On August 9 of this year, an independent game developer named Hello Games released their long-awaited intergalactic exploration experience "No Man's Sky". The gaming community had played a large role in giving an immense amount of hype to the title in the year leading up to its release. When it finally fell into gamers' hands, it fell far short of the majority's expectations. In my opinion, a lot of the expectations that people seemed to have were extremely unjustified. Most of these high hopes were created in the minds of the community itself. I consistently heard YouTube channels discussing the potential that a game like this could have along with the type of game play that they'd like the most from a game of this magnitude. However, all Hello Games truly promised was a procedurally generated universe, the likes of which would never be fully explored due to its sheer expansiveness.
The developers, I thought, made it clear that the game would be focused on exploration, leaving little emphasis on shooting anything or interacting with people. Alas, when the game came out, Hello Games was bombarded with people claiming its utter failure at being half the game they wanted it to be. It's too bad, because what they did accomplish was an amazing feat. Though it could have been further developed in time, it sets a platform for other games, even for other developers. They were able to create a real, cohesive universe in which gamers could immerse themselves and adventure through.
The most amazing part of this game's story, however, is that Hello Games still listened to the community, despite their utterly ruthless attacks on the company. The developer stayed silent for a few months after the game's release. And now, in December, they've added a building aspect, allowing players to create a base in which they can survive and craft new materials. As well, they've improved the space battles that a player can encounter, making them larger and more intense than before.
One of the coolest new features that they've added is three different difficulty levels - Normal, Creative, and Survival. Normal mode is the original game experience, allowing players to continue past save files even after updating. Survival mode is unbelievably hard, giving the player's death immense consequence: you lose all progress forever. Then, Creative mode allows players to explore without worry. With unlimited resources and no death possible, you can move from star system to star system freely, discovering planet after planet, while building whatever you like on each one.
If you're a gamer who wrote off No Man's Sky upon release, consider giving it a chance. Not only is the game now better than before, but the developers plan to continually update and improve game play.
What was hyped to be one of the best games of 2016 may very well become on the list of top games in 2017. Trust me, I believe we're on our way to seeing No Man's Sky realize some incredible untapped potential.
