Picture science fiction in your head. You might be thinking of H.G Wells’ War of The Worlds, or George Orwell’s vision of the future. Maybe Lovecraft makes an appearance. Dystopia. Post-apocalyptic lands. Well, Sean Murray, the Managing Director of Hello Games, challenges that portrayal.
His vision comes together in the most exciting preview at the VGX Awards – No Man’s Sky.
I’m not even going to preface this with lots of rambling, just watch this and see for yourself.
To classify this as a vast project is almost inaccurate – the scale of No Man’s Sky is colossal. Procedurally generated games are crazy enough, essentially providing players with an endless and unique realm of things to discover. Factor in that the team over at Hello Games is staffed by four people, and you may start to feel overwhelmed.
And so you should. Murray speaks of the things you see being real – not rendered superfluously – and accessible. If you’re stood gawping at a planet over the horizon, you can leap in your spaceship and explore it, simple as that.
Murray is quick to dispel the idea that No Man’s Sky is purely an exploration game, however – he hauntingly describes the nature of ecosystems on these generated planets, and outlines that the player might not be at the top of the food chain. You can probably expect some combat, some running, and wondering why bad things happen to good people when your spaceship won’t start with a large planetary denizen on your heels.
No Man’s Sky looks sensational, and may well be one of the coolest concepts I’ve seen in a long time – something that happens when passionate people push boundaries.