➤ No Man's Sky Next, the new review 🎮

The universe is a boundless ocean of mysteries, a dark vault studded with brilliant lights that we observe in amazement from afar, forced by our earthly bonds to imagine details that cannot be captured by a lens or by the analysis of radio signals that they come from the cosmos. But this sensory limit of ours is the engine of a thousand imaginaries, an incubator for thousands of alien races, highly advanced technologies, intergalactic empires and mysteries as deep as the darkness of deep space. Of this matter it is made No Man's Sky, a long-awaited promise of a living and changing universe, hybrid between survival and simulator space capable of enhancing exploration as never before. And it is on this factor that Sean Murray has pushed by all means, inflating the hype of his child until the dramatic debut of a title launched at insane speed by the high-sounding statements of the founder of Hello Games and destined to crash with a very different reality, a reality tied to the actual possibilities of a team that in its moment of maximum size has reached 15 employees. The chaos generated by the impact was such as to obscure the merits of the game, arousing fears for its future, but while the network was animatedly discussing the hype and exaggerated reactions of a certain type of audience, Hello Games got to work on the foundations of a lame title but with great potential. And here's how we came to the presence of Next, fourth update and new step towards the desirable redemption of a game that in these two years has changed enough to convince us that it is time for a new review.

The hard journey of a team in search of redemption

Sean Murray's enthusiasm involved us all. Even the most diehard Star Citizen fans have melted into imagining a universe as dynamic, alive and profound as the imagination itself. Then, suddenly, here we are again with our feet on the ground, horrified witnesses of a media Caporetto in front of which many would have given up. Yet Murray and his boys did not and, while continuing to stumble upon a few too many statements, they went on, step by step, driven by the good response of the public to the update Next which promises to usher in a period of global events. and content created following the wishes of the community. It is no coincidence that this update finally allows players to interact, even violently, while introducing aesthetic customization dynamics that undoubtedly appeal to a large part of users. But before talking about it, it is good to retrace the path that led us up to here. With the update Foundation the guys from Hello Games have quickly patched up the lack of a challenge, focusing on survival dynamics with a dedicated mode. But the most important novelty in terms of mechanics was the introduction of the bases, complete with a creative way to plan them without wasting resources, accompanied by crops and devices to automatically collect resources, to leave messages for other players and to create points of rescue. Moreover, with the evolution of the procedural generation algorithms of the planets, suddenly more diversified and colored, the variety of the visuals has gained, while on the side crafting New resources and technologies have appeared, but the substance has remained the same, all centered on gathering materials to buy new ships and refill ship and suit systems.

The core of the experience remained a mesmerizing solo journey between visual and musical symphonies, away from the simulative complexity of other titles of the genre and away from online. This at least until the update Path Finder which introduced planetary vehicles, the ability to play timed races on tracks made by players and online sharing of the bases, the first taste of something structured on the multiplayer side. But what we liked the most, faithful as Murray to the idea of the intimate journey through the universe, were the division of the ships into classes, the differentiation between weapons and the harbingers of a true economy functional to the most important update of all: Rise of the Atlas. With the update published on the occasion of the first anniversary of No Man's Sky we finally found ourselves surrounded by a real universe structured on the basis of economies, balances between races and procedural missions useful for obtaining resources and increasing our fame towards the factions. All seasoned with new materials, thirty hours of story-related content, terrain manipulation, improvements to atmospheric flight and a taste of multiplayer with sharing exploration.

PC System Requirements

Test Setup

Ryzen 5 2600 processor
NVIDIA Radeon RX Vega 64 video card
Memory 16 GB
Sistema operativo Windows 10 64-bit

Minimum requirements

Intel Core i3 processor
Scheda video NVIDIA GTX 480 o AMD Radeon 7870
Memory 8 GB
Sistema operativo Windows 7/8.1/10 64-bit

No Man's Sky: four updates for a radical evolution

No Man's Sky has grown a lot thanks to Update that have transformed it into a high quality survival, a hybrid between adventure and space simulator that takes us through the thousand colors of a universe made of suggestive caves, breathtaking horizons, radioactive storms, mysterious structures, cosmic anomalies, ancient relics, real and own planets to explore, destructibility of the terrain, endless procedurally generated animal races, both planetary and space trading outposts, sea depths where you can now build, ancient relics and a suggestive dialogue and trade management, made of alien words to learn and engaging descriptions. From this point of view, No Man's Sky can now be considered a successful product, undoubtedly superior to any other from the point of view of planetary exploration, although evident limits remain as in the case of combat and flight mechanics which, although improved atmosphere, are nothing short of basic. But this setting has never seemed out of tune in the perspective of a title designed to be a journey before a challenge, at least as regards the main mode which unlike the survival one encourages us more to explore. What we have heard and still miss is a stronger narrative component, partially disappointed by the Rise of the Atlas update which added 30 hours of content improving the usability of the narrative dimension, but was satisfied with a formula anyway. impalpable and diluted, akin to the intimate spirit of the game but insufficient to distract us from the repetitiveness and limits of the no Man's Sky universe. And this is where it comes into play Next, with the promises of events for the community and with the first real interactions between players that replace that first disappointing taste limited to a picnic with friends transformed into impalpable lights. But there are also some news for those who look at the survival dimension with the experience that is complicated from the point of view of resources and crafting on the wave of a more complex system of materials, which makes us suffer a lot for the chromatic metal, and the decrease in resources obtained from asteroids. But the fundamental components to move forward are always at hand and it does not take long to familiarize yourself with the innovations that include the possibility of immediately building the terrain manipulator, now necessary to draw on some materials. The aid does not end there, with the addition of merchant ships to buy and ship on a mission to increase income and build a real empire. The management dynamics introduced with autonomous collection means are then deepened and it is here that we find the true evolution of No Man's Sky, even if the addition of a multiplayer dimension, unfortunately limited and destined to arrive late for the GoG version, is undoubtedly relevant in the age of connectivity.

The Next update: a step towards new horizons

The update Next allows you to load your own save to play and chat with friends and strangers in four-player instances. These can be reached through matchmaking, which is decidedly quick and effective in finding fellow countrymen, even if we preferred to invade the universe of a colleague without paying too many compliments. Guided by an icon who showed us his position, we jumped on him to exchange two gestures and some objects, but things quickly slipped towards the inevitable clash that, while funny, highlighted the limits of a system of combat designed mostly to explore solo planets. Things work better in space, thanks in part to planetary flight adjustments, but the lack of structured PvP makes collaboration far more tempting. Clearly, structural dynamics such as sharing missions are lacking, but with friends to act as wingmen it is possible to point to more important targets to divide the loot on the deck of our frigate from which we can even command a fleet and that we can further customize thanks to the hundreds of components added to the base crafting system. Bases that can now be more than one, can be built on any planet, can be immense and are more varied thanks to the addition of hundreds of new components. With novelties of the genre we are sure that we will soon be surprised by the engineering work of the community, enhanced by the aesthetics of a title that catches the attention with an effective mixture of hi-tech, bright colors, rounded shapes, stylized light effects and spaceships that they seem to be built with colored bricks. But what on paper looks like the nightmare of those who have eaten too heavy gives us unique suggestions, guaranteeing the title Hello Games a distinct personality.

And it is an evolving personality, technically grown with each update and also enhanced with this latest update that improves the performance of the water, the character models, the planetary textures, the design of the space stations, the behavior of the animals, the details of aircraft, terrain generation and clouds, now undoubtedly more lively and dynamic, as well as of course adding third-person view and avatar customization. All seasoned with various refinements to the interface, now more refined and understandable. Unfortunately, several glitches and some details remain out of place, but the technical sector defends itself very well, at least until we talk about performance. The pleasure of entering the planetary atmosphere is punctually compromised by the eternal sobs caused by the uploads that are understandable, given the need to represent an entire planet, even if they are more evident with AMD GPUs and this leaves room for optimization possibilities. Possibilities that extend to the framerate considering that a simple spheroidal station causes the performance of our far from modest configuration to drop from 90 to 26 frames per second. In short, not everything still works properly and Next's novelties need some refinement to make sense. But the commitment of Hello Games in these two years it has taken us far, enough to convince us to believe that Murray's redemption can be only a few updates away.

Comment

Tested version PC Windows Digital Delivery Steam, GoG, PlayStation Store Price 54,99 € Resources4Gaming.com

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After two years, even the multiplayer has finally found a home in the No Man's Sky universe, but it is more than anything else a side dish dedicated to those who just can't play solo. The bulk of the work is dedicated to artificial intelligence and the numerous additions that reinforce the structure of the Hello Games title, a space survival that continues to grow rapidly while remaining faithful to a vision that prefers suggestion to simulation. And it is a choice that we share considering that the competition is already dealing with online universes and complex economies. But that doesn't mean the job is done. In fact, we wouldn't mind seeing something more in terms of story, optimization, missions and combat dynamics and that is why the Next update is particularly important. The massive update represents the starting point of an era of weekly updates and events dedicated to the community. They are promises, we know, and we are well aware of how things ended the last time we trusted Sean Murray, but the commitment of Hello Games is there for all to see and is made even more attractive by the half price. , at least until tonight.

PRO

Another big step towards the future
Important changes for each sector, from graphics to crafting
The promise of transparency and content on a regular basis is as important as the news of the update ...

AGAINST