No Man’s Sky is a gorgeous exploration of the infinitude of space and galaxies. My experience with this game has been, for the most part, enjoyable and something my favorite Vulcan space traveler would call “fascinating.” I give the game my highest marks towards its beauty and the variation of nature.

   The first thing I noticed about the game is the atmosphere. The sight of vast purple oceans, amber skies, and fields of vibrant colors keep the game interesting to explore. The first-person exploration and survival game presents a universe filled with around “18 quintillion” procedurally generated planets.

   The player begins on their very own planet that no other player has seen or visited, viewing nothing but their broken ship that needs repairing. After a few minutes of looking for resources and exotic materials, the player is able to repair their ship and is free to explore the galaxies. The player is first given a multi-tool, which is extremely versatile and fun to use, both for digging up minerals and fending off planet guardians. Beyond the monotonous mining and the search for better crafting materials, resources, and plutonium for powering the ship, the game offers a galaxy of planets and systems that await discovery.

   However, there are flaws in the game which provide a frustrating experience. Aside from the alien text and cleverly crafted languages, the player will run into the phrase, “no free slots in suit inventory” just about every 5 minutes. The inventory management is clunky and the inventory space for the suit as well as the ship are small without upgrades from crafting. On top of that, every system in the player’s arsenal needs to be charged with plutonium, from the beam to mine plutonium to the ship’s boosters. The interaction menus are extremely slow; the game makes the player wait for the camera to fly into position to bring up the conversation options. This is similar to the game Skyrim, whose developers thinks that the player likes to have a chat every time they try to purchase something.

   Overall, the game gives a beautiful and open-world game experience for the player with a vast amount of galaxies to explore. Some minor-to-major flaws hinder the game play but do not interfere with the exploration of gorgeous scenery and galaxies. The game shines as the biggest open-world game in existence but falls short as a survival game.

All photos by Matthew Chartier