Other title ideas for this blog included ‘Nothing to do Sky,’
and ‘How I’ve Spent Six days of Life Doing the Square Root of F all.’ Now you’re
thinking that I hate it, but you’d be wrong.
No Mans Sky is a game about doing very little on a very
grand scale. Its’ a game in which you travel through space and could
potentially visit something daft like 18 trillion planets. Those planets are
fricking huge too, each one capable of consuming hours of your life as you walk
along, scan things and mine stuff.
That’s about it. That’s what you do in the game. You look at
it. Walk over there, mine some rocks/minerals/plants, take a jaunt over there,
do the same again… Occasionally you see some alien wildlife that can range from
green space-cow to giant dirty spider-crab that charges at you. Feed the nice
ones, shoot the nasty ones and then after that… go for a walk.
Yet somehow I am addicted. It’s one of those games you put
on for a 30 minute session and two hours later your bladder prompts you to take
a break. Landing on a planet for the first time and seeing the landscape in
front of you is a daunting and yet gorgeous site. Unlike other games there’s no map and little
in the way of instruction. You just go. You’re left to your own devices to
explore and to learn about each new world. You see hills in the distance that
you want to climb to get a better view. From there you notice caves appearing
and you plan your route to those. Once there you see the glisten of shinier
rocks and you think ‘bingo.’
Armed with a laser mining tool you spend much of your time
destroying this place you’ve just called pretty. Every plant and every rock is
a resource to be gathered and utilised. Some you’ll need to keep your life
support going, others to ensure your ship has enough fuel to get you to the next
planet. After about three days of playing I had got bored of this, of
constantly needing more and of doing the same thing over and over again. Then I
spotted a giant mound of gold and got genuinely excited. I mined that rock and I
sold me a tonne of gold like some nifty space pirate. Fun.
Yes fun, simple but fun. It’s a hard game to really sell to
people when you describe what you do in it. (Yet Sony had no problem selling
it, it’s already huge) When thinking of a comparison I weirdly thought of
Animal Crossing and Pokémon Go. I spent over 100 hours in AC and after all that
I can say I achieved very little. Well I made my house as big as I could and
decorated it with Nintendo stuff. In real life that’s the ultimate goal, in
gaming form it’s a baffling time sink but I loved it. In Pokémon Go you walk
and walk, looking for the next Pokestop so you can top up your resources. It’s the
same principle as No Mans Sky but includes more fresh air and its better
exercise. Although NMS has a much smoother soundtrack and pleasurly atmosphere
than the average dander down the streets of Belfast.
The main point of the game is supposedly to get to the
centre of the universe. I don’t know why or what happens when you get there,
but it’s a goal at least. Without a goal I’d surely go mad at some point and give
up on this journey altogether. Some people already seem to be fed up with it
and others never liked it to begin with. As mentioned it has received a massive
amount of marketing and the pre-release hype was surreal. Expectations were far
too high for a game that was made by about 10 folk (for comparison your average
Assassins Creed or Grand Theft Auto would have staff numbers approaching 1000).
This game is not for everyone, and whilst normally I hate
that statement (because nothing is for everyone) it seems apt here. This game
is unlike the majority of mass market blockbusters, it’s a game that needs
patience and its rewards are found more in admiring its technology that in
completing any task. It’s a flawed but mesmerising experience that has consumed
my week but yet leaves a hint in my head that I’ll be bored by this time next. Why
worry about that though? That’s multiple planet trips away. I’m away to take a
walk, mine some stuff, scan some things etc etc
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