No Man’s Sky is a survival game. In the game you have more than 18 quintillion planets (1030) that you can visit and explore. And in those planets you will have to look for resources and to battle against an oppressive sentinel force, and also with bounty hunters and space pirates. On the planets you can also find wide range of phallic-looking flora and funny-looking fauna.
In the game you have a ship and you travel through the space. You can lend on any planet that you choose. And, when you lend on the planet you can step out of your ship and start looking for resources. Went you lend on a planet, you can for instance, search for minerals and materials to repair your ship which will probably have some damage on it.
So during the game, and especially in the beginning everything look new and everything looks exciting, as you discover and travel through distant new planets.
The landscapes of planets are different of course, but the animation is quite peculiar in every of them, as the visual effect leave on the viewer quite artistic impression. When you decide to leave the planet that you have visited, you enter back in your ship, and jet off into the galaxy. The ship accelerate very fast and in a second time you are went through the clouds and you are now in far distant away space.
Planets are very different, so you will have unique experience of traveling and lot of surprises when you get to one particular planet. The climate on planet can be very different, some of them are very cold, which makes them harder to explore, yet some of the planets have moderate or warm climate. Also the difference between planets is in aggressiveness of the sentinels. On some planets sentinels (mutant-hunting robots; that kind of robots often appears in American comic books published by Marvel comics). Also, on the planets you will have sometimes other enemies, besides sentinel there can also be some indigenous creatures that can be equally aggressive just like sentinels. Sometimes, while exploring the planet on which you are currently located, you will realize that that planet is very hard for exploring and providing yourself with minerals or other resources, so sometimes you will probably come to the conclusion that it is much easier to just get back in your ship and jet off into space and find some other planet among the 18 quintillion planets, and explore some more accessible planet. There are many of the planets in the solar system just waiting to be explored.
The developers have done a good job on visual effects, since through the game you will sometimes have a distant view on the planet and the stars, and sometimes, as you get closer to them with your ship you will have a closer look on them. When you are looking at a group of planets from the distance, the visual effect is quite good, and it have same versatility ( depending on the angle and the speed of you’re the planets will have different brightness and light on them, and it creates some kind of a unique visual experience). However, that distant view on the planets good have been done a little better by the developers, I guess. As some other critics notice, the textures of the planets, when viewed from far spaces, are sometimes a little blurry, and that blurriness stays also when you come a little bit closer to the planets. So, sometimes you might get a ‘’repeating’’ impression, it might look to you, when you are approaching to the planet on which you want to land your ship, that you have already seen the same kind of pattern of rock formations and patch of water on the planet. As, you get closer and closer to the planet towards you are heading with your ship, the sight become clearer and as you enter into the ‘’atmosphere’’ of that planet, you will have a close look on the landscapes and all differentspecies of flora and fauna on that planet. Regarding the closer look of the planets, and landscapes and the scenography of the game in this sense, I have to say that developers have done a pretty interesting and good job. The game have its own style in that sense, the animations of landscapes looks very artistic, perhaps some planets are done in a minimalistic manner, but it does not taking nothing from the uniqueness and amazingness of your experience while you look around yourself while you are on some particular planet.
As you can see from the pictures, the landscapes of the planets often have ‘’warm’’ colors and rich color palette and a unique artistic solutions from the designers. Designers of the game deserves to be praised for their effort on the scenography of the game. The details of the landscapes, such as plants for instance (which can also provide you some resources, so you will have to search for this plants) on the planets are designated creatively and it fits perfect into the whole picture of the game that you might have. The plant resembles the look of real plant on are planets, yet designers have been very creative, giving some new form of the plants that does not really exist and that will probably enrich your imagination. The look on the sky from the ground point of view is done immaculately by the designers, also the animation of the robots and other mechanisms, in combination with the nature of the planet, gives a perfect visual impression. So the big ‘’plus’’ or ‘’pro’’ for this game is about visual effects from the point of you when you are on land. On the other hand, visual effect for the outer space point are also sometimes quite impressive, but it also could have been done a little better.
Regarding the playability of the game, many critics says that although this game have a large variety of planets, it can get a little boring, in a sense that you will quickly catch how things are working, and then you will often have to repeat those necessary actions in order to provide yourself with minerals and accomplish further goal, so critics says that this game can be a little monotonic. When you are on the planet you will have to spend a plenty of time in mining, which is not bad by itself, but it lack a little bit of creativity. And you will quickly understand how to find materials and where you can find materials on the planet. The main goal of the game is the Atlas quest, and in order to finish that quest you will have to do the journey to the center of the galaxy. But in order to go to the center of the galaxy you will have to travel with your ship throughout different solar systems, and to be able to travel through different solar systems you will need to equip you ship find some rare materials, such is for instance very elusive Heridium. So arm yourself with lot of patience and endurance for you will need if you want to finish all the task of this game.
The game also have a multiplayer mode, and in this mode you often meet some random player who is also in a search for materials and in their own quest. It is a kind of journey that you will have to do by yourself, and while you are doing that you will often have to meet other players and also you will be able to communicate and cooperate with them in some sense, if of course they want.
The opinion of the users vary about this game, some are very entertained with the possibilities of the experience of exploring a space that is extremely large, other a little bit disappointed by the lack of the creativity that this game demands from you as a player. So, the grades of this game are not too high, although everyone mostly agrees that this game have excellent graphics and animations.
For a conclusion, this game can give you a unique experience of space exploring, you can fly with your ship wherever you want across the space or across the atmosphere of some particular planet. The game also gives you impressive visual experience, as animations of the planets and details are done in quite good, artistic way. Yet this game really lack a little bit of creativity and it have some repetitions, so you might not like this game if you are planning to play it for a longer time, as the goals of this game demands. Also, it is noticed by the critics that bugs can happen sometimes frequently.
But you should surely try to play this game and get your own experience and opinion about it. Maybe No Man’s sky is just the video game for you, and perhaps it can become one of you favorite video games.