![]() Kerbal Space Program and No Man's Sky don't aspire to the same goals, but there's a lot that can be learned from the dopey little kerbals and their obsession with dying on other planets. No Man's Sky trivializes the journey in order to focus on the reward-a strange alien or a neat upgrade-and in doing so makes neither feel like an achievement. And as a result, there hasn't been that moment of triumph, of feeling like I've conquered the inhuman hostility of space. There's no skill to navigating space or charting a course, no appreciable increase in the difficulty of harvesting the same minerals to fuel my ship. While warping to new systems is a more involved process than in Elite, the reality is I'm still just acquiring easy to find resources and then pushing a few buttons to blast off to a new frontier. That's because, like Elite Dangerous, No Man's Sky doesn't require any investment in my journey. Each one is, ostensibly, a destination worth traveling too, but as I arrive at one after the other, it feels more like hitting up the grocery store and post office on the way home from work than discovering places unknown. A planet might have a unique color or landscape, it might be populated with some strange animal I've never seen before, but beyond knee-jerk curiosity, neither feels like a satisfying conclusion to the journey that brought me there.Īs I land on the planet surface and begin to explore, all I'm finding are the same minerals, the same procedurally generated alien installations, and the same ruins dotting the landscape. ![]() But while I've enjoyed my time with it, I can already sense a creeping lack of enthusiasm for whatever awaits me in the next system. No Man's Sky certainly has a lot more stuff waiting for me in each solar system than Elite Dangerous. But even refuelling was more of a chore than a challenge. The only real challenge was managing my fuel levels and making sure I didn't wind up stranded in a solar system with a star that I couldn't use to recharge-a mistake that would result in self-destructing back to civilized space. Journeys and destinationsĪs I thought through that disappointment, I realized it wasn't just that my goal-the Coalsack Nebula-had nothing of interest for me, but also that the journey that led me there was equally as unfulfilling. I logged off-not even having the will to make the return trip home. If it wasn't for the map telling me otherwise, I would never have known I was 500 light years away. It was just a smattering of planets no different from the ones back home. That system, and the several dozen others I visited in the Coalsack Nebula before calling it quits, didn't contain anything of interest or worth. Over an hour later I reached my destination, a system named Musca Dark Region CQ-Y D68, and couldn't help but look back at my 30-plus hours in Elite Dangerous as time poorly spent. With each jump from one system to the next, with each break to skim fuel blowing like a hot breeze from the surface of a star, I began to feel less and less enchanted with my idea of what exploration meant in Elite Dangerous. No Man's Sky doesn't require any investment in my journey. With so many places to see, the the excitement of exploring shouldn't come from what you discover, but in the story of how you found it. ![]() Space exploration games like No Man's Sky have a problem: How do you capture that 'Star Trek' feeling of launching into the great unknown in a universe that is ultimately populated by recognizable patterns? It's a tough nut to crack, and in the past few years games like No Man's Sky and Elite: Dangerous have been trying to leverage the weight of massive galaxies to do just that. I collect my prize, a new word from an alien dialect, and hop back in my ship to head towards the next odd-but-not-that-odd thing on the horizon. Setting my ship down, I hop out and-for what must be the twentieth time tonight-interact with one of No Man's Sky's supposed mysteries. Entering its atmosphere, the spire of an alien obelisk juts out of the crimson dirt. I pick the somewhat evil-looking red planet to disembark on. I see three planets around a glowing yellow sun in this system. As my hyperspeed drive disengages and the fluctuating aurora of light before me dissipates, I take a moment to absorb my surroundings. My journey in No Man's Sky has so far been like going to a thrift store and rooting through people's discarded things looking for a hidden treasure.
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