No Man’s Sky’s nebulous description was a double-edged sword. Developers Hello Games kept things vague when describing what No Man’s Sky was, and when the game launched with a huge procedural world with not much to do, people were mad.
While the critiques of No Man’s Sky lacking content is fair, the indie outfit continues to keep adding more content to the game as a result, all for free, in the last two years. Next week will see the biggest content update by far, alongside an Xbox One release.
No Man’s Sky Next will add in full-on multiplayer (finally!) where you can have players work together or harm each other. A third-person view is now added. Planets are now more varied- there’s planets with rings now. Bases can be build everywhere on the planet with more complexity and more building parts. Frigates can now be created and piloted. There will be new missions to be done in space in space ships.
Here’s the full bullet-points of new features from the developers:
Multiplayer
- Team up a small team of friends and explore the universe together, or be joined by random travelers.
- You can help friends to stay alive, or prey on others to survive.
- Tiny shelters or complex colonies that you build as a team are shared for all players.
- Fight as a pirate or a wingman in epic space battles with friends and enemies.
- Race exocraft across weird alien terrains, creating race tracks and trails to share online.
- Character customisation allows you to personalise your appearance.
Visual Overhaul
- The game is fully playable in third or first person, both on-foot and in ship.
- Planetary rings and improved space visuals make space more beautiful than ever.
- Dramatically improved planetary terrain generation, ground textures, water and clouds bring the environment to life.
- Significantly more detail added to ships, NPCs and buildings.
Unlimited Base Building
- Bases can now be built anywhere on any planet.
- Dramatically increased base building complexity and size limits.
- Hundreds of new base parts.
- Own multiple bases.
Command Freighters
- Assemble and upgrade a fleet of frigates and command them from the bridge of your freighter.
- Send your fleet out to into the universe, or deploy them to help you as you explore a specific system.
- Improved freighter base building allows a truly custom capital ship.
- Invite your friends aboard and take on challenging multiplayer missions from the Galactic Commision Station on your bridge.
No Man’s Sky Next will be a free update on PS4 and PC. This update, including all the previous free content updates, will be added for the Xbox One release. The update and Xbox One release will be on July 24th.
Source: Hello Games