“No Man’s Sky” Was Good When it Launched, Actually

I remember the trailers for No Man’s Sky, and I remember all the hype.

I bought the special edition, and as soon as it arrived I popped the disc into my PlayStation 4….

and I was amazed! I awoke on a radioactive planet, and after making quick runs from the safety of my beat-up ship to gather resources, I had finally repaired it enough to leave the planet.

The atmosphere was a deep red, and when I finally left it and surfaced into the vastness of space, I felt a sense of accomplishment and wonder.

I have to confess here that I have a soft spot for stories in which a character awakes suddenly in a world they don’t know.

I thought of Journey, the acclaimed game that awakes the player in a vast desert with one quest: reach the top of the highest peak.

And now again, I was put into a vast space and given one over-arching quest: reach the center of this massive galaxy.

I spent most of my time trying to get my hands on more starship upgrades, especially to my warp drive; I wanted to make my ship able to travel as far as it could each time I used the warp cell needed to make the jump.

The rest of my time was spent exploring any and every new planet I saw – my goal was to find the closest Earth-like planet I could.

With all the fun I was having, you can imagine my surprise when I saw the reviews others were giving of the game…

“These features aren’t in the game! The developers lied to us!” was the most common complaint.

Now, I do agree that the developers could have benefitted from not promising too much at launch, but…

Despite all that was missing from it, I still felt it was a good game. And that the developers would try their best to make it better.

I loved No Man’s Sky at launch because of it’s general simplicity. There were no bases to construct and haul resources back to, no massive freighters to keep track of – there was just you, your tiny ship, and space.

There was space and all the time to explore planets, or to find an upgrade for your ship, or a rare resource to sell and make a hefty profit.

It was exploration at its most simple and most exciting; every jump to a new system with a precious warp cell inched me ever closer to the coveted Center, while also holding new systems to explore.

No Man’s Sky was good when it came out – and I’m so glad the developers didn’t give up on their project when the poor reviews came in. Since then they’ve added numerous free updates to the game, bringing in a lot of the content people wanted at launch.

And I can’t wait to see what else they do.

Happy wandering, Travelers.