The Transcription: A Conflicted Review of No Man's Sky

As I sat down to play No Man's Sky, a game that promises an unparalleled open-ended space sim experience, I couldn't help but feel a sense of trepidation. The game is developed by Hello Games, a self-funded indie studio in Gilford, England, that had previously made a name for itself with the polished but ultimately unambitious side-scrolling motorcycle racer Joe Danger. Despite the odds being against them, the developers persevered and created one of the most ambitious games ever made, selling for just $60.

The gameplay is perhaps the most promising aspect of No Man's Sky, with procedurally generated entire galaxies to explore. The game begins with an intro featuring a vast expanse of space, or rather, sky, before setting you down on a random planet in a random part of the galaxy. A computerized voice guides you through your journey, telling you that you're alive... barely. Your character's equipment is broken and needs repairs, and it's up to you to figure out how to do so.

At first glance, No Man's Sky seems like everything I've ever wanted in a modern open-ended space sim. The game combines elements from various other titles, including Frontier: Elite II, The Precursors, Captain Blood, the X series, Starflight, and Spore. However, upon closer inspection, it becomes apparent that this is just the tip of the iceberg. The game is riddled with problems that would doom any other title to obscurity.

As I began playing, I quickly realized that survival was a major hurdle to overcome. You're tossed into an alien world with no idea what anything is, how to use it, or what to do. The planet's hazard protection and life support systems are draining, leaving you to scrounge for resources and fend off enemies as quickly as possible. Armed with a handheld multitool and a back-mounted jetpack, you'll need to mine for resources and keep enough fuel on hand to make a quick getaway, if needed.

The planets in No Man's Sky are truly massive, each one on the scale of Earth or even larger. Many star systems contain multiple planets, moons, and asteroid fields, all of which can be explored due to the wonders of procedural generation. As you learn the blueprint for building a hyperdrive, you'll unlock interstellar travel, allowing you to access the galactic map and travel to distant star systems. The galaxy is huge, with trillions of stars and over 18 quintillion planets to explore.

One of the most impressive features of No Man's Sky is its persistent nature. The game is synced up to a server, so everyone playing is contained within the same galaxy. However, this also means that the game can become cluttered and overwhelming at times. While it's still playable offline, accessing certain features requires an internet connection, which can be frustrating for those who don't have one.

Despite its many promises, No Man's Sky falls short in several key areas. One of the biggest problems is its inventory system, which is far too small when you start playing. Even with upgrades, your suit and ship inventories fill up quickly, especially since it's slot-based and not weight-based. This means that 500 units of heavy alloy takes up the exact same amount of space as a single tiny upgrade chip.

As I continued to play, I couldn't help but feel that No Man's Sky was one seriously flawed game right now. The handling of resources and upgrades is particularly egregious, making it difficult to navigate the game's many mechanics. While there are certainly moments of joy and wonder, these are often overshadowed by frustration and disappointment.

After the wow factor wears off, it becomes apparent that this is just a game in need of a complete overhaul. Even 20 hours into the game, I didn't really start liking No Man's Sky until much later on. The game's flaws are deeply ingrained, and it will take significant changes to turn this title around. For now, it's a cautionary tale about how even the most ambitious games can fall short of their promises.

The Devastating Reality of Resource Management

One of the biggest problems with No Man's Sky is its resource management system. As I navigated the game's many mechanics, I quickly realized that this was an area where the game fell woefully short. The inventory system, as mentioned earlier, is far too small when you start playing. Even with upgrades, your suit and ship inventories fill up quickly, especially since it's slot-based and not weight-based.

This problem is exacerbated by the fact that resources are used in a way that feels arbitrary and unfair. For example, 500 units of heavy alloy takes up the exact same amount of space as a single tiny upgrade chip. This means that you'll need to carefully manage your inventory, making sure to use resources in the most efficient way possible.

As I continued to play, I couldn't help but feel that this was just one of many problems with No Man's Sky's resource management system. The game seems to be designed around a flawed understanding of how resources should be used, leading to a frustrating and overwhelming experience for players. Even 20 hours into the game, I still struggled to manage my inventory effectively, feeling like I was stuck in a never-ending loop of resource gathering and crafting.

The lack of transparency and clarity in No Man's Sky's resource management system is also a major problem. It's not clear what resources are used for, how they're distributed, or even how to upgrade them. This lack of understanding makes it difficult to navigate the game's many mechanics, leading to frustration and disappointment.

In conclusion, No Man's Sky's resource management system is a major flaw that holds the game back from reaching its full potential. The game's use of resources feels arbitrary and unfair, leading to a frustrating experience for players. With significant changes to this aspect of the game, I believe it's possible to turn No Man's Sky around and create a truly amazing space sim experience.

A Game in Need of a Complete Overhaul

As I continued to play No Man's Sky, I couldn't help but feel that this was just one seriously flawed game. The handling of resources and upgrades is particularly egregious, making it difficult to navigate the game's many mechanics. While there are certainly moments of joy and wonder, these are often overshadowed by frustration and disappointment.

One of the biggest problems with No Man's Sky is its lack of a clear goal or direction. As I progressed through the game, I couldn't help but feel that I was just going through the motions, completing quests and gathering resources without any real sense of purpose. The game seems to be missing a defining narrative thread, which makes it difficult to become invested in the gameplay.

Another problem with No Man's Sky is its lack of clear progression or character development. As you upgrade your suit and ship, there doesn't seem to be much of an impact on your overall gameplay experience. You still gather resources, complete quests, and explore the galaxy, but without any sense of purpose or direction.

Despite its many flaws, No Man's Sky is still a game that has the potential to be truly amazing. With significant changes to its mechanics and narrative, I believe it's possible to turn this title around and create a truly remarkable space sim experience. However, for now, it's a cautionary tale about how even the most ambitious games can fall short of their promises.

The Wow Factor Wears Off

As I continued to play No Man's Sky, I couldn't help but feel that the game was one that had high expectations, but ultimately fell short. The game's initial promise and wow factor are undeniable, with its vast expanse of space and endless possibilities. However, as the hours ticked by, I began to realize that this was just a game in need of a complete overhaul.

At first, I was swept up in the excitement of exploring the galaxy and completing quests. The game's many mechanics were fascinating, and I found myself spending hours exploring different planets and star systems. However, as the hours turned into days, I began to feel a sense of frustration and disappointment.

The resource management system is particularly egregious, making it difficult to navigate the game's many mechanics. The lack of clear progression or character development also makes it hard to become invested in the gameplay. While there are certainly moments of joy and wonder, these are often overshadowed by frustration and disappointment.

After 20 hours into the game, I still didn't really start liking No Man's Sky until much later on. It was like the game had reached a plateau, where the initial excitement had worn off and reality set in. The game's flaws were no longer tolerable, and I couldn't help but feel that this was just a game that needed to be rewritten from the ground up.

In conclusion, while No Man's Sky has its moments of joy and wonder, these are often overshadowed by frustration and disappointment. With significant changes to its mechanics and narrative, I believe it's possible to turn this title around and create a truly remarkable space sim experience. However, for now, it's a cautionary tale about how even the most ambitious games can fall short of their promises.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enMan...Rarely do I feel as conflicted abouta game as I do No Man's Sky,which is a game for PlayStation 4and PC that procedurally generatesentire galaxies of space stuff to explore.On paper, it seems like all I ever wantedin a modern open-ended space sim,with a mishmash of components from Frontier: Elite II,The Precursors, Captain Blood, the X series,Starflight and Spore.And I loved the origin storybehind its developer, Hello Games.They're a self-funded indie studio inGilford, England, that, before now,only had Joe Danger as their claim to fame.A polished, but ultimately unambitious,side-scrolling motorcycle racer.They're a David that purposely created their own Goliath,and then did their best to slay him, no matter the odds.And make no mistake,the odds were never in their favor,with everything from the floodingof their studio at the end of 2013to the very hype around their game piling upto unforeseeable and unmanageable levels.To be fair, some of the latter can be attributed to Sony,who didn't fund the game's development butdid handle the distribution and marketing.And so we've got one of themost ambitious games ever madecreated by 15 people in Gilfordselling for the price of $60.And which ultimately has a list of problemsthat would doom any other game to obscurity.But we'll get to that momentarily.For now, let's just go over the gameplay.I'll mostly be showing the PlayStation 4 version,captured using its built-in capture app, soquality isn't as high as I'd like and it's a bit low-res,but since the PC port is a god-awful mess right now,PS4 is what I ended up playing on the mostbecause... it's the only one I could play at all.No Man's Sky begins with an intro featuring lots of sky,or I suppose technically it's space, but either way,there are no men in sight forwhich to claim ownership of it.You then wake up on a random planetin a random part of the galaxy,with a decidedly non-random computerized voicetelling you that you're alive... barely.Turns out some of your stuff is broken and needs repairsand from here it's up to you to figure out how to do so.It's a pretty major hurdle to overcome right off the bat,with very little in the way of instructions to guide youand plenty in the way of things tryingto figuratively kick you in the junk.No Man's Sky may be a lot of things,but first and foremost,it is a survival sim.So expect to make a lot of stupid mistakes at firstjust trying to stay alive.You're just tossed into this alien worldand you have no idea what anything is,what it does or how to properly use it.And depending on the random planet you receive,it's possible you'll have a mucheasier or harder experiencedue to the blend of stuff it contains.So keep in mind that everyone's startto the game will be somewhat unique.You're really at the whims of theplanet and the exosuit at the beginning,and the whole time its hazard protectionand life support systems are draining.So, armed with a handheld multitooland a back-mounted jetpack,you'll want to mine for resources andstave off enemies as quickly as possible,as well as keep enough fuel on hand tomake a quick getaway, if the need arises.Once you've got the resourcesto get your ship running again,and still have some left over to maintain it,you'll be able to wander andexplore the planet more freely.And, man, these planets are absolutely massive.I've read that many of them are on a scalethat matches up with the actual size of Earthand... I believe it.Each star system usually contains multiple planets, too,in addition to moons and asteroid fields,all of which can be explored due tothe wonders of procedural generation.Once you've learned theblueprint for building a hyperdrive,you'll unlock interstellar travel,which let's you access the galactic mapand travel to distance star systems.And the galaxy you're in is huge,with trillions of stars and over18 quintillion planets to explore.And not only that, but it's persistentand synced up to a server,so everyone playing is containedwithin the same galaxy.Although, it's exclusive to the platform being used.The game is still totally playable offline,but if you're connected, you do have access tothis extra layer of community-driven awesomeness.Still, though, it's worth noting thisis really a single-player experience.It's not meant to be multiplayer,so you're not going to be joining up with your friendsand wandering around with them or anything.From here on out, it's really upto you to do whatever you'd like,but there's a general overall goal to reach thecenter of the galaxy for ambiguous reasons.Which I'd recommend you do, at least for a little while.Even though at first,this seems overwhelmingly daunting,even impossible.For one thing, until you unlock the necessary blueprints,fueling your hyperdrive is a rare thing indeed.So you'll be sticking aroundwhere you started for quite a while.Heck, I didn't even leave my first starsystem until six hours into the game.And for that matter, I didn't really start LIKING No Man's Skyuntil about 20 hours in, and...Well, yeah, that's a problem!After the wow factor wears off andyou dive into the meat of the gameplay,it becomes apparent that this isone seriously flawed game right now.Let's just begin with the handling ofresources and upgrades, shall we?Because if there's one game that needed acomplete overhaul of its inventory system, this is it.To begin with, it's just way too small when you start.Even when you're finally ableto upgrade your suit and ship,you'll still fill up both inventories in record time,especially because it's slot-based and not weight-based.Which means that 500 units of heavy alloy takes upthe exact same amount of spaceas a single tiny upgrade chip.Now you might think, \"Big deal,just don't hoard so much stuff.\"And I might agree, if you didn't absolutely needfree inventory spots to perform several basic tasks.For instance, any equipment upgradeswill take up one whole inventory spot,no matter how major or minor.And if you want to craft something anduse up some of those raw materials you have,well, unless you have free inventory space inthe particular inventory where the item goes,it won't let you.It won't even let you open the craftingmenu to check out what materialsyou need to complete your current task.Or, hey, do you have a full inventory,but want to talk to this alien really quick?Better have at least one freeinventory slot in your exosuit,otherwise it won't even let you open your mouth.Oh, but what if you just drop anitem onto the ground really quickso you can talk to them?Nope! There's no way to simply drop items.In fact, there's not even a way to swap itemsfrom one slot to another unless you have a free spotto drop it in first before moving that initial item again.It's... AAGGHH!And this unbelievably annoying inventory systemonly makes the collecting of vital resourceseven more irksome than it would be on its own.As mentioned earlier, this is a survival game,so prepare for a crapload of grindingand busy workfor even the most basic resources.And I really don't have a hugeproblem with this type of gameplay.I've played a ton of games whereI enjoy this stuff quite a lot,like Minecraft, ARK: Survival Evolved and whatnot.But this chore of a gameplay loop is only mademore noticeable and aggravating whenyou've got an inventory the size of a barf bag.Unless you have the money for it,you'll have to go and seek outevery individual material you need,whether it's from mining, discovering item drops,exploring derelict alien structures or whatever.And that's fine.It's just that there's little in the way of variety here.And the slog is real.Still, there are other versions to check outin between cursing the inventory system.Like tracking down other crashed ships,exploring alien monoliths,perusing strange facilities,and disregarding the local constabulary.You can also make a point of observing and catalogingall the bizarre plants and animals you see.And it's worth doing this too, becausethen you're able to upload these to the serverand exchange for credits.You can also rename these before uploading,but you'll run into so many that before longeven going the immature route gets old.There's also the ability to feed certaincreatures and make them your pet.And although this is pretty awesome,since they seek out rare materialsfor you and they're just kind of cute,it ends up bumming me outsince you can't take them with youand you have to abandon themwhenever you leave the area.And the next thing that kindof bums me out is just how...artificial everything seems?I mean, sure it's a game worldlargely created by algorithms,so of course it's artificial.But to me, there's a difference between BEING fakedand FEELING faked.The first signs of this arose whenI landed on the fifth or sixth planetwith the same exact biomeand the same exact plants with the same kind ofdeer-like quadruped animals thathappen to have a funny headpiece.Like, I don't know about you,but this plant sure looks an awful lotlike this completely different plantfrom another star system entirely.And I know the technical reasons for this,since the procedural generationsystem is referring to a bucket of partsto construct everything like a really big LEGO set.And yeah, maybe you could evendismiss all this with a theory like Star Trek'swhere most alien life looks so similarbecause everything had an ancientcosmic originator that seeded all the stuffin the early years of the universe and whatnot.Either way, I don't care,because it severely takes away frommy desire to explore each planetwhen everything starts to look the same.Speaking of samey-ness, the same goes for outposts,sentient aliens and spaceports you run across.The spaceports, especially, area pretty big disappointment to me.There's just nothing interesting going on inside themand the alien NPCs here and elsewhere are just static.Predictable item dispensers.That's not to say the aliens are totally useless.There's some interesting choices you'll have tomake when talking to some of them through thistext adventure kind of prompt.And the whole language aspectis pretty fascinating to me.See, when you start off, you won't beable to communicate with anyone at all,with your languages being totally incompatible.But word by word, you'll be ableto piece these languages togetherby finding translation objects,or by performing tasks that increaseyour standing with their culture.So they'll want to teach you their language as thanks.I do wish there was more tothese alien relationships, though.Like, it'd be awesome to go onmore distinct missions for them,or establish trade agreements,or have one or two of them tagalong as wingmen or co-pilots.I mean, holy crap, the possibilities here are endless.And yet it doesn't explore verymuch of these possibilities at all,and as such, it failed to keep me engaged.At least, it failed for the first 20 hours or so,because after a certain point, which I won't spoil,you run across a few things thatmake the game way more enjoyable.And I know this is pretty excessive to have to wait that long to get to this stuff,but it really made a big difference.Through a combination ofsubstantially increased inventory space,fantastic new technological abilities to play with,being able to navigate through black holes,and even an actual story line to follow,this went from being a grind festto being something I could sit backand really enjoy for hours.I mean it. Once that critical point was reached,a light bulb just went offand No Man's Sky really openedup into something pretty special.The closer I got to the galactic coreand the more easily I was ableto acquire and store resources,the better it got.I had a clear goal to pursue if I wanted now.The planets got more interesting,my equipment was powerful enough to let meexplore underwater and fight mechs and stuff.Random space battles would occurand I was outrunning space piratesand actually winning,instead of just cowering in fear,and overall, I was just having a blast.It felt like what I wanted from the space stage in Spore.With the Galactic Adventures Pack, just...all crammed together into something that actually worked how I thought that would back in the day.I mean, it's just me and my shipand some cool abilities,and a huge galaxy of opportunity.I mean, much of it ends up wasted, still,but opportunity nonetheless.And now I'm conflicted about it again.That brings me back to myoverall issue with No Man's Sky.It's not that it's a bad game by any means, butit's that it only treads water with its own ideaswithout actually diving into the deep end.I genuinely hope Hello Gamestakes that dive in the future becausethe skeleton of a great game is here.But it's lacking muscle for the time being,especially in the first part of the game.Again, I can't stress enough how aggravatingthe first twenty-something hours were for meand, man, that just sucks.The honeymoon period of a gameshould be full of smiles and wonder,not grimaces and swearing.Instead, that joy and fulfillmentwith what I was doing in the gamedidn't arrive until much later into my experience, and...Well, come to think of it, maybe that's the whole point?I mean, in real life, you also start out with nothing,you have no idea what's going on,and things are just unmanageable for a long time.You may even want to quit because the promiseof better things in the future just seems too far off.But if you stick to it and work through the crap,there's a chance you'll find a purposeand a routine that works for you.You might even find some versionof happiness you can agree with.You reach a point where finally you can sit back,admire what you've earned,and just go exploring the weirdness of reality,free of the shackles of having to find your place in life.Ehh... I don't know if it's just the sleepdeprivation talking here or what, butonce I got to the good parts of No Man's Sky,I really felt that.Maybe you will, too.Or maybe you won't.Either way, I would understand.I understand why people love this gameand I understand why people hate it, too.I also understand if you think it's squarely in the middle,an overpriced bunch of forgettable nonsense.No Man's Sky is a big enough gamewith enough varying experiences to be all these thingssimultaneously.And despite its numerous problemsand baffling design choices,I've developed this genuinerespect for it because of that.It's still difficult for me to whole-heartedly recommend it,especially at $60, butit's certainly something that's gotten me thinking.And that's more than I can say for most games in 2016.And if you enjoyed this video on No Man's Sky,perhaps you'd like to check out my videoon their first games, the Joe Danger series,and some other stuff that's on here... you know?It's just there. And you can clickand watch those if you'd like,go to my channel or come backevery Monday and Fridayfor new videos here on LGR.And as always, thank you very much for watching.\n"