No Man's Sky | One Year Later
In August of 2016, Hello Games’ No Man’s Sky released with a lot of hype and expectations. It proceeded to meet neither of them. As an adventure survival video game, No Man’s Sky promised players an open universe built exploration and the ability to anything you wanted as the game starts. Unfortunately, Hello Games released a rushed product filled with bugs and exploits that made the game unplayable for many and left those still playing with little to do. A year later, Hello Games has released its biggest patch to date, Atlas Rises, which will provide a different experience compared to the original version of No Man’s Sky.
No Man's Sky: Atlas Rises
Update 1.3: Atlas Rises will introduce some significant changes that will provide a newer, more exciting experience for current and new players. Along with a revamped economy system, graphics update and improved user interface, Hello Games has added depth to the game’s features and a story mode that the original game was sorely lacking.
One of the main critiques of No Man’s Sky after its release in 2016 was that the game essentially gave you a never ending universe of planets to explore and interact with, but there wasn’t much more to do that helped to keep the game interesting. The developers have put a lot of effort into reversing that notion by adding 30 hours of new story content a long with increased lore and new quest system. Portals have also been added to make traveling from discovered planets less time-consuming. This changes will add to a dimension of the game that wasn’t given much attention at release.
Major Changes
Two other significant additions to No Man’s Sky are a new Mission System and Joint Exploration. The Mission System will allow players to complete different tasks with rewards and will continuously generate. NPC guilds will be introduced as well to give unique missions which will increase in difficulty and provide greater rewards as players complete them.
Joint Exploration will make it easier for players to explore the open world of No Man’s Sky together in groups as large as 16. With these new aspects to the game, developers have not only supplied players with an endless supply of missions to do but have also encouraged players to complete missions and explore the universe together.
Overall, Atlas Rises is a step in the right direction for No Man’s Sky. Hello Games has proven that they have been listening to their community and are willing to make extreme changes to the game to improve the experience. While the original release fell victim to its hype, updates like Atlas Rises help to move No Man’s Sky in the right direction and possibly meet those expectations.