No Man's Sky

No Man’s Sky, a cautionary tale for any ambitious developers. Star Wars fans might ask you if you know the tale of Darth Plagueis, game developers will ask if you know the tale of No Man’s Sky. The tragedies, lies and failures of this game have been discussed endlessly across the internet. Today, we will share thoughts on the current state of the game and how much Hello Games has delivered on its promise.

No Man’s Sky Beyond

In 2019, No Man’s Sky released its newest major update, Beyond. On the three-year anniversary of its launch, the game provided an update that moved them closer than ever to what was promised on release. With Beyond, the missions and tutorials have been revised significantly. Alongside this, the early game experience is more streamlined to give new players a better background to new mechanics, especially in Virtual Reality. Additionally, new context has been added to build some coherence in the story content of No Man’s Sky. Particularly, we saw new content weaving together the existing strands of the Atlas Path, the journey of the Space Anomaly and the Artemis story.

Streamlining the adventure

The crafted products and new technologies players encounter were also overhauled to automatically be added to a player’s new catalogue once encountered. To make this even better, the pinning system was reworked to let players have a detailed set of instructions on how to find or build any of the items in their catalogue. The guidance features of the game are much better than what was previously available, so players can experience No Man’s Sky without breaking the immersion of the vast and beautiful planets they encounter. There are auto-highlighting features to show the relevant crafting requirements for a mission alongside better communication of the context in complex missions.

Improved Multiplayer

In No Man’s Sky, your ambient encounters with other explorers can now be experienced like it should’ve been at launch. There are full character models representing players in the world, and you can see each other’s characters, ship customizations and emotes. Together, players can now survive, build, craft and explore! The voice and Networking interface is also great for organizing group co-op with other explorers you might encounter. As for PC players, they can use the expanded chat interface to control group options and manage communications and strategize.

Virtual Reality Interface

No Man’s Sky introduced Virtual Reality to an already immersive experience. This new way to explore and enjoy the world just got better. The User Interface and HUD for the game has been completely remade for VR. This will make every interaction in the game feel natural and built for a purpose. You can directly slip into your Exosuit to manipulate and manage your inventory from your wrist alone!

The 2D menus and shops are rendered on an in-world user interface to further break the virtual barrier and create intuitive point-and-click style interactions that almost replicate those real-world behaviors.