No Man’s Sky is so close guys! After three long years of developments, delays and lawsuits, we’ll finally be able to get our hands on it next week. To celebrate, here are facts about No Man’s Sky that will make your head explode.
“Space is big. Really big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist, but that's just peanuts to space.” - Doug Adams, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
You will never finish exploring this game.
100% completion of No Man’s Sky is impossible - Hello Games estimates it would take each player 585 billion years to land on every one of its over 18 quintillion planets for a single second each, not to mention exploring and discovering every clue, species and secret on each. The procedurally-generated world wants the game to feel like a natural journey, rather than a checklist of objectives.
No really. It’s huge. The universe is so large that Hello Games has virtual drones exploring it right now to root out bugs down the line.
You probably won’t see another player-but you will see evidence they were there.
No Man’s Sky is technically multiplayer, in the fact that people are in the universe with you. You will be able to see the names they give the species they’ve discovered, but you will probably never be able to team up and explore. As Hello Games’ Sean Murray puts it (via GameInformer):
"People keep saying to us, “Yeah, but what if I knew where they were? Would I go there?” And it's like, yeah, but they are going to have to stay there for quite a while while you get over there. And then once you get over there you might land on the same planet and then you will say, “I'm on a planet the size of Earth and I am on a mountain. Where are you?” Which is, I know, a weird thing and it's a daunting thing."
The planets are alive.
“Every mountain is a real place”, writes Alex Wiltshire. Similarly to how planets in real space function, their proximity to their sun affects how barren, cold, or lush each planet is. Likewise, not every planet is hospitable-you can land on a planet teeming with radiation or poison gas that can kill you in a matter of minutes, unless you upgrade your equipment! The planets have day and night cycles, and even weather conditions, so if you stay in one place during the day, it may turn into a considerably more dangerous area at night.
Like the planets themselves, the animals that potentially inhabit them are procedurally-generated, and may be friendly, or attack you on sight. Plants can eat you. Some are civilized, while others are not. If a planet is civilized, you can interact with the aliens, learning their languages and customs and forming bonds with them-or destroying them.
Even though you’re isolated, you’re not alone.
Just like the real world and every sci-fi story ever told, the universe of No Man’s Sky is populated with factions controlling different regions throughout the universe. Picking a side helps you participate in some nonlinear storytelling and create your own narrative. Interacting with factions doesn’t vilify you with a faction, however- you can still repair and reforge connections with anyone the further you explore.
Even though you can do whatever you want on the planet you explore, you’re not without penalty in the universe-robbing aliens on a planet with summon the Sentinels, which will attack you on sight; attacking or robbing factions and space stations will summon up galactic police. The frequency and scale of what you do affects how strongly and often they try to attack you, so choose your battles wisely.
On the flip side, exploration is rewarded. Just like mining and the various resource-gathering jobs you can do, NMS also rewards you for discovering and logging new planets and creatures, giving you not only the opportunity to name them, but also to make a few units (in-game currency) as well. This can come in handy if the resources you gathered suddenly drop in price in the universe's ever-changing economy- stash your loot and go explore.
What do you think? If everything goes smoothly, No Man’s Sky releases for Playstation 4 and PC August 9th in the US and August 10th in Europe.
