Impression: NO MAN'S SKY Atlas Rising and Further Updates Are Both Great and Upsetting
As many No Man's Sky fans (or non fans by now) will know, we have been treated to a special updated called Atlas Rising. Since then, we have had several more updates fixing bugs and problems encountered in the game ever since that update.
Here is some of my own gameplay showing some of the new features in the game, as well as showing off my base and freighter:
This video shows the game exactly after I started it up once the Atlas Rising and Update 1.34 were completed. Atlas Rising boasts some new missions, graphics, interfaces and discoveries. Here are some things I was really impressed, and upset, with.
VISUAL USER INTERFACES
First of all, all the user interfaces really look amazing. There are so many to choose between, such as the flight mode in your space ship with the new radar imagery and parking assists, to the Galaxy map that has been updated with planet orbits around suns, to the scanner for discoveries. The graphics department has really upped the tools to a point where they are once again enjoyable to use more than once. To me this was the most enjoyable part of the update
NEW ATLAS MISSIONS
On the one hand, I was really glad that new missions had been added. After I started the game up, there was a clear indication that new missions were available throughout the galaxy. That's nice. When I walked around my base, flew to my local Space Station and visited my local Atlas interface, I was hoping to find some news of where to activate these missions. Alas, no one spoke to me at all about them. I flew around my system, scanning planets and hoping to find some news on the new missions. All I heard was the flutter of cosmic dust and some pirates that eventually wanted my loot.
It took me some time (and Google, which I hate doing for games, but I hate flying around unnecessarily more), until I discovered what I needed to do to 'activate' the mission. SPOILER ALERT...... I needed to fly around among various star systems until a message appeared on my console to meet 'the stranger'. Once I had activated it, the missions progressed as they normally do and I was happy and intrigued again.
MY PLANET IS NO LONGER MY PLANET
This is my official rant session. Atlas Rising includes new biomes for planets. That's fine. BUT....what I did not like was that they completely fu... MESSED UP my planet in a big way. Did you see the large soap bubbles floating around my planet. That wasn't there before. Not such a big problem though. What is a major issue for me is that I had picked that planet for four reasons:
- It was in a Red Star System;
- It was rich in fauna;
- There were loads of water and flora and the planet was gorgeous;
- It was rich in resources.
As you can see, all the green and colorful flora are gone. If you pay even more careful attention on my discovery log in the video, you will see that I actually spent time finding and discovering 10 of the 11 species on the planet. Now, look to the left on that screen, and you will see the planet is now devoid of any animal lifeforms. I discovered 10 species that no longer exist. My planet was hit by a massive soapy asteroid and killed every living being except me.
This severely chafes my innards. My planet is now boring and dull. I have no idea why they had to do this or what, if any logic was behind this, but this was completely unnecessary. Yes, I could fly around and find a new planet and rebuild my base, but I don't want to. If the developers can so easily erase everything you had going on a planet, then they can do so again. I officially don't care enough about No Man's Sky to want to play it ever again, even after I have spent obsessive hours playing it.
WHERE HAVE MY WORKERS GONE!?
The one thing you may notice on my base is that some of my workers are not by their terminals. No, I did not grant them leave. When I started up, actually all of my workers were gone. Clearly as a result of the said soapy asteroid collision. This didn't upset me as much as the terraform of my planet, as regaining them was just a matter of recruiting again.
What was more upsetting is that ALL of the missions for these guys had been reset. I had to start all the worker quests all over again, meaning having to find locations and exotic plants again. Once again, so unnecessary. If I wanted to redo things, I would have gone to the centre of the galaxy, entered a black hole and restarted the game.
TRADE SYSTEMS
One great new feature is the trading system. Star systems now have economic classes based on what can be found and what is lacking. Before, I mainly wasted time at a space station buying and selling goods to make millions of credits and then spend it on my tools and spaceship. This new trading system is a remarkable upgrade and makes economics so much easier.
UPDATE 1.34
When I saw that Update 1.34 was being installed, I really hope it would fix the things that really angered me. Alas, t'is a fool's dream. They simply changed some errors with the new missions, some problems with interfaces, some graphical anomalies, issues associated with activating quests... Yeah the update list is long and boring, but significantly just points out how bad the Atlas Rising update was when launched.
WHERE THIS LEAVES ME AS A NMS FANBOY
There were hundreds of other upgrades, but they will not be explored by me. From the gas harvesting, to the new mineral resources and fauna, to the weird freighters that have crashed on my planet... I don't care. They could have done all these wonderful upgrades and left my planet alone. Maybe I am being prissy... yes I can go find another planet as said before. But if I am going to be forced to relocate every time such an update comes along, you can forget it. I haven't even bothered trying to work out how to change the terrain, because once again the game doesn't explain it at all (or at least not in a way that I can find without Google), and I am just tired of having to hunt for instructions on how to play the game.
FINAL VERDICT
Some great enhancements to the game, and wonderful new features that really make the game spectacular and worth travelling through. They should have just left my planet alone....