A Change of Direction – To Infinity & Beyond!

A few weeks ago I was presented with a choice. I could continue on with things that had been in place for years or I could strike out on my own into pastures new. Partially due to good timing and part due to cost (and a recommendation from a friend) I changed my ‘go to’ game from World of Warcraft to No Man’s Sky (Next).

I have to admit it was a risk, if a small one – a mere £20. When the game originally came out in 2016 it promised much – the entire Universe actually – and pretty much failed to deliver. Here, two years later, they seem to have got it right. Not that I thought so to begin with! The game is touted as a ‘survival sandbox’, something that I had honestly never heard of before. But when I loaded into a new game I found out – fast. Actually I learnt what it was all about in the first 8 minutes before dying horribly. You see when you ‘spawn’ there’s a very good chance you’re on a planet that is trying to kill you – either with heat, cold, radiation or toxicity. Mine was radiation. I started in a damaged spacesuit, an unknown distance from my ship (if I had one!) with no idea what to do about the warning ‘radiation protection falling’ screaming in my area. After trying to find something (anything) to keep me alive I keeled over dead. EIGHT minutes into the game and I had failed in my primary objective of staying alive. It wasn’t exactly a great beginning to exploring the galaxy. My (primary gaming) friend was less than impressed. He downloaded it the same day. Likewise died after 8 minutes and hasn’t playing it since. Meanwhile I have racked up around 60 hours and have only died twice more (possibly three time) in all that time. Once was through my own stupidity (eaten alive by ‘biological horrors’) and the other was in a space battle with pirates (outnumbered and outgunned).

But in those 60 hours…. Well, I’ve seen things you people wouldn’t believe…… But first I had to fix my ship (whilst keeping alive which turned out to be comparatively easy once you know how), fuel it and get off the radioactive rock I started on. Once in space I looked for somewhere a bit more hospitable. It was here that I realised something that should have been obvious. There might be LOTS of planets out there – according to some there 18 Quadrillion in the game (that’s 858 BILLION years of gaming if you land on each one for 1 second) – but the vast majority of them are not exactly nice places to be. Even the nice ones – one of which was labelled a ‘paradise planet’ – might have periodic dangerous or deadly storms. I think of around 35+ planets so far only one could be called Earth-like apart from, that is, the colour of the vegetation or the WEIRD lifeforms wandering around.
That is, of course, where things get interesting. I LOVE exploring and poking my nose into things. I want to see what’s over the next hill, what’s under that stone, what’s in that cave. So it’s kind of the game for me really. Plus there’s a mystery at the heart of it all. I’ve decided not to follow the main story (yet anyway) but you can’t but help coming across strange abandoned installations where, obviously, something BAD happened years or even centuries ago. But what was it? Where is everyone and what’s that pulsating gloop on the console screen……? I want to know. I’m formulating theories but I might just have to go to the centre of the galaxy to find out. With limited warp capability (so far) that could take a while.

But, so far at least, things are pretty peachy. I haven’t died for a while, I’ve seen some very impressive landscapes, some TOTALLY strange fauna, made a bit of money (who knew that SALT was so tradable), traded in some ‘junkers’ for reasonably swish (and working) star ships and I’m finding my space legs. Jumping across 100 light years no longer ‘phases’ me and I’m getting to love desert planets (apart from those superheated dust storms – those I can live without). Over every hill I wonder what I might find and who I could sell it too. You never know… One day I might even bump into another player but the odds are WAY against it…..