Many gamers and critics regard the adventure exploration survival video game “No Man’s Sky” as one of the biggest, if not the biggest video game disappointment of 2016.
They cannot be faulted for their opinion and assessment of the game especially considering the level of hype that game developer Hello Games put up in the media before the release of “No Man’s Sky” on the PlayStation 4 and the PC in August this year.
Just days after its release, “No Man’s Sky” actually unleashed a firestorm in the gaming community that was highlighted by anger, anxiety, and frustration rolled into one.
However, one female gaming critic who ignored the pre-release hype of Hello Games for “No Man’s Sky” in order to judge the game on its own merits, has come up with her own honest-to-goodness review of the video game.
She said that she found “No Man’s Sky” as a zen-like experience, which is a soft relaxing trip through the stars that she could zone out to for several hours.
She added that if the purpose of “No Man’s Sky” was to put gamers on a spiritual journey to make them feel the utter vastness and indifference of the universe, then she thinks it has succeeded, details US Gamer.
She explained that cruising through space is a real revelation, as is the moment when she pointed her nose up and roared out of the atmosphere, then looked down and almost felt herself floating.
Retreating from public view
In the wake of the fallout from the crash-landing of “No Man’s Sky,” Hello Games responded by retreating from public view and furiously working on a free update, which in turn spurred endless speculation about their silence.
This was not the same Hello Games who was hyping the game prior to its release in August, which really added insult to the already disappointed gamers.
If there’s any positive development for the “No Man’s Sky” fallout, there are a lot of lessons to be learned including the fact that truly ambitious games can’t be rushed out the door.
Hello Games has already found out that bigger isn’t always better, especially where procedural generation is concerned. And most of all, they have learned the hard lesson not to make promises that they can’t keep or there will be hell to pay.
It will also be that much difficult now for ambitious games to get funding as publishers focus harder than ever on a handful of established franchises. “No Man’s Sky” was one of the few new console IPs in a season awash in sequels and established video game franchises.
A magical game
Hello Games recently made an update on “No Man’s Sky” which according to another critic is actually a bauble and an amazement that borders on magical in its opening hours and then becomes almost hypnotically comfortable at a certain point, notes NPR.
Because of its hugeness, “No Man’s Sky” is a lonely game. Land on a planet and it is for the gamer alone. Land on 10, 20, a hundred, and the gamer will likely never see anything more than the traces left behind by other amateur spacemen who came before him.
The game critic also went on to say that “No Man’s Sky” is also the best game he had ever experienced for self-generating storytelling.
He added that while the game does not tell a great story, it contains multitudes of them nonetheless.
Meanwhile, some four months after “No Man’s Sky” was released on the PlayStation 4 and the PC, the disappointment still persists. But its complete letdown did something good during the 2016 Games Awards.