When Hello Games first announced “No Man’s Sky” to the world, they promised a game that would allow the player to fly around the universe and explore fantastical worlds. They delivered this, but not to the degree consumers expected. The E3 2014 trailer showed a dynamic world with a huge diversity of creatures and seamless textures. The real graphics were noticeably more bland. People were told they can meet up with other players online, but neither player saw each other when this was tested. These unrealistic expectations, fabrications, and lack of substantial gameplay caused a quick and powerful reaction in the gaming community. Within the first two weeks of launch, No Man’s Sky lost around 90% of its daily users on the popular, gaming platform Steam. Faced with a crushing reality that No Man's Sky might be the death of them, developer Hello Games has released the Foundation Update as the first of many. The new content does add to the No Man’s Sky experience, but will it be enough to keep players around for update?
The first aspect of the update that I appreciated was being able to stack items. You are given a limited amount of inventory space in No Man’s Sky. It was frustrating having items that didn’t stack with each other. If a player was playing through the Atlas Path, which is the pseudo-campaign of the game, they had to collect ten Atlas Stones to make it to the center of the universe. Before the update, these ten stones each took up a spot in your limited inventory. Players can now stack five of them in a single storage slot together. This is an important fix when you have five Atlas Stones and no room for plutonium. The only problem I came across was not everything stacked. I had multiples of the same treasure item that would not stack with each other. The patch notes lead me to believe this should be possible, so I am willing to admit that it might have just been my mistake. If it wasn’t, then Hello Games needs to throw that little feature in too.
Beyond the simple changes of better inventory management, Hello Games gave the player significant changes to No Man’s Sky. One of these changes is Creative Mode and Survival Mode in addition to Normal Mode. Creative mode allows the player to take full advantage of the new base building system. In this mode, the player is given full access to all the base building components without the need to research or pay to construct them with basic resources. I was happy with the base building mechanics Hello Games created. Connecting hallways and rooms is easy, and the decor allows for different levels of customization. I was randomly creating rooms and halls at first, but it wasn’t long before I was deleting older segments to create my own flowing home design.
The total opposite of Creative Mode, Survival Mode offers a challenging universe to the player. In my play-through, I spawned on a toxic world with only my laser, life support, jetpack, and hazmat suit functioning. My scanner and telescope were broken and so was my ship. Not only that, but my ship was a 15 minute walk away through a hostile landscape of sentinels and radioactive atmosphere. I never made it to my ship. I strolled with the same confidence I had in normal mode and that was my downfall. I feel that Hello Games found a real sweet spot with both Creative and Survival Modes. Creative mode didn’t bog me down with the constant fetching of resources. Survival mode offered me a challenge with the real possibility of failure. They were fun and the fact that each mode is it’s own unique save offers the player a risk free incentive to try them all.
Hello Games made some major steps forward with the Foundation Update; yet, there is room to grow. The updated “No Man’s Sky” is fun, but it still feels like I am playing the beta of a yet to be finished game. Here’s the good part. Hello Games has already said they are adding more free updates, and they can make the changes that will attract people. Personally, I want them to create land vehicles to speed up exploration. I would also love a real objectives list. When I built a base in my Normal Mode game, one of my technicians needed a special element to research. It was called spadonium, and it could only be found in a cactus on barren environments. If I didn’t write that information down on a sticky note, I‘d have no way of remembering it. Also, there were no planets in the system I was in or the next one I warped to that met the environmental needs for this element. Am I supposed to randomly warp around the galaxy until I find the perfect planet? I should be given a heading so I can at least start searching for this rare mineral. I simply gave up looking because the whole concept is like trying to find a needle in a haystack that’s the size of the known universe. Despite these small announces, my interest in “No Man’s Sky” has been rekindled. I plan on playing the game after I finish this article, and I am excited to see what Hello Games comes up with next for their space epic.
