7 Traits No Man’s Sky Adopted from Destiny

No Man’s Sky is finally out, and players are already beginning their trek across the impossibly large universe. Hello Games has done a stellar job in making it all feel both inviting and threatening as you move between planets, star systems, and galaxies. Yet its clear to see that the developers may have had some inspiration from another successful “space” game that you maybe heard of: Destiny.

Before we get into it, let us be clear. These are two very different games, so don’t think that you’re buying into a knockoff. It’s just fun to take a look at all of the similarities that each game has, and you may recognize a few elements for yourself. 

Menus

Hello Games must have really liked how it felt to change weapons and use items in Destiny, because the menu system in No Man’s Sky is almost identical. The Circular cursor that fills up as you select an item, the clean squares that represent each item, upgrade and resource, and the pop-up information screens are all reminiscent of Bungie’s shared-world shooter.

To be honest, we don’t even blame the developers for implementing this system. It works very well in No Man’s Sky, and the clean aesthetic of all the boxes fit the over all look and feel of the game. It’s very…technical, for lack of a better word. You’re out there exploring and discovering, and every now and then you need to craft or examine inventory. The simple menus help it all flow as you focus on bigger things like making sure that Sentinel doesn’t notice you breaking into a factory. 

Servitors

If you’ve played Destiny for longer than five minutes, you may recognize something when you first visit one of No Man’s Sky’s Galactic Market terminals. There, nestled in the wall of whatever base or space station you happen to find yourself in sits a spherical robot that’s in charge of letting you trade. It looks an awful lot like one of Destiny’s Servitors, those well armored globes that love to boost nearby enemies.

The resemblance becomes even clearer when you encounter one of these floating in the wild. They move about just like servitors and just stare at you blankly. To be honest, we’d much rather buy things from them than have to fight one of these ever again. 

Way Too Many Ship Designs For No Real Reason

No Man’s Sky has a lot of different ships. As you fly around, you’ll encounter hundreds of different designs ranging from basic to outright amazing, but they don’t really do anything. You would think that a larger ship means more cargo or a smaller one means better fighting ability, but none of that rings true at the moment.

Destiny has this same design choice. There are dozens of different ships you can obtain but none of them actually do anything special, they just look cool. It’s great to have variety so you can look cool while cruising through space, but it’s odd for both games to go the relatively useless route. At least you can find some ships with more space in No Man’s Sky, even if they are sometimes smaller than what you already have. 

We Heard You Like Materials

There’s a lot of exploration in No Man’s Sky, there’s also a lot of resource collecting. Not only are there tons of different elements and items, they each have specific uses, making some useless in most situations. Ring a bell? Destiny had players collecting over ten different materials, a lot of which were rarely used but you were screwed if a time came and you didn’t have them. So much time was spent running around the Cosmodrome collecting Spinmetal or trying to gather flakes for a sword.

We’ll give No Man’s Sky some credit though. Most of the materials make sense, and some even give you options so you don’t have to continuously farm the same area. We wouldn’t mind them upping the stacks to 1,000 though. That would be awesome. 

That Warp

This is a screen that Destiny players all know far too well. As you’re loading into a planet you watch pretty lights as you warp to your location. No Man’s Sky uses this as well when you trigger your Hyperdrive.

It’s not exactly like the one in Destiny, however, mostly due to the fact that you’re flying solo and that it’s in first-person. But it still brought us back to the first time we flew back down to Earth. It’s a cool loading screen that shows you hurtling at the speed of light towards an unknown destination, so no complaints here. 

Your Multi-tool Is Cool, But You Need a New One

You think you have a great weapon? Think again. Destiny mastered the art of making your current weapon utterly useless as you progressed through its challenges. No Man’s Sky seems to be following suit. While you can upgrade to a certain extent, you’re severely limited by Inventory Slots. That means you can only power up so much before having to grind the funds and resources necessary to obtain a new one.

You’ll easily switch Multi-tools many times before leaving your first galaxy. There’s always something better on the horizon, and the more slots the merrier. The system worked well for Destiny with its light level, so why not? Light/Slots, what’s the difference?

Guardians Invade

Now this just has to be Destiny paying a visit. Bungie always said that they wanted to expand and explore other worlds, and Hello Games has supplied an almost endless supply for players to dive into. While cruising through space, we came upon an Anomaly, something that just doesn’t fit right in the universe that the developers of No Man’s sky created.

When we entered, we found the above alien that happened to look just like one of Destiny’s Guardians. It’s like a caped Warlock had came specifically to visit us with some information. Talking to this figure made it feel even more like we had switch games unknowingly. Its focus on the unknown and mysterious cosmic powers were just like the oaths our own Warlocks swore to uphold.

The crossover is definitely welcome, though, as it adds a lot more intrigue to this already gripping adventure. We wonder what other influences we may find as we continue our trek towards the center…