No Man's Sky: Next (Xbox One) Review

Anyone going into No Man's Sky: Next with no knowledge of the drama that went on during its initial release in 2016 could expect a decent videogame. After months upon months of patches and additional features added, the Next update is by far the most substantial. Just by the way the game begins it is clear that 2018's No Man's Sky is a totally different animal from what the world got in 2016, which might as well have been a gloried alpha-test. The vanilla release was barely a competent survival that was like a first-person Don't Starve than an epic space adventure. Next, on the other hand, actually is the emergent space adventure people hoped for... if a bit rough and buggy around the edges.

The amount of changes and enhancements done to No Man's Sky: Next are vast and all are for the betterment of the experience. Without having to go into an endless detailed list of changes, it is best to consider Next an entirely new game. Early on, it is apparent that Hello Games agonised over making this a more fun and compelling experience by emphasising on some kind of driving question to establish a narrative. There are actual goals in place that players have to fulfil and things to do instead of nothing. With the smallest bit of guidance, suddenly the way the game is changed. Instead of aimlessly wandering around Technicolor alien landscapes for resources to arbitrarily get to the centre of the universe, intrepid explorers will find themselves trying to get to places with a purpose and having to gather specific elements to craft something useful. Still, expect to do a good share of wandering aimlessly, but this time it has some meaning and is overall much less pronounced.

Another big change is now there is some attempt at pacing and gradually introducing mechanics over time and as the story progresses. Features like base building, mining, and even the ability to manage a freighter, are drip-fed as the quest to discover the secrets of Atlas unfolds. This keeps things fresh and interesting as the core mechanics' seams become more pronounced. The overall package is mostly cohesive and paced in a way that explorers will be placed in a semi tutorial system of planets where they can learn the ropes. This early section is mostly a safe place to fail and to experiment since the basic elements for survival are plentiful and abundant. Going into deeper space almost always creates a palpable tension as there is a consistent tug of war between the player consuming resources and No Man's Sky's algorithm. This used to be the only real mechanic in the vanilla release; now it is something in the background that only occasionally requires attention. There has been attention given to things like the frequency of words learned from alien races to understand their language; expect to have a lot less time being wasted.

The variation of planet and moon topography is a lot more diverse in Next. Do not expect to see a realistically scaled mountain - Hello Games' limitations are still present here. Atmospherics and planet variety seem much more dissimilar than before, thanks to the expanded graphics and visuals. It is even possible to find a planet that is almost entirely covered in water. Overall, everything has been improved. Even the randomised wildlife that can be discovered is less likely to resemble a toddler's first attempt at using Spore's creature creator... for the most part. No Man's Sky is obviously attempting a very specific type of science fiction aesthetic that only hipsters and old people might remember: a future designed by the likes of Syd Mead or Robert McCall. The kind of science fiction people would remember from the 1960s and '70s; a hopeful and idealistic depiction of space travel. More original Star Trek than Star Wars. The art style can lead to some very lurid landscapes that one might imagine during an altered state. It does have its limits, though, like how aggressive the low detail culling can be when entering a planet's atmosphere, or how every planet has only one type of region without any variation at all. It might be asking too much, but it is hard to complain when No Man's Sky: Next is pretty close to what was initially promised.

No Man's Sky: Next still has some of its old sins present; the terribly ugly interface and user-unfriendly menus that are a pain to operate, for instance. There is so much fiddling around in menus and sub menus, moving resources from one pile to another within other menus that the flow gets compromised. Since managing resources is a core pillar to this kind of title, having things organised in a neat fashion would reduce downtime. However, the menu's layout is a confusing and haphazard mess. It is all made worse by inventory slots that are still the most important asset to anyone who will play this. Ironic that a game about nigh infinite space has players agonising that they don't have enough space. One addition that does improve things is a quick-menu feature that has a myriad of new options, like being able to play in a shockingly well-realised, third-person mode, and how crafting is managed.

Being able to play with others in No Man's Sky was one of the biggest selling points and now it is here. This addition really changes the feel and atmosphere when playing since a big part of space adventuring is meeting other forms of intelligence. The NPCs just don't cut it since they all look really stupid and clown-like. Next does have a surprisingly detailed suite of character customisation options that can be accessed in space stations where avatars can resemble a variety of weird aliens, space men, or even a robot for role-playing while out and about with others. All this would be so incredible if it weren't for some really nasty bugs that can cause players to have to reload a save, undoing hours of resource procurement. Outside of a few bad glitches, there are still some questionable design choices that still have not been addressed. The feel and delay of firing weapons, mining gear, or lasers have an unsatisfying wimpy limp slap. The feedback to these features is so weak that it's questionable if they are even effective or not.