No Man's Sky

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No Man's Sky
No Man's Sky - Text logo.svg
Studio United KingdomUnited Kingdom Hello Games
Publisher United KingdomUnited KingdomHello Games (Windows, Download) Sony Interactive Entertainment (PS4) iam8bit (Windows, "Explorer's Edition")
United StatesUnited States
United StatesUnited States
Senior Developer Sean Murray
composer 65daysofstatic
Erstveröffent-
lichung		 PlayStation 4 August 9, 2016 August 10, 2016 Windows August 12, 2016 Xbox One July 24, 2018
North AmericaNorth America
EuropeEurope

world

world
platform PlayStation 4
Microsoft Windows
Xbox One
Game engine No value
genre Action adventure , open world game , survival
Subject Science fiction
Game mode Single player
control Gamepad, mouse, keyboard
medium optical disc, digital distribution , download
language German
Current version 2.6 (desolation)
Age rating
USK released from 6
PEGI recommended for ages 7 and up

No Man's Sky ( English literally for "No Heaven" derived from No Man's Land ( " no man's land ")) is a computer game of indie -Entwicklerstudios Hello Games in which the player controls the character of a space explorer. The game was released in Europe on August 10, 2016 for PlayStation 4 and August 12 for Windows . It can be assigned to the genres action adventure and survival . The game has a procedurally generated open world environment.

Game content

In this game, the player can explore a procedurally generated game world that consists of 18 trillion planets, all of which have a similar gravity to the earth. Gas planets are neither present nor planned in the game. The game is designed for a single player experience, but it is possible to meet other players in the universe. The locomotion takes place on foot, with a rocket backpack , with four land vehicles, a submarine, an Exo-Mech or with a one-man spaceship. The player can collect resources on the planets, search for items and new technologies or hunt animals to improve his space suit, spaceship and equipment. In the game you can meet a variety of randomly generated animals and trade and communicate with intelligent aliens. In addition, the player has the option of naming planets and animals that he discovered first.

The aim of the game is to reach the center of the galaxy. It should take about 40 hours of play to get there.

Apart from this goal, it is up to the player how he behaves within the game world. For example, as a pirate, he can attack other ships and steal their resources. But there is also the possibility, as a kind of dealer, to collect valuable materials in a targeted manner and then sell them. Furthermore, since the so-called Foundation Update, it is possible to build a base on a planet in order to develop new components and technologies with the help of intelligent life forms employed by the player, as well as to grow plants that generate resources at certain time intervals. The player can now also buy large cargo ships in which a base can also be built.

NPCs and plants

All space stations and most planets are populated with life forms. Although intelligent aliens can be encountered in space stations and on most planets, and guardian drones can also be encountered on planets, the planets and space stations are considered undiscovered and can be discovered and named by the player.

Plants, minerals and animals

Plants, minerals and animals are procedurally generated and can be discovered by the player and named (with the exception of minerals). Plants and minerals can be destroyed and animals can be killed in order to gain access to resources. While you have to fight off hostile animals, peaceful creatures can be fed, making them trusting, and leading the player to raw materials, some of which are rare.

Intelligent alien races

Smart aliens who can be traded with can be found in space stations and structures on planets. There are several races of alien in the game who specialize in various skills, such as developing technique or fighting. If you want to communicate with the aliens, you have to learn the language of the race. The more you deal with the alien races, the more prestige you get with the various races. This can lead to gifts and information, such as blueprints for new spaceship equipment.

Guardian drones

If you cause too much damage or kill animals on a planet, guard drones appear, which pursue and shoot at the player. Depending on how much interest you arouse, you also reach a higher "wanted level", which is expressed in stars like in Grand Theft Auto .

development

Hello Games founders: Sean Murray (left) and Grant Duncan (June 2012)

The concept of No Man's Sky was born during the development of Joe Danger 2 by Sean Murray. Murray, a former developer at Criterion Games for the Burnout series , wanted to avoid Hello Games getting lost in one Joe Danger sequel after the other and thus neglecting the development of new games, as he had experienced at Criterion. So Murray decided to create an entirely new game based on an idea from his childhood when he wanted to be an astronaut.

Murray spent about a year working on the game engine for No Man's Sky in his spare time without the rest of the team knowing about it. When the engine was complete, Murray brought a four-person team on board to work on the game, while Joe Danger 2 was developed by the rest of the company. Their work was done in secret as the rest of Hello Games didn't know what they were working on, which created some tension in the company. In addition, Murray was concerned about revealing too much about the game and feared that even the smallest information about the game could lead to misunderstandings and misinterpretations. In 2013, Murray finally had the opportunity to present the game at the VGX Awards , he created a short teaser for it, which he showed to the rest of the studio a few days before the big premiere. As development on No Man's Sky progressed, Murray brought more and more of the rest of the team on board to complete the game.

On July 8, 2016, the developers completed work on the version of the game that was intended for release. Since then, we have been working on patches that should provide new features and bug fixes. In total, the development team consisted of 15 people who worked on the game for four years.

The game was first released for the PlayStation 4 on August 9, 2016 in the US and one day later in Europe. It is for the ( Windows -) PC - as consoles - port - since 12 August 2016 inter alia, Steam and ( DRM free) at GOG.com available. No Man's Sky was originally due to be released on June 22, 2016, but has been postponed to August. The game was available for pre-order from March 3, 2016.

The game originally developed in English (in writing and sound) was - in addition to German , spoken here by Lara Trautmann - in French , Italian , Spanish , Japanese , Korean , Polish , Portuguese , Russian and (only in writing) translated into Dutch .

Updates

Due to the enormous criticism, Hello Games published the so-called Foundation Update at the end of November 2016 , which contains numerous new features and improvements. Among other things, it is now possible to set up your own base or base where you can conduct research and development and temporarily store resources. Freighters were also introduced in order to be able to trade better. The update also brought new biomes, resource types and technologies.

With the Path Finder Update , Hello Games has released the next big update. The most important innovation of the second free update was the introduction of so-called "Exocrafts", ie vehicles with which you can drive on planets. It is also possible to own multiple spaceships and share your home base online with other players. Furthermore, spaceships and weapons are now divided into classes in order to be able to assess their quality more quickly.

After these two updates came a slightly larger update in August 2017 called Atlas Rises , which contains a new 30-hour story and has significantly revised the graphics of the textures. There was now a touch of multiplayer in the game, because players can meet in the universe and see themselves as blue spheres. Long-indicated and inactive portals were also available after the update and based on addresses, players are allowed to travel to any planet.

In July 2018, the NEXT update followed, which expanded the functionality of the basic building, improved the multiplayer capabilities of the game, introduced new weapons and ship types and polished up the graphics.

With The Abyss Update, the oceans of the planets got an extensive expansion in October 2018. From then on it was possible to set up underwater bases as well as to build and steer an underwater vehicle to explore the greatly expanded flora and fauna of the oceans as well as sunken ruins and crash sites. In addition, a separate underwater storyline was added and the graphics for diving were redesigned.

Visions appeared shortly after The Abyss and is the last content update so far, which was mainly devoted to expanding planetary diversity by adding new biomes and action locations.

With Beyond , another feature update was released in August 2019. In addition to complete VR porting, Beyond includes an improved multiplayer mode and various other improvements.

reviews

No Man's Sky received a mixed reception from the trade press , as many promised features were not incorporated into the game, such as: B. Space flight mechanics . Because of this, the game initially received mediocre or, in some cases, significantly below average ratings from the users. In the review aggregator Metacritic , the PlayStation 4 version achieved 71 out of 100 possible points based on 92 reviews and 4.5 out of 10 points based on 4,913 user ratings. 4Players rated the game with 59% (“sufficient”). GameStar rated the game as it was released with 73 out of 100 points (“good”). Almost two years later, the magazine increased the rating to 82 points. Users of the online sales platform Steam rated the game at the beginning with "mostly negative". After the first two major updates, Path Finder and Atlas Rises , the recent ratings rose to "Very positive" and the overall rating to "Balanced". This upward trend in the ratings continued, and the developers were and are obviously trying to provide the properties promised for the release, as well as additional features, in free updates.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Desolation Update. In: nomanssky.com. Hello Games , July 16, 2020, accessed on July 17, 2020 .
  2. ↑ Stefan Köhler: No Man's Sky - number of planets limited to 18 trillion, no story. In: GameStar . Webedia, August 3, 2015, accessed August 9, 2016 .
  3. ↑ Four Questions About No Man's Sky. Accessed August 17, 2016 .
  4. ↑ Robert Hähnel: No Man's Sky: Two players meet, but do not see each other. Retrieved August 22, 2016 .
  5. ↑ Elena Schulz: No Man's Sky - 3 important things that we take away from the gameplay leak. In: GameStar. Webedia, August 2, 2016, accessed August 9, 2016 .
  6. ^ A b Tim Rittmann: First alluded to: This is how the simulated universe of "No Man's Sky" feels. In: Wired . Condé Nast Germany , March 3, 2016, accessed August 9, 2016 .
  7. ↑ No Man's Sky: Update 1.1 "The Foundation" released: Three game modes, own outpost, freighter and more - 4Players , on November 27, 2016.
  8. ↑ No Man's Sky - Update 1.1 "The Foundation" is here - these are the patch notes - GameStar , on November 27, 2016.
  9. ↑ a b Tobias Veltin: No Man's Sky - This is how the interaction with the NPCs works. In: GameStar. Webedia, April 13, 2016, accessed August 9, 2016 .
  10. ↑ a b Jeff Cork: The Secret Story Behind No Man's Sky. In: Game Informer . GameStop , December 19, 2014, accessed August 15, 2016 .
  11. ↑ Tobias Ritter: No Man's Sky - Gold message: Development completed. In: GameStar. Webedia, July 8, 2016, accessed August 9, 2016 .
  12. ↑ Sean Murray: Update 1.04. Hello Games , August 7, 2016, accessed August 9, 2016 .
  13. ↑ Tobias Veltin: No Man's Sky Preview (PC) - Not to (er) grasp! In: GameStar. Webedia, March 3, 2016, accessed August 9, 2016 .
  14. ↑ No Man's Sky: Patch 1.08 brings stability, bug fixes & new problems - IGN , on September 5, 2016; u. a. with date of first publication [in Europe]
  15. ↑ No Man's Sky on Steam (English, still [almost] without German) - 2016; accessed on August 29, 2016.
  16. ↑ a b No Man's Sky at GOG.com (partly requires JavaScript ) - 2016; accessed on August 29, 2016; among other things with the supported languages
  17. ↑ Rhonda Bachmann: No Man's Sky - Release postponed again (update). In: PC Games Hardware . Computec Media , May 28, 2016, accessed August 9, 2016 .
  18. ↑ Lara Trautmann - Bodalgo , September 4, 2016; u. a. with "No Man's Sky (main role) - 4-real Intermedia"
  19. ↑ No Man's Sky - Comprehensive patch notes and video for the Foundation update. In: ps4info.de. Retrieved November 28, 2016 .
  20. ↑ Introducing The Path Finder Update. In: nomanssky.com. Hello Games , accessed April 10, 2017 .
  21. ↑ Tobias Ritter: No Man's Sky - allegation of the players: these announced features should be missing. In: GameStar. Retrieved August 20, 2016 .
  22. ↑ No Man's Sky for PlayStation 4 Reviews. In: Metacritic. Retrieved October 15, 2016 .
  23. ^ Test No Man's Sky. In: 4Players. Retrieved August 13, 2016 .
  24. ↑ a b Rating: No Man's Sky Next in the test - Finally the game from back then. In: GameStar . Webedia , accessed June 29, 2020 .
  25. ^ Test No Man's Sky. In: Steam. Retrieved October 15, 2016 .
  26. ↑ No Man's Sky on Steam. Retrieved April 10, 2017 .