We all remember the moment No Man’s Sky turned up on stage at E3 and stole the show for the short but thoroughly enlightening duration of its brief demo. The beautiful sandbox universe that wants to “Give everyone a spaceship. Start them all on a different planet. Give them a working, living, breathing universe that has planets with ecology, that has space stations and fleets of freighters and military and police and different races and all of them interacting, and let players loose” has been rather lacking in the information department.
But no more! Speaking to PlayStation Access, Hello Games developer Sean Murray revealed some interesting information about the game world, informing us of the existence of a near faction based system of gameplay. Players don’t get notified if they become notorious with a certain faction, you will simply suffer the consequences of your actions. If you act like a creep, you shall be treated as such. However, if you treat those you encounter with respect and kindness, perhaps help them out from time to time, you will surely reap the benefits of your efforts.
No Man’s Sky comes across as being something wholly organic with player actions having an effect on the world in ways you would expect, rather than adhering to the video game logic of, “I stopped hitting you, ergo we’re friends”. For example, in the No Man’s Sky trailer, we can see the player take to space where they are swiftly flanked and aided by other space crafts. These are actually AI controlled characters that are reacting to your choices in the game. Isn’t that nice?