No Man’s Sky, following its complicated PS4 launch, has grown exponentially in the six years since. The game, which has received over 20 free updates, is pretty much a different beast: while its expansive universe remains, there’s much more to discover in it than there’s ever been. For newcomers, this presents a completely new problem: where to start?
It’s something that developer Hello Games is looking to address in its latest update, which will launch on all platforms later this week alongside its Nintendo Switch conversion. Rather than introduce some big new features, as has been the case with most of the intergalactic outing’s updates, the developer has taken the time to instead streamline the overall experience.
Speaking with Eurogamer.net, boss Sean Murray explained that the update will tighten up the tutorial, and even alter “when you unlock certain things”. The improvements will expand to the inventory, and even incorporate the ability to level up weapons and spaceships further than was possible before. All of this aims to add longevity for existing players.
To dial down the difficulty a little for everyone, a new Relaxed mode will lessen the emphasis on resource gathering and speed up the rate at which you unlock key materials and items. But for those looking for a new challenge, there’ll be tweaks to Survival mode which will help keep the experience engaging beyond the first several hours.
It’s a different kind of update than we’ve come to expect from No Man’s Sky, to be fair. Hello Games has expanded on the core experience so heavily of late that it’s interesting to see it return to the core features and tune the onboarding for those who perhaps haven’t played for some time. With a PSVR2 version in the pipeline, though, all of these tweaks come gratefully received.
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