What is the goal of No Man's Sky?

[sea.dart]

I have a bunch of questions about No Man's Sky.
-Is there a story/goal to No Man's Sky or is it an open sandbox that you keep playing to fill your own goals?
-Is No Man's Sky a MMO or single player?
-Can you design your own starship or just modify standard hulls?
-Is there any real dialog or just the same canned phrase to anyone you talk to?
Thanks for your input.

[Jaggid Edje]

There is a 'main' story, but mostly it is just a long tutorial and you can skip it if you want.

There are also a few other mission-chains with their own stories as well. Those are all, mostly, relatively short. One of them does require you to have completed the main story already mentioned though (which makes that main story no-longer-optional if you want to do that one).
Regardless, the game is primarily just an open sandbox. Anyone who buys it expecting to play it just for the story is going to be disappointed unless they can also enjoy a sandbox.

No man's sky is not an MMO, but it does offer multi-player. THe multi-player is peer-to-peer so not at all "massive" in terms of number of players you'll see around you. It can also be played with multiplayer turned off, or even completely offline, as a single player experience.

You cannot design your own starships from the ground up, nor can you modify standard hulls . There is a ship building function but it consists of assembling 3 specific parts, which you get by salvaging other ships for those parts. So you can create a new ship based on the 3 parts you choose. It also only allows this for 4 of the 'types' of ships, and none of the other types (currently.
You can choose custom paints for ships that you make this way, but no other ship you find, buy or earn in the game can even be painted, much less customized.

There is dialogue, but the only meaningful dialogue is linked to the various missions mentioned above. The rest is just pretty much canned. All dialogue is text only, no voice acting.

[Takovacs]

There's a story, but it really works more as a tutorial of some aspects, rather than the main focus of the game. Once you transition out, it's an open sandbox, where your goals are your own (make fantastic bases, search for exotic starship, improve gear, find the perfect planet etc.)

It has some Multiplayer aspects, there's a central hub, but that's a max of about 16 players. If playing expeditions (a directed adventure where everyone starts in the same place) you're likely to see others, but on a non-expedition game, you're very unlikely to see people, and will probably be in star systems no-one else has been in before.

I haven't played around with the ship builder at all, but you can build ships based on prefab parts that you have gained from scrapping ships that you have obtained in the game (bought from other npcs, found and salvaged)

In terms of dialogue, there's a good selection, but it first needs to be translated... overall, you're not talking to others, a scenario pops up and you get some options of what to do. At the start you'll probably just guess and be right or wrong, but once you've discovered enough words for each language, you'll know what to do. It's not a game where you're talking to others.

Hope this all helps.

[TheCr33pur]

You can do whatever you like, depending on the game settings. Exploring the Galaxy is one thing and the rest is up to you.

If you are new to this, might wanna keep it normal and simple until you get a hang of it. Cause can be hairy in some situations.

Welcome to No Man's Sky :)

[scragg]

This game doesn't sound fun at all.

[FREEZED]

idea is to survive 1st, then travel to center of galaxy which need some preparations to happen nicely, then jump to next galaxy and repeat until you have gone trough all galaxies.
so game does not really have end but one you define your self.

this game is not really story driven game, it do have some story but...

there is lot of things to do and then these is some expeditions you can participate, so you can play this game in many ways.

you have certain ship hulls which you can fit as you like
you can build bases which can produce some resources.
you can have variety of vehicles you can use on planets, including mech and submarine.

there is some enemies you can shoot at and have combat, in space and on some planets.

[Spocks Toupee]

Originally posted by scragg:

This game doesn't sound fun at all.

So why are you here then?

[いか]

Originally posted by Spocks Toupee:

Originally posted by scragg:

This game doesn't sound fun at all.

So why are you here then?

Most likely checking to see if it's fun. But that's just an assumption.


NMS is do whatever some sessions I play the whole trader thing and in others I go full murder mode on pirates or really anything near me if I'm in the mood.

I think the biggest draw is the do anything you want within the ruleset of the game.

What little story there is would be spoiled talking about it but as a boy Jake once said.

There are more worlds than these.

[Mr. Bufferlow]

To add on to what has been said about dialog. You can learn words of the four main intelligent species. They do "speak" in their own languages but it just sounds like strange noises to our ears. As you learn more of the language the text dialog will translate for those words on some of the more stock dialog. You can also install translators which can make it easier to figure out what they are saying.

The story, which reminds me of a 2024 take on King's Quest from the 1980's is acted out and the dialog is a text box. Don't expect anything close to a Mass Effect/Fallout 4 sort of story. The story mainly just explains how thing got to be the way they are now. There is a ton of extra lore about the history at various POIs and behind some locked doors. (you have to get the key first)

It is very casual and main game play loop is exploring the almost infinite number of systems and planets. Everything else is just there so you can get a break from exploring 24/7. It is fun if you accept it on it's own terms. If you come in with a desire for it be like some other game, only this game...you will be disappointed.

If you get the vibe of the game you can play for thousands of hours. It is very relaxing and beautiful.

[Shadow Strider]

Originally posted by scragg:

This game doesn't sound fun at all.

Why are you commenting?
Clearly you didn't enjoy the game...
You played for 69mins and I presume requested a refund as you don't own it anymore...

If you at least gave some description of why you didn't like it, or don't think it sounds fun in its current state, then your comment might have some value. but as it is, it's a waste of space...

[Liralen]

I think that others have adequately covered the OP's questions.

For the peanut gallery who hopped in off topic, there are some Expeditions that are free to play until February at least. Read Steam's home page for NMS for details.

[taniwhat]

What purpose does your miserable existence serve ?.

An insignificance in the vastness of time and space ...