GAME REVIEW: ‘No Man’s Sky’ offers a vast, beautiful, but repetitive universe

Ever since mankind gazed up at the heavens, we’ve dreamt of touching the stars. While human beings are still figuring out how to build an actual interstellar spaceship, video games have been filling the void left by our incapacity to realize such dreams.

“No Man’s Sky” was a game promised to give us the most gratifying taste of what it’s like to adventure through the void. An open universe boasting quintillion planets. Massive alien worlds, each with its own unique ecosystem. And the ability to coast between planets without illusion-breaking loading times. For anyone who’s always wished to boldly go where no man has gone before, the game sounds like a godsend.

But a promise is only a promise, and video games can only deliver so much. Does “No Man’s Sky” achieve everything it set out to achieve? Or is it another overambitious game that crashes and burns like a starship empty of fuel?

The cycle

You start your adventure stranded on an alien planet. The only way off it is to repair your busted starship. To do that, you’ll have to gather materials. Lots and lots of materials.

What most go into “No Man’s Sky” not knowing is that gathering resources will take up a huge chunk of your playtime, more so than sailing through space itself. There are items to be crafted, from the scanner that’ll allow you to identify plants, animals, and minerals, to the propulsion system that’ll let you escape your first planet. You’ll craft upgrades that’ll turn your multi-tool into a weapon, and improve your exosuit’s ability to keep you alive in harsh planetary conditions. And to be able to do all that crafting, you’ll need to do a lot of mining and reaping.

Boundless landscapes are bursting with wondrous flora that yield zinc and platinum. Caves are lined with enormous, glimmering crystals of plutonium and aluminum. There are giant, natural towers of gold and nickel, and even rocks can be harvested for iron. Once you go into space, you’ll find destroying asteroids and space vessels will net you more minerals.

Aside from solving the mystery behind a god-like entity known as the Atlas, finding more minerals to manufacture new stuff with is perhaps your biggest impetus for exploring the universe. To make bridging the colossal distances between star systems possible, you’ll need to craft warp cells, whose ingredients are a tad rarer than other items’. So you visit another world in search of those ingredients. Then you discover you need better weapons to fight off the space pirates that keep destroying your ship and stealing your precious cargo. So you go to another planet to look for ingredients to build those weapons.

Eventually you’ll have so much stuff you won’t be able to carry them all. “No Man’s Sky” starts you off with an abominably tiny inventory, and managing it is one of the early game’s greatest annoyances. Fortunately, you can increase the number of your exosuit’s inventory slots. You can also trade your starship and multi-tool for ones with more storage space. To do all this takes money, so you need to gather more resources and sell them to be able to afford more things. Yet another scheme trapping you in the endless cycle of harvesting and exploration.

Building blocks

The universe in “No Man’s Sky” is astoundingly beautiful. Space is awash with colors, as are the planets. Whether it’s a water world dotted with craggy islands, or a snow-covered forest planet, there’s always something interesting to see. Even barren worlds are mesmerizing in their haunting loneliness. The procedural generation of these quintillion planets ensures you’ll never visit the exact same place twice.

And yet you’ll realize soon enough that, though their color schemes change, and their features—from the blades of grass at your feet to the mountains stretching skyward—are scrambled well enough to fake the appearance of uniqueness, all these worlds are built using the same building blocks. Once you learn to recognize those building blocks, everything starts looking samey.

The wildlife are also composed of such blocks. That elephantine trunk you just saw on that deer-like critter? Don’t be surprised to find that same schnoz on a T-Rex later in your travels. While this Frankenstein technique produces creatures deserving of awe, many I’ve encountered range from the bizarre to the laugh-out-loud comical.

First contact

You aren’t the only intelligent being in this cosmos. Strewn across the worlds are various alien structures, such as observatories, manufacturing facilities, and trading posts. These structures look like they’re the products of the universe’s only architectural firm, further enhancing the sense of déjà vu. Most will yield upgrades, while others will direct you to crashed starships that you can repair and use to replace your current vessel.

Sadly, alien settlements are small and isolated, each never housing more than a single alien. If you were expecting sprawling metropolises jam-packed with extraterrestrials going about their daily lives, you’re in for a disappointment.

Interactions with said aliens are also dry, static affairs. Aliens don’t move from their spots, and will only either reward you (by giving you upgrades) or punish you (by saying something mean about you) depending on your reply to their queries.

To understand what these aliens are saying, you can visit planets’ ancient monoliths, each of which will translate a single word of their language. These sites also give a glimpse of these aliens’ histories, philosophies, and religions, via light puzzles and admittedly well-written story snippets.

Not all intelligent alien species you’ll meet are friendly, but you’ll only get to fight them in space. Pirates will occasionally interrupt travel between planets. Dogfighting isn’t as exciting as it sounds; oftentimes, you’ll simply find yourself spinning in place in an effort to get the enemy in your crosshairs.

Ground combat isn’t much better. The most common enemies you’ll face are sentinels—robotic drones that’ll stop in midair for seconds at a time, making them easy targets. Some animals will attack you on sight; sadly, their behaviors are as predictable as the sentinels’. You don’t have that many weapons to choose from, either. Your multi-tool can function as a gun or grenade launcher, but that’s about it.

Space chillin’

With mediocre combat, and gameplay so repetitive your first two hours will likely be no different from your 50th, you would think I would’ve given up on this game ages ago.

Discovering new worlds may lose its initial thrill, but not its charm, especially when everything about this game is so visually splendid. The exhilaration of burning through the atmosphere as you descend onto a planet, the sense of wonder as you glide over vast terrains in search of points of interest, and the rush of zooming off into space without a second of loading time have yet to wane, even after dozens of hours of play.

Predictability isn’t always a bad thing, either. “No Man’s Sky” is one of the most relaxing games I’ve experienced this year, thanks to the cycle that allows me to do whatever I want, whenever I want. Whittling a 100-foot tower of nickel down to shiny slivers can be cathartic, while hunting down the next upgrade will appeal to the completionist in you.

Simply put, “No Man’s Sky” isn’t a game you play for the instantaneous gratification of landing a headshot or successfully performing a complex combo. It’s one you play after a long, tiring day, and all you want to do is sit back, turn off your brain, and chill.

Boldly going

“No Man’s Sky” is a deeply flawed game that’s also a technical and artistic marvel. While it’s hard to recommend to everyone, those looking for a relaxing alternative to all those combat-heavy action-adventure games will find it a worthwhile experience. If cruising through the cosmos can be this pleasant, I’ll gladly lay down my plasma rifle for a multi-tool.

Rating – 7/10
Platforms: PlayStation 4, Microsoft Windows

— BM, GMA News