When No Man's Sky launched, a lot of people were disappointed in it. It wasn't as feature complete as the hype had led it to be believed. Between the hype and the developers overpromising, the game was not received well. Had I been able to play it at the time, though, I would have played at Launch, as the core concept of the game still appealed to me. What can I say? I'm susceptible to procedural generation.
I just wanted to show off a cool planet I found, even though it's hostile.
In No Man's Sky and the above games, what really helps the exploration is the anchoring of your home. A bonfire, a built base, a space station, they all act like a beacon back to safety and lets you think about what you've seen in safety. Whether it is the hud marker in No Man's Sky or the Compass in Minecraft, knowing where your home is just gives you a sense of safety. Knowing that, no matter how harrowing things get, you can get back. No matter what twists and turns you take during exploration, finding home makes the exploration that much more impactful to me.
You could compare No Man's Sky closer to Dark Souls in this aspect. Unlike Minecraft or Terraria, when you hop star Systems, it becomes harder to access the home you had started to build. You can think of your built base with your machinery and farm like a highly Kindled Bonfire. When you move to a new sector, there will be a space station, where you can buy and sell materials and talk to NPCs, but this would be comparable to a basic Bonfire. Once you start building your base up on a new planet, it will be like setting up a new Bonfire as your base.
I really enjoy just flying out and finding a new planet, seeing the new creatures, plants and animals. It's so relaxing, even when you get into a space fight that damages your ship. Combat isn't anything to write home about in the game, and it's not what I'm here. I'm here to land on a planet, look up at the skyline, and see another planet in the distance. Here is a screenshot I ended up taking where I was just enjoying the scenery.
I wish I had better words to explain how the exploration makes em feel. It's a sense of fulfillment that I get from seeing new areas that fills me with more endorphins than beating any boss does. I have not played a game that I can remember that makes me go "Oh, wow, I wonder what's over there" and "oh no, I need to get out of here RIGHT NOW" more than this game has. The little descriptors of new animals you find are evocative and makes you fill in what the creature is like from what you see and that little blurb. "Hs secondary skull", what does that mean? Why would it need that? "Has redundant organs" "Caustic Skin", and "Diet: Removed Hearts" are all evocative bits of lore and information that makes the creatures seem that much more alien. It's such a wonderful thing to discover. The words "Organic Rock" have caused me to flee the area in my ship, because just the thought of what it could be fills me with a feeling of "I should not be near that".
This game isn't for everyone. It isn't a detailed space sim, nor does it have a lot of interfactional interests that you need to deal with. You aren't establishing or running your own empire or anything like that. I like this solitary experience. I like flying and exploring planets. I like the light trading aspects the game has, where different sectors and planets can value different items different. There's just a lot of little things that I really enjoy in this game, and it's all tied back into the core loop of "go and explore a new place, and return to your central base". If flying the ship and seeing the planets was not as interesting, then it all falls apart. Each new sector has something to offer, and I cannot wait to see it.
No comments:
Post a Comment