It was June 2014. My daughter was only three months old, and during those sleep-deprived days, I was awake in the early hours to watch the Sony E3 Press Conference. Lo and behold, Sony revealed a game that instantly pulled me into No Man’s Sky. This game had everything I would ever look for—space, spaceships, discovery, planets, aliens, basically just disgustingly hardcore science fiction.
The promise was too good to be true but with the new generation of consoles hitting their stride, I had full confidence that this would become a reality, discovering huge dinosaur like aliens on distant planets, dog fights in space, traversing star systems to see who I bump into along the way.
The game’s creator and public face, Sean Murray, was appearing on gaming sites, YouTube, and even American late-night chat shows. It was all real. It was all happening, my perfect game.
Two years passed, and the game was close to launch. I had joined the subreddit, and we had been hyping ourselves up for the release for months. Sean Murray had done his final publicity rounds, and although delayed by a month, I was ready. I took time off work and pre-ordered the game via the PlayStation Network store (which I had never done before) to preload and have it ready to go at midnight.
At midnight on 12th August 2016, I loaded up the game, snacks ready, drinks ready, and phone fully charged to send live updates to friends (whether they wanted them or not) who didn’t get the game straight away. I found myself on a crashed moon and the adventure began, I had to gather items to fix my broken ship so I can get off the rock I was on and start my journey. It was magical, and I was hooked. Flying off the planet and into space just like the trailers I watched a million times felt terrific, landing on my first planet and discovering ALIEN ANIMALS! What a rush! What a magnificently nerdy rush! This was it; I had found the game of all games and wouldn’t need anything else again.
Three days later, it all came crumbling down. No Man’s Sky aimed to get to the galaxy’s centre. I chose not to do that immediately, so I went down the discovery route and slowly made my way there. Some players went straight for the centre and quickly managed to get there. On this third day of play, I realised that landing on planets, going to space stations and then landing on more planets was becoming very laborious and tedious. Everything seemed to be the same except with a different Instagram filter, and the animals were just cut-and-paste versions of the same body parts. I hadn’t seen a single player on my travels, even though I was in a star system simultaneously with another player. I had put a lot of hours in, and so far, no alien dinosaurs, no lush planets, no player interaction and no incentive to continue playing.
On Twitter, I started seeing people send abuse to Sean Murray after he mentioned something about more players online than they expected to explain why two players could not see each other at the exact location. It quickly became apparent that all those features Sean mentioned during his TV circuit were missing. You couldn’t see or interact with other players. Dinosaurs weren’t anywhere near the kind you saw in the trailers, and the “battles” were abysmal compared to the trailers.
I felt disappointed that none were at launch, but I couldn’t get mad. I did enjoy what I did play of the game but thought I had enough. I started to see the abuse for Sean, and Hello Games became quite nasty online. I decided that was enough for me and moved on to other games. I checked in on No Man’s Sky occasionally, but nothing was happening, and Hello Games fell silent, so I assumed that was it. The game was an overhyped disappointment, but the world went on. It was over.
Over the next few months, Hello Games and Sean Murray were criticized for their silence. Numerous articles circulated about the game being a flop and how the developers had given up and abandoned it due to its current state. Sony commented, trying to take the blame away from themselves. Death threats were thrown about like it was a totally normal thing to do. It all became very messy.
In November, the redemption story started. Hello Games finally communicated and revealed an update dubbed “Foundation.” This update introduced base building, setting home planets, and some more involvement of the alien species found in the game. It also added new creative and survival modes, respectively, and thus, No Man’s Sky began its comeback.
The update was a hesitant success; some players who had stuck with the game were overjoyed, some swore off the game no matter what and then some like me went back to check out the new additions and enjoyed them but didn’t stay for long. It was a start, and it was good to see that Hello Games had listened to the criticism and was trying to make amends. Soon after the update, the negativity began again. Some online comments lean towards Hello Games, only providing the update to save face and do some damage control so they could move on to another title.
But Hello Games didn’t leave the game. They carried on with the updates. In March 2017, the Pathfinder update was released, adding vehicles and a permadeath mode. The vehicles were a huge success, and Hello Games’ communication was improving. People were starting to swing towards positivity. The subreddit was full of platitudes, not just for the update but for Hello Games, and it seemed things were turning around for the developer.
Hello Games turned it up a notch in August with the mysterious “Atlas Rises” update. This started as an ARG (Alternative Reality Game) with cryptic emails if you had signed up through the Waking Titan website and puzzles to complete along with other players across the globe. Upon completing the ARG, Hello Games revealed the full update details, and their redemption was complete. No Man’s Sky has a 30-hour story mode with procedurally generated missions, portals to travel to planets, and an exploration mode with up to 16 players using voice and text chat. The game was finally becoming what was initially promised a year after launch. The community and player base were positive again. The Steam reviews were turning positive. Hello Games and Sean Murray were tweeting regularly again. It was remarkable. Once again, I dipped my toes into the update for a while but did not stick around. It became clear that I had moved on from the game I wanted and could not commit myself how I wanted to. It was too late for me.
Hello Games support of No Man’s Sky didn’t stop, and more updates came. In July 2018, we got the “Next” update, which saw the game finally come to the Xbox One. This update brought actual multiplayer, the ability to choose your race, assemble and travel with your own fleet, trade in different markets that vary from star system to star system and better space battles. The planets were overhauled with better variation, and overall graphical fidelity improved. This game should have been released in 2016, but it’s better late than never. Hello Games had pulled it off.
This brings us to 2019, when a new ” Beyond ” update is coming. A recent interview with Sean Murray (yes, he’s even back on the interviews!) seemed to allude to this being the final big update for No Man’s Sky. We have VR, more online multiplayer functionality, and a third yet not fully announced “Pillar”, which, according to IGN, is an overall update to almost every aspect of the current game and mechanics. The VR is an absolute game changer (pun fully intended) as this game always seemed perfect for the PlayStation VR, and now, I can convince myself that I need the PSVR and the cost is justified.
The journey for Hello Games and Sean Murray has been remarkable, a journey that long-time players have also been a part of. A game that was once expected to fade into obscurity and only ever leave a legacy of lies and deceit became loved and praised for its quality of life updates and new features. Now, after three years, you can call No Man’s Sky an (eventual) success, with some real TLC and commitment from its developer, a passionate fan base, and VR to add to the mix. This is a unique and inspiring example of how such negativity and hate can lead to something tangible and positive in this industry that has been challenged consistently as of late. This is more No Man’s Sky 2 than it is just another update, and as a player who has dipped into the game now and then over the last three years, I couldn’t be happier.
The “Beyond” update will be released on August 14.
