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| gog.com |
Hello, dear reader, as you can probably tell this week’s installment of The Glovebox is not on a TV show, but another lifelong passion of mine: video games. Because of my schedule I don’t get to play them as much as I want to or play them as soon as they come out, but this past week I was lucky enough to get my hands on the new big release for the PS4, the sci-fi adventure game No Man’s Sky. Now this is not a review, but more like my general impressions of it so far, so let’s dive right in!
I’m just gonna cut right to the chase with you guys: this game is not what you think it is. It’s not what Sony has sold you, either. No Man’s Sky is a sci-fi survival game where you explore the galaxy (either guided by the thin plotline of ‘The Atlas’ or of your own volition) to find the materials needed to upgrade your suit and ship in order to travel to the center of the universe. You can engage in combat with the robotic Sentinels that wander each planet or space pirates that will come out of nowhere, but this is optional. Exploration can reward you with tech upgrades or rare artifacts, but the same buildings, monoliths (ancient alien monuments), colonial stations, and the like are found on each planet with little variation between the structures themselves. Plus, you are travelling alone and may never come across another player. And I love it.
We’re going to start with the negatives just to get them out of the way. If you think that the description of the game I provided for you above doesn’t sound like something you’d like, then you might not want to get this game. You literally start out on a planet with no guidance, only some vague instructions. You have to learn how to use your multi-tool (think like a gun but with a mining laser attachment), manage your inventories, use your scanner and upload your discoveries, collect elements from rocks and plants, and just how to plain move around on your own. There is no hand-holding in this game, and while I think some games try to give players so much information that they treat us like children, No Man’s Sky gives us nothing to start out with and expects us to keep up.
Another negative thing that I feel should be brought up is that the first several hours of the game are very, very slow. Your character doesn’t move fast at all (the upgrade for that does come relatively quickly, though), and the lack of a plot or purpose can lead the player to feel like they’re wandering around aimlessly. I have to be honest with you guys, I almost gave up on this game after a few hours because it didn’t have that hook to keep me invested. Actually, it was because I was going to write this post that I even kept playing, but before we get into the positives I want to say a bit more on the negative side.
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| no-mans-sky.com
Yeah, you know the planet they've been touting? You're probably never going to see it. SORRY.
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The experience of this game is mostly subjective, but one thing is objectively bad: space combat. I can survive the occasional texture pop-in for the planets, and the lack of instruction (check out IGN’s wiki for this game before you play it, it’s a lifesaver!), but the space combat is atrocious. Depending on the type of ship you wind up with, there is very little maneuverability and you usually wind up with the ships at your back, forcing you to turn around and try to get the enemy in your sights. Would it really have killed Hello Games (the creators) to put in a barrel roll move or something? As it is I flee from space combat like it’s the plague, heading towards the nearest planetoid for refuge, and I would recommend that you all do the same.
No Man’s Sky is one of the most ambitious video games ever made, folks, and I personally think that it is also the most subjective gaming experience out there. The developers (of which there were only fourteen) prided themselves on creating a procedurally generated universe, which ensures that every player will explore planets of vastly different environments with different types of animals and plants that they may be the only people to ever see. This is an incredibly important thing that must be brought up when discussing this game, guys. The game that I am playing right now is something literally worlds apart from the game my friend with a copy of the game might be playing. While the basic activities might be the same, the experience will vary drastically, giving you the feeling that you really are charting your own unique story. This is a very ballsy move on Hello Games’ part, and I hope this game is successful enough that they and other developers have the courage to continue making interesting games like this.
Speaking of unique, the planets in this game are freaking gorgeous and absurdly massive. My current favorite is a snow-covered planet that looks like Shangri-La from Uncharted 2 minus all the golden city stuff, but I’ve only explored a small part of it. While flying over a planet to reach a destination, I stopped and did a little exploring, finding maybe ten landmarks within a twenty mile radius (yeah, I spend a lot of time exploring!) of where my ship landed. When I lifted off again and kept flying, I passed by at least twenty other structures, and keep in mind that I was only covering one half of the freaking planet! That’s a lot of stuff, guys, and you could literally spend a day just exploring the breadth of one world.
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| newyorker.com
I've been to a dozen worlds so far, none of them look like these. That's really impressive, guys.
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Diversity is also the name of the game here, and I’m not just talking about the alien races you encounter (four in all), but in the planets. The planet my character woke up on was a grassy, Garden of Eden type, and the next was a post-apocalyptic nightmare filled with deadly radiation and no discernible animal life. Only the type of structures remain the same, but the rest of what you might expect from a planet is completely up in the air. I am currently on a planet filled with mountains and valleys, to the point where it seems to be nothing but a giant canyon. As I sit and type this, my mind can’t help but wonder what the next planet will look like and what mysteries it will contain.
The game is great at generating some awe-inspiring big moments, such as the first time you use the hyperdrive to cross galaxies or when you first land in a space station, but it is also great at the little subtle moments that mark your journey. After wandering around a planet and finding nothing, I stepped on top of a hill and found a large selection of buildings and monoliths to explore, immediately reigniting my interest. You can scan animals and upload them to the database for money, but I was stunned to discover a strange little creature hopping around that looked like sentient Jell-O. Most recently, the moment I discovered from my monolith research that the alien race I had been cozying up to is the equivalent of the Empire from Star Wars was also a big eye-opener, and has changed the entire way I approach that race in this game, just based on a little thing that I might have otherwise skipped.
I can’t give you my thoughts on this game without admitting that I am a huge fan of science fiction of any type. This game is not the action game that we were promised, but good Lord am I hooked into it. The idea of seeing all these different worlds and basically claiming them for my own is a huge attraction for someone like me, regardless of whether or not I’m doing the same thing over and over again. I have my bearings now, and now that I can comfortably walk around without worrying about my life support or hazard protection too much I go farther and poke around more, which really brings the game to life. Those that are really into games like Minecraft will really dig this, and those that like more indie styled games will as well. Beyond that, well, it’s anyone’s guess. You’re not going to know until you play it and really give it a chance to open up, which is a huge investment of time.
Sure, it’s more Star Trek than Star Wars and has some noticeable issues, but I’m really digging this game. The variety of worlds, the little story touches that keep me interested and the promise of going where no man has gone before supersedes all problems for me. If you bought into Sony’s hype train and feel disappointed reading this post, then don’t buy it just yet. Hello Games will continue releasing updates, and just like Destiny I doubt this game will look anywhere near the same a year from now as it did when it dropped last week. Regardless of how you feel about it, Hello Games has created a truly unique experience with No Man’s Sky, and has given us a game that we’ve never seen before and may never see again. That alone is enough reason for me to recommend it! Now if you'll excuse me, I have some Heridium to mine. I've gotta get that suit upgrade!
No Man's Sky is available now for the PlayStation 4.
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