What These Two Space Exploration Games Have to Offer in 2016
by maecenus
Tomorrow is the big PC launch for No Man's Sky, a game that comes highly anticipated by many and is arguably one of the biggest, most expansive exploration themed titles to date. It offers a massive procedurally generated Galaxy, with millions, perhaps billions of landable planets to explore. Players will be able to zip around space, discovering everything from stations with intelligent alien residents willing to offer up some materials for trade or to expansive surface features, teeming with unknown and unique lifeforms that roam endlessly across the land. One important feature, you can give custom names to practically everything you discover!
But No Man's Sky doesn't come without its predecessors, games such as Elite Dangerous with the Horizons update offer another perspective to the exploration of the Galaxy. Elite Dangerous predates No Man's Sky by over a year and a half, crowd funded in part by the players who were so eager to delve into a modern version of the original Elite game from 1984. Like No Man's Sky, it features a massive Galaxy, in this case one based closely on our own Milky Way. We're talking billions of systems, full of known and unknown stars just awaiting the intrepid explorer. Simply set your destination, launch your exploration fitted ship and you can put your name on any previously undiscovered star.
Now, here's where I get into their differences, albeit my interpretation of No Man's Sky is based on preliminary observation only. NMS saw its initial launch for the PlayStation 4 earlier this week and one can assume that the version on PC will offer a similar experience.
Initial impressions for NMS, I am presented with very colorful, polygonal graphics, a planetery surface full of unusual plant and animal life, technological artifacts and ships ranging in design and coloration. The sounds, a personal computer system providing automated feedback on environmental interactions with a robotic voice form and the alluring musical cycles of a procedurally generated future wave soundtrack, not unlike something from the old Blade Runner film. Well done indeed!
This game thrives on the surface of planets, once you jump in your ship and head into space, the experience changes. The ship is highly maneuverable, fitted with basic weapons and shields to protect you from random hostiles but otherwise seemingly limited in scope. Space is like your super highway as you jump to your next planet, harvest asteroids or maybe find a couple ships to engage.
Gameplay essentially consists of resource gathering, point your gun at anything and collect the materials as you disintegrate them. These materials are then used for upgrading your items or just to sell. Eventually, as you build up your ship you can head out further and further into space, toward the center of the Galaxy. Or not. There are no rules, what you choose to do is up to you!
Elite offers a different experience graphically, it's dark because space is dark and mostly empty. The game tries to maintain some level of realism, a Galaxy based on Hubble Space Telescope observations. What you experience are the space stations orbiting planetary bodies from the cockpit of your ship, the flight from one planet or station to another in a faster than light speed called Supercruise, the jump from one system to another in "Witchspace" (hyperspace, essentially), or, for those with Horizons, the barren, lifeless planetery surface from an SRV (like driving around in a Mars rover).
There is no life whatsoever to be found, except of course the pilots of other ships, which you will encounter frequently, both friendly and unfriendly in the relatively small corner of space lovingly referred to as "The Bubble", as in the Bubble of Civilization. One can assume that life exists on some planets, an Earth-Like world or an Ammonia world, we are even told as such as we read about each planet we encounter. A large amount of this game exists by the premise of a civilization, trading, fighting, colonizing, exploring. What you do to interact with it is limited.
What this game offers and where it differs greatly from the latest Space Exploration game, No Man's Sky, is that Elite is really a space flight simulator. You will be dogfighting in a ship armed with custom weapons and shields, from lasers to projectile firing cannons, hoping your shields hold out long enough to take out your opponent. You will be loading as much cargo as possible and heading out to some distant station to sell for a profit all while avoiding the ever hunting pirates that lurk everywhere. You will be setting out into the unknown depths of space with your stripped down exploration ship, fitted with the best FSD you can find!
There is no First Person PoV, no hand held weaponry or any of that, but there is surface exploration. Yes, it is limited to the lifeless bodies of smaller rocky, icy and high metal content world but there are "things" to be found while driving around in an SRV. Surface ports where trade traffic keeps ships moving in and out of dock, rare finds like downed Nav Beacons, crashed ships or abandoned cargo (occasionally guarded by a small group of drone fighters).
With the latest 2.1 update called "The Engineers", there is another reason to hit the surface of planets and that is to seek out Elemental Materials, like zinc, iron, sulphur and yttrium to name a few. Engineers are specialized NPCs encountered on remote surface bases that will allow you to upgrade your ship if you bring them the necessary ingredients. This will take you through all manner of activities, such as mining, scavenging, combat, wake scanning, etc. By the way, If you haven't already bought this game on PC consider using a HOTAS like the Thrustmaster X, it will change your life.
What we have is two different games that both offer different ideas about space exploration, one that highlights the lifeforms that are teeming throughout the galaxy (the Drake equation fully realized) and another that brings focus to high-tech ships, intense dogfight style combat and economic interaction with colonized space. What I can truly appreciate here is that both of these games each provide an amazing, unique experience, gorgeous views, danger, and for the curious...an endless playground to investigate.
