No Man's Sky 2021 Review

UPDATE: Hello Games merely released the a five-year anniversary trailer for No Man'southward Sky that you lot can sentinel hither. Information technology teases a new update called Frontiers. Here's what we know so far.

No Human being'southward Sky is perhaps the finest example of simply how dissimilar games are these days than fifty-fifty 10 years ago. Gone are the times when brand new titles would release, feature-consummate and immutable in their plastic-wrapped forms. For better or worse, things have changed, and games have room to evolve and abound drastically long afterward they've first launched.

I won't dwell for too long on the land that No Man's Sky crash-landed into our living rooms dorsum in 2016. Overzealous marketing, poor functioning, and the feeling that the small team at Hullo Games had greatly over-reached—you've heard it all before. Truthfully, nigh games would take stopped there, taken the money and run, just No Human'southward Sky did something completely different indeed.

Thanks to regular updates, near Sisyphean-levels of dedication, and a community-first focus, what you lot'll load up at present is a dark and twenty-four hour period difference when compared to the launch feel. As such, it seems correct to review No Man'south Heaven for what it offers in 2021. Hither'south whether it's worth playing, most five years afterwards its initial release.

Read More: Essential Tips For Getting Started in No Human's Sky

Perhaps the best place to compare No Human's Sky 2021 to its previous forms is in its opening segment. You're still dropped onto a random planet with picayune more a mining beam and a broken transport to fix, but where you'd originally exist given some vague directions from a blinking computer screen, at that place's now a fully formed tutorial sequence to go you off-planet and upwards into the stars.

Resource have been streamlined, superfluous crafting recipes culled, and objectives are presented with light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation-focused precision. Surviving in these opening moments is however a challenge, simply gone are the days of 'yous work it out', of scrambling around as your suit overheated and your inventory filled with a hundred elements and items that y'all had no risk of comprehending.

No Homo's Sky's first planet has ane goal, to give you lot enough information to prepare your transport and lift off, stepping dorsum to let you experience the transition from the atmosphere to vacuum in all its glory. And it is still very much a spectacle all these years later.

Living Universe

No Man'due south Heaven has always been a game made upward of two primary parts: planets and space. The differences in plant diverseness and biome diversity are clear every time you step out of your ship, but the improvements absolutely extend upwardly into space also.

Celestial bodies now have huge rings of ice and dust to fly through, some galaxies have two stars bouncing light off of the cockpit of your ship, and at the press of a button, you tin can summon the Anomaly, a giant space station that warps into view with a satisfying whoosh.

Docking animations have been constantly tweaked since the huge Beyond update that landed in 2019, and the void of space is now busier with oddities to explore. Exiting out of pulse travel will often throw something for you to look at; an abandoned freighter, a luminescent jellyfish globe-trotting through space, a manual coming in from a nearby trader.

No Human being's Sky is much less alone, less sparse than it used to be, the Universe going from largely empty to bustling with alien activity. You'll occasionally meet a bug, often a hangover from one of No Homo's Heaven'due south many past lives, but given the piece of work ethic and dedication shown past Hello Games in contempo years, they're easy to overlook.

Yous Are Non Alone

What'south about impressive is that Hello Games hasn't been afraid to devious from the earth blueprint first presented to us pre-launch. No Human being's Sky one time boasted a huge world that was incommunicable to experience in its entirety, and 1 in which meeting some other player would be akin to a miracle. The Universe has gotten a lot smaller since so, or at least the focus has, to the game's benefit. These days, it'due south fairly common to come across other ships, other players, even planets that take already been mapped and built upon. While I do miss those lonely days spent charting out the milky way in my own name I must admit, it's prissy to see friendly faces every at present and again.

Multiplayer now has a large function to play. You can team up with your friends, have on Customs Missions aboard the Bibelot, and share portal coordinates with others to bear witness off planets you've discovered and bases y'all've built.

No Human being'south Sky has soared in part cheers to its devoted customs, so information technology's impressive to run across the devs weave information technology so fundamentally into the game's courage. I don't think I've ever experienced a more positive actor base than in No Man'south Heaven.

Players will help y'all out of pirate attacks, some volition even drib valuable resources for new players to sell, and taking even the most cursory wait at the game's Reddit will yield coordinates to flashy ships and other points of intrigue. Griefing is substantially not-existent, equally is the usual toxicity one might feel while playing an online game in 2021.

There are of grade a few bad apples, just there's an overwhelming sense of pride in the community, a readiness for others to show you just how great No Man's Sky tin be.

State of the Game

I suppose the question on your lips is whether or not it's worth jumping into this well-nigh 5-year-old game, especially with then many game-changing updates beingness delivered regularly.

No Human's Sky is somewhat of an outlier in the games equally a service space in that every update is free, and in that location are actually no microtransactions to speak of. New content is added every few months, from cosmetic items to reworks of planetside biodiversity.

It'due south even available on Game Pass, so in theory, you'd be getting one hell of a bargain jumping in now. Remarkably, despite only how much has been added over the years, there's a sense that No Homo's Heaven is really only starting to attain its full potential. I tend to load information technology upwards after each major update and am consistently given new and interesting things to exercise.

In some ways, now is the all-time time to outset No Human's Sky. In another way, every new addition comes with its own reason to play. The recent next-gen updates present arguably the best version yet, reducing load screens and transforming already beautiful landscapes into vistas of genuine wonder.

Verdict

No Man'due south Sky offers an incredible and diverse experience in 2021. Whether y'all want to play space-Attenborough, become a bounty hunter, or squad up with friends, the Milky way is filled with things to do. Information technology'southward a totally unique experience, bolstered by a thriving community and backed by a developer that communicates with its players with full honesty and transparency. There'south a transcendental VR mode in at that place, and peradventure the best justification for the share push there has ever been in the gaming infinite. 5 years on, information technology'due south nowhere near its final form.

Now is as good a time as whatever to leap in, if but to be along for what is sure to be a long and ever-changing ride. Put the events of 2016 aside in your mind for a moment, and give No Man's Sky a effort. It'south one of a handful of experiences like this that admittedly deserves a 2nd adventure.

5/5

Reviewed on PlayStation five