The Draw of No Mans Sky Was Hello Game's Proposed Difficulty Curve
22The script for those who are disabled or wish to quote me.
In my last video I spoke about how No Mans Sky really didn’t need a story, or a purpose or anything else you particularly need in a game that could be wildly successful, inverted commas there, all it needed was a draw. Here’s what I was thinking my draw was going to be, feel free to list what made you love the idea of the game in the comments. What’s up everybody it’s Barky here and you know.. I’m really starting to dislike making No Mans Sky videos.. And it seems like a lot of people agree with me there, so I hope that the dislikes don’t sway your opinion of what I’m actually saying in the video, but rather show you that some people just don’t agree with me when I say that I didn’t really enjoy the game, but most of all I don’t like Sean Murray and his take on this. If you adamantly disagree with me then leave a comment telling me why, or just tell me I’m a shit skin or to shot myself in head. Okay thanks. So anyways back to the point of the video I spoke about the ‘draw’ of No Mans Sky, which is something I’ve been thinking about for quite a while now and it was especially prevalent to me a few days ago when I was playing Dishonored 2 and I realised that although the plot is nice, that isn’t the draw of the game to me. Dishonored and it’s sequel Dishonored 2 are both amazing games, and they would be even without the plot or characters. Sure it would detract a bit from the game, but the ‘draw’ that I’m talking about is very very much embedded in the fucking awesome gameplay, look at this it’s amazing! And it’s incredibly incredibly fun. The plot is not important when the base gameplay is just so fucking fun you just can’t stop playing. Which I didn’t, I’ve finished it 3 times and the game came out a week ago.. I know I’m a loser.
I’m not trying to compare Dishonored to No Mans Sky, but rather their gameplay. The draw that pretty much sold me on No Mans Sky was this right here. The idea that as you got closer to the center the game got exponentially more varied, which leads to things getting more difficult. What we actually got was the first planet is technically the hardest planet, and it only gets easier and easier with the center being no different than any other place in the galaxy. You may get unlucky with your first planet being incredibly hostile and toxic, like I did, or you may get really lucky and have the easiest, lushest first planet possible and then your second planet hits you in the face like a nuclear bomb, but even then it’s a linear difficulty scale that starts you off at the hardest, and as you play it only gets easier. What’s my issue with this? Well if I was somebody who just enjoyed the exploration aspect of the game then I’d tell you nothing, I don’t have a problem with that. But because it’s a video game being sold at $60 which is the same price as other triple A games I have an issue with it because I expect to be sold something that I’ve been sold on, which was the promise the as you progressed closer and closer to the center the difficulty would raise exponentially. Along with a whole host of other lies, but this one was definitely the biggest selling point to me and if anything is ‘patched’ I really really hope it’s this aspect. Right now the game is so easy that after the first planet I am pretty much a god in this universe. No amount of sentinels could touch me once I had shields on, they could damage the shields sure, but nothing could kill me. I can’t remember a time I even came close to death whilst playing. The game is just ridiculously easy, which is totally fine for people who enjoy exploration, but give the people who enjoy gaming and exploration something to chew on. Give us a difficulty slider, a harder survival mode, give us the difficulty curve we were promised. Since every planet basically has unlimited of every resource in the game it just doesn’t make sense from a gameplay perspective to even bother progressing aside from the exploration aspect. Which don’t get me wrong is awesome for a few planets, but the holes appear quickly when you realise that sentinels are no threat, survival is never difficult and resources are never scarce. The exact quote is: ‘As you go towards the centre, those things become more and more valuable. But the worlds become more dangerous, more mutated, a little bit more alien and crazier. ‘ So if there’s anything I’d like to see in a patch that’s gotta be it. Thank you to Azirphaeli for finding me the quote, you’re awesome man.
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