8 Things You Need To Know Before Buying No Man's Sky

1. This Is An Indie Game Through And Through

"It’s an infinite procedural sci-fi-space-survival-sandbox unlike anything you have ever played before. It’s a weird game, it’s a niche game and it’s a very very chill game." - Sean Murray, no-mans-sky.com.

Start offering up the words 'weird' and 'quirky' to the general populace and they're likely to run for the hills. For whatever reason - mostly the proliferation of pixellated side-scrolling platformers and 'walking simulators' - the indie label tends to be treated derisively as hell. And yet, thanks to Sony backing NMS so much over the last couple years especially, the game managed to straddle the line between the two ethos'; No Man's Sky has the scope and size of a triple-A title on paper, but its the heart of an indie that beats within.

Case in point: 13 people created this game, thirteen. By comparison, Bioware employ closer to 1000 people for Mass Effect, and even they couldn't nail its third instalment. What you absolutely, categorically need to understand, is that No Man's Sky is an indie project pushed awkwardly onto stage by Sony's marketing prowess. It's akin to the stereotypically nerdy kid in school wandering into the local talent show and nervously holding up their fondest creation, before shyly saying, "I hope you like it."

Understanding who Hello Games are, where they come from (their only previous titles were the Joe Danger series) and getting on board with the idea of building a universe with mathematical algorithms will infinitely help with your enjoyment of the game.

You shouldn't have to put this extra research in, but as with knowing that one person made Axiom Verge or two made Hotline Miami or Super Meat Boy, it helps.

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Did you take the plunge or are you being cautiously optimistic? Let us know in the comments!