No Man's Sky (PC)- An Endless Space Adventure

Overview

No Man's Sky is a procedural science fiction exploration and survival game released August, 12, 2016 on Steam. The game was developed and published Hello Games.

Graphics

It is unknown what engine No Man's Sky was developed with as there is no official statement, nor information from Hello Games themselves. The engine was made from scratch and developed by Hello Games themselves. Being on PC this game offers a good amount of graphical options, ranging from Textures, Lighting, Shadows, Planet Quality etc. No Man's Sky can run fine on today's lower end PCs since the minimum requirement an Intel Core i3, Nvidia GTX 1060 3GB/AMD RX 470 4GB/ Intel UHD 630 graphics, and 8GB RAM.

No Man's Sky is visually stunning. Featuring many beautiful planets with different ecosystems such as lush tropical weather to airless planets void of any life. Flora, and fauna that can ranged from passive fauna to dangerous predators of any size. As well as structures and alien life (NPCs) that can help you during your journey. Since each planet is procedurally generated, they're all unique. You also have a photo mode which allows you to take amazing screenshots of the planets you're exploring and bases you've created.

Sound

No Man's Sky doesn't have songs. The game relies on musical scores to immerse you in the game. You have a nice calm musical score playing while exploring planets and solar systems. In a fight with sentinels or pirates? Then the music ramps up to a more energetic tone to really put you in the fight.
The Composer, 65daysofstatic, did a really an amazing job.

None of the NPCs in the game have any voice lines, but each sentient species has unique vocals when you talk to them.

Addictiveness

No Man's Sky universe is endless. Based on how you play the game, you can spends hundreds to even thousands of hours playing the game. Their is no true end in sight, but given the amount of content the game offers you almost never really lose interest in the game. I seen myself putting hours into this game in a single day. I mostly worked on getting upgrading my equipment and obtaining good starships through doing missions, mining a lot of resources, and locating rare treasure to sell for large sum of money. Now I spend a lot of my time exploring while making my way to the center of the galaxy. That's not all the game offers you.

The exploration in the game is vast, billions of planets, and solar systems to discover. You could choose how to play the game. Explore and research planets, flight off sentinels and pirates, become just like a space pirate etc. You even have 6 game modes that change how you play the game, and the option to create you're custom mode tailored to how you want to experience the game. Though even for how much this game offers, its still not a game for everyone. Maybe it can seem a bit bland to others. Other than that if you enjoy space explorations games, you will love No Man's Sky.


Story

If you have never played No Man's Sky before you will be surprised it does have a story. Given to how vast this game is a lot of people, especially me, then to almost forget the story exist, and you can just own path. The main story line is called Atlas Path. The story consist of a few primary missions and several secondary missions, which I'm not gonna go into for the sake of spoiling it.

The story line has been reworked and overhauled twice since No Man's Sky's release with the two updates being named Atlas Rises in 2017 and NEXT in 2018. Since the updates the story has improved quite a bit since release. I personally liked the story. If your looking for a story rich game, No Man's Sky sadly doesn't cut it.

Depth

No Man's Sky is almost unrecognizable compare to the state of the game back at its release in 2016. The developers promised a lot at release and failed to deliver, but to everyone's surprised they didn't quit on the game. The game was pretty hallow back then. Now No Man's Sky is thriving with content. Content that was promised before release got added, especially Multiplayer which a lot of people wanted since its release. I'm not gonna list all the content and updates but give you a brief summary of what this game offers. The NEXT update was one of their biggest updates to the game, released back in 2018. Its expanded on multiplayer features and player interaction such as a third person view, tons of new missions, player bases, freighters, and re-balances to crafting and resources. Others updates like BEYOND, improved expanded multiplayer, VR support, and a revised tutorials. Afterwards several more updates which updated the planets to be more lush and rich with more fauna, expeditions, and graphical improvements etc.

Like I said before, No Man's Sky having a procedurally generated universe allows for an endless exploration. You don't have to follow any story but whatever you desire to do in the game. My objective in the game is to travel to the center of the galaxy, while exploring each solar systems planet on the way.

Difficulty

No Man's Sky's difficulty can vary based on game mode, though the game can be hard then easy based on how far into the game you are. I have found combat to be challenging early game since you're barely going by with subpar starship and equipment. I will often avoid combat until I can put up a good fight. Luck can play a huge factor as well. If you find a planet with rare artifacts you can gain easy money pretty quickly and buy powerful starships and multi tools.

About the game mode, there are 7 game modes.

Normal Mode, is just a standard game difficulty since the games release. A nice all around balance of gameplay.

Relaxed Mode, is a more laid-back experience. Its less difficult than normal mode. Less of a grind to obtain resources and more forgiving combat. Its perfect if you want delve into the story line more.

Survival Mode, is a more challenging survival experience. You have limited resources, stronger enemies, and more frequent hazards. The game spawns you far from your first starship and getting to it will require careful resource management. This game mode is perfect for someone looking for a challenge. I might look into trying this game mode myself.

Permadeath Mode, which has the same difficulty as survival, but all your progress is wiped upon death. You will have to be extra careful for how you play the game. Take no risk or you will lose everything.

Creative Mode, is a relaxed mode that allows players to explore and create freely. All blueprints and construction parts are unlocked. free crafting and building, and recharging technology doesn't require any resource. You cannot die in this gamemode but all achievements will not unlock.

Expedition mode, is a multiplayer mode that has players embark on a series of limited time events. You have to earn milestones to progress through. Doing expeditions allows to obtain exclusive rewards. The difficulty of the expeditions are the same as Normal Mode and during the latest, Survival Mode.

Custom Mode, allows you to freely customize the game and its difficulty prior to staring a new save. Good for players wanting to create a unique experience for themselves.

Overall

No Man's Sky gets a nice 8/10 from me. Its story might be hit or miss for some people, but the game offers a lot of content that makes up for that and a fun game to play with friends. The developers have completely turned this game around since its rather lackluster release. Something not seen too often in the gaming industry. No Man's Sky has reached well over 100 updates, and quite a few of them being major. I played No Man's Sky close to its release and enjoy it a bit until I stopped playing for about year. I returned to playing the game, now on PC, and was surprised to see this game still getting updates. Ever since then I have put many hours into the game and im glad to be playing such a great game by Hello Games.