No Man's Sky Reviews

No Man's Sky is ranked in the 48th percentile of games scored on OpenCritic.
3.5 / 5.0
Sep 27, 2016

Like Icarus, No Man’s Sky is an ambitious game that aims high. The result is a game with beautiful visuals and a wide, expansive universe filled with a multitude of planets and interesting creatures. At the same time, the game’s base mechanics, while solid, could use more variety as they can get old after a while. Players who like a clearly defined goal and more diversity in gameplay, for example, will find the lack of action and a clear overarching narrative disappointing. If you like simple exploration and getting lost in the weeds, however, then No Man’s Sky’s slower pace will be for you.

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Matt Buchholtz
Top Critic
7 / 10.0
Aug 18, 2016

An ambitious game, No Man’s Sky allows gamers to play space-captain across an entire universe of planets. Unfortunately, numerous glitches and monotonous gameplay options make the game frustrating for those desiring something more serious.

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Aug 10, 2016

No Man's Sky isn't the "game to end all games" that some fans have made it out to be, but that's no cause for alarm. What Hello Games' ambitious project does offer is the chance to savor the little details in a massive universe absolutely rife with them — a messy universe, to be sure, but one that's not that different from our own in that regard.

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Aug 12, 2016

No Man’s Sky is a good game. Sean Murray and Hello Games’ vision of creating a vast universe on a scale unseen in video games has no doubt been achieved, and will certainly provide everyone who plays it with something unique.

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Aug 15, 2016

In Minecraft, I can invite other people to share my discoveries. In No Man’s Sky, I am utterly alone.

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Atomix
Top Critic
70 / 100
Aug 1, 2018

No Man's Sky is an experience designed for a very specific audience. The gamers who enjoy exploring and admiring the universe will feel happy with the result of Next; however, for another audience it will be boring to repeat the same tasks over and over again.

Review in Spanish | Read full review

7 / 10
Mar 10, 2023

On top of all that, there's good use of haptics in the controllers and the headset, and there are decent comfort settings. The default movement is teleportation and snap turning, but you can toggle smooth motion if preferred. While in some ways, the game's complexities make it potentially overwhelming to play in virtual reality, the end result is great once you get used to it. For a slight sacrifice in image quality, you're getting a deeply immersive experience which plays into that sci-fi fantasy more than ever.

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Push Square
Stephen Tailby
Top Critic
7 / 10
Dec 7, 2020

No Man's Sky has made enormous leaps forward, and its arrival on PS5 is an opportune time to revisit this ambitious survival game. Whether you upgrade your existing game to the new version or grab it for the very first time, you'll be getting the best experience, with dozens of hours of content and a literal universe waiting to be explored. Some remaining gameplay issues mean it isn't perfect, but it has plenty to offer those who persevere.

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7 / 10.0
Aug 30, 2016

The moral of this story is: No man is an island—not even Sean Murray and his buggy mathematical superformula. No Man's Sky is an ironically small game, but it has a big, beating heart at its center, even when the procedural generation and the sometimes narrow-scoped world building tries to hide it.

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Ken McKown
Top Critic
7 / 10.0
Aug 17, 2016

Hello Games achieved what they set out to do. They have crafted a massive galaxy of planets for players to explore. That feat is nothing short of extraordinary, and I think everyone who enjoys games should experience that. Whether you come out of it with a smile or a frown, it is entirely dependent on how much you are willing to put up with to explore a nearly endless galaxy.

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7 / 10
Aug 13, 2016

No Man's Sky is full of potential, and Hello Games has laid strong foundations on which to build. Its main gameplay is simplistic but becomes totally engrossing, and the technical achievement is impressive. The atmosphere created by the graphics and sound is second to none, and there's an amazing sense of place. Some may struggle to find the fun with the lack of direction, and there are some technical issues that need addressing, but if you're able to create your own fun with the tools that you're given, you'll be playing this for a long time.

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Aug 21, 2016

No Man's Sky is a game whose ambitious promises may have hurt it in the long run, but it's hard to deny the impressive framework and gameplay loop Hello Games created.

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7 / 10
Aug 15, 2016

No Man’s Sky manages to be a hugely impressive accomplishment for the team at Hello Games, but the hubris and hype meant it could never live up to the expectations heaped upon it. Despite the various caveats and areas that Hello will look to improve upon over the coming months, you can so easily lose hours at a time landing on a new and interesting planet for the first time, giving the local flora and fauna idiotic names, before falling down a hole and getting lost in a sprawling cave system, only to do the exact same thing on the next planet over. There’s nothing quite like it.

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Aug 15, 2016

There is no time travel in No Man’s Sky, only the momentum to push forward. Pushing forward in the hopes that the next planet you land on will take your breath away. Pushing forward in the hopes that you will find a derelict ship ripe for the taking. And at the very least, pushing forward in the hopes that they can fix the combat with a patch update.

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7 / 10.0
Aug 11, 2016

No Man's Sky isn't quite what I thought it would be. It's a fun sandbox game that's full of wonder, until it isn't. Unlike other similar titles, the magic fades over time, because 18 billion planets (sorry, 18 quintillion) don't matter if it feels like there's only truly 20 unique ones. I wouldn't recommend No Man's Sky if you don't like getting lost -- but for those of you who do, wander away.

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USgamer
Top Critic
Aug 16, 2016

No Man's Sky's journey across a massive procedural universe is compelling in how seamless it feels, the way that it allows you to explore at your own pace, and its questioning of the drive toward completionism found in most games. Unfortunately, it's saddled with a terrible interface and a crushing sense of repetition, both of which come to overshadow its more interesting qualities. As such, while it feels incomprehensibly vast at times, No Man's Sky can also feel crushingly limiting. And it's the latter feeling, unfortunately, that keeps its from reaching its full potential.

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GameSpot
Top Critic
7 / 10
Aug 12, 2016

No Man's Sky is a massive machine with broken and missing parts, but dig deep enough and you'll be moved in ways you never expected.

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7.4 / 10.0
Aug 26, 2016

A universally-divisive undertaking on a cosmic scale, No Man's Sky shines brightest when you are left to your own devices.

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7.5 / 10.0
Aug 9, 2016

Overall solid game, but could use improvement.

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7.5 / 10.0
Aug 10, 2016

Das Team von Hello Games hat zwar eine wirklich beachtliche Leistung mit No Man’s Sky abgeliefert, schafft es aber trotzdem nicht ganz die angepriesene Welt wirklich wie erwartet umzusetzen. Nach einigen Spielstunden trifft man zwar immer noch auf neue Dinge, aber die Limitierungen im Gameplay und bei allen Bereichen außer der reinen Planeten-Anzahl, sind einfach zu schnell erreicht. Ob die Entwickler hier noch mit Updates etwas an Abwechslung ins Spiel bringen können bleibt noch offen, aber in der aktuellen Fassung ist No Man’s Sky eher nur eine simple Weltraum-Simulation für zwischendurch.

Review in German | Read full review