Some planets may be dangerous, but they certainly never feel deadly or truly alien. I’ve been in storms yet have never seen a lightning bolt or a volcanic eruption, and I’ve never experienced an asteroid strike or planetquake. There are hazards: extreme heat and cold, acid rain, and radiation, but they exist only as a slowly depleting protection meter and verbal warnings from your exosuit’s speaker system.
There are caves but no massive gorges, trees but no dense forests, hills and cliffs but no looming mountain ranges. Not every planet is a postcard, naturally, but many inspire a few pleasant moments of appreciation before getting down the the business of murdering rocks for fuel.īut even the most heavenly bodies ultimately feel very uniform. Playing space photographer is fun: I enjoy positioning my ship on the top of a hill against a crimson sunset, or taking screenshots of alien plant life and stone spires with nearby planets and moons hanging in the background. I’ve seen some very pretty planets on my travels: fields of pink grass, vast purple oceans, amber skies, alien trees with slowly writhing branches, and plenty of cool rock formations.
The solar systems of No Man’s Sky aren’t really systems, but rather a handful of planets and moons bunched shoulder to shoulder, which provides some lovely views and vistas straight off the cover of pulp sci-fi novels.
