‘No Man’s Sky’ – From Hello Games
Playstation 4, PC
7 out of 10

By Ethan Winkler ’17
THE ROUNDUP

One of the most anticipated games of 2016, ‘No Man’s Sky’ delivers on its promise of a beautiful game with limitless exploration, but fails to give us an immersive experience.

Released by Hello Games, “No Man’s Sky” was promised to be a game the world hasn’t ever seen, one with an endless amount of randomized gameplay. While this is true in some ways, it was lacking in a lot of things.

One of my biggest gripes is the lack of a clear, entertaining story.

When the game starts, the unnamed player wakes up on a random planet next to a broken spaceship. The game gives you a small tutorial on controls and how to rebuild your ship.

After that, you take off into space to start your adventure, but as far as story goes, this is where it falls apart.

To be fair, there are lots and lots of things to do and places to go. In fact, that’s a part of the game that I like.

You can explore an infinite amount of planets and solar systems, each containing different types of resources to collect and species of aliens and plants to discover and learn about.

You can even slowly learn the aliens’ languages through accessing monoliths on planets.

But the only reason to do these things is to improve your spaceship and equipment. There is no plot that draws you into the game, making it repetitive and boring after the first five or six hours.

All you know is you need to get to the center of the galaxy.

Another disappointment of mine is the lack of real multiplayer.

There is a small part of the game that allows you to rename and upload your discoveries to the game’s server, allowing other players to randomly find what you renamed.

While this brings a sense of community, it really isn’t what most people were expecting when Hello Games said that the game would have a multiplayer aspect.

Gamers wanted to fly around randomized planets with their friends, exploring the flora and fauna and discovering hidden treasures and ores.

But even with these complaints about the game, I found myself enjoying most of my time playing.

I love losing myself in games all about exploration. And if this game has anything, it’s an unlimited amount of things to explore.

I had so much fun learning different languages, going to different waypoints on planets and interacting with the different species of the game.

When you really pay attention to the dialogue and the details, it is obvious that Hello Games put a lot of work into making this game personal for everyone.

My biggest takeaway after playing this game is how it is going to impact gaming in a big way.

This formula for a seemingly unlimited amount of gameplay will almost certainly serve as a blueprint for many developing games in the future.

Completely immersive, personal and endless video games may not be as for away as we thought.