Greg Avoids No Man's Sky

Earlier this week the highly anticipated 'No Man's Sky' was released. I followed this game in development, a few reviews have popped up from gamers and critics, and I think I have enough information to recommend that people avoid this game. It feels strange recommending that people avoid a game that I have never personally played, but listen to my argument and decide for yourself.

No Man's Sky is a mind mindbogglingly enormous survival space exploration game. Trillions of procedurally generated planets, each one unique with its own plants, animals, rock formations, and ruins. You, a single wanderer with a spaceship in an unfathomably huge galaxy with your goal to get to the centre. Here's my issue: the game is a gazillion miles wide but only an inch deep. Under the vast and colorful sci-fi aesthetics there are only very simple and rather annoying mechanics.

So what do you do in No Man's Sky? You start out having crash landed on a strange planet and you need to locate and harvest the necessary elements to repair your ship and keep yourself alive. The planet is big (of course) and colorful and full of plants and animals and rocks that can be scanned to reveal what sort of elements the contain, and harvested. None of the elements are very difficult to find and every planet seems to have plenty of each. You can also scan and record the exotic fauna and flora to earn credits which can be used to purchase new tools, weapons, and ships. You can also find ruins that will teach you an alien word so that when you run into aliens you can piece together what they are saying to you. Once you repair your ship you can travel to other planets which you will need to do often as your life support / weapons / thrusters / tools will require constant refills to keep you going.

But here's the thing, all of the worlds you travel to are procedurally generated. They are all 'unique' but there are also, underwhelmingly, exactly the same. Sure they will have different amounts and types of fauna and flora but after playing a few hours you will have seen and experienced all that you will ever see and experience. One planet is just like the next, a place to visit, to walk around, scan, harvest, and leave. There is no story, no adventure, no impact, your actions mean nothing, and whatever tiny mark you make will never be seen again. It's the same elements, the same ruins, and the same alien structures with the same aliens selling the same things. You can upgrade your inventory / ship / tools / components to be more efficient and let you go through the game faster.

The combat is very simple and barely worth noting.

What I see in No Man's Sky is a technological breakthrough with being able to travel an entire galaxy of procedurally generated planets without any loading time whatsoever. This is an impressive feat that will not go overlooked by anyone. I don't think they made a game worth playing with this new technology though. There's just no point to it. Sure, exploration can be a fun and exciting thing in and of itself but never procedurally generated exploration and never when traveling to planets is so incredibly quick and easy. Once you see the selection of possible ruins and structures you will have seen them all. Every planet in No Man's Sky is just a more visually pleasing planet from SPORE, a pretty but vapid place to waste time. The only interesting things worth doing are seeking out new plants and animals (which will also become samey just not quite as fast) and making your way to the centre of the galaxy for whatever procedurally generated thing waits for you there but are these things actually worth doing and is doing them worth $79.99 and dozens of hours of your time?


If you have a first person space exploration itch that needs scratching go take a look at the X3 series or The Kerbal Space Program; these are quality titles with more value and at a lower cost.

At the very least read more reviews to make sure this is what you want to spend your money on and maybe wait for the price to go down.