RiZ3R! Posted October 8, 2019 Posted October 8, 2019 INFORMATION No Man's Sky is an action-adventure survival game developed and published by the indie studio Hello Games. It was released worldwide for the PlayStation 4 and Microsoft Windows in August 2016, and for Xbox One in July 2018. The game is built around four pillars: exploration, survival, combat, and trading. Players are free to perform within the entirety of a procedurally generated deterministic open world universe, which includes over 18 quintillion planets. Through the game's procedural generation system, planets have their own ecosystems with unique forms of flora and fauna, and various sentient alien species may engage the player in combat or trade within planetary systems. Players advance in the game by mining for resources to power and improve their equipment, buying and selling resources using credits earned by documenting flora and fauna, and otherwise seeking out the mystery around the Atlas, an entity at the center of the galaxy. GAMEPLAY After 45 hours in No Man’s Sky, I’ve warped through hundreds of solar systems, landed on almost 200 planets, and I’ve cataloged over 500 different alien species. Yet oddly for an open-world gameperhaps the biggest open-world game ever madeI don’t have many stories to tell. My experience has been at times enjoyable and relaxing, at other times awkward and frustrating, but unfortunately it’s not something our favorite Vulcan space traveler would call “fascinating.” I’ve touched an infinite universe and walked away with some nice vacation photos. No Man’s Sky, the first-person space exploration and survival game developed by Hello Games, presents us a universe filled with some 18 quintillion procedurally generated planets. You begin standing on a single one, gazing at the hull of your broken starship. Within minutes, the core of the game is revealed: slowly wander the planet on foot (and awkwardly fly using a jetpack) looking for resources: plutonium for powering your ship, iron and carbon for crafting technology, and more exotic minerals for building better tech or selling on the galactic market. You’re armed with a multi-tool that can be used as both a mining laser and a blaster to fend off each planet’s robotic guardians, who attack if you harvest endangered resources or get too ambitious with your mining. Having repaired your ship and added a warp drive, you’re then free to explore the galaxy, either by visiting random stars, following a path toward the galactic core, or investigating a mysterious ancient alien race. The solar systems of No Man’s Sky aren’t really systems, but rather a handful of planets and moons bunched shoulder to shoulder, which provides some lovely views and vistas straight off the cover of pulp sci-fi novels. I’ve seen some very pretty planets on my travels: fields of pink grass, vast purple oceans, amber skies, alien trees with slowly writhing branches, and plenty of cool rock formations. Playing space photographer is fun: I enjoy positioning my ship on the top of a hill against a crimson sunset, or taking screenshots of alien plant life and stone spires with nearby planets and moons hanging in the background. Not every planet is a postcard, naturally, but many inspire a few pleasant moments of appreciation before getting down the the business of murdering rocks for fuel. But even the most heavenly bodies ultimately feel very uniform. There are caves but no massive gorges, trees but no dense forests, hills and cliffs but no looming mountain ranges. There are hazards: extreme heat and cold, acid rain, and radiation, but they exist only as a slowly depleting protection meter and verbal warnings from your exosuit’s speaker system. I’ve been in storms yet have never seen a lightning bolt or a volcanic eruption, and I’ve never experienced an asteroid strike or planetquake. Some planets may be dangerous, but they certainly never feel deadly or truly alien. GAMEPLAY TRAILER
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