FYI: No Man's Sky

[Phil Rodrigues]

Matt, Karl and I are messing around with No Man's Sky. We put 60 hours into it in the last 2 days ... which I guess means we like it? Its a quirky game, it won't have the broad appeal of Conan, but:

If you like space games it is worth checking out. It is on sale on Steam for half off ($30) until the end of the month. If you are curious, you need to coordinate with us before you start or else you will end up halfway across an extremely large universe.

What is it like? Subnautica + Wing Commander + Minecraft. The key feature is a nearly infinite galaxy full of star systems and planets to explore, all of which have different terrain, climate, flora, fauna and minerals. You can go anywhere you want, build anything anywhere, and destroy almost anything. Its populated by nice and mean creatures, alien races and other players. The core game-play loop is exploring things, gathering resources to survive and build while you go, selling things for money, fighting a little, and exploring some more. 

Multiplayer is limited, they just added it. The entire universe is persistent so you can see and enter anyone's base. Groups are limited to 4 players, and you will probably only ever see those 4 players in the game. However, those 4 players can rotate so if you group with 3 people one day you can group with a different 3 people the next day. Its similar to a drop-in, drop-out co-op game. Your inventory, ships, home base and quest progress always stays with you.

No Man's Sky was broadly panned when it released 2 years ago, and the Steam reviews still reflect that. However, the devs worked very hard since then and this new release is practically a 2.0, and its very good - up from a 42% positive rating to a 84% positive rating on Steam since Tuesday.

This is not a game I expect a dozen people will play for many months. However, if you like space games and are curious it is worth checking out. Let me know and I can add you to the No Man's Sky chat on Discord.