I thought it had been for a while
I guess that includes"now" too.
No Man’s Sky now includes spaceships!
Space set to arrive 2027.
I’m a huge NMS fan (bordering on apologist). Given the hundreds of hours I have in it, I’m always surprised when it pulls me back in.
Like, “it’s the weekend, I’ll just log in and grab some quicksilver missions and… Oh hey, new patch – an expedition is starting… Why have I been sitting here for 7 hours…”
It’s also super chill when you want it to be. Presuming that you’re late game, the only truly rare resource left to harvest is quicksilver. So I log in, trigger some fleet expeditions, visit my colony and kill a few drones that are harassing it, harvest a few resources. Maybe I decide to try to be a completionist at one of the many many side elements of the game – like building a base for each minable resource, or collecting one of every ship part (ship hunting is fun!), or what is this egg synthesis thing (oops, there goes another weekend).
It reminds me of playing post-game pokemon sometimes. There’s no reason to still be there – you beat the game, right? But the pokedex needs filling and, oh, let’s breed this rare special move onto an unlikely critter just cause and…
If you’re able to make your own fun, rather than just following a plot, then NMS is an amazing sandbox.
All No Man’s Sky needs is a Spinda equivilent and I’m set.
I’ll add, they’re rerunning the Omega Expedition from 27th Nov - 11th Dec – this expedition is a fantastic entry point for returning players – it’s basically the fast track if you’re starting a new save.
I keep trying to get into it but it hasn’t clicked. I love the idea of free roaming in space but I find the gathering/farming aspects boring. I need to some how smash that game with Everspace 2, I feel like a game in between those could be a lot of fun.
I’ve had a really random relationship with his game over the years. When it came out in 2016, I got it at release on PS4, and I was stressed to the nines studying for my final exams after a long articling period. It was really cathartic for that, just aimlessly floating around for hours when I was getting really burnt out, like it was the right game for the right time in my life.
I have to give these guys lots of kudos, like they were the original Cyberpunk 2077 (also suffered from a lot of over hype which maybe wasn’t 100% on them to begin with), but they more than made it right over the years. Like show me another game that has had this much development and universe building over pretty much a decade, and hasn’t really charged for any of it. I’m not really sure you can, there’s not very many game publishers that have done this.
The thing is with it though, I still just get distracted off of it after a small period of time. Like I really like this game, and it’s followed me onto PS5 and I’ve got an iteration of it on my PC too. But it can only hold my attention for a few days, like I still haven’t really accomplished much in it, returning several times over the years. I, too, experience what you describe, like it’s just really weird that way. It’s a game I haven’t even scratched the surface on, but it’s also provided me with several hours of observation over the years. It’s almost like it’s a piece of art in that way more than a traditional video game. It’s really hard to describe.
Oh yeah I get that people love it and I think that’s great. It just hasn’t clicked for me even though I would like it to. I’ve got a nephew that stays with me and I’ve been trying pull him away from games like COD to get him to branch out and chill out when it comes to a hobby that I feel should be for fun. NMS seems like a great game for us to goof around in with low stakes and plenty of projects but again, it just hasn’t become fun for me.
Yeah I don’t get it either. Everything is random to the point of being the same… I try again every now and then to see if my opinion has changed. But, well, not yet.
Same I played for like 12 hours on a gamepass sub a while ago and it just felt like a giant slog. Thought it would be cool to visit the market place thing and get some ship or clothing upgrades and after visiting like 4 planets and running around each for several hours I was like 8% of the way to a ship upgrade I didn’t boot it up again. I was probably missing portions or missions or milestones or something but wasn’t immediately obvious to me
Oh? Have they fixed some of the core features? Is running no longer clunky and terrible? Is learning an alien language not an obnoxious chore? Do space stations in different systems actually offer anything new or are they still identical? Can planets have more than 2 biomes now (one on land and one underwater)?
Otherwise, last I played it was not a very good game.
You can have scope, or you can have granularity, but you can’t have both.
NMS chose scope.
It’s not a binary choice. And that also doesn’t explain why after like 2 dozen major updates and expansions, some core systems are still absolute garbage. Like learning an alien language literally one word at a time from one person at at a time. Or why running is still interrupted by tiny changes in floor height. Or why you can break down salt to get oxygen and dihydrogen.
I started playing around 2022, so I don’t have a point of reference for some of your points. They did overhaul space stations visually, but they are mostly the same functionally system to system. I can’t remember if they made multi biome planets because frankly, I rarely land on the same planet twice. Again, they did revamp the appearances of land and water biomes to make them more interesting as well.
To me, No Man’s Sky is more about breadth and discovery rather than depth and simulation. I have come back to the game a number of times because of interesting expeditions or the addition of new mechanics like piracy or organic ships.
It’s not a game for everyone, and it doesn’t do any one thing better than any other game, but it’s a great experience if you want a solo space sandbox experience.
