‘No Man’s Sky’ Foundation Update – First Impression

   No Man’s Sky’s Foundation Update is now live, and many players who feel scammed after their purchase back in August are trying to decide if it’s worth another look or not. Is Hello Games to be trusted to deliver worthwhile play, or will booting up the game just bring up long-buried feelings of disappointment? The Foundation Update introduces a handful of new features, the most notable being base building, freighter ownership, and difficulty modifier modes. Watch their announcement trailer here for short look into what they are offering. Below is a quick look and first impressions on the new update.

   The most impressive additions that will interest most players are base building and freighter ownership. The freedom players have to build is actually astounding. The mechanics of base building allow for multiple floors, large open areas, plentiful decorations, and more. There are limits of what can be built. As more structures and objects are placed in a base, a number titled “Base Complexity” goes up. No more objects can be placed once the complexity reaches one-hundred. Although there is a limit, it will take hours to get anywhere close considering getting the resources to build will take time. Building a home base allows the player to express their creativity and presents a task to accomplish; something the original release was missing

  Freighters are basically the same thing as a home base, except they are in space and can be summoned from anywhere in the galaxy. After some building, Freighters have room to store items, making inventory management a great deal better. As well as with the home base, freighters allow the player to recruit aliens to work specialist stations. Just these two additions alone add hours of content for players who are willing to find the resources to build and buy bases and freighters.

   Along with the new base and fighter additions, there is a creativity mode and a new survival mode. In creativity mode, there are no resource limits. The player is endowed with the power to build or buy anything they please. While this allows for elaborate bases without the work, there is zero challenge. Without challenge, the experience becomes dry after a bit of messing around. It has a similar feel to using console commands in Fallout 4 or cheat codes in GTA5; it is great to mess around but not the way to play the game.

   Survival mode, however, is a fantastic addition for those looking for a chance to test their survivalist skills. As a survival game, it should be difficult to continue to be alive. With the added difficulty the game becomes intense and at times hard to put down. Spicing up the difficutly is exactly what this game needed to appeal to the fans of the survival genre.

The most impressive additions that will interest the most players are base building and freighter ownership

   There is still one major issue with the game that will most likely keep many of the disappointed fans away: it is still the same game. Many who made the purchase back in August were looking for a new space opera adventure with epic battles and conquering worlds. This type of gameplay simply is not in No Man’s Sky, nor will it ever be. The game is about mining resources to improve the chances of survival. The gameplay is slow, repetitive, and boring when compared to more popular action games. Hello Games tried to make the game look exciting during their original flawed marketing scheme, but it will never be that.

   To those who enjoyed No Man’s Sky but felt like there wasn’t enough content, or anything to strive for, these updates bring a whole new level of play that will keep them entertained and busy for many hours to come. Unfortunately, many are looking for a space epic, and it simply isn’t there. As with any game, it is completely dependent on the taste of the player. The update greatly improves the game for those who the game was intended to interest in the first place. There are more features than what has been discussed above. View the Hello Games Blog for a full list of what has been updated.

With the new update, it is worth checking out new content. Start off in creativity mode to see if the base building mechanic seems fun. Start over in normal or survival mode for the full experience if interest has been peaked. There is more content for those who want it, but it is still the same game that many will never stop hating.

Is the new update enough to bring you back to the game? What are your feelings after trying it? Leave a comment on your thoughts below.