Many No Man's Sky players, myself included, have wished that when piloting our ships over a planet's surface, we could fly closer to the ground. Well, our space-prayers have been answered. The LowFlight mod, by Hytek, allows you greater control over your ship's altitude, meaning now you can really skim the surface, fly between trees, through valleys, and under those hovering rocks alien planets always seem to have for some reason. You can even fly directly inside caves, as you can see in my gif above.
The reason this mod is so helpful is because it can be hard spotting items of interest on the ground from the altitude we're typically forced to fly at, particularly if said items are slow to render. This also makes landing where you like a lot easier: who hasn't released a gusty sigh when realizing that monolith you tried to land next to is actually a four-minute walk away? Now you can get nice and close before setting down.
If spaceship spelunking isn't enough, you can also fly underwater. I've tested that too, though it's not a heck of a lot of fun. Your viewscreens go blank, and you can't really make out all the lovely underwater features. Still, it's step above our ships refusing to fly below 1,000 feet except when landing. Below, you can see a video of the vanilla flying height and the modded one. It really does make a big difference.
Be warned: flying low means you might smash into rocks, trees, and mountainsides, all of which will damage your ship, and quite severely. I can attest to this: I destroyed my ship three times in about five minutes of playing with this mod. Caves, especially they're not very roomy, your ship isn't meant to fly inside them, there are tons of rocks jutting from the ceiling, and it's hard to back out of them. Also, a general warning: this is a mod, and might mess up your game in other unknown ways. Proceed with caution on all fronts.
Following a rocky launch, No Man's Sky was quickly patched up last week, though problems still lingered. Since then, Hello Games has issued two newer patches, which should fix "around 70%" of the game's reported problems.
The list of fixes is very long, but some highlights include numerous crash fixes: the game should no longer crash after warping, during scanning or when warping inside a freighter, and if you've ever gotten stuck inside a planet, that shouldn't happen anymore. Even better, if you're currently stuck the game should fix that automatically for you.
Meanwhile, if you have a corrupted save file, there's a chance that it will be salvaged with the third patch. Becoming stranded in a space station will be impossible now and, finally, players with a "huge amount" of discoveries and a large number of blueprints will no longer encounter crashes for their efforts.
Players with "a large number" of waypoints will no longer experience crashes, though interestingly, Hello Games adds that a better waypoint system will roll out some time in the future.
"Next week expect at least one more major update, which will enter testing on Monday once we finish working on it this weekend," the studio wrote. "Once all our support requests have been answered then we can begin improving the game with new features."
Don t get us wrong, No Man s Sky has a lovely soundtrack. 65daysofstatic was a perfect choice for encapsulating cosmic wonder in well-timed doses of ambient electronic soundscapes and post-rock celebrations but with 18 quintillion planets to explore, the music is guaranteed to get monotonous at some point. To ever-so-slightly fill in the gaps, we ve assembled a playlist of our favorite space-pioneering tunes to make your adventures feel as fresh and dramatic as day one.
Be sure to read our individual picks below, but when you're done, pop on our Spotify playlist, boot up No Man's Sky, and give it a test ride.
On his early records, Oneohtrix Point Never s Daniel Lopatin evokes the ruins of former utopias and the strangeness of antiquated machines. That s why when I first encountered a Monolith in No Man s Sky, this song from Rifts, Betrayed In The Octagon , came to mind. Composed using long forgotten modular synthesizers, it shares the same foreboding mystery as the Monoliths, but also a vague sense of techno-utopian optimism. Shaun Prescott
Gas / Konigsforst
German artist Wolfgang Voigt initially conceived Konigsforst as a tribute to his country s forests, but its dense textures and submerged 4/4 beats sound like any mysterious and impenetrable frontier. Track 5 (all the songs are untitled) is among the most spacious and enveloping techno songs ever created, and it s the perfect soundtrack to gliding slowly above one of No Man s Sky s barren planets. Shaun Prescott
Boards of Canada / Tomorrow’s Harvest
No Man s Sky is at its best when it makes me feel small and alone. Boards of Canada does the same in Tomorrow s Harvest. They wrap you in sparse electronic noise that builds and warps in subtle ways. It s a sightseeing tour through a rocky desert, somewhere familiar that you ve never been. And the music video for one of my favorite tracks, Reach for the Dead, includes shots that look exactly the same as flying low over a planet in No Man s Sky. Coincidence? Well, yes. James Davenport
Emeralds / Does It Look Like I’m Here?
Nearly every track on Does It Look Like I m here is a dazzling cosmic arrangement of analog sounds that recall classic science-fiction with a heaping of optimism. James Davenport
Fuck Buttons / Tarot Sport
I once heard Fuck Button songs described as tours of big, intricate machines. You start somewhere inside and slowly pan out, revealing the moving, interconnected pieces as their logic starts to take shape. Eventually, the entire machine is revealed and no longer looks like assembled parts, but like a singular entity. The same mechanism applies to No Man s Sky as you take off from a planet for the first time. A mountainous landscape and it s wacky flora and fauna all melt into a single sphere. The implied intricacy of something that looks so simple and small is enough to make a grown man cry. Not saying it has (or hasn t), but just *sniff* putting it out there. James Davenport
65daysofstatic / Wild Light
If you re simply looking for more of the No Man s Sky soundtrack, we have good news. It s composed by 65daysofstatic, a group out of Sheffield, England, and they ve been making post- and electronic rock since 2001. There s a lot to dig through and most of its great, but the latest album, Wild Light, is probably the most NMS-esque. My favorite track Safe Passage begins with a light piano arrangement before exploding into a celebratory wall of distorted guitar and synth like hitting warp for the first time. James Davenport
Wolves in the Throne Room / Celestite
Typically known for pagan metal with heavy black metal influences, Wolves in the Throne Room s latest is a significant conceptual departure. Celestite is an ambient electronic exploration of the cosmos with rare instances of drone metal. Deep, wide-reaching synths invoke massive spaces where wild electronic melodies twinkle in and out without warning. James Davenport
King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard / Nonagon Infinity
For when you want to do barrel rolls with reckless abandon, the space pirates won t let up their chase, or can t break eye contact with a mushroom man, Nonagon Infinity has you covered. Psychedelic rock suits No Man s 70 s sci-fi book cover rendition of the universe, and King Gizzard s tunes are as twisted and bright as any tie-dyed horizon and two-legged goat head creature named Brad. The album was also designed to loop infinitely, so it s a great way to spice up the monotony of visiting 18 quintillion planets in a row. James Davenport
Stars of the Lid / And Their Refinement of the Decline
None-more-ambient duo from Austin, Texas whose band name is intended to invoke the idea of your own personal cinema, located between your eye and eyelid . The music comes in great swashes of melancholy electronic drone, perfect for those lonely moments trudging across a barren magenta rock or floating in space wondering where the hell you re meant to go next and whether there ll just be another shitty 7-11 space base when you get there. Tim Clark
Explosions in the Sky / The Earth is Not a Cold Dead Place
I dunno what the government is putting in the water in Austin, but the result seems to be insanely grandiose band names (see also: And You Will Know Us By The Trail of Dead) and super emotive rock. Explosions in the Sky are best known for soundtracking the Friday Night Lights movie, but most of those tunes were derived from this, which is by far their best record. If the name wasn t already perfect for space exploration, the chiming guitar arpeggios and kiss the face of god wonder certainly are. Man, I am this close to calling it a cathedral of sound. Tim Clark
Do Make Say Think / & Yet & Yet
Canada s Constellation records is home to two amazing collectives that specialise in long, largely lyricless, multi-part songs built around repetition and giant surging crescendos. Do Make Say Think are probably better suited to intergalactic shenanigans than the more doomy and overtly political Godspeed You! Black Emperor. The songs on this, their second LP, fizz with invention. A bit like how 65daysofstatic might sound if there a dozen people in the band and some of them had trumpets. Tim Clark
Sunn 0))) / Monoliths & Dimensions
Assuming you can get over the fact that Hungarian black metaller Attila Csihar chants menacing stuff about the riddle of the clouds over most of the record, then experimental drone overlords Sunn 0))) work perfectly with the menace that lurks under No Man s Sky kaleidoscopically coloured surface. The closing track, Alice , is a 16-Minute tidal wave that arrives in slow motion and ends with the sound of fading brass and plucked harps. Or in other words, perfect background listening while reading a datalog from some long dead traveller who succumbed to an unknowable alien threat centuries ago. Tim Clark
When I spoke to Sean Murray back in March he mentioned that No Man s Sky didn t feel like a game that was right for paid DLC (a statement he has recently stepped back from a bit) but he did mention that the game might receive free updates based on player behavior and feedback. I can certainly think of a few changes I d like to see in the coming weeks and months, so I put together a wishlist.
Here s what I hope to see in future updates to No Man s Sky (counting out a total overhaul of the inventory system and other issues I mention in my review). Let s begin with a very simple one.
Move this damn door
From here:
To here:
See? No more awkward jetpacking up to the second floor during each of your hundreds of visits to a space station, and no more shattering your ankle bones jumping back down on your way out. I've just made the game 50% better. You're welcome.
OK, onto the rest.
Add mercenary pilots
Along with miner and trader, pirate is a staple profession of space games. And while you can raid freighters and snorfle up their booty, a pirate just isn't a pirate unless he's got mates. Being able to hire a couple of wingmen would be a welcome addition to No Man's Sky, pilots who would follow you around, attack what you attack, and defend you from sentinel spacecraft. If they get blown up, you can hire another, and if you run of of money (unlikely) they'll ditch you.
Even if you're not into piracy, No Man's Sky can be a lonely experience, so having a couple of ships following you around would be nice. And when they land on planets beside you, having their extra ship's inventory would make collecting resources and hauling them back to trading posts a bit more lucrative.
No more screen hijacking
No Man's Sky, a game that doesn't give you a lot of information about complicated things, also seems terribly afraid you're going to miss information about simple things. When you enter a room containing a single alien, for example, it likes to make sure you notice that single alien by letterboxing your screen and preventing you from interacting with anything for several seconds. So you don't miss seeing the alien. The single alien. That you're alone in the room with.
Milestones, too, are called out, such as when you have met a certain number of aliens. While it is nice to know when you've accomplished a milestone, it doesn't need to prevent you from, say, climbing back into your ship and going off to meet more aliens. Knock off the letterboxing. An on-screen notification that won't stop me from clicking things is just fine.
Single-click discovery uploads
After leaving a planet or system behind, discoveries remain in your databanks unless you manually, one by one, upload each and every one of them. It s sort of nice when you forget to do this for a few hours, and then upload everything to receive an influx of space-cash, but having to tediously scroll through the list of discoveries and hold a key down for each and every one of them is a drag.
I don t want it to be automatic just in case I want to name something before I upload it but a 'upload all discoveries' button, maybe with an 'are you sure?' prompt would be a big time-saver.
Give pulse drives infinite fuel
I have a real bone to pick here. Pulse drives, which let you travel quickly between planets, can run out of fuel. This slows you down to normal speed, which means becoming stranded between planets that might take hours or days to reach without those pulse engines.
Except it doesn't mean that at all. Hello Games wanted the pulse drives to run out of fuel, but didn t want players to be stranded, because being stranded would be completely awful. So, they littered every square inch of outer space with Thamium9-laden asteroids. When you run out of pulse fuel, you can just shoot the asteroids, refill the engines, and be back along your way.
Do you see what I'm getting at? They created a problem running out of pulse fuel then provided an instant solution: asteroids full of pulse fuel are always ten feet from your face. It s just an added irritation, something that interrupts your trip for no reason. Why bother with any of it? Pulse drives should be infinite, so you don t have to stop, and asteroids could be far less frequent, so hunting them down for other minerals might actually be fun.
Space stations should sell blueprints and ships
Blueprints are currently distributed at random upon finding crashed tech, killing sentinels, or passing alien language tests. Sometimes, though, you re looking for something very specific and don t want to spend the time hunting down pods or allowing sentient computer programs to jab needles in your eye. When I'm looking through the galactic trade orb located onthe first floor of space stations, give me a page of blueprints to choose from, too. It's OK if they're random, I just want to up the odds of finding what I'm looking for.
Acquiring new ships is one of the best parts of space games, and while No Man s Sky has its share of them, they always seem to be identical to my current ship, storage-wise, or several light-years out of my price range. In addition to the alien trader ships docking in the lobby, why not a little garage to browse and choose from a few extra models. And hey: store the ship I traded in, so if I take a test drive in the new jalopy and find I don't like it, I can return it and get my original ship back.
Repair service
I ve traveled great distances, visited planets, and been inside more black holes than Christian Slater s career. That doesn t mean I m not a lazy, lazy man. When it comes to repairing the various parts of my ship: weapons systems, shields, and drives, I m not always in the mood to go hunting for crystals and plants to collect the proper minerals. Space stations and planetary landing pads should have a repair this system and repair all option for ships, so I can just dump some units into a bug-eyed mechanic s pocket and be back on my way.
It could be expensive, sure, but the option to have someone else dig up all that copper would be worth it.
Let me see what my friends are up to
We still have no flippin' idea about just what the hell is going on with other players in the game. We were told that the chances of running into a player were just about zero, but if we did we'd be able to see them. Neither of those things appear to be accurate: two players immediately wound up in the same system, went to the same exact spot, and yet they couldn't detect each other.
Hello Games hasn't answered for any of that yet, but in the meantime it would, at the very least, be nice to locate my Steam friends, view their position on the galaxy map, see what creatures and planets they've discovered and what sorts of rude names they've given them.
Let my ship also be a submarine
I spend almost no time underwater in No Man's Sky, mainly because swimming is even more annoyingly slow than walking on land is. It's a shame there are some nice sights to be seen under the alien seas, and presumably some sort of procedurally generated seafood. I just don't go down there. Almost ever.
Why not let me fly my ship around underwater, like a submarine? Then I could explore the depths on ocean planets at leisure, not worry about having to make the long, slow swim back to land, and maybe even find some sea monsters to catalog and crudely name.
Real statistics
Your progress is tracked in milestones, which is nice except for the issue I mentioned earlier. But there are only nine milestones, and not much in the way of hard data. No Man's Sky tells me how many times I've warped but, bafflingly, not how many planets I've landed on. It would be nice to know without having to manually count.
How many experiments have NPCs performed on me? Which alien race likes me best? How many creatures have I killed, and how many of those killings were because those damn flapping alien bats won't hold still long enough to be scanned? What's the furthest I've walked from my ship? How many pounds of gold have I mined? How many times did I find a use for the ricocheting boltcaster upgrade? (OK, that one is easy, zero.)
Point is, we like data, and we'd love to see more of it.
Let us blow up one planet each
Ever find a shitty planet? Just a pointless, ugly, complete shithole of a rock? Maybe it's boring and brown and dull. Maybe the animals on it are all dumb-looking or bite you for no reason. Maybe it was the tenth time in a row you landed to look for the last 12 units of aluminum you needed to craft your warp drive upgrade and you just couldn't find it anywhere, or maybe you've found 18 of the 19 species but try as you might you can't just find that last one, and you're annoyed and frustrated and just this once firing your mining laser into the face of a docile space cow make you feel better.
Every player should be given one planetary nuke. Just one. And you can use it to completely destroy a single planet, not just from your own game but from the universe of every other player. Don't worry. There are 18 quintillion planets left. The universe ain't gonna run out.
First, an apology: the audio quality of this episode is rough. Oh, sure, it starts off fine, but as we go along, Andy and Phil get quieter, while Tom gets louder and louder. We blame GamesRadar, who pinched all the good microphones for their Gamescom coverage. Still, please do suffer through this audio catastrophe for some mild takes on Metal Gear Survive, plus some more informed views on No Man s Sky and Deus Ex: Mankind Divided. We ll do better next time.
The PC Gamer UK Podcast is a weekly podcast about PC gaming. Thoughts? Feedback? Requests? Get in touch at pcgamer@futurenet.com and use the subject line Podcast , or tweet us with #pcgpodcast.
It s still without patch notes, but the PC version of No Man s Sky s 1.04 patch is now live. The patch which went into testing earlier this week aims to address the game s launch issues which included poor performance, stuttering, FPS drops and screen-tearing for some players.
Taking to Twitter, Hello Games top man Sean Murray said:
Patch notes incoming but PC build adds support for more hardware + improves frame rate at low spec. PS4 improves stability + lots more :)August 18, 2016
In his No Man s Sky review, Chris made mention of the latest PC patch s effect. On his system (Intel i5-6600K @ 3.50 GHz, 8 GB RAM, Nvidia GeForce GTX 980), he appeared to enjoy a solid performance that typically boasted up to 75 FPS, however did note that he experienced the odd drop to 20-30 prior to the patch. It appears to have sorted that out, but that s not to say all has been sorted.
I played NMS for a couple days on PlayStation 4 before the PC release, and I thought for sure the late texture pop-in wouldn t be so bad on PC, remarks Chris in his review. But it s constant, on every planet I fly over and land on. Not only when rocketing at top speed over hills and caves but also when drifting slowly and landing, and even when walking and sometimes just standing still and turning around the slow materialization of landscape features is ever-present.
Flying from the surface of one planet and landing on another with no loading screens may technically be seamless, but watching half a mountain slowly form itself in front of my visor doesn t make it feel that way.
Murray maintains the vast majority of players are now playing No Man s Sky without issue. It's pretty crazy for us how many people are playing, he adds via Twitter. And how large a number even 1% of that user base is. We're totally focused on customer support right now. Then we'll move onto improving and adding features to the game.
What is it? A vast procedural generated space and planetary exploration and survival gameExpect to pay: $60/ 40Developer: Hello GamesPublisher: Hello GamesReviewed on: Intel i5-6600K @ 3.50 GHz, 8 GB RAM, Nvidia GeForce GTX 980Multiplayer: Not as far as we've seenLink: Official Site
After 45 hours in No Man s Sky, I ve warped through hundreds of solar systems, landed on almost 200 planets, and I ve cataloged over 500 different alien species. Yet oddly for an open-world game perhaps the biggest open-world game ever made I don t have many stories to tell. My experience has been at times enjoyable and relaxing, at other times awkward and frustrating, but unfortunately it s not something our favorite Vulcan space traveler would call fascinating. I ve touched an infinite universe and walked away with some nice vacation photos.
No Man s Sky, the first-person space exploration and survival game developed by Hello Games, presents us a universe filled with some 18 quintillion procedurally generated planets. You begin standing on a single one, gazing at the hull of your broken starship. Within minutes, the core of the game is revealed: slowly wander the planet on foot (and awkwardly fly using a jetpack) looking for resources: plutonium for powering your ship, iron and carbon for crafting technology, and more exotic minerals for building better tech or selling on the galactic market. You re armed with a multi-tool that can be used as both a mining laser and a blaster to fend off each planet s robotic guardians, who attack if you harvest endangered resources or get too ambitious with your mining. Having repaired your ship and added a warp drive, you re then free to explore the galaxy, either by visiting random stars, following a path toward the galactic core, or investigating a mysterious ancient alien race.
Touchdown
The solar systems of No Man s Sky aren t really systems, but rather a handful of planets and moons bunched shoulder to shoulder, which provides some lovely views and vistas straight off the cover of pulp sci-fi novels. I ve seen some very pretty planets on my travels: fields of pink grass, vast purple oceans, amber skies, alien trees with slowly writhing branches, and plenty of cool rock formations. Playing space photographer is fun: I enjoy positioning my ship on the top of a hill against a crimson sunset, or taking screenshots of alien plant life and stone spires with nearby planets and moons hanging in the background. Not every planet is a postcard, naturally, but many inspire a few pleasant moments of appreciation before getting down the the business of murdering rocks for fuel.
But even the most heavenly bodies ultimately feel very uniform. There are caves but no massive gorges, trees but no dense forests, hills and cliffs but no looming mountain ranges. There are hazards: extreme heat and cold, acid rain, and radiation, but they exist only as a slowly depleting protection meter and verbal warnings from your exosuit s speaker system. I ve been in storms yet have never seen a lightning bolt or a volcanic eruption, and I ve never experienced an asteroid strike or planetquake. Some planets may be dangerous, but they certainly never feel deadly or truly alien.
I no longer diligently hunt down every icon on the screen: I already know what I ll find.
This isn t to say these planets can t be wonderful to spend time on. My second day playing, I spent a full three hours exploring a single moon. I drifted over the planet looking for alien artifacts and crashed starships. I visited alien outposts to trade goods and inspect visiting spacecraft, and I broke into manufacturing facilities to steal new tech blueprints for upgrading my exosuit and multi-tool. I scanned alien creatures until I d discovered every species on the entire moon. I landed anywhere that looked interesting, took long extended walks away from my ship, dug my way into caves with grenades then blasted my way back to the surface. Then I took off again and landed somewhere else.
It was a relaxing and soothing experience, the best time I ve had with No Man s Sky, yet one I ve never completely repeated, mainly because these places I visited outposts, monoliths, facilities are present on every other planet and are essentially the same. I still wander a bit when I find a nice-looking planet, but I no longer diligently hunt down every icon on the screen: I already know what I ll find.
System failure
Most of what you do on these planets is mine resources, and almost immediately inventory management becomes an issue. Your starting inventory on both your person and ship are small, and while it can slowly be increased by finding or buying new ships and slots, it remains cramped through most of the game. It s also frustrating to navigate and use: the system is unintuitive and clumsy, and feels as if it was designed for consoles and not PCs.
Your various systems need to be charged with the resources you gather, everything from your ship s booster rockets to weapon systems to warp drives. Even the beam you mine plutonium with needs plutonium to function. This is the survival portion of the game, and it s clumsily handled. If you re in a firefight that depletes your shields, you may die in the time it takes to open the menu, navigate to the correct screen, find the shield icon, and hold down the mouse to recharge it. There are, annoyingly, no hotkeys. It s all done manually, and it s clunky as hell.
Interaction menus, too, are a drag. You ll trade with alien NPCs in space stations hundreds of times, and each time the game makes you wait as the camera swivels into position, then slowly brings up the conversational options, one by one, even though the options for trading (buy or sell) are always identical. The same way Skyrim thinks you want to have a little conversation every time you buy something, No Man s Sky thinks you want a five-second delay before you can sell something. Just let me get on with it. I ve got an infinite universe to explore. Nearly all games have repetitive tasks, and repetition isn t necessarily bad, but these are the systems that need the most attention from developers to ensure they don t get irritating. Repetitive tasks need to at least be efficient, and here they are anything but.
Creature contorts
I ve seen a couple of nice creatures, but nothing jaw-dropping or particularly memorable.
The biggest disappointments are the collections of alien creatures clumsily flapping and stumping around the surface of most planets. Like the planets, they re cobbled together procedurally, made from parts and pieces that may as well have been shook up in a cup and dumped onto the landscape like a handful of dice. Occasionally a creature might make me chuckle, as in the case of a bear-sized armadillo with thick elephant legs drifting through the air by slowly flapping a pair of tiny butterfly wings.
A couple have been cute, like a wolf with a tortoise's shell or a grinning badger covered in lime green spots. Mostly, though, they re just not that interesting. Large creatures are briefly exciting due to their size, but a few moments of inspection reveal they re just like everything else, only bigger. I ve seen a couple of nice creatures, but nothing jaw-dropping or particularly memorable. The parts and pieces quickly become recognizable when you seen them glued together in different combinations a few times.
In addition to scanning, naming, and uploading the species data for a cash bonus (and a hefty one if you scan every species on a planet), you can feed them, after which they ll lead you to a few small nuggets of valuable resources, but other than the occasional hostile creature that attacks you (by running up and touching you), there s no real animal behavior to speak of. Creatures don t seem to stalk or hunt one another, interact with or even notice each other, or do much besides mill around and scurry away if you draw too close. There s no grace to the animations, they re awkward and clumsy, and I ve experienced no Dr. Grant moment of staggering wonder, even when gazing at alien dinosaurs.
Story matter
More interesting, at least, are the intelligent alien NPCs. There are three factions, the bug-eyed and beaked Gek, the scaly and imposing Vy keen, a warrior race (because there is always a warrior race), and the Korvax, a technological species. You ll find them in space stations and planetary outposts where you can interact with them in a limited but enjoyable fashion. Initially you know nothing of their languages, though as you explore planets you begin to learn them, a word at a time, by visiting alien shrines dotted around the landscape.
Conversations with the NPCs are a test of sorts, a situation described to you in text and requiring the correct response for a reward and higher standing with the factions. For instance, a Vy keen on a space station spat a few sentences worth of alien words at me while showing me a sword and a shield, then waited for me to choose one. I had only learned a few words in Vy keen, which were translated for me on-screen, but one word I did know was defense. So, I chose the shield, and was rewarded with some new tech. It s a clever and fun conversational system, and it provides good motivation to seek out language stones and learn more words.
No Man s Sky s writers did an excellent job here, considering they were limited with only a paragraph or two for every encounter, and it almost makes up for the fact that the NPCs are essentially Disney World-like animatronic figures, rooted in place, unable to walk cross a room or even climb out of their spaceships.
Engage
There s some weirdness in the very premise of No Man s Sky. You re discovering planets that are peppered with crates of supplies, alien outposts and facilities, crashed starships and ancient artifacts if anything, you re the last damn person in the galaxy to arrive, but you re still considered an explorer. And I don t really feel like one. Nothing has given me a pioneer feeling of wide-eyed wonder, and yet I m somehow still finding the exploration compelling. My problems with the game can be forgotten for a bit when I find a nice, gentle, lush planet and have a pleasant little wander, or when I land on a planet covered with exotic treasures I can snatch up and sell for a quick profit.
And, despite my disappointment with most of the creatures I ve seen, there s still something tantalizing about the scores of more planets waiting to be discovered and the chance, perhaps very small chance, that I might find still find something amazing.
Tech blueprints
On my PC (Intel i5-6600K @ 3.50 GHz, 8 GB RAM, Nvidia GeForce GTX 980) I ve gotten solid performance from No Man s Sky, with framerates typically in the 65-75 FPS range (I initially experienced occasional drops down to 20-30, but a recent patch seems to have solved that issue). Which isn t to stay there aren t still issues. I played NMS for a couple days on PlayStation 4 before the PC release, and I thought for sure the late texture pop-in wouldn t be so bad on PC. But it s constant, on every planet I fly over and land on. Not only when rocketing at top speed over hills and caves but also when drifting slowly and landing, and even when walking and sometimes just standing still and turning around the slow materialization of landscape features is ever-present. Flying from the surface of one planet and landing on another with no loading screens may technically be seamless, but watching half a mountain slowly form itself in front of my visor doesn t make it feel that way.
The sound design, at least, is wonderful, in everything from your own footsteps to the sounds of wind and rain and the distant bleats and calls of alien creatures. As someone who typically tires quickly of music in games, first turning it down and eventually shutting it off completely, I m pleased that the soundtrack is so good, and fitting for extended space travel. I ve never so much as touched the music slider.
I m still playing No Man s Sky, still restlessly rocketing from star to star, still burning through the atmosphere of new planets, touching down, and popping out of my ship as if on a spring to have a look around. I don t know what I m looking for, exactly. I just know I haven t found it yet.
I play games for a lot of reasons. Sometimes I want to be told a story or chase high scores. Other times I want to master deep systems or escape into another world. That s why I love the medium. There s a game for every occasion, every mindset, and every mood. It s a beautiful thing.Over the years I ve fallen in love with what I call ambient games. Freeform, laid-back, open-ended experiences that you can lose yourself in for a few hours. Games, or parts of games, that are slow and measured, with no pressure to do anything in particular. Like a screensaver for your brain.This could be going on a cross-country road trip in Euro Truck Simulator 2, scanning planets in the cosmic depths of Elite Dangerous, rambling around Proteus psychedelic island, planting crops in Stardew Valley, or taking soil samples with your rover in Take On Mars.Games like this give you a chance to dim the lights, sink into your chair, put on headphones, and drift away from reality for a while. The videogame equivalent of listening to a Brian Eno album or taking a long, hot bath. And this is why I love the colourful procedural universe of No Man s Sky.
Some people don t love No Man s Sky. It s one of the most divisive releases of the year so far, splitting critics almost down the middle. And while I agree with a lot of their complaints, I still really like it. Because I realised that it s not a game to be finished; it s an experience to be had.Part of the problem is, I think, expectation. The hurricane of hype surrounding the game undoubtedly painted an inaccurate picture of it in people s heads. They expected a deep, complex sim like Elite, and instead they got a weird, arty, minimalist space exploration game with crafting.And if you start No Man s Sky with that mindset, you re almost certainly going to be disappointed. Its core loop of harvesting resources, building things, and crafting fuel to travel deeper into the galaxy is shallow especially compared to the unfathomable breadth of its setting.But when you stop caring about reaching the centre of the galaxy, following the Atlas, or whatever path you ve chosen, you start to appreciate what really makes the game special. Because while you re furiously mining zinc on some moon to craft warp cells, you're not having an adventure.I love science fiction, because it fires my imagination in a way no other genre does. In Arthur C. Clarke s novel 2001: A Space Odyssey, in a chapter titled The World of the Gods, the Discovery passes Jupiter and sends a probe into the massive, chaotic storms raging in its atmosphere.The way Clarke vividly describes an endless sea of mottled gold and how it s so alien that it s meaningless to eyes accustomed to the shapes and colours of Earth has always stuck with me, because it makes you realise just how terrifyingly, infinitely unknowable space is.And, for me, No Man s Sky captures some of this sci-fi magic. It makes me feel like I m voyaging into the unknown, a speck of dust floating in a vast cosmos. But to appreciate the game on this level you need to take some responsibility yourself. You need an imagination.It s easy to see the game s joins. Sometimes literally when you re approaching a planet and the landscape pops into view. You see two aliens, each with slightly different horns or tails, and you can determine how the procedural generation tech has conjured them up.But if you suspend your disbelief, take it on its own terms, and buy into the game s universe, you ll enjoy it a lot more. If you want a polished, nuanced, deep game, look elsewhere. I ve found that No Man s Sky is best enjoyed at a leisurely pace with no specific goal in mind.When you land on a planet, don t feel pressured to analyse every creature and spend ten minutes mining giant chunks of of gold and aluminium. Have a look around, and if you don t like it, fly away. There are still another few quintillion to visit after all, and life s too short.
Don t fret about finishing the game, because whatever lies at the core will never live up to the idea you have in your head. Make some progress here and there, sure, but don t make it your driving ambition. Stop and smell the roses, but don t destroy them or you ll make the Sentinels angry.You ll inevitably see a lot of unremarkable planets as you explore, but persevere and there are incredible sights to behold out there. I ve seen sunsets casting surreal coloured light over toxic deserts, herds of weird creatures grazing on plains of turquoise grass, and immense water-worlds looming on the horizons of rocky moons.Basically, stop worrying. It doesn t matter if the mining and crafting are repetitive or that you re still light years away from the core. Or that there are a lot of similar-looking planets that sometimes pop awkwardly into view as the procedural generation struggles to keep up with your ship.Pour yourself a drink, turn the lights down, maybe put some music or a podcast on, and go for a lazy expedition among the stars. No Man s Sky is far from perfect, and there are much better space sims out there, but as a game just to relax to and which captures the evocative mystery of classic science fiction it s a wonderful thing.
You may have heard recently that all future updates to No Man's Sky will be absolutely free. We do want to add a ton of features, like we've just discussed: Freighters, bases, these type of things. But we want to do it for free, Hello Games boss Sean Murray told Red Bull last week. You've paid for the game, so you should get this stuff without paying even more money. So no, there will be no paid DLC, just patches."
Yesterday, however, Murray walked back those remarks very slightly in an interview with the Daily Star. He told the site that he was perhaps naive when he ruled paid DLC out completely, adding that it could happen if maybe in the future there s some reason why we just couldn t possibly afford to do a certain feature without charging for it.
Naive or not, I'd be a little surprised to see paid DLC come to No Man's Sky. It has 18 holymolymillion planets (or whatever) straight out of the box, and the whole thing is so dependent on procedural generation that a purpose-designed add-on of any significance would probably stick out like a sore thumb. What kind of expansion could you bring to a game of this style and scope that isn't going to look like a spoiler and ground effects screwed onto your dad's Malibu?
Meanwhile, charging for updates that simply improve the systems already in place would be ill-advised, especially with the game already taking so much criticism for failing to live up to the promises of its pre-release marketing. If your updates are perceived as fixes, fairly or not, you sure don't want to be asking people to fork over more money for them though it doesn't sound like that's the plan going forward, and any paid DLC is a hypothetical scenario.
Bottom line? Never say never when a firm probably not will do the job.
While the likes of Elite Dangerous and Star Citizen present hard-edged, believable visions of a space-faring future, No Man s Sky is steeped in the mysterious, evocative science fiction of the 1970s. It s a game about journeying into the unexplored depths of a colourful cosmos, wondering what you ll encounter on these strange far-flung planets. And if you like this kind of fiction, or just appreciate the unique look and feel of No Man s Sky, you might enjoy the following as well.
2001: A Space Odyssey
Watching Stanley Kubrick and Arthur C. Clarke s 1968 sci-fi epic for the first time is an unforgettable experience. With its minimal dialogue, stirring music, long, slow shots, and ambiguous storyline, it s more like a visual poem than a traditional film. It takes us from the primordial deserts of Africa to an advanced future where humans have mastered space travel in one stark match cut, and asks the biggest questions of all: who are we, where did we come from, and where are we going? The final act is a surreal collage of ideas, sounds, and imagery, and when Bowman finally travels beyond the infinite, you ll never think about space the same way again.
Tomorrow’s Harvest
After a seven year absence, reclusive electronic duo Boards of Canada returned with their most recent album, Tomorrow s Harvest. It s a remarkable collection of music with a dense, enigmatic atmosphere that evokes 1970s sci-fi cinema. Tracks like Transmisiones Ferox, Uritual, and Sundown make you feel like you re miles from Earth, lost in the darkest reaches of space. The game s musical soundscapes, partly created by the band 65daysofstatic, are superb, but Tomorrow s Harvest is a great alternative soundtrack to accompany a journey through the stars.
Hardware
Chris Foss is an influential British sci-fi artist, and the book Hardware is a collection of his work. Foss has contributed to movies including Alien, Superman, and Alejandro Jodorowsky s ill-fated Dune adaptation. But it s his book covers in particular for writers like Isaac Asimov and Philip K. Dick that inspired the visual identity of No Man s Sky. His curiously-shaped, boldly-coloured starships and psychedelic alien vistas are instantly recognisable, and one of Hello Games goals for the game was to make you feel like you d stepped inside one of his worlds. There are a few Chris Foss collections out there, but this is one of the best.
Dune
Hello Games founder Sean Murray has cited Dune in several interviews as a big influence on him, and as a result No Man s Sky. It s one of those books that completely transports you to its setting, telling the story of the coveted desert planet Arrakis and the politics and religion surrounding it. David Lynch also directed a film adaptation in 1984, which is one of the most bizarre movies ever released by a major studio. Huge sandworms similar to those found on Arrakis were seen in trailers for No Man s Sky, although no one seems to have found them in the game yet. Dune also spawned several spin-off games, including Westwood s fantastic Dune II.
Interstellar
Another grandiose sci-fi epic, this time from director Christopher Nolan. The influence of 2001 is undeniable, but Nolan uses his film to tell a much more human, and less abstract, story. It follows a group of astronauts as they travel through a wormhole to try and locate a new home for the human race, and it s full of striking, beautiful imagery. On an ice planet orbiting a black hole, the crew find themselves walking on immense frozen clouds, some of which are suspended above them. The first time you watch the film, wondering what awaits the crew as they land on these distant worlds is thrilling, and I get a similar feeling when I m playing No Man s Sky even if I haven t seen anything quite as dramatic yet.
SpaceEngine
Developed by Russian astronomer and programmer Vladimir Romanyuk, SpaceEngine uses real astronomical data to procedurally generate a three-dimensional recreation of our universe. It lets you fly around its galaxies and nebulae freely, and even land on planets, but it s more of a simulation than a traditional game. Still, it s hugely impressive, and whenever I play it I have a minor existential crisis. It makes you realise just how impossibly vast space is, but it s also hauntingly beautiful. Put on some classical music or some Boards of Canada and go on a mind-expanding cosmic voyage. And best of all, it s completely free.
Cosmos: A Personal Voyage
Late astronomer Carl Sagan wrote and presented this influential 1980 documentary series, which saw him embarking on a voyage through the cosmos. His knack for evocative, poetic description, and atmospheric music by Blade Runner composer Vangelis, makes it a strangely serene watch. An updated series hosted by Neil deGrasse Tyson is also available, but despite an abundance of flashy CG, it s not quite as powerful as the original. If you want an easy introduction to the sheer, unknowable majesty of space, this is a good place to start. Some of the information is outdated, but this is still one of the best attempts to popularise astronomy.
One Time For All Time
The soundscapes in No Man s Sky are, for the most part, quite understated and ambient. But when the action picks up if pirates attack you or you anger some Sentinels you ll hear something more in line with 65daysofstatic s usual musical style. One Time For All Time is one of their best albums, full of soaring synths, twinkling post-rock guitars, and driving percussion. It s an epic, massive-sounding record, particularly the brilliant Await Rescue. Sean Murray, a long-time fan of the band, approached them to licence a single track for No Man s Sky, and they were so inspired by the project that they ended up writing the music for it.
The Martian
Ridley Scott s confident adaptation of Andy Weir s hit novel is one of the best films he s made in years. Matt Damon plays Mark Watney, a sharp-witted, resourceful scientist who finds himself stranded on Mars. It s a film about survival, with Watney using what little resources he has to survive until rescue comes. Survival is a big part of No Man s Sky too, particularly on planets with extreme weather or radiation. Although if you want a more detailed, in-depth simulation of surviving on a harsh planet, try the manned missions in Bohemia s fantastic Take On Mars.
Rendezvous With Rama
This novel by Arthur C. Clarke is the first of a series, although the first one is widely regarded as the best. It tells the story of a group of astronauts travelling to a strange object flying through our solar system, who later discover that it s actually a vast, seemingly lifeless space station. Clarke s vivid descriptions of the station, named Rama, brilliantly convey how utterly alien this strange object is. As the crew explores the enormous structure, you share both their fascination and their fear of the unknown. A great sci-fi novel that I d love to see adapted as a film one day.
