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Atlas Rises In No Man’s Sky, Bringing New Story And Limited Cooperative Play
No Man’s Sky is in for big changes. With Update 1.3, which has gone live today, Hello Games is introducing a wide array of improvements and additions to the game. The release comes after a tease earlier this week.
For many players, the most significant feature will be 30 hours of new story content, including a new storyline involving a mysterious alien species of travelers. We’re also promised improvements to the original Atlas story path that shipped with the original game. In addition, new structured missions aim to provide discrete tasks to attempt in the world, including combat, delivery, and salvage projects (which includes the option to investigate crashed freighters on planets and uncover hidden loot).
Beyond story and structured gameplay additions, players are likely to notice an across-the-board graphical overhaul, as well as new planet biomes. The economy system is being expanded with interstellar trading, conflict levels in different planetary systems, and freighter navigation between systems.
Travel is also being streamlined, most significantly through a new portal system that lets you instantaneously travel between different planets.
For those who are interested in the creation and building tools, the game now features new terrain manipulation tools, more complex construction options, and the mining of hidden resources.
No Man’s Sky is also implementing new flight options, from new weapons to low altitude flight options, which hopefully makes the flight experience a lot more exciting.
New music from 65daysofstatic is also being added.
Last but not least, the game is implementing a very limited form of co-op called joint exploration, which allows up to 16 players to see orbs that represent one another (explained in-fiction as glitches). At the very least, it should allow players to meet up with friends and do some planet investigation together. In addition, the way that Hello Games talks about it, this is the first step in a plan to bring in more extensive multiplayer options.
You can check out a video trailer showcasing some of the new content below.
[Source: No Man’s Sky]
Our Take
I enjoyed some aspects of No Man’s Sky’s initial release, but for many players, there was a dramatic gap between expectation and reality. Despite an avalanche of negative reaction from players, it says a lot about Hello Games that the team has continued to grow and improve No Man’s Sky, rather than abandon the project. I haven’t yet played this new Atlas Rises content, but it sounds like it addresses many of the biggest problems I had with the game.
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