No Man’s Sky has been around since 2016. While the procedurally generated exploration and survival game received a lot of hype before release, its initial reception after launch was somewhat underwhelming. However, since the poor release, No Man’s Sky has made an impressive comeback as the developers have been hard at work updating the title. The gameplay experience looks to only be getting better as the developer released the latest patch for the game, the Frontiers update.
One of the biggest highlights of the Frontiers update is the addition of Planetary Settlements. While No Man’s Sky contained many planets that allowed players to interact with NPCs, this update looks to bring them closer to the player than ever before. Players are now able to become overseers of their own alien communities, making important decisions such as naming the town, commissioning festivals, resolving arguments, and more. Furthermore, like many of the other elements in the game, each is procedurally generated promising a new experience each time one is discovered. Some of the elements that change from settlement to settlement include buildings, neighborhood layout, color schemes, and how structures are decorated.
In addition to managing the day-to-day life of these communities, players are responsible for protecting these settlements. Periodically, these locations will come under attack from Sentinels forcing the player to fight off waves of attacking drones. However, the new update gives players the opportunity to bolster their settlements' security through researching defensive buildings to reduce the risk of attacks. Furthermore, it seems that the more prosperous a settlement becomes the more likely it is to be attacked.
The developers look to improve base construction in the update as well. While No Man’s Sky allowed players to build bases before the update, this newest patch changes the building menu. According to the developers, the new menu will display parts for base construction in a grid system allowing for easier management. Beyond a better menu system for more intuitive building, the new update includes new construction parts made of stone, timber, and alloy.
This patch brings a number of other enhancements such as improved visuals to No Man’s Sky. Enhanced destruction effects such as improved graphics for the destruction of asteroids, Exocraft crashes, and crystal mining are now included. In addition, traveling through space is now more scenic than ever before as the update brings vividly colored nebulas to the galaxies.
With the Frontiers update now available for players to check out along with a whole host of other improvements the developers have made over the past months, now is possibly the best time to try No Man’s Sky.
No Man's Sky is available on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and Android devices.