The Hello Games team who develop the game No Man’s Sky just continue to impress me. Not only did they rescue a highly hyped game that launched to a tonne of negativity for the content it was lacking, to the point where it was nicknamed Refund Simulator, but they have continued to work on it over the years and bring it back from the brink.
Since launch, we’ve reviewed three major updates, each of which brings significant new changes to the game in the form of content, mechanic improvements, as well as fixes. Update 3.0 titled Origins is perhaps the biggest and best update so far that the team have released.
The update comes in at a respectable size of 1.4gb, which for any other game would be considered tiny, but a game like No Man’s Sky which primarily leans on procedural generation for its in-game UI, this is a big update.
One of the loudest criticisms from gamers is the lack of biodiversity and landscapes in the game. After a few hours, No Man’s Sky becomes very much a samey game where all of the planets look the same as the previous ones. For a game touted as a space exploration game, that’s obviously a problem.
In the Origins update, they’ve added new planets into every solar system. Instead of changing the existing planets, they’ve just added new ones in. I honestly would have loved to see the NMS team just reset every planet, but I can understand that some people might have become attached to their home planets and built bases.
They have added in volcanoes that actually erupt. They have also added in firestorms, meteor strikes, tornadoes, lightning strikes, better clouds (that react to the current weather conditions) and pretty much made planets feel like independent living things with variable flora/fauna and biomes.
The biggest and most buried part of this update (you have to scroll down a bit to get to it) is the addition of sandworms. Right at the end of the patch notes is where they drop this bombshell addition.
If you have been following NMS since pre-launch, then you might remember the trailers had sandworms, then the Hello Games team decided they were not “fun” and removed them. Many were disappointed they didn’t make it into the game.
One of the first changes you’re introduced to is the revamped menu screen. They have made it considerably more visual and nicer to look at in this latest update. Going through the menus, they feel so much more polished and the game even feels faster.
Although existing planets remain unchanged, loading into my current home planet resulted in a firestorm that was in progress. Not only was the ground burning, but the UI went hazy to signify the intense heat around me. It was confronting, but exciting considering the game has been mostly static for a long time.
Admittedly, it has been a while since I’ve played No Man’s Sky, but this latest update is enough to bring me back into the game, curious and eager to uncover what new additions have been added into the game and to find complex unique planets.
