Insert Topic – Why No Man’s Sky Is Exciting

Welcome to Insert Topic, where once a week I’ll spend some time talking about stuff. Topics will vary from what’s big in nerd culture to my experiences with trying games or movies or anything really that I’d written off as not my kind of thing. This week I’m talking about why No Man’s Sky is a game to be excited for.

We finally have a release date for No Man’s Sky, it’s June 21, 2016. I turn 30 nine days later. In those years I’ve played a lot of games, more than I can count, more than I even remember. There have been countless titles I’ve been shaking with anticipation for, but nothing has quite grabbed my attention like No Man’s Sky. Funny thing, I’m not alone, so many others are absolutely enthralled by the sheer possibilities of this largely unknown game. This game has been a hot topic for gamers since it was officially announced to the masses at Sony’s E3 press conference in 2014. I still remember hearing what No Man’s Sky was going to be, and being absolutely blown away by the idea. It’s been a long wait, but now we’re only a handful of months away and I can’t wait for this game I know so little about.

No Man’s Sky has been in development for a long time. While the biggest reveal of the game for most of us was that E3 conference, it was actually announced first at the 2013 VGX Awards, unfortunately not long after that the Hello Games studios were flooded with everything in the office being destroyed. Luckily for us that didn’t detract the team, who are still working to finish what will undoubtedly be a game changer for video games.

Some lucky members of the press got to actually go have a short one-on-one talk with co-founder of Hello Games Sean Murray about No Man’s Sky recently, and even got a chance to play the game itself. Through this we got to hear information about multiplayer, alien interaction, and that Sean Murray himself thinks No Man’s Sky would be awesome in VR. One of the best interviews I saw out of the batch was Kevin Coello from Kinda Funny, who is actually the one that asked about VR, you can check out the video below too, it’s only 10 minutes.

One of the most exciting things about this game is the unknown factor. We really don’t know what we’ll be able to do. The basics are there, spaceships, travel between planets, alien races, and some sort of combat. Beyond that it’s a total mystery. If you look around the internet to people talking about No Man’s Sky, everyone has a different idea of how they want to play. Whether they’ll be able to play that way or not isn’t important to me, the fact that they’re coming up with these ideas in respect to a game is what’s most exciting. That open ended essay question was always a trial in frustration in high school, but now when wrapped into virtual exploration of a universe I’m all for it.

As of late I’ve become very drawn to the adventure style of games. Things where combat or platforming isn’t the key to the game. Gone Home, Life is Strange, and to a certain extent Undertale are games that have taken us to different places without the usual gaming tropes. No Man’s Sky looks to elevate that by allowing players to decide how they really want to explore and experience things. You can probably be an absolute monster and run around killing friendly aliens, or you can be completely benevolent and just explore, spending your time trying to be the first to discover a planet. I can’t think of another game that has had so many different people so interested in what it could be. Even those who’ve had a chance to play the game aren’t entirely sure what to make of it, but no one has anything truly negative to say.

To finish things up I just want to throw out there again the possibilities this game presents for VR. Sean Murray as you saw above said No Man’s Sky could be great in VR, and it really looks like it could be. I’m very interested to see VR, but I’m in no way interested in being an early adopted. A game like No Man’s Sky is something I could completely see myself investing in Playstation VR to experience virtual space exploration.

Chris talks a bunch on PodQuest each week. He's also been known to write about stuff from time to time. You can Email Chris or follow Chris on Twitter @Just_Cobb or Facebook

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