They’re different in practice, but it’s hard not to draw comparisons between No Man’s Sky and Starfield. Both are ambitious space games. Both arrived with a firestorm of hype. And both of them, at launch at least, were disappointing. Starfield Shattered Space could mark the beginning of a comeback for Bethesda’s RPG. Eight years since launch, however, Hello Games’ NMS is at the end of its recovery, securing a place in the annals of videogame rebound stories alongside Cyberpunk 2077 and Fallout 76. But the new No Man’s Sky update imagines something very different. No added quests. No extra material. No…anything.
The new No Man’s Sky update is an ambitious and daring reinvention of the space game based around a single idea: what if the entire universe was completely empty? Inspired by the pre-launch versions of NMS, Hello Games is launching Adrift as a kind of parallel dimension, where players can explore the game’s subterranean worlds, multiple galaxies, and infinite planets without ever meeting a single other lifeform. If you’ve ever looked up to the night sky and felt pure existential dread at the possibility that, even across the boundless expanse of all existence, we are completely, helplessly alone, No Man’s Sky Adrift is for you.
There are no shops, no trading, no shortcuts, and no help. You are alone, and No Man’s Sky has just become the ultimate survival game experience. A couple of horrifying dangers remain, however. Gigantic sandworms now roam free across various landscapes and fiend eggs are spreading at an alarming rate. Everything else is abandoned, rusted, and ghostly. It’s lonely, but you can look at it another way. This is No Man’s Sky in its most tranquil and meditative form, the game as it was right at the beginning, before the updates, overhauls, and add-ons. This is the confluence of gases before the Big Bang of the No Man’s Sky universe.
The new Hauler starship, named the Iron Vulture, will help keep you alive, and there’s also a gigantic new frigate where you can recoup and replenish before venturing back into the depthless void. The No Man’s Sky Adrift expedition begins Wednesday May 29.
In the meantime, try some of the best RPG games, or perhaps the best open-world games if you want more of that expansive, No Man’s Sky-style exploration.
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