The No Man’s Sky review embargo has lifted, but no one’s got a complete verdict yet. Find out more inside, and discover why No Man’s Sky will also be worth the hype in our eyes.
No Man’s Sky is nearly here, and I don’t mind telling you – objectivity aside – that I haven’t been this excited for a game in years. It’s big, it’s bold and it’s a little unlike anything we’ve ever seen.
Prior to release, one thing is clear: the hype train couldn’t have roared any louder, and it’s only been amplified by the drama surrounding late-game copies sent to press. If you haven’t heard the news, the press only got their paws on the disc on Monday, due to the fact that Hello Games were readying a mammoth day one patch that would deliver the final, “true” experience. That meant feeding the disc into the PS4 before Monday would have given reviewers a skewed perception of the game.
Overhyped? I couldn’t disagree more, and I think a small team like Hello Games should be applauded for not only conceiving a game of this magnitude, but getting it to final release too.
As it is, the embargo has now officially lifted (as of 6 AM South African time) and the first impressions are trickling through in the form of “in-progress reviews”, like this one over at Destructoid. And guess what? There are a few quirks and annoyances that you’ll need to stare down to enjoy the game. The inventory is a little fiddly, resource management can be tedious, and while there’s a huge amount of variety in the look of the game, there isn’t a huge amount of gameplay variety (according to IGN).
But you know what? I don’t care.
No Man’s Sky was never going to be perfect. How could it? What irks me is that people are already getting ready to declare it “overhyped” and claiming that it was never destined to be as good as we wanted it to be. Why do we enjoy building something up and then tearing it down so much? Why can’t we be glad that we have a game this rich to savour?
The reviewers themselves have done their job and delivered an honest assessment: which is that the game is enormous, and that they’ve barely scratched the surface.
Destructoid declares No Man’s Sky an experience that “excels.” IGN calls navigating the stars “overwhelming” and yet armchair jockeys are lining up to take a swipe at it.
Overhyped? I couldn’t disagree more, and I think a small team like Hello Games should be applauded for not only conceiving a game of this magnitude, but getting it to final release too.
The Bandwidth Blog verdict won’t be up for a days yet, but I’ll be personally buying myself a copy of the game to support the development team, who’ve unleashed a technical marvel deserving of our praise, and one that they’ll be supporting continuously through round-the-clock updates.
I can’t say whether I’ll even like No Man’s Sky once I get to grips with it, but one thing I will say is this: in an industry stuffed with same-old, same-old, No Man’s Sky is fresh.
That’s enough for me.
