No Man's Sky was a game released on August 9th, 2016, by Hello Games. The game looked amazing and was hyped beyond belief. The sad truth is that Hello Games beyond over-promised what this game was going to be. Multiplayer was nonexistent, each planet was indeed unique but only on first inspection, and the mysterious Atlas was a letdown. As a whole, the game was considered a dumpster fire by the gaming community. Since then Hello Games has dug in their heels and worked on the game nonstop since trying to improve it, and three updates later I'd say they did.
I have to preface this with the fact that I enjoyed the game when it launched, but like many others I dropped it fairly quickly. Since launch Hello Games has released three major updates and a fourth is set for July. The first update called "The Foundation" made significant changes. The biggest change is the ability to construct bases. The player can use crafted modular building pieces to make a base on a designated "home planet".
In those bases the player can use research terminals to research new blueprints, use green houses to grow plants, and many more functions. The player can also have the local alien population accomplish these tasks for them while exploring. The player can return to their base at any time via a teleporter.
Players can also purchase freighter ships for storage or merchant uses. They also added two new difficulty settings, Survival, where everything that can kill you gets turned up to 11, and Creative, where it is really difficult to die and resources are infinite.
The next update was the "The Path Finder" update. This update was small. The major thing it added was the Exocraft. A sort of buggy that the player can spawn from their ship to aid in exploration. Another feature added was a permadeath option. This means that should the player ever die their character is permanently dead and they have to start a new game. It was a small update but it brought some good features.
The third update, "The Atlas Rises", didn't add so much mechanically, but it did add to the game's story. The Atlas Rises added around 30 hours of narrative to the game and a new race of aliens to deal with. Terrain editing was also added, allowing the player to excavate hidden treasure or to throw up quick cover in a firefight.
A whole host of minor improvements were also added. The final major feature added to No Man's Sky was the "Joint Exploration" mode. Joint Exploration allowed up to 16 players to explore a planet together. The mode was very limited, players couldn't directly interact with each other, there were heavy delays in the networks, and players were only represented by a glowing orb. It was a limited mode but was a step towards full multiplayer.
Finally, there is the future of the game. On July 24th No Man's Sky will launch their latest update called No Man's Sky NEXT. They are tight lipped so far as to what features are coming with NEXT but one thing is confirmed, full four-player multiplayer. That same day, No Man's Sky will launch for the first time on Xbox One. The game has made great strides since its... troubled launch. Hello Games added so much and turned this game around. So that is why I think you should give No Man's Sky a second chance.
