It’s safe to say that No Man’s Sky, probably the most anticipated game of 2016, has had a rocky launch. After a series of delays, the game finally came out on Aug. 9 for PS4, but not before tons of people got their hands on it early. A debacle about review copies and the day one patch followed, and then came the fiasco about the apparent lack of multiplayer. Then the reviews started coming out, and they were divided, excited and troubling all at the same time. Then the PC version hit the market, to a slew of devastating bugs. But here’s the big question: Are the problems in No Man’s Sky fixable?
Is No Man’s Sky Fixable?
Don’t get me wrong, No Man’s Sky is a very cool game—even the harshest reviews admit that much. The tale of woe up above is the bad side of the story of the game’s first week; the good side is incredibly exciting, for despite its problems No Man’s Sky is filled with wonder and joy. But the problems it has had are real. And some of those problems will swiftly go away. For others, we’re much more unsure—despite what Sean Murray is now promising.
No Man’s Sky Issues: The Easy Stuff
Here’s the good news in the world of No Man’s Sky problems: Most of the bugs and server woes are soon going to be a thing of the past. First off, the game does actually have multiplayer of a sort; you should be able to see other players. The widely reported incident that seemed to counteract that was, according to Hello Games, a result of server issues, the sort that plague games on launch all the time. It was ill-timed and unfortunate, but the same sort of thing happened with Pokémon Go and basically every major server-based release of the last few years. It’s just usually more obvious. Server issues, thankfully, resolve themselves.
Bugs don’t resolve themselves—but thankfully the developer does, so there’s little worry on that front. It will take time for the small team at Hello Games to iron out all the issues that players have discovered, even with the help of a new QA team, but a new PC and PS4 patch is already in the works. It probably won’t fix or optimize everything. But the patch will fix the big problems, and the one surely to come after that will fix more. Don’t worry about the technical issues—those are sure to get ironed out, probably sooner rather than later.
No Man’s Sky Issues: The Hard Stuff
The bigger question is whether the gameplay issues in No Man’s Sky can or will be fixed. Again, No Man’s Sky is a technological and visual marvel that everyone should at least experience. But the gameplay is pretty shallow and the planets ultimately don’t have enough variety in what you can do to keep the game exciting over the long term. In a game with incredible variety of landscapes, flora and fauna, there just isn’t enough variety in activity.
Can that be fixed? Can Hello Games transform the fundamental structure of the gameplay and transform the experience?
It’s a tall order. Few games have done it. Just a handful come to mind—Final Fantasy XIV. Diablo III. Civilization V. And… Minecraft, a game whose core principles remain intact years after it first came out even though the actual gameplay is fundamentally different and far deeper. Considering Minecraft’s example, it’s not impossible to imagine a version of No Man’s Sky with just as much of a focus on exploring and traveling, but with far more to do. It could happen.
But will it? That’s for Hello Games to decide. Are they going to commit to No Man’s Sky for years, to making it into everything it could be, to graft a better game on top of the incredible engine? That’s what Sean Murray is saying now—new features once the bugs are fixed. Or will they move on to something new? I’m sure the company itself doesn’t know yet; they’ve got patches to make first before they push the gameplay forward. But the future of No Man’s Sky is in their hands, not ours.
