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No Man’s Sky Foundation screengrab
No Man’s Sky was affected by expectations – different people had different criticisms, but this update goes some way to address many of them. Photograph: No Man's Sky
No Man’s Sky was affected by expectations – different people had different criticisms, but this update goes some way to address many of them. Photograph: No Man's Sky

No Man's Sky: Foundation update – a solid base to build on

This article is more than 7 years old

Jordan Erica Webber plays the new modes in No Man’s Sky and finds something for everyone

The first big update for No Man’s Sky gives almost everyone a reason to come back. “Foundation” includes features carefully selected to deal with each of the main resolvable complaints from those who were disappointed with the original release. And for those of us who were already happy with the game, the new modes provide a way to start a new, and entirely different, journey through the procedurally generated galaxy without having to give up on your first.

My original journey, which must have occupied me for at least 100 hours, is now under “Normal” mode, but two new modes lie empty, beckoning me to start afresh.

Survival mode promises “limited resources, increased hazards, and stronger, more aggressive enemies”. I load it up and find myself on a beautiful snowy world looking up at the clouds. Many of the Foundation Update patch notes are dedicated to visual improvements: better lighting and anti-aliasing, improved colour selections and distribution of plant life, “increased proportion of vibrant blue skies”.

Want to try building a base? Creative mode plants you next to a base location with a working spaceship, everything unlocked, and no need to pay for anything. Photograph: No Man's Sky

Unlike in my first journey, my broken-down spaceship is nowhere to be seen. My radar tells me it’s five minutes away. Small white arrows – a new UI feature – tell me my hazard protection against the cold is falling fast and definitely won’t hold out for a five-minute hike. There’s a shelter nearby, but that doesn’t protect my life support. And no longer can you refill hazard protection and life support with abundant iron and carbon respectively, in any mode.

Once I’ve repaired my scanner, it tells me that Survival mode’s promise was true: resources are scarce. The new UI does at least label what the scanner finds – Th for thamium, Pt for plutonium, Zn for zinc – but an increased cooldown makes the search slower. It’s gone from a habitual button-press to an actual tool.

In Survival mode, taking off completely empties the tank of plutonium.
Photograph: No Man's Sky

Survival mode will change the way you play. On the journey to my ship I have to duck into caves to let my hazard protection recover. I find myself running past the local wildlife without stopping to add it to my database, because it feels like a waste of precious time. Once I’ve found my ship and am trying to repair it, I spot some of the heridium I need in a clearing and decide it’s too exposed (though eventually I remember that you can carve out a shelter within a resource like that and mine it – carefully – from the inside).

And then a sentinel drone catches me mining, and I die.

I’m revived, but, unlike when I died in my original journey, there’s no grave with my carefully hoarded precious resources. Some of my tools are broken, and my shields and life support are down. I run for the hills in the hope of stumbling across some thamium, but I die again.

I start a new Survival game. This time I begin on a hot planet, not nearly as pretty but much more manageable. I soon discover that I can go out at night without my hazard protection going down. In this more relaxed environment I realise, thanks to the little arrows in the new UI, that life support only goes down when you’re moving, and more quickly if you run, which is probably why I kept dying before.

Resources are now gated: to mine yellow shards of titanium, you require an ‘advanced mining laser’, which you unlock by building a base, recruiting staff, and carrying out quests. Photograph: No Man's Sky

This time, my ship is 15 minutes’ walk away, but with the ability to go out at night I’m able to stock up on resources. I find myself crafting things I never bothered with before: power gels and shielding shards. I set out as evening approaches, and make it two thirds of the way to my ship before the morning, stumbling across a shelter just in time for sunrise. I fix my ship, find just about enough plutonium to fuel it, and take off, which in Survival mode totally empties the tank.

I head for a waypoint on another planet, and halfway there am told that pirates are scanning my meagre cargo. They attack. I die.

I’m revived in my space station, inventory empty. I try to return to the planet and the pirates find me again. I die.

Back in Normal mode, life is easier. Hazard protection and life support decrease more slowly, and your ship’s launch thruster will only use up 25% of its fuel at once. But still some things have changed. As the game warns you when you load up the new update for the first time, the universe has been regenerated, and everything looks different. Plutonium, for example, is much rarer even in Normal mode, no longer decorating every horizon with tall red shards.

A hydroponics lab. Photograph: No Man's Sky

Other resources are now gated; to mine yellow shards of titanium, for example, you require an “advanced mining laser”, which you unlock by building a base, recruiting staff, and carrying out quests. This, then, is where the new crafting system comes in: in normal circumstances you can use it to place things like save points and beacons, which help you find your way back to a specific place in a way you couldn’t before, but in certain allocated locations you can also create a sprawling base to your own design.

If you want to test out the base-building tools without working through the series of quests that unlocks all the options, Creative mode plants you next to a base location with a working spaceship, everything unlocked, and no need to pay for anything. But with no threat, there seems no point to having a roof over your head, and with no need for resources why bother with a hydroponics lab? With no goals, Creative mode seems best suited for those who want to play at being a space photographer, making use of the new ability to hide the UI.

In Normal mode, you can find these base-building locations by scanning from space. Once you’ve found one you like, step inside and claim the planet as your home. You’ll be guided through tasks: add a corridor,then a room, install a workstation, hire an alien to operate it, carry out fetch quests for your new employee, some of which require resources only found in specific star systems (thank goodness you can now scan individual planets from space).

An armourer workstation. Photograph: No Man's Sky

Particular species seem stuck in certain roles – gek are builders and farmers, korvax are scientists, vy’keen are armourers – so you’ll likely have to fly to multiple star systems to recruit a full staff. Luckily, a new teleporter lets you travel back to your base (and from your base to a maximum of four space stations, which seem to be your most recent) without the need for a warp cell. And you’ll often find three or four aliens to one space station, which immediately makes the game feel less lonely.

You can also house your staff in the now purchasable freighters, and since you can only have one of each kind of employee it might feel like a choice between mobile and immobile home. The freighters cost money – starting at around 7m units – while the bases are free, but they can also travel with you, and add to your storage capacities so that you can save stockpiled resources (a simpler prospect now that you can stack items you couldn’t before) for a star system in which they sell for a higher price.

While you can teleport back to a planetary base, it feels strange to do so if you’re several star systems ahead on that journey to the centre. The freighter might not have the same pretty views, but it’s still customisable, and feels like a good – if expensive – alternative. Maybe it’s just my millennial mind, but I don’t think I’ll put down roots just yet. There’s too much left to see.

You’ll often find aliens in a space station, which immediately makes the game feel less lonely. Photograph: No Man's Sky

As with the original game, different features of this update will appeal to different kinds of players. With such an anticipated and high-concept game, the player base for No Man’s Sky was inevitably fractured in their expectations, and different people had vastly different criticisms, but this update goes some way to address many of them (at least of those that are actually addressable).

Those who felt the trading system was lacking will appreciate the ability to cart goods from system to system with a freighter, those who felt lost in the vastness of space will be happy to ground themselves with a planetary base. Those who resented the need to top up their life support will enjoy the freedom of Creative mode, and those who wanted more of a challenge can try their luck in Survival. There’s still room for improvement – combat is still no fun, for example, which is exacerbated in Survival mode – but this is the Foundation update after all, a solid base on which to build.

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