A Complete Idiot Gets Lost in No Man’s Sky

My family is weird. Or at least, some of us are. The person I shall now refer to as D (for privacy reasons) had his birthday a while back, but no one knew what to get him. In the midst of the Steam Summer Sale, we get an answer. No, D doesn’t want anything. He wants us to buy No Man’s Sky, so we can play it together. D loves No Man’s Sky and is proud of how the game has turned itself around. He wanted to share the love.

So that’s what I did. I bought No Man’s Sky.

And I am sooooo lost…

Seriously, there is so much to do. So much to research. I have a huge amount of work ahead of me. I have so much stuff I need to research. Including basic things like, well, walls. Currently all I have is a basic ship and basic gear. I don’t even have a gun. Seriously, I’m just shooting things with the mining laser on my Multi-Tool. I have however managed to build a teleporter, which is nice.

In the mean time, there’s quests and Atlases and Artemisis and all sorts, none of which I understand. I’ll get around to that eventually, I guess? I have so much learn that I don’t have much choice.

At least there’s some sort of tutorial?

I would be completely lost without one. Then again, the first thing No Man’s Sky does is put you on a radioactive planet. So you immediately have to find some Sodium so you don’t die. You also need to murder plants to get oxygen and carbon.

Luckily, there is some sort of basic guide that teaches you the basics. And a guide in the ESC menu. But guides aren’t that useful when you’re hiding inside your ship, trying to craft some fuel so you can get off a planet that’s 90% radiation and 10% radioactive storms. While you’re also avoiding being scanned by strange robot things.

It’s very, very easy to get lost.

There is a bit of a learning curve to work through. Sure, you have some markers for things like the main story quest thing, but that’s about it. You’re mostly off on your own, just exploring an absolutely enormous universe. A universe that is completely indifferent to your existence at best. At worst, it wants you dead. And no matter what, the universe is absolutely huge.

I mean, No Man’s Sky isn’t the size of the actual universe. Or even a real galaxy. But it IS pretty damn huge. You need your hyper drives and portals and stuff. Otherwise travel simply isn’t feasible. Even flying across planets actually takes time!

The scale of No Man’s Sky is pretty damn amazing. And while not everything is unique, it’s at least randomly generated enough to feel unique and interesting.

I am genuinely enjoying the game now.

With a little bit of help from D and sister, I have some stacks of base materials, which makes life a ton easier. I’ll run out of it quickly, but at least I can build myself a shelter and fuel and stuff.

To be honest, I’m enjoying myself so much that I’m actually struggling to write this article. I’m actually writing this article between storms on the planet I’ve settled on. Now, my next step is to make some money and start upgrading things. And after that, I’ll start making my way towards the universe’s centre or something.

Or maybe I’ll go and find whoever Artemis is.

Either way, I have a lot to do.