No Man’s Sky: What’s the Point?

No Man’s Sky isn’t quite like anything else out there on the market right now. Yes, many games have huge open worlds for players to go and explore, but none quite have the open-endedness and focus on relaxed gameplay quite like No Man’s Sky. From the press releases and summaries that you can find on the internet, it’s easy to find yourself asking exactly what the point is in playing No Man’s Sky. Well, let us break it down for you.

Objectively, No Man’s Sky is a quest. A quest that you can embark on in any way you see fit to ultimately reach the center of the universe. How you get there and where you stop along the way is entirely up to you, though you’re going to need to pick up a few upgrades and change your ship a few times along the way. You’ll explore foreign planets, previously undiscovered by any other player in search of resources, and trade with alien species in order to finally get that resource you’ve needed for that upgrade to your ship’s Hyperdrive. Exploration and trading ultimately feed into your need to craft, and crafting will help you to further discover other planets and reach the center of the universe. There’s almost a bit of a loop to the proceedings in No Man’s Sky. But because each planet is so different and harbors its own unique treasures, every landing you make on a new planet is an adventure and that’s part of the real point to No Man’s Sky.

In reality, No Man’s Sky is about much more than just the simple gameplay features. It’s all about the adventure and the excitement of discovering something new that nobody else in the world has managed to find yet. Combine this with a universe that is so gargantuan in size that it blows any previous open-world game out the water in terms of size makes for an experience that is one you can truly expect to find yourself getting lost in. Though No Man’s Sky’s universe is so large that it’s possible you’ll never (or very rarely) come across another player, there’s always a strange sense of a community effort working its magic behind-the-scenes. You may not have reached that planet far away, but as a collective group of players, the amount of the sprawling expanse of space that can be covered will be far larger. Maybe somewhere down the line, the player base will reign victorious and everything to be discovered will have successfully been inappropriately named and accounted for.

On the face of it then, No Man’s Sky is just a game about crafting in order to see stuff as you make your way to the center of a really huge map. But looking deeper into what that entails, it’s a sci-fi adventure that praises you for going out on your own and venturing into the great unknown, all the while millions of other players are doing the exact same thing, though you’ll rarely ever be any the wiser.

If you find that you need some help with No Man’s Sky, give our wiki full of guides and tips a look!