Title: Thabo's Tirades: Will No Man's Sky Be A Failure?
Author: MG Thabo
Recovered Author: MG Thabo
Published Date: 2016-06-01
Original URL: https://geeknode.co.za/2016/06/thabos-tirades-will-no-mans-sky-be-a-failure
Wayback URL: https://web.archive.org/web/20170330200514id_/http://www.geeknode.co.za:80/2016/06/thabos-tirades-will-no-mans-sky-be-a-failure/
Recovery Confidence: high
Categories: Editorials
Tags: column, featured, hello games, no man's sky, opinion, PC, PS4, thabo's tirades

- MG Thabo

- 10 months ago

-

The views contained in this article are that of the author and should not be taken as the opinion of Geek Node as a publication.

As you no doubt know by now, No Man’s Sky is a space exploration title with an incomprehensible open-world universe that you can explore. Everything is procedurally generated and it is being touted as a true space exploration game. However, the marketing for the game has put the seed of doubt into many people’s heads and Hello Games have some unique problems that they face. The game has very recently been delayed to August which apparently set the internet on fire with people sending death threats to Sean Murray, the creator, and even to the journalists that reported on it. It seems there’s some violent fans of the yet unreleased game, but even they have to admit that No Man’s Sky looks slightly shaky. I guess what I’m trying to say is that No Man’s Sky does have the potential to be a fantastic title, but it also runs the risk of being a complete failure. Let’s look into the latter some more.

Hello Games have a detriment in the form of their relative newness in the gaming industry. They’ve been around since 2009, but their only titles are a couple of Joe Danger games that are admittedly quite good, but not groundbreaking in any way. This is fairly common for big indie game developers, where they only have one huge hit and not much else, but Hello Games also falls into that proverbial grey area of not exactly being indie. They’re funded and supported by Sony and they plan on releasing a full priced game, so that sets them apart from the norm already. Due to them being more high profile, there’s certain expectations that they’re supposed to meet and that can be quite strenuous for a smallish team.

The fact that they delayed the game so dangerously close to launch is evidence of this. They might have felt that the game wouldn’t live up to the monstrous expectation that they’ve established for themselves and feel that they need to do something more in order for it to go down smoothly. When I first heard of the delay, I got slightly worried because it indicated to me that they don’t have the best confidence in their title. This is amplified by the fact that this is not the first long delay that the game has faced. It paints the picture of Hello Games being too overwhelmed by the expectation and they need more time to try and get something more substantial going.

I feel like we also need to talk about hype for a second since this is probably the biggest thorn in the side of this game. Since the game’s announcement in 2014’s Sony E3 conference, the game has been getting progressively more hyped. Long gameplay trailers, feature spots on huge late night television shows, long exposure at various game conferences and so much more. The public has been bombarded by this game for so long and as time goes on, the expectations also increased. All these promises and wondrous PR talk sets a scary precedent for the game.

While a relatively small sample size, the people I’ve interacted with that are worried about No Man’s Sky ask the same question every time: what is the point of the game? We’ve gotten vague answers in the form that you need to “get to the center of the universe”, but nothing else beyond that point. You seem to be able to do trading, exploration, combat and so on, but so far there really hasn’t been a clear “point” to the game, which might disturb some people. I would argue that the game really doesn’t need a “point” and the fact that you can do so much exploration is the game’s biggest strength. However, some gamers might find this style boring.

I’ve played Elite Dangerous and while the two game vary greatly from each other, Elite Dangerous showed me how much niche appeal this space exploration genre has. It’s slow, it’s methodical and often it’s not that exciting. The joys you get is from the constant upgrading you do to your ship and exploring the incredibly dense universe at your disposal. Making incremental amounts of progress and being content with doing fairly inconsequential actions in order to further your career as a space captain. If I can take a wild stab, No Man’s Sky will fall into the same camp. The core gameplay loop will probably not be super exciting all the time and I foresee we will be doing an incredible amount of grinding as well. For someone that isn’t aware of this going in, it can be a huge deterrent.

The bottomline in all of this is that No Man’s Sky has gotten so much hype and expectations thrown on it, that I fear the game will really struggle to meet those lofty expectations. Back when it was first announced I thought it looked like a really awesome indie game that I couldn’t wait to play. Since then it has received an enormous amount of marketing support from Sony, has appeared on prime time television and made incredible promises. It has cemented itself as one of the most anticipated games of this year and I’m confident that the game will sell like hotcakes. But there’s also one part of me that thinks the game won’t be all it is hyped up to be due to all of the external issues surrounding it.

While most of you are probably super excited for the title, myself included, I’d caution a little bit of restraint. Wait for reviews, see if it is the game for you because while we’ve gotten a lot of information about the game so far, we still don’t truly know how it works. It’s easy to get caught up in the hype and the pretty presentation where Sean Murray zooms out of the universe.

I’d love to know what you think, since I’m a bit on the fence myself. Do you trust Hello Games to deliver the amazing game that they have promised or do you have some real fears for the title?

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MG Thabo

Guest Contributor

Marko has played way too many games, listened to way too many metal albums and is probably taller than you. He is a qualified language and communication practitioner and likes to write about the good things in gaming.

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