No Man's Sky Reviews
The largely solitary experience of No Man's Sky is monotonous, easily frustrating and loses its charm way too early. For a game with the promise of all the wonders of the universe, it delivers so little.
One player may find themselves having a vastly different experience from another, or even being entirely unaware of mechanics they've never chosen to engage with. While the Switch version isn't without its flaws, the core experience is excellently translated. And if I've learned anything from Hello Games over the last six years, I'm hopeful this version will only get better with time.
No Mans Sky would've made an excellent tech demo of something greater yet to come, or as a $20 independent game from a studio trying to find its footing. It certainly doesn't live up to what was once a marquee title during one of Sony's E3 press conferences, and it doesn't come close to justifying its $60 asking price. No Man's Sky had so much potential in delivering a game that compelled and rewarded unbridled exploration. That it fails to do so only makes its shortcomings more striking, and it's disappointing when compared to how the game was described leading up to its release.
While No Man's Sky does suffer from some technical glitches that occasionally impact play, it's built on solid foundations, and it starts out feeling genuinely fresh and exciting. As it progresses, however, the experience peters out with the realisation that exploration is really all there is to do. Each piece of the journey only exists to further the journey itself, and there's no real reward except for additional opportunities for exploration, and any sense of personal achievement is wiped out. There's definitely something exciting about this infinite world, but infinity begins to look the same after a while.
No Man's Sky is a better technical demo than it is a full priced game. A randomly generated universe sounds like an impressive concept, but the underlying variety and most of the gameplay design could have used more depth.
While it doesn’t quite live up to some people’s expectations No Man’s Sky is still a great game and some of the things it does are truly a great achievement.
Hello Games has created an overhyped, overpriced, and overall bad game. They had so many opportunities to make it better and lie less while advertising it, yet they didn’t. No Man’s Sky is ambitious, but rubbish.
No game, film, book or otherwise has been more effectively in capturing what the experience of exploring the universe must be.
As I became more familiar with its systems, as I began to master the repeating frames of its world, they began to fall away. Mastery brought with it an openness that was dizzying in its freedom. I had a ship I liked, enough units to get by, and an inventory that served my purpose. Unshackled from the grind, I suddenly realized I could wander.
It’s an incredibly apt description of No Man’s Sky, and by this standard the game is a tremendous success. There are have been many, many moments where the sensation of alien wonder and sci-fi awe has overwhelmed me playing No Man’s Sky. But while I own and cherish anthologies of sci-fi covers (The Art of Michael Whelan is sprawled open somewhere nearby), reading the actual book is always preferable. No Man’s Sky is all cover.
In short bursts, 'No Man's Sky' is amazing, but going deeper, I found only a void. There's a great framework, and an arresting visual style to go with an ease of mobility, but in a short amount of time, I despaired of finding any more interactivity or progression in the all-too-similar horizons and star systems. My search for Nada ended in a whimper.
Ambitious ideas, great potential, huge world, and very little to do! No Man's Sky is not bad but it's not what promised. The huge world suffers from numerous bugs and the gameplay gets repetitive very soon. Yet, if you are a fan of pure exploration, you may very well enjoy it.
Review in Persian | Read full review
An impressive piece of technology capable of generating some truly gorgeous vistas, the game layered on top however disappoints in almost every way and just has no depth. Planets are fun to wander around whilst gathering resources to move on but you won’t linger.
A great achievement in building a gigantic world that feels realistic, with stable performance in considering what the game is doing in the background. The whole game is designed through algorithms that makes the planets seem simple and pretty similar, plus the repetitive gameplay that doesn’t change much. If you don’t mind these two issues, then you’ll find a rich, deep game full of secrets to explore, with the all the things you need to do so.
Review in Arabic | Read full review
No Mans Sky در مقام یک بازی بیشک بیعیب و نقص نیست، مثل هر بازی دیگری یک تاریخ مصرف دارد اما قدرتش در تجربهای است که به شما میدهد، به نظرم با آن باید همچون یک موجود زنده برخورد شود، موجودی سرشار از ابعاد مختلف که فراتر از هر چیزی درون خود یک روح بزرگ دارد، قرار نیست مثل یک ماشین آخرین مدل به شما سواری بدهد یا حتی مثل برخی گونه های پست تر صرفا توهم سواری را در شما ایجاد کند. بزرگترین دستاورد بازی این حقیقت است که حتی بدون داستان نیز می توان با خلق یک جهان کاملا زنده و پویا مخاطب را در خود غرق کرد تا بی هیچ چهارچوبی به دنبال علایقش باشد. روزی کارگردان بازی در وصف اثرش گفته یود که بازی این رویای کودکی همه ماست، و ما نیز در نهایت میتوانیم بگوییم No Man’s Sky ثابت میکند که مدیوم گیم بسیار بهتر و تاثیرگذار تر از هر مدیوم دیگری حتی سینما می تواند مخاطب را به مصاف تجربیات غیرممکن و غیرقابل وصف ببرد.
Review in Persian | Read full review
No Man’s Sky is (as what most people shall have it) a survival, action-adventure game that is set in a procedurally generated environment that allows players to be immersed in a variety of settings.
If you currently only have one Switch, prefer to play solo and wanted to try out the title anyway, you will undoubtedly be thrilled what Hello Games delivers here. But also all Switch owners with a penchant for space exploration should quickly take "No Man's Sky" to their hearts.
Review in German | Read full review
Perhaps the game that best underlines the tenet that bigger isn't always better, No Man's Sky is undoubtedly a technical marvel, but it's also sterile, repetitive, and all too easy to put down.
Overall solid game, but could use improvement.
No Man's Sky aims to capture your imagination and throw you into an adventure like no game has ever done before. It succeeds in creating a scarily vast universe in which you, the player, feel so tiny and insignificant. The thought that you'll never see another human is equally depressing as it is awesome. You know there's others out there, but the most interaction you'll ever have is landing on a planet called 'Your Mum'. It's a drag at times, especially once you dedicate yourself to getting to the center and seeing what all the fuss is about, but it's not really the end goal that matters, it's the journey. If you're a fan of exploration games, go for it.