NorthWestTrees Gaming Reviews
One of the most important things that I want to get off the table is in no way NWT Gaming game reviews are influenced by outside influences, I am not getting paid and will give my honest perspective from playing the game myself. If you think the review is not accurate feel free to express your opinion in the comment section of this post. Games can change over time, in some cases I may make a new review if I feel differently about the game.
About the game
No Man's Sky is a space game that has procedurally generated worlds, structures, and even creatures, there are 255 galaxies and something close to 255 solar systems per galaxy. Getting to the center of the galaxy will reward you with the next galaxy which you can repeat the process. Let's take a look now into the game's specific parts.
2023 Game Review
Graphics
The graphics of this game are amazing, the visual effects go well with the textures and environments of the game. Since buying the game the developers have improved the graphics of the game at least two times since I have had the game. Many Quality of Life improvements and better visual effects have been improved and added which made the game way better.
Graphics: Great Graphics (5/5)
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Gameplay
No Man's Sky is a game that will have its critics though the game is by far my favourite space game in my game collection it does lack some things that could improve the gameplay. Needless to say, you can find activities such as base building, many mission locations, and the main quest line. Depending on your luck in the game you will find yourself a fair bit away from the center of the galaxy and on a random planet that could be one of many procedurally generated worlds. The storyline has changed a bit but they keep expanding the story even more with each update they release. Missions and quests are often pretty easy to complete but depending on how familiar with the game could be challenging for first-timers.
Gameplay: Good Gameplay (4/5)
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Audio
No Man's Sky has good music and sound effects. The quality is pretty good all around. They even have a feature to make your music in the game for each save which is nice for people wanting to make a quick tune for when they fly around and attack pirate ships. The audio can be adjusted easily in the game's settings.
Audio: Great Sounds and Music (5/5)
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Performance
The game is pretty well optimised though computers running older hardware may have to lower the graphics settings to not have lag. Improving your Memory and Graphics Card should help in most cases. Playing newer games like this on older rigs can put a strain on older hardware. If you are using an old computer I suggest considering getting a newer gaming PC either premade or building one yourself. At times loading terrain can still give lag spikes mainly when generating large cave networks when flying ships fast.
Performance: Good for Most Computers (4/5)
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Difficulty
The game has a few game default game modes, though it is possible to set your game difficulty for many things in the game. The basic game modes range from creative to survival and hardcore perm death which will lock your game settings on the hardest possible settings.
Difficulty: Great Customizability (5/5)
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Grinding
Early on grinding is a lot more than late game, though it does get easier the more money you do have as you can simply buy a lot more things you need to do things like fix your ship, build etc. I would say it's balanced pretty well.
Grinding: Moderate Early Grinding (3/5)
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐
Story
The story is text-based, no voiceovers are used when following the story so you can expect to read a lot. Though skipping the dialog is not normally detrimental to completion it may be wise to always scan it over quickly to know what you need to do.
Story: Good System (4/5)
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Completion Time
Depending on how you look at the term "completion" the time could be based on the story of the game which in this case is not too long but has been getting longer during each release, or you could see the competition reaching the 255th galax's center. In this case, chances are you will never complete the game, it takes a long while to just reach the center in the first galaxy and though some have made it to the second galaxy it's going to take an extreme amount of time to reach the last one. I don't even think it's been done currently at least not without cheats. So in this case I will base the completion time on the the story of the game.
Completion Time: Moderate Amount Of Time (3/5)
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐
Price
This game is pretty expensive, though depending if you are looking for a game you can build and explore more than hardcore space combat and PVP then this game may be worth the price for your budget. Though I still suggest getting the game on sale as it's currently CAD 77.99 which is pretty high for me I would pay full price because I do enjoy this game.
Price: Fair (3/5)
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐
Bugs
Though every game will experience bugs, some can break the game entirely some are just annoying. But the important thing is how much the developers spend time resolving the bugs and making sure that the game is stable for its community. This is more what I want to focus on the rating for this game. From experience with reporting bugs, they are often patched as soon as possible once they can work out what is causing the issue, the game for the size of the game, actually has very few bugs that don't harm progression and or gameplay. At new releases like with all games you may experience some bugs but reporting them when possible to the developers normally fast-tracks them getting fixed.
You can report bugs here:
Difficulty: Well Managed (5/5)
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
2023 Overall Score
I rate the game out of the total amount of points possible.
NWTG Rating: 41/50
2023 Game Information
This section covers important game information at the time of writing this review such as the ESRB rating, Localization, and hardware requirements. Keep in mind that this game is actively being developed and this may change over time as the game is developed. Check the Steam page for up-to-date information about the game before you buy the game.
Audience
The game is not graphic, there is not much in the line of gore, but the game still has guns and you will find yourself in the middle of combat fights with Non-Player Characters (NPC) such as drones or other spaceships. Animals can also attack the player which may trigger drones to attack if you fight back. It is possible to die in this game but depending on the game mode you may respawn and have to repair your starship once more.
Audience: Teens and Adults
Rating: ESRB Teen (Ages 13+)
Localization
Check the Steam page to see if anything has changed before you buy the game.
Interface and full audio-supported languages (2023)
English
French
Italian
German
Spanish (Spain)
Japanese
Korean
Polish
Portuguese - Portugal
Portuguese - Brazil
Russian
Simplified Chinese
Simplified Chinese
Interface Support but not full-audio supported languages (2023)
Dutch
PC Requirements (2023)
PC MINIMUM:
Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
OS: Windows 10/11 (64-bit versions)
Processor: Intel Core i3
Memory: 8 GB RAM
Graphics: Nvidia GTX 1060 3GB, AMD RX 470 4GB, Intel UHD graphics 630
Storage: 15 GB available space
VR Support: SteamVR
MacOS MINIMUM:
OS: macOS Monterey 12.3
Processor: Intel i5
Memory: 8 GB RAM
Graphics: Radeon Pro 570X 4GB
Storage: 15 GB available space