Hello Games has continued its charm offensive by offering the gaming community some extended footage for its hotly-anticipated sandbox game No Man’s Sky. While the developers showcased a little more of the game at the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) 2015, the carefully constructed demonstration was a little shy on detail.
However, thanks to Cobra TV, more information can be gleamed from an extra six minutes of raw gameplay footage (below). The video shows some of No Man’s Sky’s vibrantly-colored worlds, some space combat, a bit of gunplay, underwater exploration, and some shots of the universe map.
Now, for the very first time, we get to hear some in-game audio, including the squawking of some of the game’s eclectic creatures. The vid also contains some extra analysis from the team at Cobra TV - a YouTube channel dedicated to discussing No Man’s Sky.
No Man’s Sky will feature a vast universe, stocked with an almost incomprehensible 18 quintillion planets (that’s the number 18, followed by 18 zeros). That is according to the founder of Hello Games, Sean Murray, who had to write the true figure on a whiteboard:
18,446,744,073,709,551,616
The sci-fi exploration game tasks players with reaching the center of the universe. Murray says it would take an individual gamer 584 billion years to look upon the surface of each planet for a mere second. In reality, if the player chooses to focus mainly on their primary objective, the game can be wrapped up in around 40 to 100 hours.
Players can approach the procedurally generated game from a number of different angles. Visiting different planets will provide players with a window of opportunity for exploration and discovery of invaluable resources. Meanwhile, other players might be inclined to attack vulnerable ships and loot them for goods.
Each of the planets are very different; some are populated with lush fauna and flora, while, true to life, others are barren wastelands that offer little in the way of loot. After the player has upgraded to hyperdrive tech, he/she can begin venturing into the depths of space, opening up an entirely new dimension of exploration.
Hello Games consists of a small team of just 13 people. The UK-based developers devised a series of sophisticated algorithms to generate No Man’s Sky’s expansive universe.
Murray and colleagues are yet to provide a specific release date for No Man’s Sky. However, the game is confirmed for both the PC and PlayStation 3.