Hmm. Well. I don’t want to turn this blog into a game review blog… but, it seems like No Man’s Sky has a hold over me at the moment. And it’s a double-edged sword, so to speak (can’t think of a better metaphor atm, too tired!).
One edge is actually the cutting edge of enjoyable gameplay/exploration, the other edge is of infinitely dull, repetitive gameplay with the odd serrated edge of glitchy/buggy collision detection trapping you in the landscape/scenery (really guys? really? in today’s expectations?).
This may start to seem like a haters hack at Hello Games, but it ain’t. I respect what they’ve done, it’s a monumental achievement, and I do suspect that some of the ‘less desirable’ elements in the game are due to publishing ‘Release it!’ pressure from Sony, who after all backed it and no doubt threw a large wedge of cash at it.
My first note is on the ‘slot’ inventory system, which led me to start thinking more about the game design…
I found a world (probably quite common, as I’ve since found another one) where Gravitino Balls litter the landscape. No idea why. Perhaps these things just ‘grow’. However, this is ‘ace’ as each one sells for 26,000 units or so. After a stint of dedicated Gravitino Ball farming (and slaughtering the flood of damned annoying Sentinels each time I picked one up) I’d amassed over a million units of dosh. In this process, I kept coming across Drop Pods and so kept spending my farming benefits on Exo Suit upgrades.
The result: I can now carry more inventory in my Exo Suit than my ship can.
This may sound like a trivial whinge, but it set me to thinking on what kind of game NMS is, and my answer is “it’s an arcade game”, pure and simple. I’d not really thought about it’s genre before, but there it is, plain as day.
The simple (and stupid) concept that I can carry more equipment than my ship can, yet I can still get into my ship with it all, breaks any sense of ‘reality’ in the game, and thus makes it an arcade game instead of, say, a virtual reality, or simulation. This is fine, and not a criticism, merely an observation. A simple conceit would help – perhaps the ship is a light-weight craft but has sufficient engine power to handle it, or a ‘Sport Billy Bag’ (or Bag of Holding to you DnD‘ers). That may explain the volume of stuff you could carry, but not the mass (unless it’s magic, and there’s no magic in NMS – yet?).
This line of thinking sadly led me on to… duff gameplay.
In my own personal universe (the one in my head which I like much better than the one around me) this ‘arcade’ observation changed my mindset on the game itself. Up until now I was quite happily bumbling about, grabbing the odd Atlas Stone as I could be bothered, exploring and nosing, collecting things and generally just enjoying the NMS universe. Yes, it was a bit dull, but the universe was enough to bring me back every now and then to enjoying the bumbling. It was (in my head) an explore-em-up/simulation.
Now it’s an arcade game.
Now it’s boring. Because I’m repeating all the stuff I’ve done N-ty times already. Now, it’s boring, because there’s no real, clear, objective. Now, it’s boring, because… I don’t know. Most of the right gameplay ingredients are there, even as an arcade game.
Arcade Game Ingredients
- Worlds are levels.
- Coins/stars/fruit are the resources littering around (Gravitino Balls!)
- Score is, well, credit units I guess.
- Lives, yep, definitely got those, still on my first and refuse to ‘regenerate’ by dying. That’s what game saves are for.
- Jeopardy is hostile environments, creatures, bloody Sentinels…
- Puzzles, in the form of figuring out the next code in the sequence 1234, 2345, 3456… yawn.
- Challenge is… well… remembering WTF you need to craft new kit? Avoiding Sentinels. Um. Trying not to get blasted out of the stars by pirates seeing as space combat, frankly, sucks.
- Progress is… um… progress is… err…
Aha.
Googling tells me there is progress in the form of getting ten Atlas Stones, creating a new galaxy, and … um. Well, that seems to be it. Well, pretty awesome, creating an entire new galaxy! Wowzer. More to explore. And… do what in?
OK, I’m downing it. And it’s not really fair. NMS is ace. I enjoy it. I will continue to enjoy it. But, it’s not the game it should/could be – and I am ignoring the crap about false promises made, not delivered, etc.
Given I’m working on my own ‘do what you like’ space game (Dominium if you’ve never heard of it 🙂 ) I feel I can propose the following suggestion to Hello Games: Don’t Panic!
You have established an awesome game engine. Use it. Do not let it wither and die.
Suggestions for the NMS engine
- Use the engine to do a 4X/RTS game
- Embrace the ‘explore-em-up’ and start adding more discoverables to NMS
- Create a full on space/combat game with warring factions wreaking havoc across the vastness of the universe – though get the space combat right first.
- Go MMO – even with NMS this would be a major improvement, and will require PvP game design as what’s there won’t cut it.
Of course, none of these are ‘trivial’ and require substantial effort and investment, but guys… you’re there, you should be able to curry the resources and investment now.
How I envy you, I really do!