‘No Man’s Sky’ Game Review: A Billion Planets ≠ A Billion Things To Do

Was there ever a moment in your life where you looked up at the night sky, stared at the stars, and thought about just how big the universe is? Did the vastness of space ever make you think about how it would be to explore the great beyond? Did your father ever tell you that you would never become an astronaut, your family couldn’t afford space camp, and said you’d never amount to anything anyway? Childhood traumas aside, No Man’s Sky, released on Aug. 9, attempts to give you this experience by bringing the incredible expanse of space to your home gaming console.

No Man’s Sky Review

When Hello Games announced this title at 2014’s E3 conference, it seemed absolutely unreal and astonishing as to what the premise was: to make an artificial universe. Indeed, the game’s super advanced AI randomly generates planets, solar systems, weather, and wildlife from which you can essentially explore the depths of a universe that is completely different each and every time you play. Combine this with the graphics of the PS4 and PC, and you have an astonishing single player experience that sounds like something straight out of the Jetsons.

So what do you do in No Man’s Sky? What do you do with an amazing, randomly generated universe?

You mine.

Now, before you think to yourself, “Oh darn, I paid $60 for another copy of Minecraft again,” remember: you have a gun. With it, sometimes you fight animals and sentinels (generic killer robots), and the more things you kill, the tougher the sentinels become. So no, it’s not a copy of Minecraft. It’s a copy of Grand Theft Auto except in space.

In all seriousness, No Man’s Sky is not a bad game at all. Everyone was psyched for this game up until a few days after it came out, but why is this? Simply put, the premise of the game is amazing, while the game itself is anything but. You focus constantly on getting money and materials to upgrade your ship and gun so that you can get to the next randomly generated planet just so you can do the same thing all over again in a slightly different setting. While it might be worth it to see each planet’s unique aesthetic firsthand, after a while it becomes a chore. What’s the point of doing the same thing over and over again?

This being said, most games do, at their core value, make you do the same thing over and over again. No Man’s Sky focuses less on what you can do in the world as compared to what you can see and discover, making it a unique experience in its own right. I would go as far as to say, while it’s still fresh, the first few planets are enchanting, to the point where anyone would have fun exploring. If just for the beginning of this beautiful, massive adventure, I’d recommend No Man’s Sky.

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