or even scoring sites like Metacritic, Gamespot or Rotten tomatoes (for movies)
NEVER pre-order and NEVER buy until you see actual let's play from a few real players, also a review from a Youtuber that you trust
like Angry Joe for example.

Game Devs are more scummy each year and you can't trust them anymore, making a quality game doesn't sell as much as making a hype campaign.

 

[DeoNaught]

people think thst its like minecraft Slash and kill and make a house. this Game is an exploration game, what was it sapposed to be? I'm being honest here could you guys tell me what it was sapposed to be?