No Man's Sky: Another early access survival game
After two years of hype and some vague information, No Man's Sky falls far flat of its goals and expectations. With a game like this it is important to remember that Hello Games an independent developer. However, with the amount of attention the game pulled and the promises it made to the gaming community, No Man's Sky should still be held to the same standard as any other video game.
That being said, this game has an abundance of flaws, some technical, others graphical. Render distances are simply too low. Approaching a planet and watching the textures render in, but not before very clearly witnessing the half-rendered textures and landscapes, has a way of pulling the player further out of the experience. Occasionally a building will be floating or placed on a slight hill causing one end to stick out into the air. This will sometimes put the stairs leading inside above the terrain which really defeats the whole purpose of having stairs in the first place. Landing a ship on a crooked landscape will not cause the ship to land crooked, which means that the ship itself will be partially morphed into the hillside.
To be fair, those things don't affect gameplay that much. What does affect gameplay is the games tendency to crash. While most new games have this problem on launch day, that doesn't make it okay. Crashing once an hour on average is still too much and is the reason why I personally have stopped playing the game all together after only five to six hours of gameplay. It doesn't just crash the game either, it crashes the PS4 resulting in the need to manually restart the system.
When No Man's Sky isn't crashing the gameplay comes out to shine... or so I thought. The gameplay is repetitive and, honestly, unoriginal. It has a similar feel to an early access survival game. The player is left with an unclear objective after the tutorial leading them on, what seems like, a never ending quest for resources. Constantly managing resources and making sure radiation doesn't kill you takes away for the implied meaning of the game: exploration. Having to cut down trees to support your life system so you can continue to explore is halted by the sentries who shoot anyone who so much as sneezes on plant or animal life.
No Man's Sky just feels like an indecisive project that was never truly completed. The visuals may look good under certain circumstances but it's not enough to make up for the games current flaws. I personally will eventually go back to play this game again and would say, to the right player, this is a fun game. Unfortunately the game just did not deliver on what it promised. Hopefully the developers at Hello Games will update it to the best of their abilities in order to provide a more smooth experience for players. Until then, wait for a sale.
