No Man’s Sky Has A Massive Universe To Explore, But Is There Anything Worth Finding In It?

After seeing the demo for No Man's Sky at E3 2015, Pashford Murano wonders if there will be anything interesting worth finding in the games massive universe.

[Godmars290]

Yeah. As big as the game promises to be it can't possibly be as big as it could be without boarders and mysteries. Local governments to work for or against, as well as truly unique oddities. Like the obelisk from 2001.

[joab777]

The benefit is that they can do pretty much whatever they want once we start. They can add in things fairly easily.

What I want is something akin the Eve online. Give us the tools and watch what happens. Allow us to join forces, create governments and control areas, trade, military etc. I realize that there's a backstory with the sentinels, so there must be some type of universal overseer. Who knows? Maybe once someone reaches the center, it's a game changer. Maybe each person that reaches it gains some power or insight that affects the universe somehow.

Maybe you gain power and influence in different ways, credits through discovery, trade, military etc.

Just give us the template and tools, and we will bring this thing to life.

[fermcr]

So much hype for this game... I suspect a lot of people are going to be disappointed.

[MrSec84]

The reason this game is being hyped is because it's quite literally an enormous expanse of space, on the scale of an entire massive galaxy, filled with an enormous variety of planets, moons, asteroids and stars to view.
For people to discover what is there, be it alien life, tech, structures, new materials or anything that could possibly be of value within this massive game.

If having that in a game is disappointing then this game isn't for those people that are disappointed at the prospect of being able to explore all of that.

Such mass exploration is what the audience hyping this game up have wanted for all of their lives and there really hasn't even been a game that has done what No Man's Sky is doing before.
Not in the way that NMS is anyway.

[medman]

@fermcr
What MrSec84 said.... I'm all about that exploration, boss. Everything else is a bonus after that. Simply the prospects of exploring what is essentially a never ending expanse and discovering new life forms, planets, stars, etc. etc. is enough for me. More than enough. I'm really hopeful things like gravitars, magnetars, stellar mass black holes, quasars, pulsars, blazars, etc. etc. are in this game. I haven't seen any in the gameplay, but I hope to find them when I play.

[MrSec84]

It is as big as Sean Murray says, it's a galaxy, with the potential for Hello Games to add another in the future if they really want or potentially that can add more things to the existing space, like points of interest inbetween the solar systems for people to explore.

The whole point of the game is for there to be no borders or boundaries within the whole space of that galaxy.
Of course is can be as big as it is, it's a procedurally generated galaxy, so no boarders is kinda the point to making such a space to play in.
Mysteries are also the point, because if everyone knew what was in there then it wouldn't be all that interesting to fly around if you know what you're going to find.

[3-4-5]

* No Man's Sky = Me getting to do what I want.

My experience with the game is going to be mostly different than yours, or his or hers or anybodies.

That is what I like about games like this. I get to have my own unique experience.

Yea it's shared a bit, but I love getting to help out and add knowledge to the universe, and go at my own pace.

[98xpresent]

I was very impressed with what they showed on ign.

[FoxyGotGame]

'YOU' personally were impressed with No Man's Sky, and so was 'I'. Yet others Disagree with the fact that 'YOU' were impressed?!

I may be new on N4G, but it's the same old BS no matter where you go. Welcome to the Age of Entitlement and Imposition.

Illogical /

[freshslicepizza]

i think you might have it backwards. others disagree with the fact that some were not impressed and are concerned of what all there is to do in the game.

we need to stop this hive mind where if one opinion is not shared that it isn't valid.

my main concern is this game is going to be filled with a bunch of dlc to give the developer time to create the real games intentions.

[KingKelloggTheWH]

What is there to even do in this game? I am seriously curious. Is there a story, mini games? Quest, I mean there are planets...but what else?

[StrayaKNT]

You get to name planets after yourself I guess and gather resources

[imtheman2013]

From what I've seen/read/heard it's like, collect a variety of resources from a variety of different locations and trade those resources for currency. Discover locations/species/objects and sell that information for currency. Use the currency to upgrade your ship/armor/weapons so that you can make it to the center of the galaxy.

Also, there are AI traders, pirates, and other unknown factions that do things (apparently) and react to your existence (double apparently). So, yeah, do what you will with that information.

[KingKelloggTheWH]

Ok, thanks! I want to see more before I am sold.

[Chaosdreams]

Ironically this will most likely have more content than Destiny, and people still gobble Destiny up. I'm looking forward to this game, however I don't let hype cloud my decisions, nor do I ever buy day one, not anymore.

[Spotie]

Not seeing any irony. This game NEEDS more content than Destiny, because it's many millions of times more massive.

There's really no comparing them, because while they're both a lot about space, and both first-person, they don't have much else in common.

[DigitalRaptor]

Really?

Okay... You explore a more-or-less infinite space, you can discover and name planets and species, you can mine for resources, you can trade those resources for money, which you can use to upgrade your equipment, you can swim, you can attack or defend other ships (AI or very, very rarely will be a human player, but you won't know until you are both on a planet and outside of your ships). You can do lots, you can revel in the mysterious beauty of each planet.

At the end of the day, the game is not a completely GUIDED experience like gamers seem to want these days. It's a dream of Sean Murray's to explore a vibrant and stylistic infinite universe. This game is a dream for those that want to bring it to life.

Your GOAL? To make it to the centre of the galaxy. Sean said that depending on what kind of player you are, what you find there will either make you want to carry on playing or give up the controller.

Here's TONS more information I didn't get into: http://www.neogaf.com/forum...

[KingKelloggTheWH]

Thank you!! People werent really listing info besides "you can explore" everywhere, I am very curious about the game I just want to see what else it has in it :D

[Thunder_G0d_Bane]

Nope. To be honest it looks like something that you will be bored of after an hour.

But I really think this game is only for the fans of Space sims.

[bmwfanatic]

Who approves these articles?

[FreakOrama]

People are criticizing the game (even though it's not out yet) for having nothing much to do, even though it seems like it does have a lot more content than what Elite Dangerous is providing.

[URtheWalrus]

This game sounds very similar to elite dangerous, but a different art style. Now i am not familiar with either one, but this one seems a lot simpler than the other. Not that it makes any difference, just saying this may be way easier to play.

[MasterCornholio]

After watching the video on IGN I'm worried about the game having too much in it.

Just seeing how massive it is scares me.

[Meltic]

In a recent twitch Q&A from sean they asked again when he would announce a release date for the game. He said **i cant say more than it will be VERY VERY SOON and i Think people will be happy about it**.

When he said people will be happy about it i Think he will announce it this month with IGN when its No Man sky month. My stomach tells me this August beacuse he said that the disk copy of the game will not arrive first. So they can release it fast to download. Allso no preorderes will come so thats allso a good reason for them to release the game pretty soon.

And Sean allso mentioned that he doesen't care if there is other BIG titles released the same time as No man sky. He just want to release it so bad but he wants to be sure about it first. The whole team want it released but sean is unsure him self. Here is the stream.

http://www.twitch.tv/joysti...

[-Gespenst-]

There needs to be more to this game than taking pictures of Spore Creature Creator flora and fauna, and watching the world burn in meaningless space battles.

There should be hidden dungeons and mysterious artifacts hidden all through the universe of the game. There should be a massive narrative / conspiracy to uncover and piece together. I know this is an indie game, but there needs to be a sense of progression.

I personally want a game that just drops you in a giant world with next to no direction (no messages, no missions) in which there is a huge mystery to be solved. It'd be kind of like that conspiracy everyone thinks is in GTAV - a game based around that kind of thing. Hints everywhere, weird sounds in certain places at certain times, mysterious pictures in books, on walls, on posters, weird objects and structures and places, and so on. No indication from the game that you're getting somewhere - no alerts when you find something, you just have to piece it all together. The world itself gives you indication that you're onto something, not the hud / game. Imagine how cool that would be... it'd probably be the hardest game ever, but it'd just be amazing.

A few games seem to be trying this approach out - games like The Witness and Everyone's Gone to the Rapture, but I'm thinking much bigger. A much larger, more diverse world to explore, for instance.

Anyway, it'd be nice if No Man's Sky had a similar thing going on, but I suppose it's too late to add it now. The game seems to have a really loose narrative, but nothing particularly deep and complex.

[schlanz]

That's kind of my worry- no progression, nothing to keep you wanting to explore from one planet to the next. Will the next planet and it's inhabitants look different than the last? Almost definitely. But will you be doing the same boring stuff on each one, with none of that boring stuff helping you accomplish a larger end-goal? I sure hope so.

And for all those millions of planets, I'm a little worried that after a little while we'll start seeing the same stuff repeated.. maybe a palette swap here and some scaling diffences.. but will each planet *truly* feel unique after seeing 50 of them? Definitely skeptical of that.

Still, the potential for this game has me excited.. just a little apprehensively so.

[Spotie]

There "should" not be any of that stuff. It SHOULD be exactly what the developers want it to be: near endless exploration as you try to get to the center of the galaxy.

Don't get me wrong. I think if there WERE some mysteries like that, it'd be cool. I'd love to see nods to Frank Herbert and Larry Niven (and others) pop up in the form of Ringworld or Arrakis, too.

But what I want most is for the game to do a good job being what it is.

[-Gespenst-]

I'm not saying there shouldn't be exploration. On the contrary I agree that the game should be pure exploration, but exploration is pretty pointless without discovery. I don't mean that there should be a mission-based structure, or an Ubisoft mini-map that looks like a pizza. It should be bare bones like Shadow of the Colossus was. You explore, and you find stuff, and you piece together what's going on yourself with no help from the game. You rely entirely on the contents of what you find in the world / universe to figure out what to do. No messages from the game - no "mission completed" messages. How would that not be amazing?

The game isn't really endless exploration to get to the centre of the galaxy, it's monotonous toil to get to the centre of the galaxy. Mining for things and selling them to make your ship better, and edging ever closer to your goal - dull as hell. Who the hell cares about economies and trading? You cannot get duller than that. It almost seems like it's just a matter of upgrading your ship so that it can travel further - nothing more complex than that, which is just unimaginative.

Also it's pretty clear that the flora and fauna of the game suffer from Spore syndrome, so expect the exploration gameplay to get pretty stale pretty quickly. Ultimately, I don't think there's much of interest to be found in the game's world. I'd say experiencing like less than 0.5% of the quintillion worlds in the game is enough to get your fill.

I want a game the gameplay of which involves the kind of research and exploration and discovery that went into the last big secret of SotC, or the conspiracy suspected to exist in GTA V. No explicit help from the game at all. That would be a game with longevity, and not the kind that relies on dull repetition.

And hang on, you expect those kinds of references from a game that quotes Jaden Smith? Good luck.

[FoxyGotGame]

This game might be too intelligent for the COD fraternity. Some Gamer's seem to think every game must have an (obvious) Beginning, Middle and End. Take the game as it is intended, or leave it alone. Interesting that I rarely see articles like this about Elite Dangerous and other Space Exploration games that seemingly have endless goals.

What makes No Man's Sky any different? Not much, so I'm inclined to believe the same Negative Gamer's are at work again. You don't want No Man's Sky, good for you, but don't knock what you don't know.

[iceman06]

You didn't even see this kind of stuff pointed at the much praised Minecraft, which shares a similar overall philosophy of being open ended and non-story or objective driven. Personally, I think the skepticism derives from the fact that it was announced for consoles and console gamers, especially this gen, have shown a tendency to hype a game to the point where it is almost impossible to reach. Along with that hype comes expectations that the game must be something that it was not intended to be. As opposed to just taking it for what it's worth.
I'm not hating on console only gamers, as I AM one. But, if this were just PC only, I really don't think this game would have as much of a high profile and would be able to be judged more fairly for what it IS doing and not for what it is NOT doing. Maybe I'm wrong. I DO know that I can't wait to give it a try for myself.

[ScorpiusX]

I had high hope for this game , but after watching that 18 minutes of uninterrupted game play on ign yesterday . I've lost all excitement for plus it developer was not helping with his lack enthusiasm, just did seem like he even tried to hype the game.

[iceman06]

Well, to be fair, he's probably burnt out on promoting the game. You have to remember that he is NOT a PR guy by nature. He's a coder/developer on an extremely small team. He was probably thrust into a position that he is TOTALLY unfamiliar with. Not to mention that he probably has extreme levels of anxiety, as the co-creator of the game, with showing it and trying to explain the game to the masses. I think he's just banking on the idea that people will either get it...or they won't.
If what you saw on IGN didn't inspire you to want to play the game, then it's just not for you. That seems like No Man's Sky is gonna be that kind of game. I expect reviews to be all over the place from extremely low (there isn't anything to do crowd) to damn near perfect (use your imagination and you create your fun crowd).

[FoxyGotGame]

@iceman06

Here have a Bubble "Well Said" Sir.

[tulholdren]

Cant wait to play and add it to my Sony collection. From the video my type of game.

[smolinsk]

It is so fun to read comments on this game. People are so confused and provoked when a game does something like this were you have to use your imagination and there is no big fat cross on where to go and what to do. Come on guys don't expect so much and just enjoy that some games trying to do something new and innovative that the big gaming companies can learn from and use in the future. Everything is gonna be great:-)

[GribbleGrunger]

It doesn't really depend on how huge the universe is, it's about how large your imagination is.

[guyman]

Well said. Unfortunately, imagination is Something which many people lack nowadays. People just cant seem to see the beauty in this game. They are constantly posting how they are concerned about "what point/objective is" (there is one, centre of the universe) when in actual fact it is a game where you create your own experience and interpretation. People dont get that

[LCEvans]

Probally an empty universe Emptyness awaitssssss LOL

[SuperbVillain]

its cliche to say, but a variety of guns + miltiplayer would def benefit this game