We’ve now spent a week with No Man’s Sky and suffice to say it isn’t the game we were expecting. Though there are quite a few things to like about Hello Games’ space exploration and survival sim, it really pales in comparison to what we were expecting after years of build-up and excitement.
However, while there is an argument to support us having collectively allowed our imaginations to run wild, it isn’t as though our hopes that the game would provide us with a sci-fi universe of infinite opportunity wasn’t encouraged by its marketing. Since the game’s release many have pointed towards a discrepancy between the finished product and what had been promised to us by its pre-release footage, causing a great deal of controversy among those who have been left disappointed by what the game has to offer.
With that being said, let’s take a look at the 10 ways No Man’s Sky is different from its pre-release trailers:
Top Image Credit: Reddit \ ch00d
10 Ways No Man's Sky is Different From its Pre-Release Trailers
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Uninteresting locations.
In the early No Man's Sky trailers players are shown a massive, fallen ship lying abandoned on a snowy planet, with sentries swarming around it. In No Man's Sky the game you'll sometimes find a small abandoned building which has a bit of weird plant life growing it, and a computer that'll ask you to solve a number puzzle in exchange for a jetpack upgrade.
The locations you can visit on each planet in No Man's Sky are repetitive, with none being as immediately intriguing as this abandoned ship. We'd have rather had this than the game's current dismal offering of trading posts and drop pods.
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Ugly procedurally generated creatures.
The debut trailers for No Man's Sky depicted an ecosystem of creatures that looked both realistic and alien at the same time, presenting a believable ecosystem of fauna in these surreal, otherworldly destinations. We couldn't wait to go and discover them.
Then came the reality of the finished game, in which the alarming majority of creatures look like bizarre mismatched creations, featuring cobbled together parts of other animals and granting them the appearance of horrifying, Lovecraftian nightmares.
Though we were initially excited to finally be able to venture out into the universe and uncover all of these weird creatures, after the fifteenth time of seeing a bizarre, oversize space dinosaur trying to realistically balance itself on tiny chicken legs, you're eventually no longer able to suspend your disbelief.
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It doesn't look half as good.
No Man's Sky's visuals have taken a notable hit since the game's initial unveiling, with it not looking anywhere near as good upon release as it did during its early trailers.
While it's unfortunately expected that an E3 trailer of a game will look better than the finished product, there's really no comparison between the game's early showings and the finished product, with it missing a range of weather and particle effects, comparatively poor lighting, a downgraded draw distance and a myriad other features. It looked set to be a real head-turner, but although the game's procedurally generated worlds certainly have their moments, all in all No Man's Sky is a disappointment visually.
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Synchronized flying.
One scene in the first No Man's Sky trailer depicted the player successfully conducting a sychronized flight with other pilots, flying in unison in space before gliding down towards a planet and hurtling into its atmosphere.
We now know that No Man's Sky does not offer the multiplayer gameplay that would make such a moment possible between human players, though even with the game's AI you won't see such an organized display. There's no way to interact with friendly pilots throughout the game, with them instead flying around in the distance and minding their own business.
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Dull space battles.
The space battles you have in No Man's Sky are limited to dog-fights with pirates and sentry ships, though both are just as underwhelming. In the early trailers for the game huge fleets of giant spacecraft could be seen initiating their warp drives, evading enemy fire by speeding off into the distance as enemies encircled them. In the finished product, these fleets remain motionless regardless of what happens to them.
Unlike the thrilling, epic intergalactic confrontations that were hinted at in the trailers, No Man's Sky instead offers brief confrontations that typically revolve around you taking down a couple of ships before mindlessly warping to your next destination.
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Paltry asteroid fields.
Though a relatively minor gripe, in the early trailers the player was depicted at flying through a huge and potentially perilous asteroid field, shooting through rocks in order to successfully maneuver between them. In the finished game, however, these asteroid fields don't provide much of a challenge, with them being easily avoided and typically only consisting of a few handfuls of rocks.
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Desolate planets.
Though No Man's Sky's early trailers never misled us into thinking that we'd be venturing into planets boasting cities and the like, they did at least depict an awful lot more going on in them than we can experienced in the finished game. Scenes of ships flying low across its surface, alien species interacting with one another and areas packed with both life and locations to visit are almost non-existent in the finished game, with no planet anyone's encountered thus far matching the kind of grandiosity Hello Games exhibited in their initial trailers.
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Empty skies.
No Man's Sky's title can be taken quite literally, with there actually very little life in the game's depiction of outer space. You'll see the odd ship, sure, but mostly every system will only feature a smattering of AI pilots floating around in the background, or a small convoy of enemy ships. If you're expecting to confronted by a sprawling army of ships as shown in the trailer, then you'll leave disappointed.
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Pointless interactions with creatures.
No Man's Sky's trailers pointed towards the game's creatures interacting with one another and boasting unique characteristics between species. But any hope of witnessing these creatures working together in herds or actually possessing divergent personalities can be eradicated on your starter planet, as you witness these abominations bumbling around, largely minding their own business aside from the odd time they'll run away from you.
The interactions you'll have with these creatures is limited to either feeding them, which will see a little smiley emoji display above their heads, or try not to be killed by the odd few who are actively hostile. You may see a few towering dinosaur-esque creatures during your playthrough, but rest assured that they won't have much going on upstairs.
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There's no space worm.
Seriously, where's this space worm?
