There is a danger when it comes to gaming. You can have a competent team, you can have a game idea that is truly special and unique, you can have a publisher who believes in you, you can have hype going into your game’s launch, all good things. But, if you’re unable to deliver on all of that hype, that special premise, gamers will notice, and they won’t be happy. This is exactly what happened with No Man’s Sky. For this game had everything going for it, but then dropped the ball.
The team at Hello Games truly shocked the world when No Man’s Sky was revealed. For they revealed a game that had a literal universe to explore, with thousands of planets they could explore. And not just on land, but in the air, underwater, and more. But, when the game came out, players learned the cost of that…there was barely anything to do on those planets. Players got bored, and quickly returned the game to get their money back. Given all that, you have to wonder why PC Gamer gave the game its “Best Ongoing Game” award for 2017.
Well, according to the team behind the site, it all had to do with the updates that Hello Games made for No Man’s Sky. In their eyes, these free updates helped make the game more refined, more focused, and give players more things to do. And they’re not wrong on that front, Hello Games basically went dark after the launch of No Man’s Sky, so then, when they returned with these updates, they had a lot to show for it.
“Whether it’s base-building, vehicles, new biomes, or the story’s clearer, more hand-crafted structure, Hello has slowly been transforming the game into something approaching the grand promise of those early demonstrations,” said PC Gamer’s Andy Kelly.
While it still doesn’t save what happened at launch, we hope Hello Games appreciates the reward, as it shows that at least one group of people really appreciated the work they did to make the game better.
