Hello Games has done it again. We should be used to it by now, but No Man’s Sky is so unique that the Guildford-based indie studio manages to find ways to surprise us with the scope of almost every update.
Enter the Worlds Part II Update (numbered 5.50) that has just been released, not only increasing the size of the universe massively but also its variety more than many could have imagined.
The terrain is now more varied with the ability to generate higher mountains and deep valleys. If the valleys aren’t deep enough, the explorable oceans can be miles deep.
Purple-class stars and solar systems have been added with countless new worlds to explore (and we get a narrative mission to find them). We also get massive gas giants with extremely unstable atmospheres that provide an endgame challenge to explore.
New biomes include dense jungles, frozen planets, relic worlds, spore worlds, floating islands, waterworlds, deserts, titanic planets, exotic worlds, mutated biomes, and renewed burnt worlds.
In these biomes, we’ll find new environmental hazards like toxic spores, small-scale radioactive fallout, volcanic eruptions, and geothermal geysers.
New creatures include the massive Deepwater Guardian, seahorses, anomalous geometric lifeforms, giant squids, manta rays, hermit crabs, prawns, bizarre lifeforms, bioluminescent lifeforms, new hostile flora, and new fish species.
From the quality-of-life and features point of view, a new inventory sorting system, faster loading times, a food market, fishing missions and customizable fishing rigs, starship cold storage (letting you store 18 additional ships and their loadouts), multi-tool archiving (letting you store 18 multi-tools with all their tech), and the nutrient ingestor.
A new Abandoned mode will remove all alien lifeforms creating a lonelier exploration experience.
New vehicles and structures will support exploration including the Nautilon floating bay, the Wraith living starship, and more.
We also get improved graphics with better lighting, shadows, water (with new waves, effects, raindrops, and deep-sea atmospherics), and new reentry effects.
Lastly, the PS5 version gets 120Hz display output and variable refresh rate.
You can read the massive full patch notes and watch a trailer and a deep dive video starring director Sean Murray himself.
No Man’s Sky is currently available for PC, PS4, PS4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch. It initially suffered from a polarized reception (not from yours truly), but Hello Games has spent the last several years consistently updating it, so much that its reviews on Steam have improved gradually until they have become Very Positive a few months ago.
