14 DAY TRIAL // No Man's Sky developer Hello Games confirms that players will have at their disposal a special mini-map while traversing the game's procedurally generated universe but that plenty of dangers are going to be present on it.
No Man's Sky is one of the most anticipated independent video games in recent times, as British studio Hello Games has managed to generate a lot of hype surrounding the ambitious space exploration game. It allows players to start traveling through a universe that's procedurally generated and filled with all sorts of crazy things, planets, and other players or non-playable characters.
The game won't be a grueling simulator that aims at recreating the vastness of space, however, as it will give players tools such as a mini-map that can show waypoints on the planet they're on. These can include all sorts of different things but they're not so detailed as to make players just skip their discovery.
According to Hello Games' Sean Murray, the waypoints can represent many situations but also quite a few dangers. It's a high risk, high reward gamble, however, as lots of valuable things can be found on the game's planets.
"Something we haven’t shown yet is a mini-map at the bottom of the screen that will have waypoints marked on it for every planet you visit. They’ll show things of interest, which might be resources, or a ship that’s crashed, or some sort of beacon," he explains to PS blog.
"It could be something to discover like a new species of creature, a mountain range or a vast lake. But you’ll have to go and find out what they are; we’re not going to tell you what’s out there. And that’s a great way to earn money to buy the upgrades for your ship or suit – and in turn that’ll help you explore even more."
What's more, No Man's Sky will also have non-playable characters with their own ships and ambitions in the game's universe, so players shouldn't expect a smooth road towards their galactic prizes and fame.
"If other players aren’t doing that, then there are NPCs who will," Murray says, in reference to competition for the player. "But even at the center of the galaxy, everything is still massively spread out. We want to make something that’s vast – we want it to be like the Wild West, where you never know what’s over the horizon."
No Man's Sky is set to appear for PS4 and PC in the future, so expect to hear more of it soon enough.
