Some players are still enamoured with No Man’s Sky and its wide, but shallow look at outer space. Others? Not so much. The algorithmically charged game has largely been a victim of its own hype, with reactionary fans lambasting the game for not quite being what was promised.
That’s the problem with expectation, in that it very seldom matches with reality. Right now, very many people are unhappy with No Man’s Sky. That said, developer Hello Games is busy working on a patch that company head Sean Murray says will make people happy.
Awesome day at Hello Games, we’re going to make some people very happy with a PC and PS4 patch that’s in test right now 🙂
— Sean Murray (@NoMansSky) August 15, 2016
But what is it exactly that’s making people unhappy? Of course the internet has answers. According to a comprehensive list of things that were believed to be in the game but aren’t, anyway. The list is exhaustive, and can be found here.
Here’s a very, very brief overview of what players are complaining is missing.
- The loss of planetary physics, which were said to govern many different systems, seemingly in a cascading effect from the top down: | 1 2 3 4
- The retooling of ships to make them all functionally identical, rather than having different classes for different playstyles, essentially homogenizing ship play into a single playstyle: 1 2 3
- The reworking of factions from something with broader significance, into the very simplistic system we have now: 1 2
- Resource distribution following none of the rules that were spoken of, instead resource variety is more shallow than we’d been lead to believe, so distribution was seemingly homogenized regardless of planet-based factors (likely an effect of the loss of planetary physics)1 2 3 4 || This also had a knock-on effect for trading, which was trivialized by the ease in which most resources could be found: 1 2 3, and also crafting, which went from something Sean hoped would be community drive a la Minecraft (likely because there were far more resources originally, a la Minecraft, there’s more evidence of this than just the crafting,) to something that could only be done through recipes the game must teach you before you can actually use: 1
It can all be perfectly encapsulated with this:
.@NoMansSky Apologize. pic.twitter.com/v1BfN3cc9z
— Britbong (@Britbongreturns) August 15, 2016
Once again, No Man’s Sky has collapsed under its own hype, but I can’t blame people for being pissed about the game being so shallow, when much of its marketing material and pre-release patter set up expectations for it to not be.
Last Updated: August 17, 2016
konfab
August 17, 2016 at 09:38
Even though I disagree with most of the criticism of NMS, that video makes me laugh every time 😀
Geoffrey Tim
August 17, 2016 at 09:40
Every single time.
Admiral Chief
August 17, 2016 at 09:41
MY T-REX IS AMAZING
Pariah
August 17, 2016 at 09:48
100% 😀
James Anderton
August 17, 2016 at 10:45
You may disagree with it, that doesn’t make it any less true.
Thami Afurika-Jin HD
August 17, 2016 at 09:41
That video is Gold!!!
I still wish Sean wasn’t so vague on Twitter about everything all the time..
Alien Emperor Trevor
August 17, 2016 at 09:44
Well that video brightened up my morning.
Glad they’re working hard at patching things.
Admiral Chief
August 17, 2016 at 09:46
Will get it on Steam Christmas special sale then, hopefully all the bugs are sorted
Skyblue
August 17, 2016 at 11:32
The problem is that there just isn’t very much to do in the game. It certainly isn’t worth the cost and that video certainly does highlight the end product.
miaau
August 17, 2016 at 09:47
Remember in the 80’s: we got Knight Rider on our video games thingy. Turned out to be Space invaders with a Knight Rider skin. Sure did not read like that on the back of the box!
HairyEwok
August 17, 2016 at 09:49
I’ve yet to encounter a planet with that many animals and vegetation like in the video. The planets that were shown at E3/Before launch and the planets we’re exploring now is 2 totally different things.
Pariah
August 17, 2016 at 09:50
Yeah the wildlife so far for me has been sparse. Some really nice vegetation, and my second planet had rather large flying creatures that were taller than the trees when on the ground. But hey. It’s expected, really.
Deceased
August 17, 2016 at 11:07
Out of 9 ( out of 14 ) thoroughly explored planets that I’ve found, I’ve stumbled across 1 planet with a very very diverse fauna set – there were huge animals and small animals that all looked different – and the flora wasn’t so sparse at all.
But that’s 1 of 9 – the latest one is very bland, but has a bunch of monoliths, so I’ve got that going for me, which is nice 😛
Alien Emperor Trevor
August 17, 2016 at 09:54
I have a vague memory of him saying in an interview that all those promo videos were punched up to make them look prettier. Basically bullshotting.
HairyEwok
August 17, 2016 at 10:00
Why do that…. Obviously the game can handle what they showed us so why dumb it down. It’s like they purposely did it to piss people off.
Pariah
August 17, 2016 at 09:49
I’m happy now. No need for any patches. Although I’m looking forward to buildings, with hopefully some other kind of storage option. Literally my only gripe is storage management. Deciding what to keep and what to throw away is a careful balancing act. Although that’s kind of fun in itself, unlike Fallout where you can collect more forks than what should be humanly possible and break them down for parts? XD
Ottokie
August 17, 2016 at 09:54
Got my exo suite to max slots and ship is 34, so I stop at the space station twice for each new warp 😛
Pariah
August 17, 2016 at 09:56
I really need to do that tbh. Also I want a bigger ship, but meh.
Ottokie
August 17, 2016 at 09:58
Got the one that’s flying in the back on the pic 🙂
http://media1.gameinformer.com/filestorage/CommunityServer.Components.SiteFiles/imagefeed/featured/sony2014/playstationexperience/NoMansSky/NMSPSX-610.jpg
Pariah
August 17, 2016 at 10:01
Niiiice 😀
I haven’t seen one of those yet.
Ottokie
August 17, 2016 at 10:01
When you upgrade to a ship with 30+ slots they start to spawn
Hammersteyn_hates_Raid0
August 17, 2016 at 10:42
Could have bought one but it would’ve cost around 7 200 000 units
Alien Emperor Trevor
August 17, 2016 at 10:15
Fake. It’s not pink. ;P
Ottokie
August 17, 2016 at 10:16
The ship before this one was pink xD
Kromas GG
August 17, 2016 at 09:50
Call me when mp. Else I will skip.
Pariah
August 17, 2016 at 09:50
No need to call you then. o/
😛
Kromas GG
August 17, 2016 at 09:52
Good thing too since I have too many good games to play. 😛
Pariah
August 17, 2016 at 09:55
Go away with your good games and leave us to shoot more crystals ok?
Alien Emperor Trevor
August 17, 2016 at 09:57
Is shooting your crystals… addictive? 😀
Pariah
August 17, 2016 at 09:58
*sniff sniff*
What?
Dane
August 17, 2016 at 10:13
Ha! Nice.
Kromas GG
August 17, 2016 at 10:24
Roger that. Time for some Space Engineers or as I like to call it “What NMS wishes it could be” 😛
Ottokie
August 17, 2016 at 10:30
Wot? space engineers is a massive shit pile flop. That game makes no sense at all xD
Kromas GG
August 17, 2016 at 10:32
It is not that bad and it is not released yet.
Ottokie
August 17, 2016 at 10:30
Wot? space engineers is a massive shit pile flop. That game makes no sense at all xD
Ottokie
August 17, 2016 at 09:56
That video…must… REPLAY!
HairyEwok
August 17, 2016 at 09:57
Does anybody know when that patch will release with the extra dead planets and where you can choose 1 of the 3 paths and everything has actual physics and won’t float in the sky. I’d play the game again if that patch is released.
konfab
August 17, 2016 at 10:04
http://i.imgur.com/pLyMofk.jpg
Ottokie
August 17, 2016 at 10:06
The link takes me to Reddit..how does one reddit? do you read upside down, right to left. This is so confusing
DragonSpirit009
August 17, 2016 at 10:28
That vidoe!! I lol’d quite a bit!
DragonSpirit009
August 17, 2016 at 10:28
That vidoe!! I lol’d quite a bit!
Hammersteyn_hates_Raid0
August 17, 2016 at 10:41
That video, I almost died laughing. Funniest thing I’ve seen all year
BakedBagel
August 17, 2016 at 10:42
The harmonica makes it the best
Hammersteyn_hates_Raid0
August 17, 2016 at 10:48
I forgot all about the 2014 trailer though, in comparison I now feel cheated.
BakedBagel
August 17, 2016 at 12:05
After the whole watchdogs scenario. Trailers are “look at this thing that you will never have”
ElimiNathan
August 17, 2016 at 10:48
My f*** its good
Hammersteyn_hates_Raid0
August 17, 2016 at 10:49
I wish I could be in Hello Games studio when they see it
ElimiNathan
August 17, 2016 at 10:49
So true, the look of failure on their faces. Priceless
Hammersteyn_hates_Raid0
August 17, 2016 at 10:50
What failure? They made their money I bet and that’s all that counts in the end for them
ElimiNathan
August 17, 2016 at 10:51
True, I also don’t want them to become discouraged from improving the game. Which I’m hoping is what they’re going to do going forward. Bug fixes and continuously adding features. A person can dream
James Anderton
August 17, 2016 at 11:21
https://twitter.com/Britbongreturns/status/765554513260449793
Hammersteyn_hates_Raid0
August 17, 2016 at 11:25
BWAHAHAHAHAHA!
tenshi_a
August 17, 2016 at 10:47
You know what would make me happy? If it stopped crashing on PS4. Like, full on “Send Report” crashes.
Twice it happened by opening the Options menu by mistake and immediately trying to push the touchscreen menu button to correct myself. Twice it happened when my spaceship got blown up. Several times it happened and I have no idea why.
I’d also like the ability to be able to set / ignore radar markers (e.g. setting one on a crashed ship I need to fetch resources to fix, or dismissing all “Plaque” markers when I’m hunting for “Monolith” markers), and dismiss the thing that tells me I have a crappy multitool DLC I haven’t claimed.
Ghost In The Rift
August 17, 2016 at 10:51
With a bit of elbow grease form Hello Games i might still stick to the game, gonna place my hopes once again on Sean and co, hopefully future updates will improve on current issues and add to the game, is that wishful thinking? Why yes, yes it is.
ElimiNathan
August 17, 2016 at 10:52
In same boat
James Anderton
August 17, 2016 at 10:52
It’s Sean Murray thinking.
Ghost In The Rift
August 17, 2016 at 10:54
XD
Aries
August 17, 2016 at 11:53
F*** this game, waste of money and its 2gb of space
Skyblue
August 17, 2016 at 13:10
Saw this somewhere earlier. Not as awesome as that video but it gave me a good laugh.
Lo Snupo
August 17, 2016 at 19:28
Game isn’t even bad, more an experience than a real game but Sean Murray is a fu**ing liar and i will not buy another game coming from this a**hole.