No Man’s Sky has a problem: The combat system. As it always promised, the game is incredibly beautiful and filled with unique forms of life. However, it’s getting dings for the variety not of what you can see, but of what you can do. The combat system, especially in space, has been singled out. But the Sentinels are a big problem too. They’re too easy to escape—but too hard to fight.
No Man’s Sky Sentinels: Too Easy To Escape, Too Hard To Fight
Ground combat in No Man’s Sky is quite difficult, whether the Sentinels have you in their sights or if some carnivores are after you. While the game has generous auto-aim, there still aren’t a ton of tactical options for ground combat; you basically have a gun, a weak grenade launcher, and a few upgrades for burst fire to create shotgun-style weaponry. Even with an upgraded jetpack, the player isn’t as maneuverable as the basic-level Sentinels, which can fly. They’ll keep you in their sights and fly over obstacles, so there isn’t much use taking cover from behind objects. And your weapons, without major upgrades, do piddling damage. Worse, like killing cops in GTA, killing Sentinels just brings more Sentinels down on you. There’s no winning.
On the other hand, it’s almost trivially easy to escape from Sentinels. Imagine a scenario where you’re breaking down a reinforced door to break into a base. The Sentinels will come after you. But as soon as you break the door open and go inside, the Sentinels will deactivate. Simply being inside the tiny base is enough to ensure your safety; the Sentinels won’t follow. Likewise, if you’re out in the wild, you just have to pop into a cave or any shelter, or climb over and behind a big mountain, and you run off into the night unscathed by Sentinels. It’s just too easy.
That’s the problem with the Sentinels: There’s no satisfying way to deal with them. If you run away, you’ll probably succeed, and easily. If you stand and fight, you won’t necessarily lose… but it’ll be an exercise in frustration, unless you’re quite the sharpshooter. Chances are, you’ll just bring bigger hordes of frustrating Sentinels after you.
No Man’s Sky is a truly beautiful, exciting and unusual game. But it still needs a little more spicing up, and the combat system on land—especially against the Sentinels—could use a little more work.
