Until reviews and non-sponsored video content is floating around, it’s hard to tell whether or not an open-world game is something breathtaking and novel or yet another example of a sandbox loaded with chores. When you’re watching trailers for games like Watch Dogs 2 and Mafia III, make sure that you take everything that you see with a grain of salt. No Man’s Sky not only lacks exciting content, but despite its procedurally-generated universe, it doesn’t have much variety to speak of.
It’s far better to have a plethora of content that all feels exciting enough to keep players engaged until they move onto the next activity. Think about what makes for an exciting sandbox experience. Instead we’re left with a bizarre hype cycle and a game that proved the value of Steam’s refund system. If everyone treated No Man’s Sky like the game it actually was, we’d end up with a pretty quirky space game that could potentially still have some legs. In fact, No Man’s Sky feels like more of a flash in the pan than the relaxing exploration game that you play for thirty minutes a night. Considering that Hello Games was, for the large portion of development, a studio of fifteen people that was flooded after the initial reveal of No Man’s Sky, it’s not surprising that we didn’t end up getting the game to end all games. This isn’t to say that both Sony and Hello Games aren’t guilty of over-hyping what amounts to an interesting, but shallow survival-crafting game. Hindsight is obviously twenty-twenty, but looking back it’s clear that the biggest downfall of No Man’s Sky were the intense expectations put upon Hello Games’ shoulders. Now that that bizarre trip is two months behind us, let’s take stock of the lessons we can take forward into the future. The title with perhaps the most bizarre hype cycle of any game this generation not named Destiny, No Man’s Sky was an exercise in having reality smash expectations. With a whole slate of immersive, time-sucking blockbuster titles to sink our teeth into, it feels like the storm of aggression surrounding No Man’s Sky dissipated years ago. Those of us who do our best to play every release of note throughout the course of the year are overwhelmed with choice come Fall, and this is only amplified once October hits. If you’re the type of gamer that reads articles like this one, you’re probably also the same type of gamer that keeps up with current releases.
0 kommentar(er)
