No Man's Sky

For my love of No Man's Sky I would, in no uncertain terms, be criticized, humiliated, and ultimately ostracized by that nebulous and nefarious entity of 'Gamer Culture', were I to encroach upon its dark boundary. This is because I do not merely enjoy this game, but have enjoyed it since its release—and as a vicious stab to my reviewer objectivity, possibly even before.

This is a game whose base premise found its way to that effervescent glade of pure nerdery in my heart: explore an endless universe while cataloging your experience. The Star Trek fan within me tittered with joy; the writer in me came short of breath. And it is in that sole practice of the game—a feature that has always been there—that I found my enjoyment. Jumping into a ship, sailing into the stars, and finding new worlds that were mine alone... Such was brain candy for my type. No, brain vitamins; it stoked my imagination in the way a book would, or even a tantalizing 1950's sci-book cover. Though the game itself did not present me with stories, my brain ran over with possibilities, inspiring my own work. Not many games can do that to me.

The stories the game does provide are not to be ignored. It's existential, challenging, appropriately ambiguous. You're a 'Traveler', and you are either following the Path of [the vague, mysterious force called] the Atlas, or you're not. As of the Pathfinder update (I think), there was a subplot where you try to find other 'Travelers' and other sole entities who know what this is all about. The reveal (that this is all a simulation being run by a computer, which honestly explains a lot of the 'unrealistic' facets of the game's space travel) is one that is not a stranger to science-fiction, but the approach taken by the game's narrative is an intriguing, thought-provoking, or even belief-invoking one. Not since BioShock has a video game reached out and prodded my paradigm like a fingertip on the surface of a still pond.

Granted, this rattle is not dissimilar from those achieved by teenagers smoking the weed while staring at the stars and going, 'Like, dude, could you imagine if...?', but it's still an interesting approach. And the writing that goes along with it is engaging, emotional, highly creative.

Where the game slips a whole tone from perfection is, yes, the repetitive nature of the actual tasks. You need x-amount of this, plus x-amount of that, to make y-amount of this, which you will then combine with y-amount of that, which you will then combine into z-amount of this, and z-amount of that, and so on, until you can buy The Thing You Want but Might Not Need Exactly. You need an element to keep your life support on; you need another element to fuel your ship; you need yet another element to fuel your ship in a way that makes it go faster; you need yet entirely another element to fuel your ship in a way that makes it go All the Way Fast.

This, for someone looking for an 'exciting' gaming experience, is tedium incarnate.

There's a caveat for it though, and the meat of this caveat is what, in turn, kinda blows my mind about No Man's Sky and any other game like it. In this modern era where even my favorite games are action-packed and colorful and mark off all the items that make it a 'good game', No Man's Sky is a zoom-out from this habit. I'm made to ask, 'Why does a game have to be an exhilarating thrill-ride? Why can't a game be a simple set of tasks in an aesthetically pleasing environment? Why can't a game be relaxing? Why can't a game be something you do to occupy your brain while you listen to a podcast or audiobook?' (The latter of which I've done many times, and it's perfect for it.)

Is No Man's Sky the first and only game to be like this? I know that answer to be no. Did it truly break any ground? Maybe on a technical scale.

But is it still good?

I think so. Even though I've reached the center of the galaxy (and come out the other side to a galaxy of my making), I can see myself returning periodically to see what new things I can find. To have a stress-free time, to zone out, to get my sci-fi brain going. You know, to scratch that itch of a fantastical voyage through the endless stars searching for a meaning that is, at the end of it, something only I can create.

Survival craft games all tend to have very similar systems. In No Man's Sky this is no different. I can't say that it's particularly unique in its crafting systems or survival systems. However, I can say that it is unique in its exploration systems. In its infinite universe full of planets, the criticism could be that is a bunch of the same planets OR on the positive side of things, one could say its full of millions of unique planets. One just has to use their imagination enough. With the ability to name and discover different plant species and animal species, you could sink hours just being a botanist or a zoologist, going from planet to planet to name new species. With many different types of zones, I really don't see how you could get tired of finding new planets anyways. There's 11 biomes and that gives for plenty of different combinations of species and planet types. The only negatives to this game are its tediousness. The tasks to get to the next thing can be very time consuming, but if you're the type who finds solace in these kinds of tasks, then this game will surely please you. Regardless of its bad origins, I genuinely think that this is one of the best survival craft games ever made. It's beautiful looking and full of wonder. What more could you want in a space exploration game?

This is just a nice game to just relax to. A lot of people just wanted MASSIVE FUCK SPACESHIPS!!!! INTERGALACTIC COCK FLEET!!!!! MULTIPLAYER PUSSY EXPLORATION!!!! But what we got was just a very nice and comfy space exploration game. It just feels nice, doesn't really push you to do much, just nice space vibes. That being said, the fact that they managed to fit this into the Switch is definitively impressive, but at what cost... It runs poorly, lacks multiplayer, looks rough, drains my battery like insert Bladee joke here.

its aight. more fun when youre playing it with friends

I've never played a game with anything close to the scale of the universe in this game, or with space flight mechanics this successful. Super attentive and caring devs have put so much time and love into this game, it shows with every update. Lots of playstyles as well - combat is there but avoidable, building is surprisingly good for how varied landscapes are, and crafting and selling items is very lucrative. The dialogue is abstract but I love it, lots of introspection and feeds into that feeling of absolute isolation. It could do with some more planet types, but even with the limited amount, each planet feels a little bit special and like a new opportunity to find some treasures

I really enjoyed playing this game, especially with my friend, but after many hours of playing this game you would eventually get tired because of the repeated cycle of goals which you can do in every planet. Yes, it is fun to fly and discover new plants, planets, galaxies, or creatures, but the limit on the things you can do would eventually burn you out. But props to the developers who still update the game and make it better every patch.