After a lot teasing and hypothesis, No Man’s Sky’s tenth anniversary Cosmos replace is right here and, yup, it is a massive ‘un, bringing a “full overhaul of house” – which imply, amongst different issues, alliances, orbital bases, the power to buy and stay in your personal house station, and you’ll lastly fly to the solar.
“No Man’s Sky is also known as ‘a Area Sport’, explains Good day Video games in its Cosmos unveiling. “It’s an enormous a part of our sport, however we’ve by no means actually up to date house since launch. In most sci-fi video games, house is simply an empty void. With Cosmos we puzzled – can we make house really feel actually alive? And will we make house really feel extra like dwelling? What for those who might personal an area station? When you might construct star bases, and create alliances with different gamers.”
And that is what at the moment’s replace brings. So far as house station possession goes, as soon as you’ve got bought one in your photo voltaic system of alternative, you possibly can embellish it inside out then invite your folks to take pleasure in your inventive whims.
Alternatively, now you can construct free-floating modular bases anyplace in house, with Good day Video games suggesting you would possibly wish to create your personal star ship truck cease for star ships, navy outpost, or even perhaps an orbital restaurant on the finish of – effectively you understand how that goes.
Asteroid belts, in the meantime, have had a little bit of a do-over, and might now encompass each rock and ice formations that present intrepid house wanderers with beneficial crystal sources. Some uncommon asteroids are even massive sufficient to land on – which does, in fact, imply they’re additionally massive sufficient to construct on…
And scanning a brand new system on entry means you would possibly discover new points-of-interest among the many stars. Area now accommodates its personal outposts, as an example, the place you possibly can commerce with alien lifeforms, purchase maps, get details about the realm, tackle new missions and extra.
Moreover, you’ll find house hulks that may be stripped and salvaged utilizing the brand new gravity gun. Any scrap you efficiently safe might be thrown at your ship’s newly launched tractor beam, however some warning is required. Get too grasping, and also you would possibly trigger the hulk to meltdown and explode. Elsewhere, house now accommodates bio-wrecks, a few of which have been overwhelmed by organic hazards that will should be cleared out with the intention to reclaim. And eventually, there’s the system’s solar, which – for the primary time since launch – is seemingly now reachable, though a “perilous journey” awaits those that attempt.
And tying all this collectively, as if there wasn’t already sufficient to be getting on with, is a brand new alliance system. “As an alliance,” explains Good day, “you possibly can work collectively to construct a networked empire of various stations and rise the brand new leaderboards to compete for the most important, richest or most outstanding alliance.”
However we’re nonetheless not fairly executed. In a single ultimate tenth anniversary flourish, at the moment’s launch arrives alongside a brand new limited-time expedition. It is referred to as – echoing No Man’s Sky’s long-standing mantra – ‘Our Journey Continues’, and seeing gamers working towards totally different milestones that every represents one of many exploratory house sim’s 40 main updates since launch in 2016.
“It is sort of a museum of every replace,” provides Good day Video games, “unlocking the options of every replace as we added them, together with a spacelog of fascinating information and builders commentary for every replace. It’s been an actual pleasure to revisit a few of these moments for us.”
So there you go! No Man’s Sky’s Cosmos replace launches at the moment on all platforms (that is – brace your self – PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Sequence X/S, Change 1&2, Mac, PSVR 1&2, PC VR and Sport Go), and full patch notes might be discovered on Good day Video games’ web site. And for those who’re within the temper for a bit extra celebratory studying, Eurogamer just lately spoke to the No Man’s Sky gamers constructing utopia on the finish of the universe – and it is an interesting story.