"No Man's Sky" is procedural sci-fi exploration, and *purdy*. - by Shadowcat
Malf on 10/8/2016 at 08:27
I was initially interested, but when they announced the pricing, I was swiftly put off.
This sounds like a game I'd spend £20-£25 on, but the £40 they're asking for it?
Sod off!
nicked on 10/8/2016 at 09:41
I played an hour or so this morning, and so far it's everything I hoped it would be. But if you've watched videos and thought it looked boring, probably give it a miss, it's not for you - it plays exactly how I was expecting from watching videos.
This morning I was deposited on a boiling hellscape of a planet, and had to quickly learn about recharging my thermal protection while I desperately scouted about for bits to fix my spaceship. I discovered a giraffe-patterned leggy thing with an enormous claw-like lower jaw, so I called it a giraffichomp. Then I had to go to work.
henke on 10/8/2016 at 16:01
How does the ship handle? Is it fun to fly? Does it feel somewhat realistic? Also is there, like, any depth whatsoever to the combat?
Renault on 10/8/2016 at 16:36
I have questions too - Are there goals/objectives, specific things to accomplish? How about an ending - is there a way to complete the game? Everything I read says it's just open world exploring and casual flying, which sounds like it could get old after a while.
WingedKagouti on 10/8/2016 at 16:40
There's supposedly the overarching goal of reaching the center of the universe.
Pyrian on 10/8/2016 at 17:12
So the Jimquisition is down because he had the temerity to say what everybody else is saying (if perhaps a bit less politely) and got DoS'd for it.
Renault on 10/8/2016 at 17:35
Some of the stuff he mentions in his review is exactly what I was concerned with - not having enough to do and exploring a bunch of worlds that are all the same. Whenever I hear the term "procedurally generated" it makes me cringe because while it allows for creating a huge gamespace, the one it creates is usually bland and samey. How can you provide unique encounters and experiences when they're just being manufactured by some algorithm?
I'm not saying game/set/match here though, this really is just one guy's opinion.
Pyrian on 10/8/2016 at 18:11
One guy's opinion? It seems to be more-or-less everybody's opinion. As Muzman put it, even the positive reviews describe it the same way, just glowingly instead of insultingly.
Muzman on 11/8/2016 at 04:58
Quote:
There are also hovering buildings, floating off the ground like bad Unity projects, some of which end up “built” into mountains and hills with no way to enter their half-buried doors. This is not deliberate, mind you - the buildings quite clearly lack some collision detection when they're haphazardly plonked into the surroundings.
It's nice to know that even big budget Triple A procedurally generated stuff can't avoid some of the hurdles faced by Sir, You Are Being Hunted.
Similar to that game, it's funny how a lot of what's missing does seem like a lot to ask given what the game is actually doing in the first place. In Sir- it was people not wanting to just see buildings but also go inside them and all sort of other stuff. Here it's "I don't just want to meet alien ships in a huge ever changing universe. I want the aliens to get out and wander around" "Now that I've seen procedurally generated wildlife, I want to ride it as well" etc etc. There's some lesson for developers in all that; your base systems might be amazing, but if getting them to work makes it too hard to finesse or add to those small player moments and desires it's going to count for less.
Still, as Jim says, if you haven't waded through every single DayZ-alike and minecraft clone like he has you might be ok with it. In the video he was briefly showing a bit of shooting and flying and seemed unimpressed. But just watching it I thought that looked pretty fun in a lite-space/Freelancer kind of way. It almost goes without saying that it's probably way better on PC too.
