No Man’s Sky is turning out to be the fine wine of video games: It just keeps getting better with age.
But one recently announced update could take No Man’s Sky to the next level, and could possibly transform it into the killer IP for VR we’ve all wanted.
Released back in August 2016 for the PlayStation and PC, No Man’s Sky was initially a disappointment for many.
This is mainly because the devs promised a lot and delivered on most of it, but not everything.
And it is the “everything” that tends to matter with most gamers.
Still, Hello Games stuck with it and have produced iterative improvements on the game ever since launch.
Now it is a pretty competitive and compelling package, and that’s why people are so excited that it is coming out for virtual reality.
The Verge’s Andrew Webster confirmed as much in his recent write up about his hands-on experience with No Man’s Sky for virtual reality.
As anyone who is into VR games can tell you, space is often the ideal medium for a virtual reality game.
That said, there are a ton of them out there but few of them have the depth of content and the polish of a No Man’s Sky.
In his description of the upcoming VR title, Webster writes, “I’ve touched down on countless planets, swam beneath alien oceans, and ran from a hostile robotic police force. But nothing I’ve done up until now has felt as thrilling as jumping into the cockpit of a ship, pulling down the glass enclosure with my hands, and pushing the throttle to blast off into the sky.”
The VR update is coming as part of a comprehensive update for No Man’s Sky.
Arriving this summer, the Beyond expansion is free for current owners so if you want to get in on No Man’s Sky you will probably need to buy the game first. There won’t be a separate VR title as is typically the case with console titles that transition to VR.
Hello Games’ Sean Murray says of the update, “There were things that we wanted to do and needed to do first, that always took priority, but this was like dessert…Just because of the proliferation of headsets, we knew it wasn’t going to be for everybody, so we wanted to make sure we were in a really good place with the game first. It felt like a nice thing for us to be able to support.”
Movement is through the teleport method but is described as incredibly immersive and responsive.
The devs even re-imagined certain aspects of the game to make them more appealing for a VR audience. This includes changes to building and piloting the ship in the game.
As Webster describes, in the main No Man’s Sky game, piloting your ship is largely handled by the AI but in VR you have to do a lot of those actions yourself.
Plus, there’s the promise of exploring an almost endless set of worlds.
