Five years after the unsuccessful start: How good will No Mans Sky be in 2021?

Five years after the unsuccessful start

When the science fiction adventure No Man's Sky saw the light of day at the Electronic Entertainment Expo 2015, a storm of euphoria broke out: the atmospheric scenario, the idiosyncratic graphic style and the prospect of an almost infinite, procedurally calculated universe made it along A snap of the finger to one of the most hyped games.

The British studio Hello Games and above all chief developer Sean Murray fueled this anticipation with ever new, even bigger promises. But when the game was released on August 9, 2016, the disappointment prevailed: After the exciting initial phase, No Man's Sky (buy now € 49.99 / € 49.49) turned out to be a tedious space expedition without fire or sparkling ideas. In the detailed test diary of ex-colleague Stefan Weiß, it set 7 out of 10 points at the end. While he liked the game world design and the freedom, he criticized the focus on the grinding, the lack of variety and the barely available player guidance.

01:44

No Man's Sky: Prisms update with Graphics improvements published loadVideoPlayer ('83897', '& sAdSetCsategory = article_featured', 6, '16: 9 ', false, 1377143, false, 258141, 260, false, 0,' ',' ', false); No Man's Sky from 49.99 € And I could only agree with his opinion at the time. After the first few hours, No Man's Sky lost a lot of speed; the repetitive processes as well as a lack of feeling for my own game progress sucked my motivation at the time. I really wanted to like No Man's Sky and gave the game a lot of chances. But after the extensive test phase and a few more hours of play, it ended up in the corner.

Since then I have followed the project as an interested observer and always look curiously at the many large and small extensions and updates that Hello Games has brought to the start over the years. But I've only touched No Man's Sky again - for the fifth anniversary. And what should I say? I am more than positively surprised! But first things first ...

Recommended editorial content At this point you will find external content from [PLATTFORM]. To protect your personal data, external integrations are only displayed if you confirm this by clicking on "Load all external content": Load all external content I agree that external content can be displayed to me. This means that personal data is transmitted to third-party platforms. Read more about our privacy policy . External content More on this in our data protection declaration.

Familiar entry and first basic building

I meet the first innovation right at the start of the Playstation 5 version of the game. Because now I can approach No Man's Sky in five different ways: Normal, Survival, Permanent Death, Creative and Community Expedition. Extreme weather conditions such as a toxic atmosphere make exploring the planets difficult. Suit upgrades provide a remedy and encourage people to return to stars that have already been entered.

Source: Hello Games / media agency plassma Hello Games obviously took an example from titles such as Minecraft and leaves players the choice of their own experience. If you want, you can do without costs, damage and limits in creative mode. The focus here is on building and trading. Permanent death is the opposite: if you die, your score will be deleted!

But for this trip I choose the normal mode and soon find myself on the randomly generated planet Etrurinal Goyab in the Urcont IV galaxy. The perspective is new: Since the NEXT update published in 2019, I have been switching between first and third person views. I immediately prefer the pursuer's perspective. The first few minutes are as usual: explore the planet, mine raw materials and, above all, repair the broken spaceship. I use the scanner to research minerals, flora and fauna and get credits for new discoveries. The inventory is bursting at the seams within a very short time. I know these problems from 2016.

Planets are now more than just hiding places for resources. Thanks to basic construction functions, they can also become a real home. For this purpose, the game provides me with a lot of new skills: With the help of the mobile refinery, which is also integrated in the NEXT update, I refine the raw materials I have collected. This is how I transform copper into chromatic metal, which I need to manufacture antimatter, for example. At the side of the refinery is the so-called base computer. The basic teleporter module is a kind of fast travel system. At the terminals in the space stations, you can now comfortably travel to your camps at the push of a button.

Source: Hello Games / media agency plassma With him, I am occupying an area and building a base there.

In the best Fallout 76 manner, I just cobble together a few wooden walls at the beginning, which protect me rather poorly from the aggressive weather conditions. I adjust the ground with the terrain manipulator and thus smooth the surface or fill in holes. The basic equipment also includes a basic teleporter module with which I can warp back and forth between space stations and planets. Hello Games noticeably facilitates navigation and trading.

I use hidden data records to unlock new, more modern components and technologies as the game progresses. So here one cog is already interlocking: If I diligently explore the planets, I can later do more research and build. That motivates, and the outposts are a welcome retreat, in which I even place decorative objects, storage boxes or plant containers for growing crops.

The controls take getting used to here. Placing the roof in particular proves to be fiddly. So I'm all the happier when I'm finally able to build complete rooms. Even in the first few hours, No Man's Sky in 2021 is significantly more satisfying than in its original form. If the original version of the game rewarded me far too seldom, I have clear goals here that I can work towards. The grinding according to raw materials has been significantly reduced and is far less disturbing.

Even after five years, No Man's Sky is not completely free of errors. The PS5 version we play has graphic errors such as textures that are reloaded too late or objects that protrude into one another.

Source: Hello Games / media agency plassma

A planet called testicles

No Man's Sky also takes me by the hand more strongly - if I want to. With the Atlas update, for example, a new main story called "The Path of the Atlas" was added, in which I go in search of ancient secrets and explore the galaxy for interfaces. Admittedly, when it comes to storytelling, the space game is still rather conservative. There are no sprawling cutscenes or speech output, instead a lot of texts and rudimentary animated alien friends.

In the menu item "Protocol" I choose primary and secondary missions. Here, too, freedom of choice is dominant: I can follow these tasks, but don't have to! No Man's Sky now offers a wealth of options to pass the time, such as trading or orders offered on space stations.

Basic building for newbies: The first shelter is nothing more than a wooden house with an energy door and a roof. In the course of the game, however, you also fall back on much more complex components.

Source: Hello Games / media agency plassma Since the Pathfinder update and other patches, pure navigation to the planets is no longer solely on foot and by jetpack. Instead, I now save on vehicles, mechs and exoskeletons or can even tame certain types of animals and ride around with them. With the Tremotaymbica, which is reminiscent of a Tauntaun from Star Wars, I gallop over the uranium-contaminated planet Amdu III and easily cover kilometers. If you love your companions especially, you can adopt them too. They then support you in finding resources. These features have been available since the companions update in early 2021. You can use scanners to locate buried technology modules. These contain data carriers with which you can activate upgrades and components.

Source: Hello Games / media agency plassma If there are no mounts nearby, the spaceship and vehicles can be called up at the push of a button. That costs fuel, but saves a lot of leg work.

With the planet and creature design of No Man's Sky, I still don't get 100 percent warm. Far too often the areas look far too similar. And the animals also seem to have had a common past on a regular basis. Although the game has just visually evolved with the next generation update to Playstation 5 and Xbox Series X / S, there are still some weaknesses.

The same applies to the sometimes cryptic or downright silly random names. The fact that I would be the first to set foot on a planet called Hoden (!) Saves my day with a good comedy, but also destroys a good bit of atmosphere.

Captain on the bridge

Der Game progress in No Man's Sky remains slow and linked to grinding. However, the game always throws you a motivating bone and provides real aha moments. For example, the anomalies are now social hubs. Here, on the one hand, I activate new technologies, on the other hand, I also get in touch with other players and master assignments with them. When I was still very alone in the universe in 2016, space travelers and astronauts loll around here and wait for playmates. Research assignments, bounty missions or running errands: In space stations you get additional jobs and thus earn resources or credits.

Source: Hello Games / media agency plassma

While I am hopping from one planet to the next, a comes in The next important cornerstone of No Man's Sky comes into play: trade. On the way, I keep running into mobile retailers who offer me their goods or buy mine. How lively the universe can sometimes be, will be shown later: I received a call for help from a freighter - the colossus was attacked by space pirates. I will of course support the ship and get the crooks out of the sky. Once on board the main ship, the captain speaks in a language unknown to me at the time. So I only advise my answer, and instead of aggressively demanding a reward, I am frugal and cautious. The result: the captain leaves the freighter to me without further ado. Yay! Inside, I am upgrading it with areas such as the navigating bridge. Later I find out trade routes or send a convoy on expeditions. There is also space for my spaceships in the hangar. After all, I can own more than one now. The user guidance and tutorials are rather poor here, but these functions in particular bring a lot of depth into the game. With food made from carbon you can attract peaceful animals and you are even allowed to ride on them. You lure aggressive creatures with it and can possibly distract them.

Source: Hello Games / media agency plassma

One thing quickly becomes clear: No Man's Sky in 2021 puts the weighting differently than at the launch . It gives the player a lot more freedom and is therefore no longer as monotonous and tiring as it was five years ago. It always presents me with choices: trade, explore, fight or grind? The multitude of planets is home to a lot of secrets and extras such as procedurally generated dungeons, weather conditions and biomes. In addition, there is the expansion of your own equipment, which is also linked to the progress of the game, such as the expansion of the multi-tool, the space suit or the spaceships.

Should you play No Man's Sky in 2021?

Even five years after its release, No Man's Sky is still not a perfect game. The user and menu navigation remains cumbersome and the grinding for new materials, nanite and credits is still in the foreground. Sometimes No Man's Sky is just relentlessly slow and makes me stare at the screen for a long time while traveling through the stars.

The BEYOND update transformed the anomalies into hub worlds in which you interact with other players and even take on assignments together

Source: Hello Games / media agency plassma But as niche as it may be due to its focus, it is so much better than it was five years ago. Back then I didn't catch myself thinking about maybe playing another round in my spare time. The reason is simple: After the updates and expansions, No Man's Sky finally gives me solid reasons to get back into the game. Regardless of whether I want to expand my armada, fulfill cargo orders or maybe just follow the main missions - I get a feel for my own game progress. That motivates! The many small hooks of the original version have been sanded off, and so even the tedious expansion of your own inventory has become bearable.

The additional multiplayer options also make a huge difference. While in the old No Man's Sky I still felt like Matt Damon in The Martian - Save Mark Watney, I now decide for myself whether I want to interact with others or even get started with friends. The universe is no longer as empty and lonely as it was before. It feels more alive - and that makes a huge difference. So I have a clear recommendation for the game: If you missed No Man's Sky 2016, you should definitely give the game a chance today!