Gadgetory

it's been two years since we were first introduced to no man's sky a game that promised a near infinite universe for us to explore and since that promised a lot of hype has been built up around it with people's imaginations running wild with thoughts of what kind of crazy adventures they could have creatures to discover and what strange different planets they could find so now that it's finally here the question is does it live up to the hype well here's five reasons this game is absolutely mindful number one just how freakin huge it is no man's sky contains 18 quintillion 446 quadrillion 744 m what this means is every system you explore is being generated by an equation based on that system's code which allows the universe to be so huge but generated on the fly and this also means that every planet is unique sure you'll find planets with similar or common traits but no two worlds are exactly alike and this leads to point number two this game is a dream for collectors if you thought capturing 800 Pokemon was hard work this games got countless species of creatures for you to find every livable world is filled with these animals for you to track down and analyze but you can then name permanently for all other players to see and it's not just the creatures you can name rock-types flora planets even a whole system can be named by you if you're the first to discover it and what makes this even better is that the game rewards you for these efforts giving you money for everything you catalog and even throwing a bonus on top for finding every creature of a given planet and that's not where the collectibles end each world is also filled with monoliths flax and alien ruins that teach you the language of what intelligent creatures you can encounter now a downside to this is that the game is focused on the journey of a lone wanderer and that's exactly the feeling you're gonna get the universe is filled with wildlife for you to find but as far as civilizations and actual people to talk to go it's extremely slim number three crafting and customization exploration may be the main goal of no man's sky but survival and resource gathering plays a very close second every world is filled with resources for you to harvest some of which you may use to fuel your equipment but others will go into crafting materials and upgrades for your multi-tool exosuit and ship and what's really cool about upgrades is how they take up inventory slots so you constantly have to balance and customize your loadout to fit your play style and this all goes into point for death has consequences borrowing the basic idea from dark souls every time you die you drop all of your resources and if you want to retrieve them you have to get back to that same location since these resources are the lifeblood of everything you can do in game from fueling your ship to protecting you from bad weather you want to hold on to those desperately and what's even scarier than that is losing your ship if your ship explodes you're set back to square one using the starting ship from the game with terrible flight combat and cargo capabilities this gives so much more impact to every dangerous situation you find yourself in making survival a chief concern and finally point number five freedom no man's guy takes a very hands-off approach to how it introduces you to the game the very beginning is a bit linear covering basic topics like go get so many of this mineral and repair your ship but once you've done that it's all up to you if you want to thoroughly explore the world you start on go for it if you want to see the rest of the system you're in right away go for it if you want to leave immediately so you can hunt down you walk somewhere else you can do that too the game does have an underlying very basic storyline giving you the goal of reaching the center of the universe but nothing's forcing you to do it and really that's what this game is about it's not about following a story mode and putting in your 20 or 30 hour investment to get to the finish line it's about going your own pace making your own journey and finding stories to tell your friends