“No Man’s Sky” is a name that has been in the headlines of all major gaming sites for a while now, and it looks like the hype around the game isn’t going to die down anytime soon. After some initial controversy, the negative emotions are dying down and players are starting to explore the game for what it actually has to offer. And whether or not it’s worth its asking price of $60 is a question that has split the gaming community into two major camps.
A large part of the popularity of the game can be attributed to hype, and there was definitely a lot of that leading up to its release. The developers were quite cryptic in their statements about the game, but claims that we are going to explore an infinite universe full of randomly generated planets, creatures and entire galaxies immediately got the attention of countless gamers.
Now that we’ve seen the game itself, responses to the way its procedural generation works have been a bit mixed. Some players are having a lot of fun with the title, others claim to have gotten bored just a few hours in. Some of the common criticisms about the randomness of the game include that it becomes too predictable after a while, as everything follows certain rules that start to become obvious.
This, according to players, is valid for anything from world generation to the creatures one encounters, making the game monotonous and repetitive after a while. On the other hand, resource collection is also in a strange place as there isn’t a lot of information about the various resources players encounter, leaving many confused.
The biggest issue for many, however, was without doubt the multiplayer. “No Man’s Sky” was claimed – or at least strongly implied – to be an inter-connected experience, with the developers stating that it may take a player months before they encounter anyone else. In reality, players have attempted to meet up in various places in the game’s world, but that doesn’t seem possible “out of the box” at the moment. It all relies on the lobby system, meaning that a player may isolate themselves completely.
Still, all things considered, the game definitely does seem to have a lot of value for those who can appreciate it, and it’s been enjoying lots of positive comments from its more dedicated players. Gamers keep sharing their interesting/unusual discoveries from different planets, and we’ve already seen some quite interesting creatures posted on forums. It seems like the random generator can actually work in more peculiar ways than players first thought, but it takes some time to see those examples.
There are also reports that moving towards the center of the universe will result in more/better variety of creatures and planets encountered, but so far players can’t confirm how much of that is true. The game is still in a very early phase though, so that’s entirely understandable.
One of the features that have been received very positively is the ability to name planets discovered by the player. Those names are then shared with all other players, effectively allowing everyone to claim their discoveries. Players who plan on getting the game later shouldn’t worry though, as the sheer number of planets available in the game’s universe means that it’s practically impossible they will all get taken soon, even by people running bots and other cheating tools.