More Thoughts From Me #253: Pick A World, Any World

There are a lot of games on sale via the PS4 PSN shop right now. When I had the chance to pick up a couple of games for Christmas, one of the games I got was No Man’s Sky. I’ve wanted to get that game for awhile now. The price was finally right and so I got it, downloaded it, and now I’ve played it a bunch. What do I think of the game so far?

No Man’s Sky is awesome!

I just have to say that up front. I’m not going to leave you in suspense. I really love this game.

What’s so great about No Man’s Sky?

Well, first of all I am playing No Man’s Sky on Creative Mode. That means that the game isn’t as challenging as Normal, Survival, or Permadeath modes. I actually haven’t played any of those modes. I’m not sure if I ever will. I just love Creative Mode so much.

Okay, I’ll be honest: Creative Mode makes No Man’s Sky an extremely easy game. You can’t die in this mode. The environment doesn’t effect you. Creatures can’t kill. In space, they will never hear you scream. So where’s the fun in that?

In Creative Mode, the fun is found in exploration. The challenge is finding new things, discovering planets and plot elements, seeing the storyline grow, and just being able to do what you want, whenever you want. Creative mode makes No Man’s Sky a giant playground!

The universe of No Man’s Sky is huge. There are tons of planets to find, things to do, new ships to get, and more.

Oh the ships! I have to talk about the ships.

Flying around in your spaceship is the coolest thing in No Man’s Sky. This is what I wanted games like Mass Effect and the Star Wars games to be like. Just being able to jump into your ship, fly to a planet, land, explore, take off and then go to other planets and galaxies. Its amazing. Its my favorite thing about the game.

There are other vehicles in the game too and Creative mode actually gives them to you from the get go. And they are awesome.

For instance, I love the mech! It gives you mining abilities and also lets you create with the land: edit it however much you want and you can even put it all back to how it use to be.

There’s also a submarine and you go underwater. You can find spaceships and buildings there. Its really wonderful.

No Man’s Sky is so amazing. It is so much fun. I wish I could tell you that its perfect.

Its not perfect.

In outer space, things are pretty good. I haven’t run into any major issues there.

Things get a little bit more dicey when you land on a planet though. Now most of the time, planets are fun to explore. None of the glitches I’ve run into have taken away my enjoyment of this amazing game.

That said, there is a lot of pop-in this game. The environments load up before your eyes when you fly over them.
Walking on the ground is cool. Just pretend like you didn’t just walk right through that rock on the ground.

The biggest and weirdest glitch I’ve seen so far is one time when I landed on the ground and most of the trees were floating in the air. Then my ship disappeared. I wasn’t sure where it went. I decided to go explore a tunnel nearby. I got out my Mech and started digging. I could see see outer space right next to me.

Yes, the game glitched really badly. I got stuck for a little bit but finally made it out of there. Then I went back and found my ship.

I haven’t seen any other big glitches like that so far. I’d say the game works great most of the time aside from some planetary pop-in.

Even with that huge glitch, I still love No Man’s Sky. I enjoy exploring and finding stuff. I love this universe. I really dig the story. The graphics are pretty amazing overall.

Would this game be interesting for someone else to watch you play? Hmm. I think sometimes maybe and sometimes someone nearby might be bored. This is a game that you really have to play. You can get lost in this game. I have lost hours so far playing No Man’s Sky. I can see playing this for a very long time to come.

I heard someone in a video, I think IGN, call this game an interstellar Animal Crossing. I totally think it is. You can even create your own town of sorts and recruit people to live there!

Just like Animal Crossing, No Man’s Sky wants you to explore its world(s), find stuff, collect stuff, and play it every day. Well, okay there’s no real time clock on No Man’s Sky but the game will just call to you. Oh what’s that? No Man’s Sky is calling to me right now!

Have you played this game? What is your favorite thing about No Man’s Sky!

More Thoughts From Me is an opinion column. The thoughts expressed here are mine and mine alone. Happy New Year!