No Man’s Sky: What’s it all about?

No Man’s Sky 

Hello Games   www.hellogames.org 

So by now, it’s pretty clear that No Man’s Sky is a sandbox game of epic proportions. But what is the point of it all? What are you supposed to do? What is the ultimate goal?

You are in first person, wandering around an alien landscape. There are creatures. There is a wanted level for committing interstellar crimes, that brings you stars like GTA. The more stars you get, the more hostile the policing forces become. So you can do that. But it still doesn’t explain the point of it all.

 You have a spaceship. It is upgradeable. You mine for resources, and build your craft. It takes you away, fast, low over the landscape, and then high, away into space. This is nice. But what is the point?

That seems to be the biggest question of the game, and the one people ask me the most. The truth is, I don’t know. Maybe there isn’t one. Founder Sean Murray has said that the goal is to get to the center of the galaxy.  But why? 

What awaits us at the center? Do you encounter alien races? Discover new elements? Have boss battles? We have already been told that there are not cutscenes. Does this mean no story line? And will players be content if you are just a lonely space wanderer? A kind of futuristic Christopher Columbus, filling your atlas with endless discoveries?

With the excitement of all the possibilities,  this doesn’t sound so bad. But honestly, how many planets can you discover, how many species will you encounter,  how many resources will you collect before it becomes repetitive and you start to wonder what’s the point?

Maybe  Hello Games is holding out on us, building up the suspense,  just to reveal something huge. Perhaps you are somebody in these virtual cosmos. A prince of the stars, a lost faction leader with important information that needs to reach his armada to help shape the fate of the future of your race.

Right now we seem content with the mystery. Will we remain content if there is no mystery? I want to say yes very badly. The graphics alone make exploring the stars forever seem appealing. But the content will either make or break the game. As we have seen with Fallout 4, sub par graphics are just fine, because the activities and story line are what make the game fantastic.

Like I said, all we have is speculation. But if there truly is no story, I am not sure how long it will take before the novelty of endless exploration wears off, and I become forever lost among the stars, lightyears from ever playing the game again.

I’d be interested to hear your opinion on this.

Captain TeX, signing off

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