Exploring quadrillions of alien worlds in ‘No Man’s Sky’ game

No Man’s Sky can be best described by a quote from the opening spiel of Star Trek: “…to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before.” Image No Man’s Sky

Online multiplayer games like Overwatch and Call of Duty dominate the gaming market today. And yet a strictly single-player game called No Man’s Sky is making big waves just 24 hours after its release.

Developed by Hello Games, No Man’s Sky immediately caught everyone’s attention from the moment it was unveiled because of how different it looked.

Image No Man’s Sky

Unlike most first-person games where players are given a gun and asked to destroy the alien in front of them, No Man’s Sky gives the option to just look on in wonder and amazement. It is, at its core, an exploration game. Players can fly in and out of 18,446,744,073,709,551,616 randomly generated planets on a spaceship to scour for resources, explore the terrain, identify various alien fauna and just plain take in the view. Combat is not a necessity but an option if things get a little too hairy.

Image No Man’s Sky

The game is more closely related to Minecraft in terms of the exploration experience. The big differences are the sci-fi theme, deep space exploration and procedurally generated alien worlds. It also features a crafting system and allows for trading with various alien NPCs.

Image No Man’s Sky

Players can also go online to share their different discoveries or check out the discoveries of other players for themselves. With a vast universe to explore, the odds of finding the same planet as another player is second to none.

Curiously, though, two Reddit users claimed to have found the same planet but when they tried to meet online, the game would not allow them despite being in exactly the same area at the same time.

Sean Murray, managing director of Hello Games, tweeted, “…too many of you are playing right now. More than we could have predicted.” He also noted that 10 million alien species have already been discovered by players.

Screengrabbed from @NoMansSky

No Man’s Sky is available on the PS4 and will be followed by a PC version on Aug. 12.  Alfred Bayle