Video Review of No Man’s Sky

Hello everyone. My name is Daniel Anderson and I am the Real Life Gamer. I am not someone who can sit around all day for hours at a stretch playing Video Games. I have a wife and two kids, two full time jobs, and I am taking classes at school as well. As you can imagine, I do not get a lot of time to play games, despite what I would prefer. I mainly get to play games for about an hour, maybe two if I am lucky, at a time.

Therefore, my take on games is a little different than most reviewers. I need to know how well a game plays when you cannot devote hours to a marathon session. Especially, when you might have to go a week between game sessions. Out of all the reviews I have read, none consider this issue. While graphics, gameplay, and the story is important, things like save features are important as well. So, without further stalling, let’s get to this No Man’s Sky review.

No Man’s Sky Review

Title: No Man’s Sky
System: PS4 [Reviewed], PC
Genre: Survival, Action Adventure
Developer: Hello Games
Publisher: Hello Games
Players: 1
Release Date: August 9, 2016
Price: 59.99

Background on the Game

I have been eagerly awaiting the game’s release since it was first announced years ago. The idea of having a huge galaxy to fly around in and explore is pretty awesome. I had no idea, it would actually be the size of a galaxy of 18 trillion planets. As I’ve awaited this game’s release, I’ve tried not to get caught up in the hype. I find it interesting how a lot of people thought this was going to be a multiplayer game, where they can play with friends and form guilds. The developers constantly said that this was not the case, but people persisted in assuming it would be what they wanted. I can’t help but feel that this, among other assumptions, is what has caused such a wide range of reviews for the game.

Overall, I have been very happy with what was released. This is not to say that the game is perfect, but games do not have to be perfect to be fun. Upon starting the game you are given the option of following the story or doing a type of free mode where you just explore. The in-game tutorial is not very good. There are a lot of things that are left unexplained. These are important things such as: Atlas Passes, ways to change or upgrade ships, suits and multi-tools. The game eventually addresses some of these issues, but you are introduced to these things long before the game discusses it. Due to this, I found myself having to look up a few things online, before truly feeling comfortable with the game.

Ground Game

The game on the ground has a few features. First, you spend most of your time mining various minerals to repair or recharge your technology. While mining you eventually run into the most problematic aspect of the game, which is the lack of inventory space. I’m not kidding, You will run out of inventory room, which means you will have to make some tough choices on discarding mined items for more critical ones.

While mining items you also run the risk of angering the Sentinels. They are robotic beings that try to stop anyone or anything from taking too much of a planet’s resources. You can decide to hide from a Sentinel, or destroy it using your multi-tool as a weapon. These Sentinels are not hard to take down. However, defeating a Sentinel leads to tougher Sentinels arriving to take its place.

While on the ground, you can scan plants and animals, and then upload your scans to gain money. You can also rename the plant or animal to give them more of a personal feel. The main thing you will be doing on the ground, is constantly recharging your mining laser and your suit’s life support by using minerals. Thankfully, it does not take many minerals to actually recharge said life support. Not to mention, you will probably get very annoyed by the game telling you that your life support is draining.

Space Game

Once you are tired of being on the ground you get into your ship and take off into space. The space game is similar to the ground game in that you can mine asteroids to gain various minerals, but you can also travel to different planets. There’s also space station exploration. The game also allows you jump into hyperspace to go to another system. While in space, you can be attacked by pirates.

This brings up another issue I have with the game. When fighting pirates you have to constantly recharge your shields. The problem is, the battle keeps going on as you recharge. So, you have to deal with a constant barrage of pirates shooting at you, while also trying to recharge those shields. Being hit while recharging, can lead to damage to items on your ship. Honestly, there really isn’t as much to do in space, as what you can do on a planet. Although, I generally found myself liking space more, but that is probably because I am a big sci-fi fan.

Pros:

Fun game which gives you a lot to do

True galaxy sandbox feel.

True Flexibility

Cons:

Lack of inventory space initially

Poor tutorials

Questionable way to recharge shields during combat

OVERALL RATING: 8 Out of 10 While there are some issues with the game, none of them are game breaking. I think most of them can be traced back to assumptions from players even when the developers said they were wrong. If you can put aside those assumptions, there’s a really good game here to explore. That being said, this game is not for everyone. If you enjoy the flexibility and freedom of Minecraft, this may be up your alley. If games like Minecraft aren’t your thing, I’d suggest that you don’t buy this game.