A Busier Sky

The news of the upcoming Bethesda RPG Starfield and it's 1,000 explorable planets gave me a strange hankering to revisit No Man's Sky.  I spent a fair chunk of time tooling around in the procedurally generated universe and found it to be busier than the last time I played (which according to the date on my previous save was 2018).  Busier isn't necessarily a bad thing and I found that I was mostly having a good time--unfortunately, it's still just not enough to draw me in for longer.

There have been numerous large updates to No Man's Sky since I last played and review it.  I don't know the specifics of all of these patches and expansions, but I'm going to try to lay out the major changes that I noticed.

Positive Changes:

One of the strange bubble-filled planets I found.

1.) More planet variety.  I vaguely remember seeing news in the past of a major game update that was designed to specifically address the repetitive nature of the rotating cast of about 4 slightly different (but still mostly similar) planet types.  There are now more planet types and it's nice not to feel like you're just traipsing your character through the same repeated biomes.  One of the fun features of some of these new planet types is that you can find little collectible items that can be placed in your base.  I found two planets of the "frothing" variety that featured an atmosphere filled with whimsical, floating bubbles.  Another new planet type I encountered was called "rattling" and was filled with odd, alien looking plants.

2.) Freedom to play how you want.  There was a creative mode the last time I played, but I noticed some changes that lend themselves to players being able to skip base building missions/tasks.  Previously, the space anomaly was a part of the main storyline and it appeared as part of that story.  Now, the space anomaly is more of a central hub where players can spend special currency to unlock upgrade modules, new equipment/items for your base, and even unlock some cosmetic/collectible items.  Each planet is now scattered with "buried technology modules" which, once exposed, yield special modules that can be traded in at a special merchant on the anomaly.  Equipment that was once unlocked through either the base computer archives or missions relating to specialists in your base can now be purchased with these modules.  Players can choose from different types of structure/building materials, base equipment, decorative items or several other tiers.

3.) More storage.  I remember the inventory system as being frustratingly small and restrictive before, but the good news is that they've greatly expanded inventory options.  Now all your gear (and ships and exocraft) have three separate inventories--a general inventory, a technology inventory (basically a place where you can install your tech and upgrade modules that doesn't permanently take up slots in your main inventory) and a "cargo" section.  You can gradually unlock more slots in all three inventories through a few methods--at each new space station you can purchase one new slot (in one of the three inventories--the cost varies depending on which inventory you pick), you can find drop pods (through using navigation data or finding drop pod coordinates), and, for only your multi-tool, you can sometimes be rewarded with a special item that can be cashed in at space stations to expand your multi-tool slots.  They've also added in many more buildable base storage modules than before.

4.) Settlement management.  I amassed a lot of navigation data modules and noticed an option (which cost 5 modules--the most expensive that the cartographer offers) to locate a settlement.  Once you find the location of the settlement you are given the option of becoming the overseer.  As the overseer of the settlement you are tasked with settling citizen disputes and balancing citizen input about new structures to construct in the settlement.  The ultimate goal seems to be helping to build a settlement where citizens are happy, protected (the sentinels aren't big fans of the the settlements and will periodically attack), and productive.  Adding buildings requires you to donate specific building materials (which vary) and then waiting for a certain length of time (usually an hour or an hour and a half) before each section of construction is completed (a new building usually requires three donations of building materials).  Each settlement starts off with debt and once you've worked to improve productivity will eventually be able to pay off the debt.  Once settlement debt is paid off the settlement will being producing surplus items (based off of the buildings you've added) that can be collected at certain intervals and sold/kept.

I enjoyed this new feature and found it enjoyable to watch the settlement grow.  There's even a new mission chain tied to the settlement that rewards a special type of exocraft (a mech-like vehicle called the Minotaur) that is geared toward combat with the sentinels.

5.) Feels slightly less grindy.  I remember being annoyed with trying to keep all my various exploration tools fully fueled in my past play session.  Now, it feels easier to find the elements you need to be able to keep everything charged up and ready to go.  There's still a need to find certain specific elements when you're trying to craft upgrades or base items.

6.) The exocraft system has been vastly improved.  In the past you had to build vehicle bays on each planet you visited.  The bays cost a significant amount of resources and it just wasn't feasible.  Now, all you have to do is build bays for each type of vehicle (there are several) to claim ownership of them and then you can build one special vehicle summoning bay in each system you visit (and the resources to build them are very affordable/easy to find) to be able to remotely summon any of your owned exocraft to your location.  There's also a device you can build aboard your freighter that serves a similar function--you just have to make sure you summon your freighter to each system.  It's a huge improvement and makes it extremely easy to explore in a wider range.

7.) I didn't mess with the multiplayer, but it feels more robust than it did in the past.  There seemed to be community type challenges and multiplayer missions available on the Space Anomaly.  The universe feels a lot less empty than it did in the past.

Even with all these changes I still found myself drifting away--there's still a quantity of repetitiveness to NMS and I still didn't feel very drawn into to main storyline.  If you're someone like me who maybe played NMS in the past but haven't picked it up in awhile, you might want to give it a go and see how things have been improved.  I'm always surprised at how much more time and effort has gone into expanding one of the most controversial titles of the 2010's and how Hello Games seems to be dedicated to making up for their mistakes through expanding the game.