No Man's Sky: Preview (Gamescom 2014)

When the presentation ends and the representative Hello Games I was available for questions, I asked, as it seems to me, the most important and correct: “I went out a few years ago SPORE, which, in fact, was dedicated to the same - the study of an accidentally generated cosmos. What is the fundamental difference No Man's Sky? At least at the concept level?"This is what the developer said:" If you reject what SPORE was a set of mini-games, and we have FPS ... The main task is to provide players with whole experience, without borders, divisions and conventions ".

To put it mildly, the idea is impressive. Forget everything that you have ever heard about ambitious projects: soon we will be allowed to plunge into the universe, which players will never be able to fully learn completely. And they will allow you to do anything, from collecting rare animals to robbery of merchant ships.

It is difficult to even approach a project of such a scale, highlight the main thing and start with something specific. Therefore, the head of the studio Hello Games Sean Murray (Sean Murray) The first fifteen minutes of presentation spends on a lyrics, which is really important for understanding what the new game will be.

Fiction is again in fashion: after a long break, the authors (interactive entertainment and films) again begin to return to the topics of endless space, aliens and interstellar travels. But this is not at all the same SCI-Fi as before. Rather, Science Fantasy (the term proposed by the Shonom itself) than Science Fiction. The whole difference in mood: all around the post-apocalypse, some wars, galactic villains and the rapid destruction of the galaxy. A great example of this is Destiny.

On the other hand - Star Trek. Where all this also came across, but has never been a center of attention. The fiction of the 80s was much kinder, full of hope and desire for new worlds. This is the main cultural guideline for developers - the motivation for action should be an unconscious desire to see: what is behind the hill? For that companion? In that universe?

There will be no goals in the game, and therefore, the word “from the mouth of developers in various interviews periodically flies outMinecraft". With the only difference being that a whole galaxy is accidentally generated. Or, frankly, not quite by chance.

Planet is created from the number. One, two, three, nineteen thousand eight hundred and sixty -five. Such numbers - 2 64 . Sean says: “Some guys on YouTube tried to prove that the game cannot be generated endlessly, everything has a limit. Therefore, we made so many planets that if users manage to explore one per second, then the sun will go out, and you, shit, still won’t prove that we have borders ”.

Based on the base number, the landscape of the planet, its climate and, if you're lucky, forms of life, are created for certain algorithms. Absolutely honestly, absolutely the entire surface is worked out. With caves, craters, hills. Hundreds of thousands of square kilometers of a unique landscape for every celestial body.

Only one of ten planets in the https://nonukcasinosites.co.uk/fast-withdrawal-casinos game can boast of vegetation, but from these ten landscaped only one will give more or less reasonable lifestyle forms. It turns out that most of the studied planets will be boring gray pebbles, and Sean recognizes it openly: “With a certain bad luck, you will be damn boring to play, but these numbers seemed realistic to us”.

Creatures on planets are created from the same single number, by chance. Do not expect at all frenzy: in No Man's Sky several dozen archetypes of animals that change only cosmetic details. Frankly, the same SPORE In this sense, it looked more fun - although the options shown here do not seem too monotonous.

Then, when all the planets are generated, the galaxy is populated by various civilizations. Everything is very incomprehensible here, but it is probably known that there are space stations, various fractions (pirates, merchants) and clashes between them. In addition, you can see the huge ships and even some settlements that fell to the surface of the planets. But only from afar, without details.

What can eventually be found in the vastness No Man's Sky - Generally a big riddle. Sean clarifies: “Yes, we could show you new planets at each presentation. But it is somehow stupid ". The one who has seen is shocking and does not look at all as a result of random generations: giant worms crawling according to planets, some dinosaurs, lani. Beautiful caves, canyons and rivers. At least in rollers and screenshots Hello Games I achieved the desired - I really want to explore the worlds shown just like that, without the highest goal.

However, a certain competitive element in the structure of the world is still. When moving to the center of the galaxy, the game will become more difficult (although it is completely incomprehensible what it means), and if you really want to occupy yourself with something definite, then you need to strive to see it there.

Which pleases the most - all this will happen without a single disaster. The space is loaded and detailed in a maximum in six seconds, without interrupting the gameplay. Before us, in fact, is the world's first game that allows you to sit into the ship, break through the atmosphere, shoot some pirates along the road and land on an asteroid. Quite well voiced, perfectly done visually.

Now the main nuance of this whole story: the map is generated once and will always be the same and everyone. Therefore, about the super -ladder asteroid you find about you found in a conditional quadrant, you can inform the rest of the community by posting photos on forums, for example.

To infinity and beyond

Only one fact is so far about the network component of the game: this is MMO. But the thing is: given the scale, all players will fall into the world so far from each other that they are unlikely to meet. Even appearing at different poles of one moon, you do not cross. Any conscious interaction will have to be organized and, most likely, fly to any meeting point for a long time. Accidentally found someone else's ship promises to be akin to a miracle. Therefore, they position the project nevertheless as a "singleplayer".

Each player can influence the universe to the best of his capabilities. One murdered dinosaur, of course, is not interesting, but if someone manages to destroy the space station, then the information about this will be loaded to the server, and the zone really no one will see anymore. Another nice little thing-on every planet there will be a marker: such and such a number of such and such a player will be open. Therefore, all your research will remain descendants.

But to fly for pleasure, of course, will not allow. Frankly, No Man's Sky Literally copies the mechanics Starbound, space version Terraria. You start on a random planet with one rescue shuttle and the weakest equipment. You get into orbit, fly to the nearest station. There you find living people (unless, of course, they), join the ecosystem: take quests, earn money, buy equipment. And, most importantly, you earn certain conditional units (like fuel), allowing to make distant hypermeal jumps. They are the basis of travel.

It is very difficult to assume something about further, because talking about structure and game mechanics Hello Games Avoids. There is no role model, but there is an extensive equipment system. Some boots will give the opportunity to walk on the water, some masks-breathing under it. The armor is light or heavy, allowing to fly, a powerful or weak weapon. But the number of ships models is strictly limited - diversity only within the framework of archetypes. For a good starship, you will probably have to fly around more than one interstellar station.

Cosmos and planets are saturated with events. Smugglers are fighting with lawyers, pirates attack merchant ships. With each of the fractions, you can build relationships, start trade. It is unclear, however, will there be at least some semblance of a dialogue system, the opportunity to walk on the databases and talk with NPC, or is it all limited to the menu for choosing quests.

At the end of the conversation, I admitted to Shonu that I still did not fully understand what the gameplay is exactly what exactly is No Man's Sky. And he received the following answer: “The game has absolutely no narrative mechanisms, there is no training or even an introductory chain of tasks. But we provide all the possibilities for your own adventure to be unique and epic. The galaxy around you has a certain story that we, as developers, know. And the gamer has to find out.

You can be a merchant and put together a condition. You can focus on “pump” your equipment as much as possible. You can become a traveler and just fly somewhere into the distance, conquering the maximum number of planets. Our main task is that all this works as a single system. In fact, we never change any specific details at all, but edit exclusively the generation mechanisms ”.

No Man's Sky - This is not just a dark horse, but a real black hole. At the presentation, the authors show exclusively prepared script episodes, so you cannot evaluate the real variety of planets. There are no interactions with the world either, there are no cities, and it is unclear whether the players will be able to somehow cooperate with each other (in guilds, clans, fractions).

No one in the history of the gaming industry has yet taken up a project of such a scale. In addition to a modest studio consisting of ten people. Sean's eyes really burn when he admires that they are trying to do. On paper, the game looks perfect, from the videos it causes breath. But so far there is not a single evidence that everything really works. And how to play at all, is not entirely clear. One can only hope for the best.

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