The New No Man’s Sky Update Has Dramatically Changed The Game
No Man's Sky will soon implement it's major update Waypoint, will introduce greater customizability options to the game as well as more difficulty settings options.
After receiving a major Star Trek-like upgrade, the sci-fi survival sim No Man’s Sky just received its next major update. The upcoming update, perpetrated as “the biggest generational jump so far” by the game’s developer, Hello Games, focuses mostly on balance overhauls and massive quality-of-life improvements. In addition, certain aspects of the game can now be utilized to make the gameplay easier, shifting the game’s focus from survival to more of an exploration sandbox. And yes, you can still be a space pirate.
According to IGN, this is the game’s 21st major update, called Waypoint, which brings the game’s version from 3.0 to 4.0. Besides tackling the design and balance issues of the previous version, the new No Man’s Sky update also brings hundreds of quality-of-life updates to the game, as Hello Games attempts to unify the game’s entire content into a single, cohesive gameplay experience. This includes a fixed cursor icon that doesn’t fiddle anymore when used on a laptop trackpad, as well as gamepad controls, which have been massively improved.
Next on the list of improvements that recently made its way to No Man’s Sky, and perhaps the biggest one, is the new customizable difficulty. The settings range from the simple difficulty settings to with which most gamers are accustomed, to a fiddly detailed tweaking of different mechanics, like the economy, survival, and combat — something we’ve previously seen in micromanagement sandbox games, like the Anno gaming series. These would now allow you to tweak fuel economy, goods availability, and resource availability or scarcity.
The new No Man’s Sky update also introduces the new Relaxed mode, which really lowers the danger and grinds elements, allowing gamers to experience the storytelling, survival, and combat — though the latter two are dialed down to facilitate more stress-free storytelling. The dynamic difficulty also means that you can change things up if stuff becomes slow, and the best part about it is that it applies to your current progression. This means that you won’t have to start a new game each time you want to take things slow or experience a challenge.
The inventory system also received an overhaul, and players, ships, and weapons had their level cap significantly increased. The Waypoint update also freshened up the in-game Milestones, and a new information portal makes it easier for returning players to pick up and resume No Man’s Sky, as it offers a summary of the players’ goals and progress. This is a pretty neat feature for those who had previously abandoned the game. Can we please get a quick crash-course tutorial for gaming business people and parents; something to remind them what button to press after ten days of not playing?
Besides bringing a ton of fantastic upgrades to the game, both the content and engine, Hello Games also launched No Man’s Sky on Nintendo Switch six years after the game’s initial release. For those interested in picking up No Man’s Sky, the game is currently available on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, the discontinued Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, macOS, PC, and now Nintendo Switch.
