{"id":9176,"date":"2016-09-08T21:45:42","date_gmt":"2016-09-09T04:45:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cyberpowergaming.com\/no-mans-sky-infinite-replication\/"},"modified":"2024-01-24T16:54:52","modified_gmt":"2024-01-25T00:54:52","slug":"no-mans-sky-infinite-replication","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cyberpowergaming.com\/no-mans-sky-infinite-replication\/","title":{"rendered":"No Man\u2019s Sky Review \u2013 Infinite Replication"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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No Man\u2019s Sky
\nHello Games<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

When I was a kid I used to always visit a used book store around the corner from our house. After perusing the numerous dusty books for an hour or so, I\u2019d usually settle in on few fantasy, horror, or science fiction novels. I remember that the science fiction books in particular had some truly bizarre and outlandish covers. Some featured weird looking aliens, while others had buxom, scantily clad women, holding laser pistols or some other futuristic weapon. The overall effect of these sf paperback covers would contribute to my healthy imagination and lengthy bouts of day dreaming, usually involving distant solar systems and ancient alien civilizations (and *ahem* buxom space hotties). I\u2019m sure all of that had something to do with me developing my very own science fiction novel series as an adult.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I\u2019d first heard about No Man\u2019s Sky,<\/em> I was immediately intrigued. A gaming friend of mine who is also a science fiction geek told me about it, and after checking out some of the game\u2019s YouTube videos, that intrigue quickly transformed into excitement. Yeah sure\u2014the vids did seem a little hyped up, and yeah, their narrators did indeed make a few lofty proclamations as to the game\u2019s capabilities. But, I\u2019ll admit that I was one of the many gamers out there that bought into the developer\u2019s hype. No Man\u2019s Sky\u2019s marketeers talked about virtually limitless possibilities because of the game\u2019s much-ballyhooed procedurally generated universes. They had also mentioned that multiplayer would have a role in the final release.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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By now, I\u2019m sure that most people have heard about the whole missing-multiplayer-component<\/em> fiasco, so I\u2019m not really going to get into that. I\u2019d rather cover my impressions with No Man\u2019s Sky,<\/em> and what its release has meant to me and as well as what other gamers could expect. Here are my experiences with the game\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I started off in the boots of a spaceship pilot who had recently crash landed on one of No Man\u2019s Sky\u2019s<\/em> quadrillion or so planets. My first task was clear\u2014harvest enough resources in order to repair said vessel, and also re-fuel it. From there, I figured I\u2019d able to blast off into space and explore the surrounding star systems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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No Man\u2019s Sky<\/em> certainly starts off impressively. I was quite taken aback by the strange alien landscape of my starter planet. After wandering around for a bit, I discovered a number of odd looking alien creatures, which I found out I could also document and later claim rewards for. Likewise, the trees and other vegetation on display brought back the fanciful days of my gazing at 70s science fiction book covers and letting my imagination run wild.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Upon assembling the required resources, I hit the power switch on my humble little spaceship, and listened to its thrusters roar. It was an exhilarating feeling, knowing that I\u2019d just conquered my first task and was about to embark on what I\u2019d hoped would be an epic journey into the unknown. I remember scanning the planet\u2019s horizon for one last time, as I sliced upwards into the planet\u2019s upper atmosphere. Why weren\u2019t there any other people busily scurrying about on its surface or flying around?\u2014I wondered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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As I entered space and took a gander around, I noticed that there were quite a few planets and moons within close range of one another. It then dawned on me that No Man\u2019s Sky\u2019s<\/em> procedural universe wasn\u2019t composed of actual solar systems, but of planetary bodies more or less bunched up together in rows. Hmmmm\u2026perhaps I was in some sort of parallel dimension\u2014I\u2019ll roll with that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After engaging my hyperdrive thingamajigger (you always have to have those in these types of games, after all), I torpedoed towards another interesting-looking planet. After a harrowing descent and landing, I plopped down onto its surface and scanned my immediate surroundings. I spied what I thought were completely different aliens flapping around through the air, or traversing the purple grass- dotted ground. Upon closer inspection, however, I realized that each \u201cnew\u201d species that I came into contact with were merely amalgamations of aliens that I\u2019d already encountered back on my original planet. In other words, they were just different assemblages of the same alien parts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This time, I inspected the planet\u2019s surface in its entirety, which took some-odd four or five hours. I came into contact with some hostile alien groups, and scouted out and investigated crashed alien vessels and ancient complexes. In all, I catalogued the entirety of the planet\u2019s alien species, and garnered a handsome reward for my efforts. It was all good fun, but I wanted to see what else was out there\u2014what other alien factions were out in the universe, perhaps at war with one another. Maybe I\u2019d meet up and ally with other actual human players. You know, all of the exciting stuff that I\u2019d dreamt about as a kid. I thought: Now technology has finally caught up to the outer limits (no pun intended) of one\u2019s imagination.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I re-launched my ship, flew around through space, and touched down on the next planet. Same ol\u2019 story\u2014different looking aliens assembled from now familiar parts. The flora was impressively bizarre though, as well as gorgeous to behold. This time I found an alien trading post which was inhabited by one of the game\u2019s three alien races. Well, he was just a single representative of the race. Oh, and he couldn\u2019t get up and walk and talk with me. He was just sort of stuck there, blabbering at me from behind a counter as you\u2019d imagine an animated puppet does at an amusement park. I still didn\u2019t see any other real humans around.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By the forth planet, after eerily similar experiences, I was more or less like: Been there, done that.<\/em> But, that little kid in me still held out a smidgen of hope, so I persevered. That wasn\u2019t wise. Over the course of the next couple of days, I surveyed a couple dozen planets (I\u2019m stubborn I know). What that revealed to me was that my hunger for discovering such things as black holes, nebulae, white dwarfs and red giants, gas giants, wormholes, alien cities, volcanos, lightning-imbued storms, dangerous interstellar creatures, flying through canyons, galactic love and interstellar relationships with uber-hot space-babes, and other fanciful collected musings, were never going to happen in No Man\u2019s Sky.<\/em> You can\u2019t even crash your ship into anything, including a sun.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Instead, you have an almost unlimited amount of content which falls into a rather narrow band of parameters. I\u2019m not sure what sort of algorithms that the developers were boasting about, but whatever they consisted of delivered an almost limitless amount of same-y-ness. Perhaps if they\u2019d reduced the scale of their ambitions to only a few solar systems, or heck, even a single procedural star system, things would have turned out to be more diverse. But as it is, No Man\u2019s Sky<\/em> is very confined in its attempt at variety.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Don\u2019t get me wrong, No Man\u2019s Sky\u2019s<\/em> visuals are certainly gorgeous. I\u2019ve landed my ships on hilltops and looked down over vast pink oceans and shimmering fields of silvery brush, just to gaze at their beauty and grandeur. The game\u2019s graphics did remind me of those old novel covers, especially on my souped-up gaming PC. However, I guess an accurate metaphor for my experience with No Man\u2019s Sky<\/em> would be akin to picking up a classic, brightly colored and alluring science fiction cover, only to discover that there isn\u2019t an actual novel beneath it.<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

SCORE: 55%<\/p>\n\n\n\n

No Man\u2019s Sky <\/em>has some spiffy graphics going for it, that\u2019s for sure. However, you have to have an equally fast gaming PC in order to play it at a decent framerate. So, you may just want to invest in a decent gaming rig:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"fall-massive-vector-17-special\"<\/a>
CyberPowerPC Gaming Laptop<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Visit CyberpowerPC\u2019s website<\/a> to check out all of the other great deals as well!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

No Man\u2019s Sky Hello Games When I was a kid I used to always visit a used book store around the corner from our house. After perusing the numerous dusty books for an hour or so, I\u2019d usually settle in on few fantasy, horror, or science fiction novels. I remember that the science fiction books… Read More »No Man\u2019s Sky Review \u2013 Infinite Replication<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":9174,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"","neve_meta_content_width":0,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2724],"tags":[2520,741,2488,67,3227,2486,3215,3228,2607,2556,2602],"class_list":["post-9176","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-4k-gaming","tag-cyberpower-pc","tag-game-review","tag-gaming-pc","tag-hello-gamesgames","tag-ian-kane","tag-no-mans-sky","tag-procedurally-generated-games","tag-reviews-2","tag-science-fiction-games","tag-survival-games"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberpowergaming.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9176","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberpowergaming.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberpowergaming.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberpowergaming.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberpowergaming.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9176"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberpowergaming.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9176\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15858,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberpowergaming.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9176\/revisions\/15858"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberpowergaming.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9174"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberpowergaming.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9176"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberpowergaming.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9176"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberpowergaming.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9176"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}