I had left my starting planet for the first time and ventured out into the great unknown of space. As I cut my pulse thrusters and everything slowed to a crawl, I came to a smooth stop in the vast green/blue (No Man’s Sky doesn’t do the blackness, space is many colors here) of this corner of space. Lumps of rock and debris were pirouetting in slow motion all around me, so naturally I shot them to pieces and grabbed more resources. In the distance I could see giant mineral containers orbiting near another planet, and the occasional neon streaks of a smaller ships thrusters struck the air. No Man’s Sky’s visual design is outstanding, to the point that it hides the shortcomings of the technical side impressively. Things just look refreshingly colorful, vibrant and interesting because of the art style and excellent continuity of the UI (even if it does whiff a little too much of Destiny in far too many places, which isn’t the worst thing in the world).
I discover a beacon marker is pointing me towards an outpost on the planet I’d seen in the distance. I’d like to say I snubbed it and went off on an adventure entirely uncharted by the game story paths, but curiosity got the better of me, and I kind of wanted to fulfill my new objective of building a working hyperdrive, so off I shot towards the marker.
As I got close, I struggled with judging the right entry point for reaching the outpost as quickly as possible, things got fiddly as the pulse thrusters don’t work under certain conditions such as planetary interference (which an awful lot suffer from) and attacks by pirates. This slows down travel a bit, and your regular boosters are almost as limited as your sprint. I suspect that half the problem is down to the game loading in the background, and given the scale of what’s going on, that’s fairly forgivable, if a tad confusing to contend with on occasion.
Anyway, I finally land, but thanks to my own guesstimate being off, I’m further away from the outpost than I’d like. This planet’s atmosphere is as agreeable as my starter one, but this one is far more arid and dusty, a faded reddish yellow tinge to the sky and endless rocky hills and mountains made up the landscape. A short amble later and I finally arrive and fire up the outpost’s beacon to save my progress, and get to naming some of my early discoveries. Once that was done, I turned towards the nearby outpost building and headed inside to fiddle with a terminal and was given a three choice question, which I failed by not paying proper attention to what it was asking. Perhaps I might have been rewarded if I hadn’t been so negligent. I’d later find out that yes, you do get rewarded if you pick the right answer in these multiple choice scenarios, but we’ll come back to that.
I still find some extra goodies hanging around the outpost though, so not a fruitless journey, plus I need to gather up some materials for that hyperdrive, so off I go into this new world. It was a rather uneventful trip for the most part. The only highlights being the discovery of an underwater substation in a lake, and a thirty minute stay in a cave when nightfall caught me away from my ship and the temperature dropped massively. Seeking shelter in volatile weather conditions and hostile atmospheres is an essential part of your planet exploration, with the aforementioned temperature drops and sudden storms that can slap you with hail, radiation and more depending on the situation. I did manage to pass some of the time by searching for materials, but my limited inventory space meant I was done with that task pretty quickly. Note to self, don’t stray too far from your ship until sufficiently upgraded to do so.
Still, I’m learning quickly to make a ruleset in how I explore and mine. I give myself a fairly generous area of exploration, and if anything of interest pops up on the HUD that’s more than two minutes away, I head back to the ship and fly there. Small steps. I really enjoy that kind of freedom of choice, to be open enough to make your own rules within the game’s own. It’s why open world titles such as Fallout 4, Skyrim and GTA Online appeal to me as well. I can completely understand that not everybody has the patience or wherewithal to carry these things out themselves, and as a result, a game like No Man’s Sky can get old pretty fast.
Back to the dusty planet, and I’ve now got all I need for the time being. The only exception is a specific part to finish off my hyperdrive so I can finally do my best Picard and sternly make the call to ‘Make it So’. My hairline is gradually getting there, but I’m lacking the gravitas, the jumpsuit is a little snug, and my Captain’s chair is a blue leather effect beanbag. Anyway, shut up, It’s my dream and I’ll live it how I want.
I shoot off into space again, and head for this system’s space station, the home of all trading gubbins. I awkwardly navigate my way to the docking station, where the process become mercifully automatic. The ship touches down in one of the hexagonal bays and I clamber out and make a beeline for the nearest stairs to what I hope is the trading hub. Happily it is indeed where I can sort my needs out, but the room is empty and very ‘futuristic admin room’. I spin a chair, because I can for some reason, and scope the room out before finding a strange-looking half-sphere lodged into the wall. This is where trade can be done (though also with other ships that dock in the station too) and after selling off a few of the trinkets I’ve picked up on my travels for some cold, hard units, I purchase the final part for my hyperdrive.
I also had the ingredients for an energy cell needed to power the hyperdrive, but now I need to know how to craft some of its component parts for future reference. Turns out the recipe is conveniently in the next system over, so I chucked that in and decided I’d had enough of this system. Time to test-drive this hyper-speed bad boy.
You can find the first review diary here, and the full No Man’s Sky Review will be coming soon.