No Man’s Sky VR Hands-On Preview

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I’ll be honest in the fact that I haven’t played No Man’s Sky since the game originally come out on PlayStation 4. Obviously, I’ve covered each update and know that it’s been extensively updated since launch, so I was more than keen to jump into the game in PlayStation VR.

I was lucky enough to have the game’s creator, Sean Murray by my side to walk me through the new features that have been added to the game over the last few years and also run me through how each feature works on PlayStation VR. Now, I’ve been known to get a little bit motion sick in the past with PlayStation VR, so I was a little nervous as obviously the game allows you to move freely and also allows you to fly through space, but Hello Games has done a phenomenal job in creating a number of control schemes that adapt to your comfort level.

Using two PlayStation Move controllers, I was able to move by easily selecting pinpoints around my starting planet. Hello Games has also incorporated a clever feature where you hold the button down to select your next moving point, but then can twist your hand in order to chose your viewpoint, so if you want to move to the side of a mountain and be looking to the left, you can do that in one button press rather than it forcing you to move and then change your looking direction. I was assured that those that would like to move freely with a DualShock or the like would be able to do so as well.

No Man’s Sky might just be the most intricately controlled game on PlayStation VR. To go into different menus, you hold the gun up to your eye view and then essentially can tap to access your other tools/weapons. It felt incredibly intuitive and worked well. Any time a game can build in navigating menus into the actual world design rather than having popups that remove you from the experience, get a tick in my book.

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Obviously, mining materials and working your way in and out of caves feels much more immersive when you’re actually pointing and shooting using the Move controller rather than just pointing with an analogue stick. I previously couldn’t see myself spending hours and hours in a game like this, but in VR, there’s actually a solid reason to explore.

It’s when I got to my space ship that I realised just how much work had been done to make this game run seamlessly in VR. Not only can you look around you whilst in the space ship, you fully control both your throttle and steering wheel with each hand using the PlayStation Move controller. It’s pretty darn cool to be able to steer a spaceship out of a planet and into hyperspace and have your movements reflected right in front of you. It might sound silly, but it’s the most one to one experience that I’ve ever had in PlayStation VR to date.

No Man’s Sky feels like it was made for VR (I’m sure it’s been something that Hello Games has wanted to implement since before launch) and it’s definitely going to become a must-play for PlayStation VR owners. I can totally see those that have spent 100s of hours in this universe (those people definitely exist) wanting to jump right back in and do it all again. With the game finally getting proper multiplayer, I can’t think of anything I’d rather do than explore these worlds with friends online in VR and I’m excited to see how the beyond update pans out.


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