The launch of No Man's Sky has become infamous within the video game industry. It was one of the most anticipated games of 2016, but upon release, players quickly discovered that No Man’s Sky was not the game promised to them, and there was not much fun to be had. Some developers would choose to pack it up and move onto the next project, but Hello Games stuck around and has been steadily improving the game ever since.
The studio has released many free content updates for players to chew through, which has helped redeem No Man's Sky. One of the features that has been improved with these content updates is the multiplayer. The game allows for four people to explore the galaxy together and live out their space-faring dreams. However, the multiplayer is still missing a crucial element. Instead of feeling like players are advancing together, it still feels like a single-player game where players adventure next to each other; that needs to be changed.
No Man's Sky Multiplayer Explained
No Man's Sky allows players to explore planets, kill enemies, build bases, and go on certain missions across the galaxy together. The game also features a social hub space station that can be called in, known as the Space Anomaly. On the Space Anomaly, players can run into others and communicate with them, trade, check out their ships, find new groups, or start cooperative missions through the Nexus.
The multiplayer in No Man's Sky can be fun, but it still has a long way to go. Players still have to progress through various story chains by themselves as progress is not shared. They must complete missions by themselves as the game often bugs out when multiple player freighters are in the same system, they cannot jump to new sectors together, and building a base cooperatively sometimes does not work. The majority of the game feels like players are adventuring through space next to each other instead of with each other.
No Man's Sky Needs a Co-Op Focus
No Man's Sky multiplayer has hours of fun, but it could be much more fun with a greater co-op focus. Nexus missions are the furthest that the game comes to co-op play. No Man's Sky makes it hard for players to progress together, so instead they play at their own pace and seldom work together to achieve anything.
Hello Games would not need to do much to make the game more co-op focused. For starters, making main mission chains co-op would go a long way, as currently each player progresses down the different storylines by themselves. While this works in a single-player game, multiplayer fans often want to play the story together, and Hello Games needs to make it easier to do that.
Another way that No Man's Sky could become more co-op focused is providing easier ways to travel together. Right now, players cannot follow someone else across the stars through the different sectors. Unless every player is sitting on someone's freighter, they will often get left behind as a player jumps to the next sector. Giving players the option to jump together, or follow each other, would go a long way.
No Man's Sky also does not seem to handle it well when multiple player freighters are in the same sector. Sometimes the game will bug out and give freighters the same exact appearance, but other times the game will give another player control even if it is not their freighter, and sometimes the game will even freak out when trying to send ships to expeditions. A lot of this can be chalked up to unintended bugs, but it is something that also hinders the co-op potential of the game.
Overall, No Man's Sky multiplayer is fun, but it needs a bit of work. Players want to be able to play together, and right now the game makes that hard to do. Hello Games needs to just spend time making the multiplayer more co-op focused, and it would go a long way to make the game even better.
No Man's Sky is available for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S