No Man's Sky Review Roundup
Here's what the critics are saying about space exploration game No Man's Sky.
No Man's Sky is now out for both PS4 and PC, and critics have started to give their verdicts on the space exploration game. So far, the critical reception is generally positive.
The PC version of No Man's Sky has experienced quite a few issues, some of which developer Hello Games has said it's "working hard" to fix. If you're thinking of picking up the game on that platform, it might be wise to wait until further updates are released.
We've collected a series of reviews from around the internet and compiled them into an easy-to-read list below. For a wider view of the critical reception, check out GameSpot sister site Metacritic.
We've collected everything you need to know about No Man's Sky, and you can find it all out for yourself here.
GameSpot -- 7/10
"No Man's Sky is immediately a massive game with impressive seamless transitions from ground to space, and it will entertain your inner collector for a while. The more you get to know it, the more you recognize its faults, and it's easy to fall so deep into the act of exploring and trading that your focus narrows to those aspects alone. If, however, you consider everything it has to offer and listen to what Atlas has to say, No Man's Sky becomes more than a collection of slightly different worlds in a seemingly never-ending galaxy--it becomes an examination of the meaning of life in a way that's more valuable than all the gold or starships in its virtual galaxy." -- Peter Brown [full review]
Time -- 4.5/5
"Who knows. I've poured hundreds of hours into Minecraft and I've yet to visit 'The End' or slay the Ender Dragon. Our ideas of what it means to play much less 'finish' games like this look increasingly like scatter charts. Even if a hundred or more hours from now No Man's Sky wears out its welcome, I'll be grateful and still somewhat awestruck by what a tiny team of developers rejiggering decades-old design ideas managed to pull off." -- Matt Peckham [full review]
GamesBeat -- 80/100
"I've waited my entire life for No Man's Sky. How could it possibly live up to that? The truth is that it doesn't satisfy the lifelong yearnings of a 33-year-old man. But I'm not throwing it in the garbage. Its scale and sense of isolation is special. The procedural nature imbues everything in the game with a sense of life that other, better-crafted games can't match. And it nails the emergent storytelling that I want from a survival game. But I also hope that this is only the start for No Man's Sky or games like it. I'm glad we can do this, but I want more. I hope we get it." -- Jeff Grubb [full review]
The Guardian -- 4/5
"No Man's Sky is a way to experience the kinds of cool moments you read about in old sci-fi novels--shoot a hole through an asteroid and fly through it, shelter in a cave to watch a deadly storm tear across an alien landscape, or make friends with a dinosaur (obviously)--all to an evocative procedural post-rock soundtrack from 65daysofstatic. The planets you, and probably only you, will discover can be so lovely that it feels bittersweet to know that you'll leave them behind when you jump to the next star. But then, in an essentially infinite galaxy, there's always something new to discover." -- Jordan Erica Webber [full review]
GamesRadar -- 3.5/5
"...[I]t's probably the best three-and-a-half star game I'll ever review, and certainly the most ambitious. But that doesn't mean it's for everyone. Players looking for savage space battles will be frustrated by systems that simply aren't up to muster; those desperate for peaceful study will struggle when it forces combat upon them; anyone wanting to meet other players will get lonely. Look past these limitations, however, and No Man's Sky offers a timeless universe of quiet, compelling exploration." -- Matt Elliott [full review]
Polygon -- 6/10
"The magical tech behind No Man's Sky has long been its selling point, so I guess the game's nature as wide but shallow makes a lot of sense. Hello Games has built a set of tools that is amazing and unprecedented, something that could absolutely change the way huge games are made if placed in the right hands. But these powerful universe creation algorithms have been grafted onto a game that is, beyond its initial hours, so light on imagination. No Man's Sky offers an incredible, impossible universe--but there's little to do within it." -- Phil Kollar [full review]
The Jimquisition -- 5/10
"Like Spore before it, No Man's Sky is a game that promised far more than it could ever deliver, but I can't even blame my tepid reaction on hype. I did not for a second believe Hello Games' vaguely described spacefarer could be anywhere near as varied and expansive as promised. Even with my expectations guarded, however, I did not expect just another survival/crafting game that used randomization as a crutch to the point of losing all potential personality. And I at least expected more to f***ing do." -- Jim Sterling [full review]
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