The fact a major game studio, responsible for such legendary RPGs as Skyrim and Fallout 3/4, took ideas from No Man’s Sky, should not be seen as a “copy” or “ripoff.” On the contrary, it’s a commendation and recognition of the huge achievement NMS had on the gaming industry.

I won’t even go to the fact that no game is a strict clone of another, and that Starfield took a lot of inspiration from other famous games, both of its own IP (Elder Scrolls, Fallout), and of other third party games such as Mass Effect, Star Citizen, and many others. Even focusing on what it specifically took from No Man’s Sky, it is good, not bad.

NMS was the first major game to do anything of its size and scope. I can think of small, and almost unknown indie games that delivered a mere part of what NMS did, such as Evochron’s seamless planetary landings, or going even further back, the Noctis series. These games are not well known for a reason. Despite their great ideas and innovaction, they didn’t become a major hit, didn’t find that breakthrough formula to make a core game loop and appeal to a mass audience. No Man’s Sky did. And it’s precisely because of its success that you see major studios reuse some of its ideas.

Bad games don’t get copied or emulated. They are forgotten, seen as a dead end. On the contrary, legendary games are analyzed, built upon, and their ideas carried on in completely different games. I remember when Terraria came out, everyone was complaining it’s a “rip off Minecraft.” Decades before that, when Duke Nukem 3D came out, people called it a “Doom Clone”. Such arguments were baseless then, and they are baseless now.

Regardless of how much a success Starfield will become (and I wholeheartedly wish it to become a great game, and plan to play it if it lives up to the hype), it was No Man’s Sky that enabled it to be what it is. No Man’s Sky was the first successful game of its class, and this alone earns it a lifetime achievements in the most legendary hits of the gaming industry. This is something that will never be erased or belittled, no matter how great later games are. Just as we still remember the original Doom, or Minecraft, as the first massively successful, genre-defining games of their respective genres, we will remember No Man’s Sky for being the pioneering visionary it has become.

Title pretty much says it all. Personally, I think it’s extremely disappointing when there’s hardly anything to do with crashed freighters and ancient ruins besides a bit of digging for items that aren’t even that valuable.

If they both got the instanced dungeon treatment like derelict freighters have I think that’d be exciting. Then crashed freighters and ancient ruins found under water could be different than their above ground counterparts.

Ancient Ruins could deal with a lot of archaeological discovery, using the terrain manipulator to dig into rooms and uncover chests and the like. Keep the finding keys to open up the big chest mechanic as well.

Crashed Freighters could be nearly the same as derelict freighters except the dungeon could be on its side or off kilter and with more hazards like loose wires and fires. More navigation with the jetpack would be required.

I needed cadmium for my first hyperdrive upgrade. I looked online and saw that cadmium was found on planets that orbit red stars. I opened the galaxy map and swapped filters to get a nice black background instead of the hazy red nebula that I was in to help me spot red stars. Every time I flew to a red star, it wouldn’t be red. Time after time after time I would warp and sigh because it wasn’t what I was looking for. For 4 hours over 2 days I searched for a red star. I found every color imaginable and saw some very cool planets, but no cadmium. I thought that maybe the systems were color coded in a different way so I googled how to find red stars in No Man’s Sky. There were no helpful results. Because nobody else had been so stupid.

After 5 hours searching I realized that I had been flipping the filter to “lifeform” to get rid of the red haze which changed the colors of the stars. According to the Steam achievement I ended up warping to more systems than 84% of players ever had. When I left the filter off I found cadmium on my first try.

I don’t even know how to feel. I’m glad I got cadmium but I am reconsidering if I’m cut out for space exploration.