As nicely as discovering No Man’s Sky a calming exploration sim to play, I’ve particularly loved listening to about all of the strange corners of the universe that different gamers have stumbled upon. Now, Hello Games have made it a lot simpler to search out these tales. Released with the most recent replace, the Galactic Atlas permits anybody to discover fan-submitted factors of curiosity. And I can’t cease poking round in it.
A variety of the Atlas seems like a tribute to the neighborhood that sprang up across the game even earlier than the Next update added conventional multiplayer components. It reveals the Euclid Galaxy, which has been the guts of most civilization-building makes an attempt for the reason that game’s launch, and it’s straightforward to stumble onto descriptions of player-driven occasions like “Unification Day 2017,” a gathering of factions the place gamers left form messages for each other. (Gita Jackson over at Kotaku has carried out a whole lot of reporting on the role-playing, politics, and even wars that have taken place inside the game, which is nicely value digging into for extra context.)
Mostly, although, the Atlas paperwork smaller joys, submitted by people who simply need you to know in regards to the base they constructed on an particularly fairly planet, or to indicate off a very good creature. And all of it feels very…human. Way out on the sting of the galaxy, you will discover a touching tribute to late physicist Stephen Hawking. Then subsequent factor you already know, you could be clicking on “the largest maze ever inbuilt NMS.” “It’s a cool lookin’ planet,” reads another description, and hey, they’re not unsuitable!
Everywhere you click on is a snapshot, artistic undertaking, or anecdote left by one other spacefarer. It serves as a way more condensed, collaborative model of what I like in regards to the precise game: exploring to search out bizarre, stunning, fascinating stuff. And since I don’t usually have the time to load up the game and really go planet-hopping, having the ability to dip in and see what different persons are enthusiastic about is a superb various.
You can discover the Galactic Atlas for your self on-line.
Disclosure: RPS’s personal Alec Meer wrote for No Man’s Sky earlier in growth.
